Captain Edward Zellem has served as a United States Navy officer for 25 years. A trained Dari speaker, Captain Zellem worked side-by-side with Afghans every day for a year and a half in Kabul and Kandahar, including a year inside Afghanistan's Presidential Palace. While in Afghanistan he collected Dari Proverbs and used them daily in his professional life, as well as in the streets and back alleys of Kabul and other parts of the country. He became fascinated by the color and cultural relevancy of Dari Proverbs, and began collecting, translating and transliterating them. After arranging for art students at a local Kabul high school to provide 50 original illustrations, his collection became… "Zarbul Masalha." 40,000 copies of the first edition were printed and distributed nationwide in 2011 by an Afghan-owned and operated local press in Kabul.