1.
Provinces of Afghanistan
–
Afghanistan is made up of 34 provinces. The provinces of Afghanistan are the administrative divisions. Each province encompasses a number of districts or usually over 1,000 villages, Provincial governments are led by a governor who is appointed by the President of Afghanistan. Each province is represented in the government of Afghanistan by two members in the House of Elders, one is elected by the provincial council to a four-year term while the second is elected by the district councils to a three-year term. Representation in the House of the People is directly from the districts, although in each province and they are appointed by the President of Afghanistan. Provincial governors have played a role in the reconstruction of the Afghan state following the creation of the new government under Hamid Karzai. According to international security scholar, Dipali Mukhopadhyay, many of the governors are former warlords who have been incorporated into the political system. List of current governors of Afghanistan Districts of Afghanistan Afghanistan Information Management Services Provincial Governors
2.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Afghanistan
–
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. It has a population of approximately 32 million, making it the 42nd most populous country in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north and its territory covers 652,000 km2, making it the 41st largest country in the world. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, the political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a state in the Great Game between British India and the Russian Empire. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, King Amanullah unsuccessfully attempted to modernize the country and it remained peaceful during Zahir Shahs forty years of monarchy. A series of coups in the 1970s was followed by a series of wars that devastated much of Afghanistan. The name Afghānistān is believed to be as old as the ethnonym Afghan, the root name Afghan was used historically in reference to a member of the ethnic Pashtuns, and the suffix -stan means place of in Persian. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to land of the Afghans or, more specifically in a historical sense, however, the modern Constitution of Afghanistan states that he word Afghan shall apply to every citizen of Afghanistan. An important site of historical activities, many believe that Afghanistan compares to Egypt in terms of the historical value of its archaeological sites. The country sits at a unique nexus point where numerous civilizations have interacted and it has been home to various peoples through the ages, among them the ancient Iranian peoples who established the dominant role of Indo-Iranian languages in the region. At multiple points, the land has been incorporated within large regional empires, among them the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, and the Islamic Empire. Archaeological exploration done in the 20th century suggests that the area of Afghanistan has been closely connected by culture and trade with its neighbors to the east, west. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BCE, and the early city of Mundigak may have been a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization. More recent findings established that the Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up towards modern-day Afghanistan, making the ancient civilisation today part of Pakistan, Afghanistan, in more detail, it extended from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. There are several smaller IVC colonies to be found in Afghanistan as well, after 2000 BCE, successive waves of semi-nomadic people from Central Asia began moving south into Afghanistan, among them were many Indo-European-speaking Indo-Iranians. These tribes later migrated further into South Asia, Western Asia, the region at the time was referred to as Ariana
4.
Qala i Naw, Afghanistan
–
Qala i Naw is a town in Qala i Naw District and the capital of Badghis Province, of north-west Afghanistan. Its population was estimated 9,000 in 2006, of which 80% are Tajiks, other significant communities include Pashtuns, Balochis and Uzbeks. The city of Qala-i-naw has a population of 64,125 people with 6 Police districts, there are 7,125 total number of dwellings in Qala-i-Naw. Qala-i-naw is the capital of Badghis Province. Qala-i-Naw is a Provincial Centre located in western Afghanistan, barren land accounts for 49% of total land area and only 28% is classified as built-up. Of the built-up land, 60% is residential, District 4 has a large institutional and transportation land use as a result of the airport located there. It has an airport, Qala i Naw Airport. Qala i Naw has a cold climate with hot summers. Precipitation is low, and mostly falls in winter
5.
Districts of Afghanistan
–
This is a list of districts of Afghanistan, known as wuleswali, which are one level below the provinces. The number of districts has fluctuated over the years, with new districts created by splitting or merging parts of others, prior to 1979, there were 325 districts but a major reorganization in 2004 led to the number increasing to 397. As of June 2005, the Afghan Ministry of the Interior recognised 398 districts and this number is expected to change with further administrative reorganization. Qalat Shah Joy Shamulzayi Shinkay Tarnak Wa Jaldak List of splits and creations of districts in Afghanistan Afghanistan Information Management Service, accessed 2006-07-27
6.
Ab Kamari District
–
Ab Kamari is a district in the west of Badghis Province, Afghanistan. Its population was estimated at 36,300 in 2002, the makeup of which was approximately 80% Tajik with a Pashtun minority. The district capital is Sang Atesh, other localities include Ab Khudai, Alkhan, Anjir, Duzdanak, Gana Gul, Khalifa, and Papal. Ab Kamari is known for its pistachio forests
7.
Jawand District
–
Jawand is the largest district of Badghis Province, Afghanistan, located in the southeast. Its population is estimated at 186,000, although a 1990 estimate by the United States Agency for International Development puts the population at 46,403, jawand has approximately 380 villages, with nearly all of them ravaged by poverty, hunger and disease. There are no paved roads, no doctors or medical clinics and no schools
8.
Murghab District
–
Murghab is a district situated in the northeast of Badghis Province, Afghanistan. The district capital is Murghab city which is located along the Murghab River, the estimated population of Murghab District in 2003 was roughly 109,381. Based upon the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees report, Pashtuns make up 85. 6% of the population, followed by 7% Tajiks. Murghab is a district located in the northeast of Badghis Province. Most of the live in the valley of the Murghab River. The district has 133 villages which covers an area of 4,491 km2, Murghab is surrounded by Turkmenistan, Muqur, Qadis, Jawand, Ghormach and Qaysar district of neighbouring Faryab Province. There are around 2 high schools,3 secondary schools and 24 primary schools in the district, UNHCR District Profile, compiled 2002-08-26, accessed 2006-05-05. Dupree, Nancy Hatch, An Historical Guide to Afghanistan, afghan Tourist Organization Map of Murghab
9.
Qala i Naw District
–
Qala i Naw, also Qalay-I-Naw or Qalanou, is a district in the west of Badghis Province, Afghanistan. Its population was estimated at 82,525 in 1990, the makeup is approximately 80% Tajik with small numbers of Pashtun, Baloch, Uzbek. The district capital is Qala i Naw city, which is also the provincial capital, the district is known for its pistachio forests. Qalay-i-Naw, UNHCR District Profiles, Afghanistan Information Management Services,26 August 2002, retrieved 27 June 2009 Map of Qala i Naw
10.
Tajiks
–
Tajik is a general designation for a wide range of Persian-speaking people of Iranian origin, with traditional homelands in present-day Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. Alternative names for the Tajiks are Fārsī, Fārsīwān, and Dīhgān, not all Tajiks speak a variety of modern Persian. They may speak any one of the extant Iranian languages, for example, the Tajiks of China are actually Pamiris and speak the Eastern Iranic Pamiri languages and are distinct from more western Tajiks. The Bactrian and the Sogdian people are the ancestors of modern-day Tajiks. The ancestors of the Tajiks constituted the core of the ancient population of Khwārezm and Bactria, over the course of time, the eastern Iranian dialect that was used by the ancient Tajiks eventually gave way to Farsi, a western dialect spoken in Iran and Afghanistan. In later works, Frye expands on the complexity of the origins of the Tajiks. The geographical division between the eastern and western Iranians is often considered historically and currently to be the desert Dasht-e Kavir, according to Encyclopaedia Iranica, The most plausible and generally accepted origin of the word is Middle Persian tāzīk ‘Arab’, or an Iranian cognate word. Hence the Turks of Central Asia adopted a variant of the Iranian word, täžik, for example, the rulers of the south Indian Chalukya dynasty and Rashtrakuta dynasty also referred to the Arabs as Tajika in the 8th and 9th century. Iranians soon accepted it as an ethnonym, as is shown by a Persian court official’s referring to mā tāzikān “we Tajiks”, the distinction between Turk and Tajik became stereotyped to express the symbiosis and rivalry of the nomadic military executive and the urban civil bureaucracy. The 15th century Turkic-speaking poet Mīr Alī Šer Navāī also used Tajik as a reference to Persians, Tajiks are a substantial minority in Uzbekistan, as well as in overseas communities. Historically, the ancestors of the Tajiks lived in a territory in Central Asia than now. According to the World Factbook, Tajiks make up about 27% of the population in Afghanistan, although in the past, some non-Pashto speaking tribes were identified as Tajik, for example the Furmuli. Tajiks comprise around 79. 9% of the population of Tajikistan, in the 1926 and 1937 Soviet censuses, the Yaghnobis and Pamiri language speakers were counted as separate nationalities. After 1937, these groups were required to register as Tajiks, according to official statistics, Surxondaryo Province accounts for 24. 4% of all Tajiks in Uzbekistan, with another 34. 3% in Samarqand and Bukhara provinces. Official statistics in Uzbekistan state that the Tajik community comprises 5% of the total population. However, these numbers do not include ethnic Tajiks who, for a variety of reasons and it is only in the last population census that the nationality could be reported not according to the passport, but freely declared on the basis of the respondents ethnic self-identification. This had the effect of increasing the Tajik population in Uzbekistan from 3. 9% in 1979 to 4. 7% in 1989, expert estimates suggest that Tajiks may make up 35% of Uzbekistans population. According to the 1999 population census, there were 26,000 Tajiks in Kazakhstan, according to official statistics, there were about 47,500 Tajiks in Kyrgyzstan in 2007, up from 42,600 in the 1999 census and 33,500 in the 1989 census
11.
Pashtuns
–
The Pashtuns /ˈpʌʃˌtʊnz/ or /ˈpæʃˌtuːnz/, historically known by the exonyms Afghans, and Pathan, are an ethnic group native to Afghanistan and North-Western Pakistan. They are generally classified as Eastern Iranian ethno-linguistically, who use Pashto language and follow Pashtunwali, the origin of Pashtuns is unclear but historians have come across references to various ancient peoples called Pakthas between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC, who may be their early ancestors. Their history is mostly spread amongst various countries of South and Central Asia, as the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, Pashtuns have been the dominant ethno-linguistic group for over 300 years. The Barakzai dynasty played a role during the Great Game from the 19th century to the 20th century as they were caught between the imperialist designs of the British and Russian empires. There have been many notable Pashtun people throughout history, Ahmad Shah Durrani is regarded as the founder of the modern state of Afghanistan. Under Amanullah Khan, Afghanistan was able to pursue an independent foreign policy, some others include Malala Yousafzai, Shah Rukh Khan, Hamid Karzai, and Imran Khan. They are an important community in Pakistan, which has the largest Pashtun population, Pashtuns attained presidency there and high rankings in sports. They are the worlds largest segmentary lineage ethnic group, according to Ethnologue, the total population of the group is estimated to be around 50 million but an accurate count remains elusive due to the lack of an official census in Afghanistan since 1979. Estimates of the number of Pashtun tribes and clans range from about 350 to over 400, additional Pashtun communities are located in western and northern Afghanistan, the Gilgit–Baltistan and Kashmir regions and northwestern Punjab province of Pakistan. There are also sizeable Muslim communities in India, which are of largely Pashtun ancestry, throughout the Indian subcontinent, they are often referred to as Pathans. Smaller Pashtun communities are found in the countries of the Middle East, such as in the Khorasan Province of Iran, the Arabian Peninsula, Europe, important metropolitan centres of Pashtun culture include Peshawar, Quetta, Kandahar, Jalalabad, Kunduz, and Lashkar Gah. The cities of Kabul and Ghazni in Afghanistan are home to around 25% Pashtun population while Herat, with as high as 7 million by some estimates, the city of Karachi in Sindh, Pakistan has the largest concentration of urban Pashtuns in the world. In addition, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, and Lahore also have sizeable Pashtun populations, about 15% of Pakistans nearly 200 million population is Pashtun. In Afghanistan, they are the largest ethnic group and make up between 42-60% of the 32.5 million population. The exact figure remains uncertain in Afghanistan, which is affected by the 1.5 million or more Afghan refugees that remain in Pakistan. Another one million or more Afghans live in Iran, a cumulative population assessment suggests a total of around 49 million individuals all across the world. A prominent institution of the Pashtun people is the system of tribes. Despite this, many people identify themselves with various clans
12.
Uzbeks
–
The Uzbeks are a Turkic ethnic group, the largest Turkic ethnic group in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan but are found as a minority group in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Russia. Uzbek diaspora communities also exist in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the origin of the word Uzbek remains disputed. One view holds that it is named after Oghuz Khagan, also known as Oghuz Beg. Another states that the name means independent or the lord itself, from Oʻz, before, 5th century, what is todays Uzbekistan was part of Sogdia, mainly inhabited by Sogdians, an Indo-Iranian people. It was part of the Achaemenid Empire and later part of Sasanian Empire, from 5th to 6th century, what is todays Uzbekistan was part of the Hephthalite Empire. From 6th to 8th century, what is todays Uzbekistan was under the rule of Göktürk Khanate, Turkic and Chinese migration into central Asia occurred during the Chinese Tang Dynasty, and Chinese armies commanded by Turkic generals stationed in large parts of central Asia. But Chinese influence ended with the An Lushan rebellion, from the 9th century on, Transoxania was under the rule of Turkic Kara-Khanid Khanate, their arrival in Transoxania signalled a definitive shift from Iranian to Turkic predominance in Central Asia. Kara-Khanid ruler Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan was the first Turkic ruler to convert Islam, in the 12th century, Transoxania was conquered by Qara Khitai, a sinicized Khitan dynasty, they brought to Central Asia the Chinese system of government. In the 13th century, Kara-Khanid Khanate was destroyed by the Turkic Khwarazmian dynasty, the language-shift from Middle Iranian to Turkic and New Persian was predominantly the result of an elite dominance process. This process was boosted during the Mongol conquest when millions were either killed or pushed further south to the Pamir region. The modern Uzbek language is derived from the Chagatai language which gained prominence in the Timurid Empire. The modern Uzbek population represents varying degrees of diversity derived from the high traffic routes through Central Asia. Once populated by Iranian tribes and other Indo-European people, Central Asia experienced numerous invasions emanating out of Mongolia that would affect the region. According to recent genetic genealogy testing from a University of Oxford study, high levels of haplogroup 10 and its derivative, haplogroup 36, are found in most of the Altaic-speaking populations and are a good indicator of the genetic impact of these nomadic groups. The difference could be due to the density of the different geographical areas. Eastern regions of Central Asia must have had a low density at the time. Thus, the estimate from North-East Asia is high in the east
13.
Turkmens
–
The Turkmens are a Turkic people located primarily in Central Asia, in the state of Turkmenistan, as well as in Iran, Afghanistan, North Caucasus, and northern Pakistan. They speak the Turkmen language, which is classified as a part of the Eastern Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages, examples of other Oghuz languages are Turkish, Azerbaijani, Qashqai, Gagauz, Khorasani, and Salar. Originally, all Turkic tribes that were not part of the Turkic dynastic mythological system were designated Turkmens, only later did this word come to refer to a specific ethnonym. The etymology of the term derives from Türk plus the Sogdian affix of similarity -myn, -men, a prominent Turkic scholar, Mahmud Kashgari, also mentions the etymology Türk manand. The language and ethnicity of the Turkmen were much influenced by their migration to the west, Kashgari calls the Karluks Turkmen as well, but the first time the etymology Turkmen was used was by Makdisi in the second half of the 10th century AD. Like Kashgari, he wrote that the Karluks and Oghuz Turks were called Turkmen, some modern scholars have proposed that the element -man/-men acts as an intensifier, and have translated the word as pure Turk or most Turk-like of the Turks. During the Ottoman period these nomads were known by the names of Türkmen and these names were generally used to describe their nomadic way of life, rather than their ethnic origins. However, these terms were used interchangeably by foreigners. At the same time, various other exonym words were used for these nomads, such as Konar-göçer, Göçebe, Göçer-yörük, Göçerler, the most common one among these was Konar-göçer – nomadic Turcoman Turks. All of these words are found in Ottoman archival documents and carry only the meaning of nomad, Oghuz tribes had moved westward from the Altay mountains in the 7th century AD, through the Siberian steppes, and settled in this region. They also penetrated as far west as the Volga basin and the Balkans and these early Turkmens are believed to have mixed with native Sogdian peoples and lived as pastoral nomads until the Russian conquest of the 19th century. Signs of advanced settlements have been found throughout Turkmenistan including the Djeitun settlement where neolithic buildings have been excavated and dated to the 7th millennium BCE, by 2000 BCE, various Indo-European peoples began to settle throughout the region, as indicated by the finds at the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex. Notable early tribes included the nomadic Dahae, Massagetae and Scythians, the Parni, a Dahae tribe came to dominate the region, and established the Parthian Empire, which also later fractured as a result of invasions from the north. Ephthalites, Huns, and Göktürks came in a parade of invasions. Finally, the Sassanid Empire based in Persia ruled the area prior to the coming of the Muslim Arabs during the Umayyad Caliphate by 716 CE, the majority of the inhabitants were converted to Islam as the region grew in prominence. Next came the Oghuz Turks, who imparted their language upon the local population, a tribe of the Oghuz, the Seljuks, established a Turko-Iranian culture that culminated in the Khwarezmid Empire by the 12th century. Mongol hordes led by Genghis Khan conquered the area between 1219 and 1221 and devastated many of the cities led to a rapid decline of the remaining Iranian urban population. The Turkmen largely survived the Mongol period due to their lifestyle and became traders along the Caspian
14.
Hazaras
–
The Hazaras are a Persian-speaking people who mainly live in central Afghanistan, Hazara Town in Balochistan, Pakistan, and Karachi. They are overwhelmingly Twelver Shia Muslims and make up the third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, the dialect of Persian which they speak is called Hazaragi, which is more precisely a part of the Dari dialect continuum, and is mutually intelligible with Dari. Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire in the early 16th century and he referred to the populace of a region called Hazaristan, located west of the Kabulistan region, north of Ghazna and south-west of Ghor. The conventional theory is that the word Hazara derives from the Persian word for Thousand and it may be the translation of the Mongol word ming, a military unit of 1,000 soldiers at the time of Genghis Khan. With time, the term Hazar could have been substituted for the Mongol word, the origins of the Hazara have not been fully reconstructed. Thus, it is widely and popularly believed that Hazara have Mongolian ancestry, genetic analysis of the Hazara indicate partial Mongolian ancestry. Invading Mongols and Turco-Mongols mixed with the local Iranian population, forming a distinct group, for example, Nikudari Mongols settled in what is now Afghanistan and mixed with native populations who spoke Persian. The Hazara identity in Afghanistan is believed by many to have originated in the aftermath of the 1221 Siege of Bamyan, the first mention of Hazara are made by Babur in the early 16th century and later by the court historians of Shah Abbas of the Safavid dynasty. It is reported that they embraced Shia Islam between the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century, during the Safavid period. Hazara men along with tribes of other groups had been recruited and added to the army of Ahmad Shah Durrani in the 18th century. Some claim that in the mid‑18th century Hazara were forced out of Helmand, during the second reign of Dost Mohammad Khans in the 19th century, Hazara from Hazarajat began to be taxed for the first time. However, for the most part they still managed to keep their autonomy until the subjugation of Abdur Rahman Khan began in the late 19th century. When the Treaty of Gandomak was signed and the Second Anglo-Afghan War ended in 1880, Abdur Rahman Khan set out a goal to bring Hazarajat and he launched several campaigns in Hazarajat due to resistance from the Hazara in which his forces committed atrocities. The southern part of Hazarajat was spared as they accepted his rule, while the parts of Hazarajat rejected Abdur Rahman and instead supported his uncle. In response to this Abdur Rahman waged a war against tribal leaders who rejected his policies, Abdur Rahman arrested Syed Jafar, chief of the Sheikh Ali Hazara tribe, and jailed him in Mazar-e-Sharif. The first Hazara uprising against Abdur Rahman Khan took place between 1888 and 1890, when Emir Abdur Rahmans cousin, Mohammad Eshaq, revolted against him, tribal leaders of the Sheikh Ali Hazaras joined the revolt. The revolt was short lived and crushed as the Emir extended his control over parts of Hazarajat. Leaders of the Sheikh Ali Hazaras had allies in two different groups, Shia and Sunni, Abdur Rahman took advantage of the situation, pitting Sunni Hazara against the Shia Hazara, and made pacts among the Hazara
15.
Dari Persian
–
Dari or Dari Persian is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the officially recognized and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language. Hence, it is known as Afghan Persian in many Western sources. As defined in the Constitution of Afghanistan, it is one of the two languages of Afghanistan, the other is Pashto. Dari is the most widely spoken language in Afghanistan and the language of approximately 25–50% of the population. The Iranian and Afghan types of Persian are mutually intelligible, with differences found primarily in the vocabulary, in historical usage, Dari refers to the Middle Persian court language of the Sassanids. Dari is a given to the New Persian language since the 10th century, widely used in Arabic. Since 1964, it has been the name in Afghanistan for the Persian spoken there. In Afghanistan, Dari refers to a dialect form of Persian that is the standard language used in administration, government, radio, television. Because of a preponderance of Dari native speakers, who refer to the language as Fārsi. There are different opinions about the origin of the word Dari, the majority of scholars believes that Dari refers to the Persian word dar or darbār, meaning Court, as it was the formal language of the Sassanids. The original meaning of the word dari is given in a notice attributed to Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, according to him, Pārsī was the language spoken by priests, scholars, and the like, it is the language of Fars. It is obvious that this refers to the Middle Persian. As for Dari, he says, it is the language of the cities of Madāen, is connected with presence at court. Among the languages of the people of Khorasan and the east, in general, Iranian languages are known from three periods, usually referred to as Old, Middle, and New periods. But it is thought that the first person in Europe to use the term Deri for Dari was Thomas Hyde, at Oxford, in his chief work, ferghana, Samarkand, and Bukhara were starting to be linguistically Darified in originally Khorezmian and Soghdian areas during Samanid rule. Dari Persian spread around the Oxus River region, Afghanistan, and Khorasan after the Arab conquests, the replacement of the Pahlavi script with the Arabic script in order to write the Persian language was done by the Tahirids in 9th century Khorasan. Persian was rooted into Central Asia by the Samanids, the role of lingua franca that Sogdian originally played was succeeded by Persian after the arrival of Islam
16.
Pashto
–
Pashto, known in Persian literature as Afghānistani and in Urdu and Hindi literature as Paṭhānī, is the South-Central Asian language of the Pashtuns. Its speakers are called Pashtuns or Pukhtuns and sometimes Afghans or Pathans and it is an Eastern Iranian language, belonging to the Indo-European family. Pashto is one of the two languages of Afghanistan, and it is the second-largest regional language of Pakistan, mainly spoken in the west and northwest of the country. Pakistans Federally Administered Tribal Areas are almost 100% Pashto-speaking, while it is the majority language of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pashto is the main language among the Pashtun diaspora around the world. The total number of Pashto-speakers is estimated to be 45–60 million people worldwide, Pashto belongs to the Northeastern Iranian group of the Indo-Iranian branch, but Ethnologue lists it as Southeastern Iranian. Pashto has two main groups, “soft” and “hard”, the latter known as Pakhto. As a national language of Afghanistan, Pashto is primarily spoken in the east, south, and southwest, the exact numbers of speakers are unavailable, but different estimates show that Pashto is the mother tongue of 45–60% of the total population of Afghanistan. In Pakistan Pashto is spoken as a first language by about 15. 42% of Pakistans 170 million people and it is the main language of the Pashtun-majority regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas and northern Balochistan. It is also spoken in parts of Mianwali and Attock districts of the Punjab province and in Islamabad, modern Pashto-speaking communities are found in the cities of Karachi and Hyderabad in Sindh. Other communities of Pashto speakers are found in Tajikistan, and further in the Pashtun diaspora, there are also communities of Pashtun descent in the southwestern part of Jammu and Kashmir. Pashto is one of the two languages of Afghanistan, along with Dari. Since the early 18th century, all the kings of Afghanistan were ethnic Pashtuns except for Habibullah Kalakani, Persian as the literary language of the royal court was more widely used in government institutions while Pashto was spoken by the Pashtun tribes as their native tongue. Although officially strengthening the use of Pashto, the Afghan elite regarded Persian as a “sophisticated language, king Zahir Shah thus followed suit after his father Nadir Khan had decreed in 1933, that both Persian and Pashto were to be studied and utilized by officials. Thus Pashto became a language, a symbol for Afghan nationalism. The status of language was reaffirmed in 1964 by the constitutional assembly when Afghan Persian was officially renamed to Dari. The lyrics of the anthem of Afghanistan are in Pashto. In Pakistan, Urdu and English are the two official languages, Pashto has no official status at the federal level. On a provincial level, Pashto is the language of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas
17.
Turkmen language
–
Turkmen has vowel harmony, is agglutinative, and has no grammatical gender. Written Turkmen today is based on the Teke dialect, the other dialects are Nohurly, Ýomud, Änewli, Hasarly, Nerezim, Gökleň, Salyr, Saryk, Ärsary and Çowdur. The Teke dialect is referred to as Chagatai, but like all Turkmen dialects it reflects only a limited influence from classical Chagatai. Officially, Turkmen is rendered in the “Täze Elipbiý”, or “New Alphabet”, however, the old Soviet Cyrillic alphabet is still in wide use. Before 1929, Turkmen was written in an Arabic alphabet, in 1929–1938 a Latin alphabet replaced it, and then the Cyrillic alphabet was used from 1938 to 1991. In 1991, the current Latin alphabet was introduced, although the transition to it has been rather slow and it used to use some unusual letters, such as the pound, dollar, yen, and cent signs, but these were replaced by more conventional letter symbols. The following phonemes are present in the Turkmen language, Turkmen contains both short and long vowels, doubling the duration of sound for a short vowel is generally how its long vowel counterpart is pronounced. Turkmen employs vowel harmony, a principle that is common in fellow Turkic languages, vowels and their sounds are as follows, For purposes of vowel harmony the central vowel is considered back. Turkmen consonant phonemes, Note that с and з are actually used for and, not, like other Turkic languages, Turkmen is characterized by vowel harmony. In general, words of native origin consist either entirely of front vowels or entirely of back vowels, prefixes and suffixes reflect this harmony, taking different forms depending on the word to which they are attached. The infinitive form of a verb determines whether it will follow a front vowel harmony or back vowel harmony, words of foreign origin, mainly Russian, Persian, or Arabic, do not follow vowel harmony. Verbs are conjugated for singular and plural number and first, second, There are 11 verb tenses, present comprehensive, present perfect, future certain, future indefinite, conditional, past definite, obligatory, imperative, and intentional. There are two types of verbs in Turkmen, distinguished by their forms, those ending in the suffix -mak. -Mak verbs follow back vowel harmony, whereas -mek verbs follow front vowel harmony, evidentiality is determined by four markers, roughly, -dY -Yp-dYr -dYr-mY-näm -mYş Some independent particles may be said to convey evidentiality, one such word is the particle eken. Aman become sick-EV-COP Aman is sick, compare 1 with 2. a and 2. b,2. a. Maral Ashgabat-ABL come-EV-COP Maral came from Ashgabat, Ben you-GEN cookie-pl-2sPOSS-ACC eat-3spast Ben ate your cookies. The speaker saw Ben eat the cookies, Ben told the speaker that he ate the cookies. Ben you-GEN cookie-pl-2sPOSS-ACC eat-EV-COP Ben ate your cookies, the speaker heard from someone else that Ben ate the cookies
18.
Persian language
–
Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan and it is mostly written in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script. Its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages, Persian gets its name from its origin at the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persis, hence the name Persian. A Persian-speaking person may be referred to as Persophone, there are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also been a cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central Asia. It also exerted influence on Arabic, particularly Bahrani Arabic. Persian is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-European family, other Western Iranian languages are the Kurdish languages, Gilaki, Mazanderani, Talysh, and Balochi. Persian is classified as a member of the Southwestern subgroup within Western Iranian along with Lari, Kumzari, in Persian, the language is known by several names, Western Persian, Parsi or Farsi has been the name used by all native speakers until the 20th century. Since the latter decades of the 20th century, for reasons, in English. Tajiki is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by the Tajiks, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Native Iranian Persian speakers call it Fārsi, Farsi is the Arabicized form of Pārsi, subsequent to Muslim conquest of Persia, due to a lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The origin of the name Farsi and the place of origin of the language which is Fars Province is the Arabicized form of Pārs, in English, this language has historically been known as Persian, though Farsi has also gained some currency. Farsi is encountered in some literature as a name for the language. In modern English the word Farsi refers to the language while Parsi describes Zoroastrians, some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have also rejected the usage of Farsi in their articles. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa, as its system is mostly based on the local names. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses the name Persian for the dialect continuum spoken across Iran and Afghanistan and this consists of the individual languages Dari and Iranian Persian. Currently, Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also includes a Tajik service and an Afghan service. This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, Persian is an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages
19.
Turkmenistan
–
Turkmenistan has been at the crossroads of civilizations for centuries. In medieval times, Merv was one of the cities of the Islamic world and an important stop on the Silk Road. Annexed by the Russian Empire in 1881, Turkmenistan later figured prominently in the movement in Central Asia. In 1924, Turkmenistan became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, Turkmenistan possesses the worlds fourth largest reserves of natural gas resources. Most of the country is covered by the Karakum Desert, since 1993, citizens have received government-provided electricity, water and natural gas free of charge. Turkmenistan was ruled by President for Life Saparmurat Niyazov until his death in 2006, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was elected president in 2007. According to Human Rights Watch, Turkmenistan remains one of the world’s most repressive countries, after suspending the death penalty, the use of capital punishment was formally abolished in the 2008 constitution. Historically inhabited by the Indo-Iranians, the history of Turkmenistan begins with its annexation by the Achaemenid Empire of Ancient Iran. In the 8th century AD, Turkic-speaking Oghuz tribes moved from Mongolia into present-day Central Asia, part of a powerful confederation of tribes, these Oghuz formed the ethnic basis of the modern Turkmen population. In the 10th century, the name Turkmen was first applied to Oghuz groups that accepted Islam, There they were under the dominion of the Seljuk Empire, which was composed of Oghuz groups living in present-day Iran and Turkmenistan. Turkmen soldiers in the service of the played a important role in the spreading of Turkic culture when they migrated westward into present-day Azerbaijan. In the 12th century, Turkmen and other tribes overthrew the Seljuk Empire, in the next century, the Mongols took over the more northern lands where the Turkmens had settled, scattering the Turkmens southward and contributing to the formation of new tribal groups. The sixteenth and eighteenth centuries saw a series of splits and confederations among the nomadic Turkmen tribes, by the 16th century, most of those tribes were under the nominal control of two sedentary Uzbek khanates, Khiva and Bukhoro. Turkmen soldiers were an important element of the Uzbek militaries of this period, in the 19th century, raids and rebellions by the Yomud Turkmen group resulted in that groups dispersal by the Uzbek rulers. According to Paul R. Spickard, Prior to the Russian conquest, Russian forces began occupying Turkmen territory late in the 19th century. From their Caspian Sea base at Krasnovodsk, the Russians eventually overcame the Uzbek khanates, in 1916 the Russian Empires participation in World War I resonated in Turkmenistan, as an anticonscription revolt swept most of Russian Central Asia. In 1924 the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic was formed from the tsarist province of Transcaspia, by the late 1930s, Soviet reorganization of agriculture had destroyed what remained of the nomadic lifestyle in Turkmenistan, and Moscow controlled political life. The Ashgabat earthquake of 1948 killed over 110,000 people, during the next half-century, Turkmenistan played its designated economic role within the Soviet Union and remained outside the course of major world events
20.
Qala i Naw
–
Qala i Naw is a town in Qala i Naw District and the capital of Badghis Province, of north-west Afghanistan. Its population was estimated 9,000 in 2006, of which 80% are Tajiks, other significant communities include Pashtuns, Balochis and Uzbeks. The city of Qala-i-naw has a population of 64,125 people with 6 Police districts, there are 7,125 total number of dwellings in Qala-i-Naw. Qala-i-naw is the capital of Badghis Province. Qala-i-Naw is a Provincial Centre located in western Afghanistan, barren land accounts for 49% of total land area and only 28% is classified as built-up. Of the built-up land, 60% is residential, District 4 has a large institutional and transportation land use as a result of the airport located there. It has an airport, Qala i Naw Airport. Qala i Naw has a cold climate with hot summers. Precipitation is low, and mostly falls in winter
21.
Maimana
–
Maymana, Meymaneh or Maimana is the capital of Faryab province, northern Afghanistan, near the Turkmenistan border. It is approximately 400 km northwest of the Afghan capital Kabul, the city of Maimana has a population of 149,040. It has 10 districts and a land area of 3,461 Hectares. The total number of dwellings in this city are 16,560, Maymana is located at the northern foot of the Torkestan Range at an elevation of 877 m on the old terrace of the Qeysar or Maymana River. This river branches off of the Band-e Turkistan River 50 km south of the city, the highlands of the Maymana region generally possess a very rich topsoil which supports the seasonal agricultural activities. Maimana is a Trading and Transit Hub in northern Afghanistan, just over half of the land in Maimana is non built-up consisting largely of agriculture. The central districts have higher dwelling density and clear road grids, the outer districts are characterized by more agricultural land. During the 19th century, the population of the settlement was estimated at 15, 000–18,000, in 1958 the population was estimated to be 30,000, by 1979 this had risen to 38,250, and by 1982 to 56,973. In 2004 Maymana has a population of 75,900, however it is estimated to be 149,040 in 2015. The town is of ancient origin and it seems clear that Maymana citadel dates back to the early Iron Age. Ceramic materials in a cave at Bilchiragh are from the Paleolithic. In the 10th century it was the residence of the Malik of Guzganan, in the 16th century, Uzbek influence came to Maymana with the invasions of Turkistan and Herat by Muhammad Shaibani. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Maymana was the centre of an independent Uzbek khanate, in 1876 the city fell to the Afghans and was put in ruins, and only ten percent of the population was left. The city was once strongly walled with thick walls and towers and surrounded by a moat, in 1934, the rebuilding of the city started, and in 1949 the northern parts of the old city were renewed, the old city citadel changed to a park. As part of the ongoing NATO operation in Afghanistan, there is a Provincial Reconstruction Team based there and this team also includes Latvian troops. Maymana is served by Maymana Airport which had direct flights to Herat as of May 2014, the town serves an agricultural area irrigated from the Qeysar River and also handles the trade in Karakul sheep with nomads. Maymana is an important livestock centre in Afghanistan, in the 1970s, the wool and cotton processing industry was booming in the city. Maymana is a market for goods, silk, carpets, wheat, barley, melons
22.
Herat
–
Herat is the third-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 436,300, and serves as the capital of Herat Province and it is linked with Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif via highway 1 or the ring road. It is further linked to the city of Mashhad in neighboring Iran through the town of Islam Qala. Herat dates back to the Avestan times and was known for its wine. The city has a number of sites, including the Herat Citadel. During the Middle Ages Herat became one of the important cities of Khorasan and it has been governed by various Afghan rulers since the early 18th century. In 1717, the city was invaded by the Hotaki forces until they were expelled by the Afsharids in 1736, after Nader Shahs death and Ahmad Shah Durranis rise to power in 1747, Herat became part of Afghanistan. It witnessed some political disturbances and military invasions during the half of the 19th century. Herat suffered from destruction during the Soviet war in the 1980s. Herat lies on the ancient trade routes of the Middle East, Central, the roads from Herat to Iran, Turkmenistan, and other parts of Afghanistan are still strategically important. As the gateway to Iran, it collects high amount of revenue for Afghanistan. The city has an international airport, Herat is a regional hub in western Afghanistan in close proximity to Iran and Turkmenistan. The city has high residential density clustered around the core of the city, however, vacant plots account for a higher percentage of the city than residential land use and agricultural is the largest percentage of total land use. Herat dates back to ancient times, but its exact age remains unknown, during the period of the Achaemenid Empire, the surrounding district was known as Hariva, and in classical sources the region was correspondingly known as Aria. In the Zoroastrian Avesta, the district is mentioned as Haroiva, the name of the district and its main town is derived from that of the chief river of the region, the Herey River, which traverses the district and passes some 5 km south of modern Herāt. Herey is mentioned in Sanskrit as yellow or golden color equivalent to Persian Zard meaning Gold, the naming of a region and its principal town after the main river is a common feature in this part of the world—compare the adjoining districts/rivers/towns of Arachosia and Bactria. The district Aria of the Achaemenid Empire is mentioned in the lists that are included in various royal inscriptions, for instance. Representatives from the district are depicted in reliefs, e. g. at the royal Achaemenid tombs of Naqsh-e Rustam and they are wearing Scythian-style dress and a twisted Bashlyk that covers their head, chin and neck
23.
Ghor Province
–
Ghōr, also spelled Ghowr or Ghur, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is located in central Afghanistan, towards the north-west, the province contains ten districts, encompassing hundreds of villages, and approximately 657,200 settled people. Firuzkoh, serves as the capital of the province, mandesh is the historical name by which the mountain region of Ghor was called. The inhabitants of Ghor were completely Islamized during the Ghurids era, before the 12th century, the area was home to Hindus, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, and a small number of Jews. Remains of the oldest settlements discovered by Lithuanian archaeologists in 2007 and 2008 in Ghor date back to 5000 BC, ruins of a few castles and other defense fortifications were also discovered in the environs of Chaghcharan. A Buddhist monastery hand-carved in the bluff of the river Harirud existed in the first centuries during the prevalence of Buddhism, the artificial caves revealed testimony of daily life of the Buddhist monks. The rise to power of the Ghurids at Ghur, an isolated area located in the mountain vastness between the Ghaznavid empire and the Seljukids, was an unusual and unexpected development. The area was so remote that till the 11th century, it had remained an enclave surrounded by Muslim principalities. It was converted to Islam in the part of the 12th century after Mahmud raided it. Even then it is believed that paganism, i. e. a variety of Mahayana Buddhism persisted in the till the end of the century. The mountainous country between Hirat and Ghazni, Ghor itself was a country of infidels, containing only a few Musulmans, and the inhabitants spoke a language different from that of Khurasan. Minhaju-S-Siraj records the strife between the non-Muslim and Muslim populations and it is said that Amir Suri was a great king and most of the territories of Ghor were in his possession. But as most of the inhabitants of Ghor of High and low degree had not yet embraced Islam, the Saffarians came from Nimroz to Bust and Dawar, Yakub Lais overpowered Lak-Lak, who was the chief of Takinabad, in the country of Rukhaj. The Ghorians sought the safety in Sara-sang and dwelt there in security, according to Minhahu-S Siraj, Amir Suri was captured by Mahmud of Ghazni, made prisoner along with his son and taken to Ghazni, where Amir Suri died. The region had previously conquered by Mahmud of Ghazni. It was also the last stronghold of an ancient religion professed by the inhabitants when all their neighbors had become Muhammadan, in the 11th century AD Mahmud of Ghazni defeated the prince of Ghor Ibn–I-Suri, and made him prisoner in a severely contested engagement in the valley of Ahingaran. Ibn-I-Suri is identified a Hindu by the author, who has recorded his overthrow, in 1011,1015 and 1020, both Mahmud and Masud I led expeditions into Ghur and established Islam in place of the indigenous paganism. After this, Ghur was considered a state of the Ghaznavid empire
24.
Faryab Province
–
Faryab is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, which is located in the north of the country bordering neighboring Turkmenistan. It has a population of about 948,000, which is multi-ethnic, the province encompasses 15 districts and over 1,000 villages. The capital of Faryab province is Maymana, Faryab is a Persian toponym meaning lands irrigated by diversion of river water. It is named after a town that was founded by the Sassanids and it is the hometown to the famed Islamic philosopher, al-Farabi, per the biographer Ibn al-Nadim. The area has part of Greater Khorasan. British geographers referred to the area as Afghan Turkestan, the history of settlement in Faryab is ancient and comprises layer upon layer of occupation. At times, it was a pot within which a host of cultures have merged into a non-conflictual whole or at least peaceable coexistence. Maymana and Andkhui actually entered written history 2,500 years ago when Jews arrived and settled in 586 BC, the territory was under Persian control at the time, which later gave way to Greek rule following the conquest by Alexander the Great in 326 BC. Persian dominance was restored from the 3rd to the 7th century AD, the pre-Islamic period ended with the conquest of northern Afghanistan by Arab Muslims. The area turned into a vast battlefield as the two great Arab and Persian cultures battled for not only political and geographical supremacy but ideological supremacy, as a result, centuries of Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity and indigenous pagan cults were swept away. Various Islamic dynasties rose to power and influenced the locals and they included the Saffarids, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Seljuks, and Ghurids. The history of Faryab was greatly altered yet again in the 11th century, as he moved into the area from the north, cities and towns including Maymana were razed, populations massacred, grain, fields and livestock stolen or burnt and ancient irrigation systems obliterated. Control by the descendants of Genghis Khan stemmed from the capitals of Bukhara or Samarkand north of the Amu Darya River. They ruled in a manner, however, allowing local tribal chiefs in Maymana and elsewhere considerable autonomy. Uzbek occupation of the area began within the Turko-Mongol period, in 1500, Uzbek princes, also known as Khanate of Bukhara, themselves a Turco-Mongol product, swept across the Amu Darya, reaching Faryab and related areas around 1505. They joined a substantial and largely pastoral Arab population and ruled the area until the mid-18th century and it was conquered by Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1748 and became part of the Durrani Empire. The area was untouched by the British during the three Anglo-Afghan wars that were fought in the 19th and 20th centuries, Faryab become a province in 1964. From the administrative reforms of the 1930s until then it was known as Maymana and was a sub-province of Balkh Province, which had its headquarters in Mazar-i-Sharif
25.
Murghab River
–
The Murghāb River, also called Margos, Margu and Margiana River, and also transliterated as Murgab and Murgap, is an 850-kilometre long river in Central Asia. It rises in central-western Afghanistan and runs north-west towards the Murghab District, which takes its name from the river, and then the Kara Kum desert in Turkmenistan, where it peters out. The Murghab originates in central-western Afghanistan, on a plateau situated among the chain of mountains of Paropamisus, Gharjistan, in its higher course, oriented from east to west, and to the locality of Mukhamedkhan—i. e. Over a length of 300 kilometres —the valley of Murghab is narrow, there are narrow gorges in some places. Between Darband-i Kilrekht and Mukhammedkhan, the Murghab crosses the western part of Band-i Turkestan and it then runs toward the northwest in a deep canyon. In Mukhammedkhan, it crosses the gorges of Jaokar, after this, the valley widens somewhat gradually, reaching a width of 2 kilometres in Turkmenistan. Beyond Mukhamedkhan, a portion of the water of the Murghab is used for irrigation. The Murghab receives the waters of the Kaysar river on the right, in the territory of Turkmenistan, close to Takhta-Bazaar, the Murghab receives the Kachan river from the left bank, and 25 kilometres further, there is the confluence of the Kushk. Reaching the oasis of Merv, the Murghab mingles its waters with those of the Karakum Canal, the catchment area of the Murghab is estimated at 46,880 square kilometres. Map of the province of Ghor, with trace of the flow of water Map of vegetation cover in the province of Badghis, with trace of the flow of water Morghab River, in Britannica
26.
Karakum Desert
–
The Karakum Desert, also spelled Kara-Kum and Gara-Gum, is a desert in Central Asia. Its name means Black Sand in Turkic languages, in reference to the soil that lies beneath the sandy surface of much of the desert. It occupies about 70 percent, or 350,000 km², the population is sparse, with an average of one person per 6.5 km². Rainfall is also sparse, ranging from 70 to 150 mm per year, covering much of present-day Turkmenistan, the Karakum Desert lies east of the Caspian Sea, with the Aral Sea to the north and the Amu Darya river and the Kyzyl Kum desert to the northeast. In modern times, with the shrinking of the Aral Sea, although the level of the Aral Sea has fluctuated over its existence, the most recent level drop was caused by the former Soviet Union building massive irrigation projects in the region. Although the North Aral Sea is currently rising, the South Aral Sea is still dropping, the sands of the Aral Karakum are made up of a salt-marsh consisting of finely-dispersed evaporites and remnants of alkaline mineral deposits, washed into the basin from irrigated fields. The dust blown on a full east-west airstream carry pesticide residues that have found in the blood of penguins in Antarctica. Aral dust has also found in the glaciers of Greenland, the forests of Norway. The Karakum Desert is home to the Darvaza Gas Crater, 40°15′08. 40″N 58°26′23. 10″E The area has significant oil and natural gas deposits. To the south the Murghab and Tejen rivers flow out of the Hindu Kush Mountains, flow west, the desert is crossed by the second largest irrigation canal in the world, the Kara Kum Canal, which brings water from the Amu Darya to southern regions of the desert. Construction on the canal was started in 1954 and completed in 1958 and it is 1,375 km in length, and carries 13-20 km³ of water annually. Leakages from the canal have created lakes and ponds along the canal, within the Karakum are the Uly Balkan, a mountain range in which archaeologists have found human remains dating back to the Stone Age. The oases of Mary and Tejen are noted for cotton growing, the desert is crossed by the Trans-Caspian Railway. Kyzylkum Desert List of deserts by area Gonur Depe site in the Karakum Desert photos and about the Karakum Desert TravelBlog Darvasa Craters, Entrance to Hell
27.
Loess
–
Loess is a clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. It covers about 10% of the Earths surface and it is usually homogeneous and highly porous and is traversed by vertical capillaries that permit the sediment to fracture and form vertical bluffs. It was first applied to Rhine River valley loess about 1821, Loess is homogeneous, porous, friable, pale yellow or buff, slightly coherent, typically non-stratified and often calcareous. Loess grains are angular with little polishing or rounding and composed of crystals of quartz, feldspar, mica, Loess can be described as a rich, dust-like soil. Loess deposits may become thick, more than a hundred meters in areas of China. It generally occurs as a deposit that covers areas of hundreds of square kilometers. Loess often stands in either steep or vertical faces, because the grains are angular, loess will often stand in banks for many years without slumping. This soil has a characteristic called vertical cleavage which makes it easily excavated to form cave dwellings, in several areas of the world, loess ridges have formed that are aligned with the prevailing winds during the last glacial maximum. These are called paha ridges in America and greda ridges in Europe, the form of these loess dunes has been explained by a combination of wind and tundra conditions. Loess comes from the German Löss or Löß, and ultimately from Alemannic lösch meaning loose as named by peasants, the term Löß was first described in Central Europe by Karl Cäsar von Leonhard who reported yellowish brown, silty deposits along the Rhine valley near Heidelberg. Charles Lyell brought this term into usage by observing similarities between loess and loess derivatives along the loess bluffs in the Rhine and Mississippi. At that time it was thought that the yellowish brown silt-rich sediment was of fluvial origin being deposited by the large rivers. It wasnt until the end of the 19th century that the origin of loess was recognized. A tremendous number of papers have been published since then, focusing on the formation of loess and on loess/palaeosol sequences as archives of climate and these water conservation works were carried out extensively in China and the research of Loess in China has been continued since 1954. Much effort was put into the setting up of regional and local loess stratigraphies, and Frechen, Horváth & Gábris for the Austrian and Hungarian loess stratigraphy, respectively. During the autumn and winter, when melting of the icesheets and icecaps ceased, as a consequence, large parts of the formerly submerged and unvegetated floodplains of these braided rivers dried out and were exposed to the wind. Because these floodplains consist of sediment containing a high content of glacially ground flour-like silt and clay, they were susceptible to winnowing of their silts. Once entrained by the wind, particles were then deposited downwind, the loess deposits found along both sides of the Mississippi River Alluvial Valley are a classic example of periglacial loess
28.
Aeolian processes
–
Aeolian processes, also spelled eolian or æolian, pertain to wind activity in the study of geology and weather and specifically to the winds ability to shape the surface of the Earth. Winds may erode, transport, and deposit materials and are effective agents in regions with sparse vegetation, a lack of soil moisture, although water is a much more powerful eroding force than wind, aeolian processes are important in arid environments such as deserts. The term is derived from the name of the Greek god Aeolus, wind erodes the Earths surface by deflation and by abrasion. Regions which experience intense and sustained erosion are called deflation zones, most aeolian deflation zones are composed of desert pavement, a sheet-like surface of rock fragments that remains after wind and water have removed the fine particles. Almost half of Earths desert surfaces are stony deflation zones, the rock mantle in desert pavements protects the underlying material from deflation. A dark, shiny stain, called desert varnish or rock varnish, is found on the surfaces of some desert rocks that have been exposed at the surface for a long period of time. Manganese, iron oxides, hydroxides, and clay minerals form most varnishes, deflation basins, called blowouts, are hollows formed by the removal of particles by wind. Blowouts are generally small, but may be up to kilometers in diameter. In parts of Antarctica wind-blown snowflakes that are technically sediments have also caused abrasion of exposed rocks, grinding by particles carried in the wind creates grooves or small depressions. Ventifacts are rocks which have cut, and sometimes polished. Sculpted landforms, called yardangs, are up to tens of meters high, the famous Great Sphinx of Giza in Egypt may be a modified yardang. Particles are transported by winds through suspension, saltation and creeping along the ground, small particles may be held in the atmosphere in suspension. Upward currents of air support the weight of suspended particles and hold them indefinitely in the surrounding air, typical winds near Earths surface suspend particles less than 0.2 millimeters in diameter and scatter them aloft as dust or haze. Saltation is downwind movement of particles in a series of jumps or skips, saltation normally lifts sand-size particles no more than one centimeter above the ground and proceeds at one-half to one-third the speed of the wind. A saltating grain may hit other grains that jump up to continue the saltation, the grain may also hit larger grains that are too heavy to hop, but that slowly creep forward as they are pushed by saltating grains. Surface creep accounts for as much as 25 percent of grain movement in a desert, aeolian turbidity currents are better known as dust storms. Air over deserts is cooled significantly when rain passes through it and this cooler and denser air sinks toward the desert surface. When it reaches the ground, the air is deflected forward, crops, people, villages, and possibly even climates are affected by dust storms
29.
Badhyz State Nature Reserve
–
The Badhyz State Nature Reserve is a protected area in south-western Turkmenistan that was established in 1941 and extends over 877 km2 in the Mary and Akhal Provinces. It is located south of the Karakum Desert, and the Tejen River forms its western border and its landscape comprises solitary or groups of foothills, ranging in height from 20 to 200 m. The average annual precipitation of the reserve is about 280 mm, with a maximum of 420 mm and its short spring is followed by a long hot summer with 4–5 months of hot weather and little cooling winds. It was once the last place where the Turkmenian wild ass was found, the wild ass population increased from 200, when the reserve was founded to 5000 animals. After a strong decline, there are now about 650 wild ass in the sanctuary, other ungulates present in this protected area are urial, goitered gazelle and wild boar. Predators include Persian leopard, striped hyena, grey wolf, red fox, the Asiatic cheetah also used to occur in the nature reserve. It has not been recorded in the region since the 1960s, and dispersal of individuals from neighbouring Iran is obstructed by the fenced border between the two countries
30.
Taliban
–
Until his death in 2013, Mullah Mohammed Omar was the supreme commander and spiritual leader of the Taliban. Mullah Akhtar Mansour was elected as his replacement in 2015, and following Mansours killing in a May 2016 U. S. drone strike, Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada became the groups leader. The Taliban emerged in 1994 as one of the prominent factions in the Afghan Civil War, under the leadership of Mohammed Omar, the movement spread throughout most of Afghanistan, sequestering power from the Mujahideen warlords, whose corruption and despotism Afghans had tired of. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan was established in 1996 and the Afghan capital transferred to Kandahar and it held control of most of the country until being overthrown by the American-led invasion of Afghanistan in December 2001 following the September 11 attacks. At its peak, formal recognition of the Talibans government was acknowledged by only three nations, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The group later regrouped as a movement to fight the American-backed Karzai administration. The Taliban have been condemned internationally for the enforcement of their interpretation of Islamic Sharia law. In its post-9/11 insurgency, the group has accused of using terrorism as a specific tactic to further their ideological and political goals. According to the United Nations, the Taliban and their allies were responsible for 76% of Afghan civilian casualties in 2010, 80% in 2011, Pakistan states that it dropped all support for the group after the September 11 attacks. Al-Qaeda also supported the Taliban with fighters from Arab countries and Central Asia, hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee to United Front-controlled territory, Pakistan, and Iran. The word Taliban is Pashto, طالبان ṭālibān, meaning students and this is a loanword from Arabic طالب ṭālib, using the Persian plural ending -ān ان. In Arabic طالبان ṭālibān means not students but two students, as it is a form, the Arabic plural being طلاب ṭullāb—occasionally causing some confusion to Arabic speakers. Since becoming a loanword in English, Taliban, besides a plural noun referring to the group, has also used as a singular noun referring to an individual. For example, John Walker Lindh has been referred to as an American Taliban, in the English language newspapers of Pakistan, the word Talibans is often used when referring to more than one Taliban. The spelling Taliban has come to be predominant over Taleban in English, in the meantime, the United States and Saudi Arabia joined the struggle against the Soviet Union by providing all the funds. Zia-ul-Haq aligned himself with Pakistans Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and later picked General Akhtar Abdur Rahman to lead the insurgency against the Soviet Union inside Afghanistan, about 90,000 Afghans, including Mohammed Omar, were trained by Pakistans ISI during the 1980s. After the fall of the Soviet-backed regime of Mohammad Najibullah in 1992, several Afghan political parties agreed on a peace and power-sharing agreement, the accord created the Islamic State of Afghanistan and appointed an interim government for a transitional period. With the exception of Gulbuddin Hekmatyars Hezb-e Islami, all of the parties, were ostensibly unified under this government in April 1992
31.
Northern Alliance
–
The United Front was assembled by key leaders of the Islamic State of Afghanistan, particularly president Burhanuddin Rabbani and former Defense Minister Ahmad Shah Massoud. Initially it included mostly Tajiks but by 2000, leaders of ethnic groups had joined the Northern Alliance. This included Abdul Rashid Dostum, Mohammad Mohaqiq, Abdul Qadir, Asif Mohseni, the Northern Alliance fought a defensive war against the Taliban government. They received support from Iran, Russia, Turkey, India, Tajikistan and others, while the Taliban were backed by al-Qaeda, the Northern Alliance was mostly made up of ethnic Tajiks, but later included Uzbeks and Hazaras. The Taliban government was dominated by Pashtuns with other groups being the minority, the US invaded Afghanistan providing support to Northern Alliance troops on the ground in a two-month war against the Taliban, which they won in December 2001. With the establishment of the Karzai administration, the Northern Alliance broke apart, the United Front was formed in late 1996 against the Taliban government by opposition factions. Massoud decided on the political line and the general military strategy of the alliance. The accords created the Islamic State of Afghanistan and appointed a government for a transitional period to be followed by general elections. With the exception of Gulbuddin Hekmatyars Hezb-e Islami, all of the parties were unified under this government in April 1992. Hekmatyars Hezb-e Islami, for its part, refused to recognize the government for most of the period discussed in this report and launched attacks against government forces, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar received operational, financial and military support from Pakistan. Afghanistan expert Amin Saikal concludes in Modern Afghanistan, A History of Struggle and Survival, islamabad could not possibly expect the new Islamic government leaders to subordinate their own nationalist objectives in order to help Pakistan realize its regional ambitions. Had it not been for the ISIs logistic support and supply of a number of rockets, Hekmatyars forces would not have been able to target. In addition, Saudi Arabia and Iran as competitors for regional hegemony – supported Afghan militias hostile towards each other, according to Human Rights Watch, Iran was backing the Shia Hazara Hezb-i Wahdat forces of Abdul Ali Mazari in order to maximize Wahdats military power and influence. Saudi Arabia supported the Wahhabite Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and his Ittihad-i Islami faction, a publication by the George Washington University describes, utside forces saw instability in Afghanistan as an opportunity to press their own security and political agendas. Conflict between the two militias soon escalated into a full-scale war, because of the chaos, some leaders increasingly had only nominal control over their commanders. Meanwhile, southern Afghanistan was under the control of local leaders not affiliated with the government in Kabul. In 1994, the Taliban - a movement originating from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-run religious schools for Afghan refugees in Pakistan - also developed in Afghanistan as a politico-religious force. In late 1994, most of the factions which had been fighting in the battle for control of Kabul were defeated militarily by forces of the Islamic States Minister of Defense Ahmad Shah Massoud
32.
Baloch people
–
They mainly speak the Balochi language, a branch of Northwestern Iranian languages, and are an Iranic people. About 50% of the total Baloch population live in Balochistan, a province of Pakistan, 40% of Baloch are settled in Sindh. They make up nearly 3. 6% of the Pakistani population, about 2% of Irans population, prominent Baloch people in Pakistan include former Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali and former President Asif Ali Zardari who is an ethnic Baloch from Sindh. Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry born in Quetta, is the longest-serving Chief Justice of Pakistan is another prominent Baloch personality, the son of Benazir Bhutto, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is the Chief of the Baloch Zardari tribe. Farooq Leghari was the first ever ethnic Baloch to be elected President, the exact origin of the word Baloch is unclear. Rawlinson believed that it is derived from the name of the Babylonian king, dames believed that it is derived from the Persian term for cockscomb, said to have been used as a crest on the helmets of Baloch troops in 6th century BCE. Herzfeld proposed that it is derived from the Median term brza-vaciya, the remnants of the original name such as Balochuk and Balochiki are said to be still used as ethnic names in Balochistan. Some writers suggest a derivation from Sanskrit words bal, meaning strength, the army in question is that of the Umayyad Caliphate after the conquest of Sindh. According to Baloch lore, their ancestors hail from Aleppo in what is now Syria and they are descendants of Hazrat Ameer Hamza, uncle of the prophet Muhammad, who settled in Halab. and they fled to the Sistan region. They allegedly remained there for nearly 500 years until they fled following a deception against the Sistan leader Badr-ud-Din to the Makran region, the Baloch began migrating towards the east in the late Sasanian period. The cause of the migration is unknown but may have been as a result of the unstable conditions in the Caspian area. The migrations occurred over several centuries and this brought them into conflict with the Buyids, and later the Ghaznavids and the Seljuqs. Adud al-Dawla of the Buyid dynasty launched a campaign against them. By the 13/14th centuries waves of Baloch were moving into Sindh, according to Dr. Akhtar Baloch, Professor at University of Karachi, the Balochis migrated from Balochistan during the Little Ice Age and settled in Sindh and Punjab. The Little Ice Age is conventionally defined as an extending from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, or alternatively. Although climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of this period, which varied according to local conditions. According to Professor Baloch, the climate of Balochistan was very cold, the area where the Baloch tribes settled was disputed between the Persian Safavids and the Mughal emperors. Although the Mughals managed to some control over the eastern parts of the area, by the 17th century
33.
Aimaq people
–
The Aimaq, also transliterated as Aimak or Aymaq, are a collection of Persian-speaking nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes. They speak a number of subdialects of the Aimaq dialect of Persian, however some southern groups of Taymani, aimaks were originally known as chahar Aymaqs, the Taimani, the Firozkohi, the Temuri, and the Jamshidi. Other sources state that the Aimaq Hazara are one of the Chahar, with the Temuri instead being of the lesser Aimaqs or Aimaq-e digar along with the Tahiri, Zuri, Maleki, the word Aymāq is Mongolian meaning tribe or grazing territory. Aimaq Hazara and Taimuri are most Mongoloid of the Aimaqs, the Temuri and Aimaq Hazaras live in yurts, whereas other Aimaqs live in traditional Afghan black tents. Estimates of the Aimaq population vary between 250,000 and 500,000 and they are largely Sunni Muslims, in contrast to the Hazara, who are mostly Shia Muslims. The Temuri Aimaqs are of Mongolian origin, apparent in their physical appearance, however, the Taimanis, Ferozkohis, and Jamshidis are of Iranian origin, and refer to themselves as Tajik, the majority of the Aimaqs in Afghanistan are of these latter three sub-groups
34.
Governor
–
A governor is, in most cases, a public official with the power to govern the executive branch of a non-sovereign or sub-national level of government, ranking under the head of state. In federations, governor may be the title of a politician who governs a constituent state and these companies operate as a major state within a state with its own armed forces. For example, in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries, there are governors, school governors. The adjective pertaining to a governor is gubernatorial, from the Latin root gubernyare, the historical female form is governess, though female officials are referred to by the gender-neutral form governor of the noun to avoid confusion with other meanings of the term. Indeed, many regions of the pre-Roman antiquity were ultimately replaced by Roman standardized provincial governments after their conquest by Rome, in Pharaonic times, the governors of each of the various provinces in the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt are usually known by the Greek word. The core function of a Roman governor was as a magistrate or judge, and the management of taxation, under the Republic and the early Empire, however, a governor also commanded military forces in his province. Republican governors were all men who had served in senior magistracies in Rome in the previous year, a special case was Egypt, a rich private domain and vital granary, where the Emperor almost inherited the theocratic status of a Pharaoh. The Emperor was represented there by a sui generis styled praefectus augustalis. Otherwise, the governors of provinces had various titles, some known as consularis, apart from Egypt and the East, each diocese was directed by a governor known as a vicarius. The prefectures were directed by praefecti praetorio and this system survived with few significant changes until the collapse of the empire in the West, and in the East, the breakdown of order with the Persian and Arab invasions of the seventh century. At that stage, a new kind of governor emerged, the Strategos, today, crown colonies of the United Kingdom continue to be administered by a governor, who holds varying degrees of power. Because of the different constitutional histories of the colonies of the United Kingdom. Administrators, Commissioners and High Commissioners exercise similar powers to Governors, frequently the name Government House is given to Governors residences. The term can also be used in a generic sense, especially for compound titles which include it, Governor-general. In the United Kingdoms remaining overseas territories, the governor is normally a direct appointee of the British Government, the Governors chief responsibility is for the Defence and External Affairs of the colony. In some minor overseas territories, instead of a Governor, there is an Administrator or Commissioner, in Australia, each state has the governor as its formal representative of the Queen, as head of the state government. It is not an office but a ceremonial one. Each state governor is appointed by the Queen of Australia on the advice of the Premier, State Governors have emergency reserve powers but these are rarely used
35.
Jamiat-e Islami
–
Jamayat-E-Islami, sometimes shortened to Jamiat, is a Muslim political party in Afghanistan. The majority of the party, the oldest Muslim political party in Afghanistan, are ethnic Tajiks of northern and western Afghanistan and it has a communitarian ideology based on Islamic law but is also considered moderately progressive. During the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the civil war in Afghanistan. Former President of Afghanistan Burhanuddin Rabbani led the party from 1968 to 2011, Jamiat emerged in 1972 from among the informal Islamist groupings that had existed since the 1960s. Led by Burhanuddin Rabbani, a professor of Islamic theology at Kabul University, it was inspired by Abul Ala Maududi, when Rabbanis arrest was ordered by Mohammad Daoud Khan in 1973, it was to Pakistan that Rabbani fled, and Jamaat-e-Islami who initially hosted him there. In Pakistan, Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani gathered important people and continued to build the party, sayed Noorullah Emad, who was then a young Muslim at Kabul University became its general secretary and, later, its deputy chief. Some of its prominent commanders of included Ustad Zabihullah, Ahmad Shah Massoud, Ismail Khan, Atta Muhammad Nur, Mullah Naqib, Ahmad Shah Massoud directed the military wing of the party. Ahmad Shah Massoud and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar were both followers of Rabbani, being Kabul University students at the time. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar broke away from Jamiat in 1976 to found his own party Hezb-e Islami, Rabbani and the Jamiat advocated building of a widely based movement that would create popular support, a gradualist strategy of infiltration of society and the state apparatus to gain power. Jamiat was dominated by Tajiks but had a tribal and regional cross section than other groups. It gained prominence because of the success of Ahmad Shah Massoud. Hezb-i Islami was overwhelmingly Ghilzai Pashtun, and backed by Pakistan president Zia ul-Haq and its leader, Hekmatyar, was implacably hostile to any form of compromise favoring violent armed conflict. As a result, it, and not Jamiat, gained the support of the Muslim Brotherhood, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, in 1979, Massoud organised a mujahideen group in Parwan Province to fight against the Communist government and their Soviet allies. This group grew to control multiple provinces and include thousands of fighters, the Soviet Army launched a series of major offensives to attempt to destroy their forces, but they were unable to engage most of Massouds men. After the withdrawal of the Soviet troops in 1988, the groups continued to wear down government forces. However they also fought each other and in June 1990 battles between Jamiat and Gulbuddins Hezb in Logar and Parwan caused hundreds of casualties on each side. In 1992 the communist government collapsed entirely, Jamiats forces were among the first to enter Kabul. The peace agreement was called the Peshawar Accords, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar however, did not support the peace agreement despite the fact that he was repeatedly offered the position of prime minister
36.
Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin
–
The Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin is an Afghan political party. The original Hezb-e-Islami was founded in 1977 by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has turned the head of HIG. The other faction of Hezb-e Islami was headed by Mulavi Younas Khalis and it has become known as the Khalis faction, and its power base was in Nangarhar. Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin formed a part of the Peshawar Seven alliance of Sunni Mujaheddin forces throughout the Soviet invasion and its fighting strength is sometimes estimated to number in the thousands. During the Soviet War in Afghanistan, Hekmatyar and his party operated near the Pakistani border against Soviet Communists, areas such as Kunar, Laghman, Jalalabad, and Paktia were Hezb-e Islamis strongholds. The party is highly centralized under Hekmatyars command and until 1994 had close relations with Pakistan. Despite its ample funding, it has described as having The bombardment of the capital by HIG in 1994 is reported to have resulted in the deaths of more than 25,000 civilians. Frustrated by the destructive warlord feuding in Afghanistan, including the Hezbi Islami shelling of Kabul in April 1992, Pakistan abandoned HIG for the Taliban in 1994. After HIG was expelled from Kabul by the Taliban in September 1996, many of its local commanders joined the Taliban, in Pakistan Hezb-e-Islami training camps were taken over by the Taliban and handed over to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam groups such as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan. The Jamestown Foundation describes it having been sidelined from Afghan politics for a decade or so after the Taliban takeover of Kabul, Hekmatyar opposed the 2001 American attack on Afghanistan, and since then has aligned his group with remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda against the current Afghan government. Radio Free Europe reports that in 2006, Hekmatyar appeared in a video aired on the Arabic language Al-Jazeera television station, according to Le Monde newspaper, as of 2007, the group was active around Mazari Sharif and Jalalabad. There have also been reports of clashes between members of the HIG and Taliban, and defection of HIG members to the Afghan government. Ten members of the senior leadership met in May 2004 with President Hamid Karzai and publicly announced their rejection of Hezb-e-Islami’s alliance with al-Qaeda. Prior to Afghanistans 2004 elections,150 members of the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin party were said to have defected to Hamid Karzais administration. According to journalist Michael Crowley, as of 2010, HIG’s political arm holds 19 of 246 seats in the Afghan parliament and claims not to take cues from Hekmatyar, in early March 2010, elements of the Taliban and the HIG were reportedly fighting in Baghlan province. Khalid Farooqi, a member of the parliament from Paktika province, the plan also called for the replacement of the current Afghan parliament in December 2010 by an interim government, or shura, which then would hold local and national elections within a year. Zarghun said that a new Afghan constitution would be written, merging the current version with ones used earlier, the same day, Afghanistans vice-president Mohammad Qasim Fahim reached out to militants at the Nowruz New Year celebrations in Mazar-i-Sharif in Northern Afghanistan. He declared that, with their input, a national conference would lay the foundations for peace
37.
Hizb-i-Wahdat
–
Hizb-e Wahdat-e Islami Afghanistan, shortened to Hizb-e Wahdat, was founded in 1989. Like most contemporary major political parties in Afghanistan, Hizb-e Wahdat is rooted in the turbulent period of the resistance movements in Afghanistan in the 1980s. It was formed to bring together nine separate and mostly inimical military, during the period of the Afghan civil war in the early 1990s, it emerged as one of the major actors in Kabul and some other parts of the country. Its ideological background and ethnic support base has continuously shaped its character, through the anti-Soviet jihad and the civil war, Hizb-e Wahdat accumulated significant political capital among Afghanistan’s Hazaras. By 2009, however, Hizb-e Wahdat was so fragmented and divided that the weight it carried in the country bore little resemblance to what it had once been. It had fragmented into at least four competing organizations, each claiming ownership of the name, the wars and conflicts were launched and fought with strong ideological fervor. However, none of the organizations were able to determine the outcome of the war in their favor, towards the second half of the 1980s a complete stalemate was emerging in the region, with each organization confined to specific pockets of territory. The devastation and atrocities perpetrated during the war were eroding the credibility of their ideologies, as a result, there was an overwhelming desire for change felt both by the villagers and senior leaders of the organizations. Several attempts to make peace and ensure stability failed, alliances and coalitions were crafted and dismantled. The most important and effective of them were the Shuray-e Eatelaf and it was the most effective attempt to achieve unity of action by the leaderships of the organizations and was to become an important precedent for the formation of Hizb-e Wahdat. To stabilize the region a more radical move was required and this was happening at a time when the Kabul government and the ruling Hizb-e Democratik-e Khalq were experiencing intensive factional and ethnic rivalries. In the meantime, negotiations on the formation of a government led by the Sunni organizations based in Peshawar excluded the Hazara alliance based in Tehran. It was against this background that a radical demand of unification. Several meetings were held throughout the region in which the nature and composition of the new party, in August 1988, the provincial centre of Bamyan fell into the hand of Hazara mujahideen. This further facilitated and encouraged the formation of a regional organization, the operation that resulted in the collapse of government in the town was coordinated jointly by different mujahedin forces in the region. Sazman-e Nasr played a central and coordinating role in the attack and this development marked the elimination of any presence of the Kabul government within the entire Hazarajat region Henceforth Bamyan was the centre of important political developments. It injected a new stimulus into the unification process among the mujahedin organizations in the region. The town hosted the meeting that resulted in the declaration of the Misaq-e Wahdat
38.
Provincial Reconstruction Team
–
PRTs were first established in Afghanistan in early 2002, and as of 2008 operate there as well as in Iraq. While the concepts are similar, PRTs in Afghanistan and Iraq had separate compositions and missions and their common purpose, however, was to empower local governments to govern their constituents more effectively. A PRT included a component, civilian police advisors. In a US-led PRT, this included a representative from USAID, the Department of State, the Department of Agriculture. They were assisted by public diplomacy and reporting staff, a PRT in Afghanistan was commanded by a military officer, generally of the rank of Lieutenant Colonel or Commander. The staff generally numbered between sixty and one hundred persons, by 2009, the military still dominated the role within PRTs as only three to four civilians were posted to each team of eighty to two hundred and fifty personnel. The lack of civilian personnel civilian executive agencies was a concern of CENTCOM commanders. Activities in Afghanistan focused on extending the reach of the government into the provinces. In an Iraq PRT, the Team Leader was a civilian who reports to the US Department of State, while civil affairs members were present on the team, there were more civilians than military personnel on the team. Functional areas included rule of law, reconstruction and development, agriculture, some Iraq PRTs were embedded into the Brigade Combat Team with which they are colocated. The BCT retaine responsibility for providing security for the team members. Public diplomacy was an element to successful Provincial Reconstruction Team projects. PRTs, in Afghanistan, were tasked with an area of a province and coordinate, develop. These projects enabled the population to become familiar with and trust the U. S. counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan. Projects supported by PRTs were created and approved by the ranks of the provincial government in Afghanistan. The ability of PRTS to conduct Public diplomacy and their ability to work with the government made counterinsurgency objectives obtainable. The PRT’s civil affairs line of operation exerted a large amount of public diplomacy, CA operations were responsible, along with the provincial government, for implementation and supervision of projects in the province. These projects included public affairs like humanitarian supply distribution, like school, Civil affairs operations were responsible for reaching out to the population to determine what is needed to make society stable and secure from the insurgent ideology
39.
Spain
–
By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
40.
Agriculture
–
Agriculture is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of human civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science, the history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture farming has become the dominant agricultural methodology, genetically modified organisms are an increasing component of agriculture, although they are banned in several countries. Agricultural food production and water management are increasingly becoming global issues that are fostering debate on a number of fronts, the major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials. Specific foods include cereals, vegetables, fruits, oils, meats, fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax. Raw materials include lumber and bamboo, other useful materials are also produced by plants, such as resins, dyes, drugs, perfumes, biofuels and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants. The word agriculture is a late Middle English adaptation of Latin agricultūra, from ager, field, Agriculture usually refers to human activities, although it is also observed in certain species of ant, termite and ambrosia beetle. To practice agriculture means to use resources to produce commodities which maintain life, including food, fiber, forest products, horticultural crops. This definition includes arable farming or agronomy, and horticulture, all terms for the growing of plants, even then, it is acknowledged that there is a large amount of knowledge transfer and overlap between silviculture and agriculture. In traditional farming, the two are often combined even on small landholdings, leading to the term agroforestry, Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a diverse range of taxa. At least 11 separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin, wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 105,000 years ago. Pigs were domesticated in Mesopotamia around 15,000 years ago, rice was domesticated in China between 13,500 and 8,200 years ago, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans. Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. From around 11,500 years ago, the eight Neolithic founder crops, emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax were cultivated in the Levant. Cattle were domesticated from the aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey. In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 9,000 years ago. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 7,000 years ago, cotton was domesticated in Peru by 5,600 years ago, and was independently domesticated in Eurasia at an unknown time
41.
Pistachio
–
The pistachio, a member of the cashew family, is a small tree originating from Central Asia and the Middle East. The tree produces seeds that are consumed as food. Pistacia vera often is confused with species in the genus Pistacia that are also known as pistachio. These other species can be distinguished by their distributions and their seeds which are much smaller and have a soft shell. Archaeology shows that pistachio seeds were a food as early as 6750 BC. The early sixth-century manuscript De observatione ciborum by Anthimus implies that pistacia remained well known in Europe in Late Antiquity, archaeologists have found evidence from excavations at Jarmo in northeastern Iraq for the consumption of Atlantic pistachio. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were said to have contained pistachio trees during the reign of King Merodach-Baladan about 700 BC, the modern pistachio P. vera was first cultivated in Bronze Age Central Asia, where the earliest example is from Djarkutan, modern Uzbekistan. It appears in Dioscurides as pistakia πιστάκια, recognizable as P. vera by its comparison to pine nuts. David Fairchild of the United States Department of Agriculture introduced hardier cultivars collected in China to California in 1904 and 1905, walter T. Swingle’s pistachios from Syria had already fruited well at Niles, California, by 1917. The earliest records of pistachio in English are around roughly year 1400, with the spellings pistace, later in Persian, the word is attested as pesteh. As mentioned, the tree came to the ancient Greeks from Western Asia, Pistachio is a desert plant, and is highly tolerant of saline soil. It has been reported to grow well when irrigated with water having 3, Pistachio trees are fairly hardy in the right conditions, and can survive temperatures ranging between −10 °C in winter and 48 °C in summer. They need a sunny position and well-drained soil, Pistachio trees do poorly in conditions of high humidity, and are susceptible to root rot in winter if they get too much water and the soil is not sufficiently free-draining. Long, hot summers are required for proper ripening of the fruit and they have been known to thrive in warm, moist environments. The bush grows up to 10 m tall and it has deciduous pinnate leaves 10–20 centimeters long. The plants are dioecious, with male and female trees. The flowers are apetalous and unisexual, and borne in panicles, the fruit is a drupe, containing an elongated seed, which is the edible portion. The seed, commonly thought of as a nut, is a culinary nut, the fruit has a hard, creamish exterior shell
42.
Mazar-i-Sharif
–
Mazar-i-Sharif or Mazar-e-Sharif is the third-largest city of Afghanistan, with a 2015 UN—Habitat population estimate between 577,500 to 693,000. It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by highways with Kunduz in the east, Kabul in the southeast, Herat in the west and Uzbekistan in the north. Mazar-e Sharif, along with Herat, Jalalabad in the east and Kandahar in the south, the city also serves as one of the many tourist attractions because of its famous shrines as well as the Muslim and Hellenistic archeological sites. In 2006, the discovery of new Hellenistic remains was announced, Mazar-i-Sharif is the Regional Hub located in the northern region in close proximity to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The Mazari Sharif Airport in the city has been used during the 1980s Soviet war. The name Mazar-e Sharif means Noble Shrine, a reference to the large, blue-tiled sanctuary, according to tradition, the city of Mazari Sharif owes its existence to a dream. The famous Jalal al-Din Rumi was born in area but like many historical figures his exact location of birth cannot be confirmed. His father Baha Walad was descended from the first caliph Abu Bakr and was influenced by the ideas of Ahmad Ghazali, Baha Walads sermons were published and still exist as Divine Sciences. Rumi completed six books of poetry and tales called Masnavi before he died in 1273. Although later rebuilt, Mazar stood in the shadow of its neighbor Balkh, thus the ruler of North Central Afghanistan decided to shift the capital of the city of Mazar-e-Sharif. The Mazar-i-Sharif means the noble shrine and this name represents the Blue Mosque which is widely known to be the grave of Hazrat Ali. In the late 1870s, Emir Sher Ali Khan ruled the area from his Tashkurgan Palace in Mazar-i Sharif and this northern part of Afghanistan was un-visited by the British-led Indian forces during the Anglo-Afghan wars of the 19th century. During the 1980s Soviet war, Mazar-i-Sharif was a base for the Soviet Army as they used its airport to launch air strikes on Afghan mujahideen. As a garrison for the Soviet-backed Afghan army, the city was under the command of Dostum, under Dostums 5 year rule from the early 1990s to early 1997, the city was relatively peaceful. The rest of the nation disintegrated and was taken over by the Taliban forces. He printed his own currency and established his own airline and he is widely believed to have been responsible for the brutal massacre of up to 3,000 Taliban prisoners after inviting them into Mazar-i-Sharif. Several of the Taliban escaped the slaughtering and reported what had happened, the Taliban retaliated in 1998 attacking the city and killing an estimated 8,000. More than 8000 noncombatants were reported killed in Mazar-i-Sharif and later in Bamiyan, in addition, the Taliban were criticized for forbidding anyone from burying the corpses for the first six days while the remains rotted in the summer heat and were eaten by dogs
Afghanistan
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Badghis". Encyclopædia Britannica. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "
Badghis Province
