British author Talbot Mundy is the author of the book King of the Khyber Rifles. At the start of World War I, Captain Athelstan King works as a secret spy for the British Raj. It depicts King's travels with the mystical lady adventurer, princess Yasmini, and the Turkish mullah Muhammed Anim among the (mainly Muslim) tribes of the north. King's writing was greatly affected by both Mundy's own disastrous career in India and by his interest in theosophy. Similar to John Buchan's Greenmantle, which was also first released in 1916, it explores the prospect that Turkey may attempt to incite Muslims to wage jihad against the British Empire.A real regiment, the Khyber Rifles was and are.Originally published as a nine-part serial in Everybody's Magazine beginning in May 1916, the manuscript for Mundy's third book featured illustrations by Joseph Clement Coll.In November 1916, the book version of it was released. Athelstane King, the protagonist of The Peshawar Lancers, was one of several characters and ideas introduced in the book.
