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Afghanistān (Pashto: د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوريت)(Dari: جمهوری اسلامی افغانستان) is a country located in South-Central Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and a narrow piece of land known as the Vakhan, or Wakhan Corridor, connects Afghanistan with China to the northeast.[1]
In ancient times it was crossed by trade routes connecting lands to the east and west. More recently Afghanistan has been devastated by decades of nearly constant warfare.
Afghanistan is approximately 251,826 square miles (652,230 square kilometers) in area. The population of Afghanistan is nearly 30 million, though this figure includes refugees who had fled to Pakistan and Iran. Kabul, the capital and largest city, had roughly 2,850,000 inhabitants in 2008.[2]
Land and Climate
[[File:|thumb|left|A few small lakes lie within the mountains of the western Hindu Kush, in Afghanistan.]]
Afghanistan is a mountainous country and mountains cover about four fifths of Afghanistan. The main range is the Hindu Kush, which stretches southwest from the Vakhan. The Hindu Kush and the smaller ranges that cover most of central Afghanistan are part of the Himalayas. The highest peak in the country is Mount Nowshak in the northeast, which rises 24,557 feet (7,485 meters). North of the central mountains are fertile plains and foothills. The southwestern part of the country consists mostly of deserts, the largest being the sandy Rigestan.
Afghanistan's rivers are fed by melting snow and glaciers in the mountains. Northern streams flow toward the Amu Darya, which forms part of the country's northern border. The Amu Darya is Afghanistan's largest river; but the Helmand River in the southwest is longer. The Kabul River provides water for the fertile valleys and basins around Kabul and Jalalabad.
Afghanistan generally has a dry climate with very cold winters and hot summers. In the winter temperatures drop below 0° F (-18° C) in the windswept mountain regions. Summer temperatures in the desert reach as high as 115° F (46° C). Drought sometimes causes serious problems for the country's farmers. Dust storms and sandstorms are common.[3]
The country is rich in the vibrant blue stone, lapis lazuli, which was used to decorate the tomb of the Egyptian king Tutankhamun.[4]
Plants and Animals
Southern Afghanistan has little vegetation because of the dry climate. The plant cover becomes denser toward the north, where rainfall is more plentiful. The high mountains have tall forests of pine and fir. Cedar, oak, walnut, alder, and ash trees grow at lower elevations.
Many of Afghanistan's wild animals roam the mountains. Among them are wolves, foxes, hyenas, jackals, bears, and wild goats. Gazelles, wild dogs, and wild cats such as the snow leopard are widespread. The country's birds include vultures and eagles. The rhesus macaque and the red flying squirrel are found in the warmer southern areas of the country.
Decades of war, hunting, and years of drought have reduced the wildlife population in Afghanistan. Tigers used to roam the hills, but they are now extinct. Bears and wolves have been hunted nearly to extinction.[5]
People and Culture
Throughout history many different groups of people have migrated through or invaded the land that is now Afghanistan. Today the people of Afghanistan, known as Afghans, have a mixture of characteristics passed down from these groups. The largest ethnic group is the Pashtuns (or Pathans), who make up about two fifth the population. Tajiks are the second-largest group, making up about one third of the population.[6] Tajiks are the direct descendants of the Iranian peoples.[7] Pashtuns are also related to the Iranian peoples.[8] The country's other ethnic groups include the Hazaras, Uzbeks, Chahar Aimaks, Turkmens, Nuristani and Baloch. The Hazaras live in the mountains of central Afghanistan and are believed to be the descendants of the Mongols, because their Dari language contains many Mongol words.[9]
The language of the Pashtuns, called Pashto, is an official language of Afghanistan. The second official language is Dari (Afghan dialect of Farsi (Persian)), which is spoken by the Tajik, Hazara, and other groups. Both Pashto and Dari (Persian) belong to the Indo-European languages, but they are written primarily with the Arabic alphabet. Uzbek and Turkmen are widely spoken in the north and Nuristani and Pashai are spoken in the east. Almost all Afghans follow the religion of Islam.
Afghanistan is a largely rural country. Only about one fifth of the population lives in cities. Kabul, the capital, is the largest city. It lies along the Kabul River south of the Hindu Kush range. Other cities in Afghanistan include Kandahar, Herāt, Mazar-e Sharif, and Jalalabad. The rural population is made up of farmers and nomads. The farmers live mainly in small villages along the rivers. The nomads live in tents while moving from place to place with their livestock and belongings. Few people live in the high central mountains or the deserts in the south and southwest. Millions of people fled Afghanistan for Pakistan and Iran during the fighting of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
History
Afghanistan is in the path of important trade routes connecting southern and eastern Asia to Europe and the Middle East. Because of this, many empire builders have conquered the area. Signs that these conquerors were in the area can still be found in many parts of the country.[10] Afghanistan’s centrality in the Silk Road created a rich mosaic of cultures and civilizations. From up to 8,000 years ago through the historical periods, the peoples of Afghanistan were central in the development of world religions, played a major role in trade and exchange, and at times dominated political and cultural life in Asia.[11]
Prehistory
Archaeologists digging a cave in what is now northeastern Afghanistan (in Badakhshan), discovered that people lived in the country as early as 100,000 years ago. They found the skull of a Neanderthal, or early human, as well as tools from about 30,000 years ago. In other parts of Afghanistan, archaeologists uncovered pottery and tools that are 4,000 to 11,000 years old-evidence that Afghans were among the first people in the world to grow crops and raise animals.[12]
, north of Afghanistan, about 4,000 years ago]]
Farmers and herders settled in the plains surrounding the Hindu Kush as early as 7000 B.C. These people may have grown wealthy off the lapis lazuli they found along riverbeds, which they traded to early city sites to the west, across the Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia. As farms and villages grew and thrived in Afghanistan, these ancient people eventually devised methods of irrigation that allowed them to grow crops on the northern Afghanistan desert plains in what would later be known to the West as Bactria. This civilization is today called BMAC (Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex), or the "Oxus civilization".[13]
The Oxus civilization expanded as far east as western edge of the Indus Valley during the period between 2200 and 1800 B.C.[14] These people, who were the ancestors of the Indo-Iranians, used the term "Aryan" as a religious, cultural, and ethnic self designation. Scholars know this when they read the ancient texts of these people; the Avesta of Iranian people and the Vedas of Indo-Aryans.[15][16]
According to the Avesta, Aryans settled in sixteen districts in the area, beginning with Airiana vaejo ("Land of Aryans", most likely in the north of today's Afghanistan), and following with Bāxδī = Bactria or Balkh; Nisāya = a district between Margiana and Bactria; Harōiva = Areia or Herāt; Vaēkərəta = Gandhāra; Urvā = Ghazni region; Haraxᵛaitī = Arachosia or Kandahar; Haētumant = Helmand region; Raγa = a district north of Haraxᵛaitī and Haētumant; Čaxra = Čarx between Ghazni and Kabul, in the valley of Logar.[17] The old Greek writers knew them and called the land of these Aryan settlers Ariana.[18]
Zoroaster, the founder of the Zoroastrian religion, the world's earliest monotheistic religion, lived in the area (somewhere north of today's Afghanistan), around 1000 B.C.[19]
Ancient history
By the middle of the sixth century BC, the Achaemenids conquered the land, which was previously conquered by the Medes, and made it part of the Persian empire. Alexander the great defeated and conquered the Persian Empire in 330 BC. He founded few cities in the area and Greek culture and language continued to influence the people for a long period, right up to the Islamic conquest in the 7th century A.D. After Alexander the great, Greco-Bactrians, Scythians, Kushans, Parthians and Sassanians took over.[20] Kushans spread Buddhism from India in the 1st century B.C., and Buddhism remained an important religion in the area until the 7th century.[21] The Buddhas of Bamyan were the remainder of Buddhism in Afghanistan. Those giant statues were destroyed by the hard-line ruling Taliban in 2001, despite international protests in defence of the priceless art. The Taliban believed that those ancient statues were un-Islamic.
Medieval history
Arabs introduced Islam in the 7th century and slowly began spreading the new religion. In the 9th and 10th centuries, numerous local Islamic dynasties rose to power. One of the earliest was the Ṭāhirids of Khorāsān, whose kingdom included Balkh and Herāt; they established virtual independence from the ʿAbbāsid Caliphate in 820. The Ṭāhirids were succeeded in 867–869 by a native dynasty from Sīstān, the Ṣaffārids. Local princes in the north soon became feudatories of the powerful Sāmānids, who ruled from Bukhara. From 872 to 999 Bukhara, Samarkand, and Balkh enjoyed a golden age under Sāmānid rule.[22]
Turkish Ghaznavids took over in the 10th century and made Ghazni and Bust (Lashkar Gāh) their capitals. Maḥmūd, a great Ghaznavid sultan, conquered the Punjab and Multan and carried his raids into the heart of India.
The north-eastern parts of the Persian empire were locally recognized as
Khorāsān, being literally the “Land of the Sun”, which was a prosperous and important province of Persia, as it was the seat of many rulers. It remained the cultural capital of Persia until the devastating
Mongol invasion of the thirteenth century.
[23]
Khorasan reached its peak of civilization in the twelfth century, and cities like Herāt, Balkh and Ghazni (all in today's Afghanistan) were centres of science and culture. The New Persian literature arose and flourished in Khorasan. The early Persian poets such as Rudaki were from Khorasan. Moreover, Ferdowsi, the author of Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran, and Rumi, the famous Sufi poet, were also from Khorasan. It has produced scientists such as Avicenna, Al-Farabi, Al-Biruni, Omar Khayyám, Al-Khwarizmi, and many others who are widely well-known for their significant contributions in various domains such as mathematics, astronomy, medicine, physics, geography, and geology.
Mongols came in the 13th century and destroyed much of the Persian region. Timur, the Turkic conqueror, took over a large part of the country in the end of 14th century. Timur's successors, the Timurids (1405–1507), were great patrons of learning and the arts who enriched their capital city of Herāt with fine buildings. Under their rule Afghanistan enjoyed peace and prosperity.
In the late middle ages, there was a region in the south of Khorasan and along the Sulaiman mountains (in the west of today's Pakistan) which was called "Afghanistan" and it was the homeland of Afghans or Pashtuns.[24] From the 16th to the early 18th century, Afghanistan was controlled between the Safavids of Persia and Moghul rulers of India. Safavids and Mughals sometimes occasionally oppressed the Afghans. In 1709, the Hotaki tribe of Afghans revolted and fully defeated the Shia Safavid Persians and then the Mughals of India in 1747.
A great Pashtun leader named Ahmad Shah Durrani is considered the founder of Afghanistan as a united country. After the Persian ruler of the region was killed in 1747, Durrani was crowned king. During his rule he created a unified country out of lands that had been controlled by local rulers.[25]
Recent history
[[File:|thumb|right|150px|Ahmad Shah Durrani unified the Pashtun tribes and founded the state of Afghanistan in 1747. He created the second largest Muslim Empire (after the Ottoman Empire) of the 18th century, that extended from the Amu Darya to the Indian Ocean and from Khorāsān into Kashmir, the Punjab, and Sind.[26]]]
During the 1800s, Afghanistan became involved in a rivalry between the British and Russian empires and served as a buffer zone between these two empires. Russia was the great power to the north, and Britain controlled India to the east. As Russia expanded southward across central Asia, Britain believed that its control over India was threatened. To stop the Russian advance, Britain tried to conquer Afghanistan. Britain fought wars in Afghanistan from 1839 to 1842 and from 1878 to 1880, winning some control over the country's affairs. In a third war, however, Afghanistan won independence from Britain in 1919, when the king of Afghanistan, Amanullah Khan, declared independence from United Kingdom control over Afghan foreign affairs.
After independence Afghanistan continued as a monarchy. From the 1930s into the 1970s the country was ruled by stable governments with a king as head of state. In 1973, however, political crises led to the overthrow of the king. The country's new leaders ended the monarchy and made Afghanistan a republic.
In 1978 a Communist political party supported by the Soviet Union seized control of Afghanistan's government. This move sparked rebellions throughout the country. The government asked the Soviet Union for military assistance. The Soviets took advantage of the situation and invaded Afghanistan in December 1979.
Most of the people of Afghanistan opposed the Soviet presence. For nearly a decade anti-Communist Islamic forces known as mujahideen fought the invaders. The United States and other anti-Soviet countries supported the mujahideen. The Soviet Army lost more than 10,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, and millions of Afghans left the country for Pakistan and Iran. In 1989 the Soviet Army withdrew the last of its troops.[27]
After the Soviets left, various Afghan groups began fighting for control of the country. A very conservative Islamic group known as the Taliban emerged as the most powerful of these groups. By the late 1990s the Taliban had gained control over most of Afghanistan. Small groups continued to fight against the Taliban in the northern part of the country.
The Taliban ruled Afghanistan according to their strict version of Islamic law. People whom the Taliban believed violated these laws were given harsh public punishments. In addition, the Taliban severely restricted the rights of women. Because of such policies, most countries did not consider the Taliban to be the legitimate, or lawful, government of Afghanistan.
The Taliban also angered other countries by allowing suspected terrorists to live in Afghanistan. Among them were Osama bin Laden and members of his organization, al-Qaeda. In September 2001 the United States blamed bin Laden for terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. The Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden to the United States. In response, the United States and its allies launched a bombing campaign against the Taliban in October 2001. Within months the Taliban abandoned Kabul and a new government came to power, but fighting continued.[28]
In December 2004, Hamid Karzai, became the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan.[29]
Government
Afghanistan is a newly formed democracy. Under the new constitution, the president and two vice presidents are elected every five years. The International Security Force Assistance (ISAF) helps the government maintain peace and rebuild the country.
The government still faces problems with the Taliban, internal security, and public services.
References
- ↑ [CIA- The World Factbook, Afghanistan. Retrieved on 31 December 2008 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/af.html]
- ↑ "Afghanistan Statistical Yearbook 2008/09", Central Statistics Office
- ↑ "Afghanistan." Britannica Student Library. Encyclopaedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010.
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ CIA World Factbook
- ↑ "Tajik." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010.
- ↑ [3]
- ↑ http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/places/find/afghanistan/]
- ↑ [Encyclopedia Britannica, Afghanistan History. Retrieved on 26 January 2009 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/7798/Afghanistan/129450/History#ref=ref261360]
- ↑ Hiebert, F., Cambon, P., 2008, AFGHANISTAN Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul, page 56, Washington, National Geographic, ISBN 978-1--4262-0295-7
- ↑ "Afghanistan." Britannica Elementary Library. Encyclopaedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010.
- ↑ Hiebert, F., Cambon, P., 2008, AFGHANISTAN Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul, page 58, Washington, National Geographic, ISBN 978-1--4262-0295-7
- ↑ Hiebert, F., Cambon, P., 2008, AFGHANISTAN Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul, page 73, Washington, National Geographic, ISBN 978-1--4262-0295-7
- ↑ [R. Ghirshman, L’Iran et la migration des Indo-aryens et des Iraniens, Leiden, 1977.]
- ↑ [Encyclopedia Iranica, IRANIAN IDENTITY ii. PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD. Retrieved on 14 October 2010 http://www.iranica.com/articles/iranian-identity-ii-pre-islamic-period]
- ↑ [Encyclopedia Iranica, AVESTAN GEOGRAPHY. Retrieved on 14 October 2010 http://www.iranica.com/articles/avestan-geography]
- ↑ [Encyclopedia Iranica, ARIA. Retrieved on 31 December 2008 http://www.iranica.com/newsite/index.isc?Article=http://www.encyclopediairanica.com/newsite/articles/unicode/v2f4/v2f4a051.html]
- ↑ Encyclopaedia Iranica: ZOROASTER ii. GENERAL SURVEY. By W. W. Malandra: In the Avesta, the geography of the Vendīdād and of the Yashts make it clear that these texts locate themselves in eastern [ancient Iran [today's Afghanistan]. Even though there are later traditions which place him in Azerbaijan and Media, it is more reasonable to locate Zoroaster somewhere in eastern [ancient] Iran [today's Afghanistan] along with the rest of the Avesta. Further, the two Avestan dialects belong linguistically to eastern [ancient] Iran [today's Afghanistan]
- ↑ [Encyclopedia Britannica, ancient Iran. Retrieved on 31 December 2008 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/851961/ancient-Iran]
- ↑ [Encyclopedia Iranica, BUDDHISM i. In Pre-Islamic Times. Retrieved on 12 September 2010 http://iranica.com/articles/buddhism-i]
- ↑ "Afghanistan." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010.
- ↑ Lorentz, J. Historical Dictionary of Iran. 1995 ISBN 0-8108-2994-0AFGJANISTAN
- ↑ Vogelsang, Willem (2002). The Afghans. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 18. ISBN 0631198415, 9780631198413. http://books.google.com/books?id=9kfJ6MlMsJQC&lpg=PP1&dq=The%20Afghans&pg=PA18#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
- ↑ "Afghanistan." Britannica Elementary Library. Encyclopaedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010.
- ↑ "Aḥmad Shāh Durrānī." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010.
- ↑ "Afghanistan." Britannica Student Library. Encyclopaedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010.
- ↑ "Afghanistan." Britannica Student Library. Encyclopaedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010.
- ↑ [CIA- The World Factbook, Afghanistan. Retrieved on 31 December 2008 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/af.html]
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