Badakhshan is a historical region comprising parts of modern-day north-eastern Afghanistan, eastern Tajikistan, and Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in China. Badakhshan Province is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Much of historic Badakhshan lies within Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in the southeastern part of the country. The music of Badakhshan is an important part of the region's cultural heritage.
Badakshan patera, "Triumph of Bacchus", British Museum. (1st-4th century CE).
Sultan Muḥammad Vays offers Babur a healthy horse to replace his ailing one.
Mirza Shah Rukh (d. 1607-8), grandson of Sulaiman Mirza, and ruler of Badakhshan. Married Akbar's daughter, Shakr al-Nisa Begum, and became ruler of Malwa after fleeing to the Mughal Empire.
In 1756 Badakhshan emir made the Chinese Qing dynasty recognize the Elder of Badakhshan (the "gray bearded") at Alti as sovereign in Kashgar and levied taxes on the city and parts of the province of Xinjiang.
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordered by Pakistan to the east and south, Iran to the west, Turkmenistan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, Tajikistan to the northeast, and China to the northeast and east. Occupying 652,864 square kilometers (252,072 sq mi) of land, the country is predominantly mountainous with plains in the north and the southwest, which are separated by the Hindu Kush mountain range. Kabul is the country's largest city and serves as its capital. According to the World Population review, as of 2023, Afghanistan's population is 43 million. The National Statistics Information Authority of Afghanistan estimated the population to be 32.9 million as of 2020.
Tents of Afghan nomads in the northern Badghis province. Early peasant farming villages came into existence about 7,000 years ago.
A "Bactrian gold" Scythian belt depicting Dionysus, from Tillya Tepe in the ancient region of Bactria
Portrait of Ahmad Shah Durrani c. 1757
Afghan tribesmen in 1841, painted by British officer James Rattray