1.
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
2.
Ethnic groups in Afghanistan
–
The population of the country is divided into a wide variety of ethnolinguistic groups. The ethnic groups of the country are as follow, Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Aimak, Turkmen, Baloch, Pashai, Nuristani, Gujjar, Arab, Brahui, Pamiri, the Afghan National Anthem mentions a total of 14 ethnic groups. It became prominent during the Khilji, Lodi, and Suri dynasties of Northern India, the name became the national identity of Afghanistan in modern times. Despite being of ethnic groups, in a research poll that was conducted in 2009, 72% of the population labelled their identity as Afghan first. While national culture of Afghanistan is not uniform, at the same time, additionally, ethnic groups are not racially homogenous. Even though all ethnic groups in Afghanistan share a similar culture, there are certain tradiditions and celebrations that each ethnic group has adopted from each other. For example, nowruz is the Persian New Year, which was celebrated by the Persians has now been adopted by some of the other groups. The attan which was originally a dance performed by Pashtuns, is now the national dance of Afghanistan, the Pashtuns make up the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, comprising between 42% and 60% of the countrys population. Their main territory, sometimes called Pashtunistan, is between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in neighboring Pakistan, where they are the second largest ethnic group. After the rise of the Hotaki dynasty in 1709 and the Durrani Empire in 1747, Pashtuns expanded by forming communities north of the Hindu Kush, there are conflicting theories about the origin of the Pashtun people, both among historians and the Pashtun themselves. A variety of ancient groups with similar to Pukhtun have been hypothesized as possible ancestors of modern Pashtuns. The Greek historian Herodotus mentioned a people called Pactyans, living in the Achaemenids Arachosia Satrap as early as the 1st millennium BC. Since the 3rd century AD and onward they are referred to by the ethnonym Afghan. Some believe that ethnic Afghan is an adaptation of the Prakrit ethnonym Avagana and it was used to refer to a common legendary ancestor known as Afghana, propagated to be grandson of King Saul of Israel. According to scholars such as V. Minorsky and others, the name Afghan appears in the 982 CE Hudud-al-Alam geography book, according to other sources, some Pashtuns may be the Lost tribes of Israel who converted to Islam during the Arab Empire. Since the 13th century, some Pashtun tribes conquered areas outside their traditional Pashtun homeland by pushing deeper into South Asia, often forming kingdoms such as the Delhi Sultanate. The modern Afghan national identity developed in the mid 18th century under the rule of Ahmad Shah Durrani, Pashtuns are the traditional rulers of Afghanistan since the rise of the Hotaki dynasty in 1709 or more specifically when the Durrani Empire was created in 1747. They practice Sunni Islam and follow the Hanafi school of thought, the Karzai administration, which is led by Hamid Karzai, is dominated by Pashtun ministers
3.
Sport in Afghanistan
–
At the moment, cricket is the most popular sport in Afghanistan while football is also popular. Cricket as a sport, is followed in Afghanistan and is one of the main sports that Afghans participate in. In the national level, cricket matches are played between provinces, mainly between the south and eastern provinces of the country, according to locals, cricket has helped Afghanistan in bringing unity. The Afghanistan national cricket team was formed in 2001 and has held matches against all international cricket teams. The Afghans rapidly rose through the World Cricket League since early 2008 and it participated in the 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier, and qualified for the first time for the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 in the 2010 ICC World Cricket League Division One. The Afghanistan national womens team was formed in 2010. They have competed in the ICC World Twenty20 since their qualification in 2010, winners of the ACC Twenty20 Cup the most number of times. Winners ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier 2010 and two Runners-up in 2012 and 2013, winners of the season 2009-2010 ICC Intercontinental Cup and Runners-up in 2011-2013 season. Runners-up in the Asian Games 2010 and 2014, winners of the 2014 ACC Premier League. Winners of the 2010 ACC Trophy As in many countries around the world. The Afghanistan national football team was formed in 1922, joining FIFA in 1948, although it did not play in any international games from 1984 to 2003 due to internal conflicts, it is striving and hoping to make it to FIFA one day. In the national level, football matches are played between provinces or regions, the Afghanistan womens national football team was formed in 2007. During the 2011 SAFF Championship, the Afghan team marked its first win over Nepal, in 1966, the Afghanistan National Olympic Committee founded the Afghanistan national basketball team after receiving challenges from India and Pakistan. Tom Gouttierre, an American Peace Corps and coach of the team at Habibia High School and it is played by both Afghan men and women. Champions,2010 South Asian Games Champions,2012 Asian Beach Games Afghans have taken a recent interest in the Mixed Martial Arts, there are several gyms in Afghanistan which promote the sport and have fighters. Siyar Bahadurzada is a martial artist who competes in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He is well known for holding and wearing the Afghan flag around him before and he won Bronze in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, the only two occasions Afghanistan have received medals. This sport has recently thrived in Afghanistan by his influence, nikpais medal tally summary in the Olympics, Bronze in 2008 Olympics Bronze in 2012 Olympics Boxing has recently flourished in Afghanistan, with Hamid Rahimi having a huge influence in the country
4.
Ghazi Stadium
–
Ghazi Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Kabul, Afghanistan, mainly used to play football. It is sometimes called by names such as the Afghan Football Federation Stadium. The stadium has the capacity to house 25,000 people, the Ghazi Stadium was renovated in 2011 after the entire ground was removed and replaced with new soil and artificial turf placed on top. The stadium now holds bigger sporting events, the first international match played inside Ghazi Stadium was a football match between Afghanistan and Iran on January 1,1941, the game was a draw with neither team scoring. In 1963, American musician Duke Ellington held a concert here as part of his tour sponsored by US State Department, during the late 1990s the stadium was used as a venue for public executions by the Taliban government. The stadium is used mostly for football matches between teams from different provinces of the country as well as neighboring countries. The stadium has also housed training facilities for the national womens boxing team. On December 15,2011, the Afghanistan National Olympic Committee celebrated the re-opening of the newly renovated Ghazi Stadium in Kabul
5.
Kabul
–
Kabul is the capital of Afghanistan as well as its largest city, located in the eastern section of the country. According to a 2015 estimate, the population of the city was around 3,678,033 which includes all the ethnic groups. Rapid urbanization had made Kabul the worlds 64th largest city and the fifth fastest-growing city in the world, Kabul is said to be over 3,500 years old, mentioned since at least the time of the Achaemenid Empire. The city is at a location along the trade routes of South and Central Asia. It has been part of the Achaemenids, Seleucids, Mauryans, Kushans, Kabul Shahis, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Later, it was controlled by the Mughal Empire until finally becoming part of the Durrani Empire in 1747. The city is located high up in a valley between the Hindu Kush mountains. Kabul became the capital of Afghanistan during the reign of Timur Shah Durrani, in the early 19th century, the British occupied the city but were compelled to abandon it. Relations between Afghanistan and Great Britain were later established, the city was occupied by the Soviets in 1979 but they too abandoned it after the 1988 Geneva Accords were signed. A civil war in the 1990s between various rebel groups destroyed much of the city, resulting in many casualties, since the removal of the Taliban from power in late 2001, the city gradually began rebuilding itself with assistance by the international community. Despite the many terrorist attacks by elements, the city is growing and developing. The city is divided into about 18 districts, the Kabul International Airport is located in the Wazir Akbar Khan district a few miles from the foreign embassies. The Parliament of Afghanistan, built by India, is located in the Kārte Seh district, Kabul, also spelled Cabool, Caubul, Kabol, or Cabul. The word Kubhā is mentioned in the Rigveda, one of the four sacred texts of Hinduism, and the Avesta. The Rigveda praises it as a city, a vision of paradise set in the mountains. The area in which the Kabul valley sits was ruled by the Medes before falling to the Achaemenids, there is a reference to a settlement called Kabura by the rulers of the Achaemenid Empire, It became a center of Zoroastrianism followed by Buddhism and Hinduism. The region became part of the Seleucid Empire but was given to the Indian Maurya Empire. The Greco-Bactrians captured Kabul from the Mauryans in the early 2nd century BC, indo-Scythians expelled the Indo-Greeks by the mid 1st century BC, but lost the city to the Kushan Empire about 100 years later. Some historians ascribe Kabul the Sanskrit name of Kamboja and it is mentioned as Kophes or Kophene in some classical writings
6.
Multinational state
–
A multinational state is a sovereign state that comprises two or more nations. This is in contrast to a state, where a single nation accounts for the bulk of the population. Depending on the definition of nation, a state might also be multicultural or multilingual. Historical multinational states that have split into multiple sovereign states include Austria-Hungary, British India, Czechoslovakia, the Empire of Japan, the Soviet Union. Some analysts have described the European Union as a state or a potential one. Many attempts have been made to define what a state is. One complicating factor is that it is possible for members of a group that could be considered a nation to identify two different nationalities simultaneously. As Ilan Peleg wrote in Democratizing the Hegemonic State, One can be a Scot and a Brit in the United Kingdom, a Jew and an American in the United States, an Igbo and a Nigerian in Nigeria. One might find it hard to be a Slovak and a Hungarian, an Arab and an Israeli, a Breton and a Frenchman. A state may also be a society, and a society has people belonging to more than one ethnic group. By some definitions of society and homogeneous, virtually all national societies are multiethnic. Sujit Choudhry therefore argues that he age of the ethnoculturally homogeneous state, the CIA World Factbook provides a list of the ethnic makeup of every country in the world. Whether Canada should be described as multinational is a topic in academia. The current policy of the government is that Canada is bilingual—English. In 2006, the House of Commons of Canada voted in favor of Government Business No,11, which states that the Québécois form a nation within a united Canada. Since 2010, under the presidency of Evo Morales, Bolivia has been defined as a plurinational state. Many Asian countries recognize multiple ethnic groups, India has more than 2,000 ethnic groups, and every religion is represented, as are four major language families. Each state and union territory of India has one or more languages
7.
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
8.
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
9.
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
10.
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
11.
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
12.
Dari language
–
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
13.
Uzbek language
–
Uzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has 27 million native speakers and is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan, Uzbek belongs to the Eastern Turkic, or Karluk, branch of the Turkic language family. External influences include Persian, Arabic and Russian, one of the most noticeable distinctions of Uzbek from other Turkic languages is the rounding of the vowel /a/ to /ɒ/ or /ɔ/, a feature that was influenced by Persian. In the language itself, Uzbek is oʻzbek tili or oʻzbekcha, in Cyrillic, the same names are written ўзбек тили and ўзбекча, in Arabic script, ازبېک تیلی and ازبېجه. The first Turkic dynasty in the region was that of the Kara-Khanid Khanate in the 9th–12th centuries, the language was championed by Ali-Shir Navai in the 15th and 16th centuries. Navai was the greatest representative of Chagatai language literature and he significantly contributed to the development of the Chagatay language and its direct descendant Uzbek and is widely considered to be the founder of Uzbek literature. Ultimately based on the Karluk variant of the Turkic languages, Chagatay contained large numbers of Persian, by the 19th century it was rarely used for literary composition, but disappeared only in the early 20th century. The term Uzbek as applied to language has meant different things at different times, all three dialects continue to exist within modern spoken Uzbek. Edward A. Allworth argued that this badly distorted the history of the region and was used to give authors such as the 15th century author Ali-Shir Navai an Uzbek identity. Estimates of the number of speakers of Uzbek vary widely, the Swedish encyclopedia Nationalencyklopedin estimates the number of native speakers to be 26 million, and the CIA World Factbook estimates 25 million. The influence of Islam, and by extension, Arabic, is evident in Uzbek loanwords, there is also a residual influence of Russian, from the time when Uzbeks were under the rule of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. Uzbek vocabulary has also heavily influenced by Persian through its historic roots. The Uzbek language has many dialects, varying widely from region to region, however, there is a commonly understood dialect which is used in mass media and in most printed materials. Among the most-widespread dialects are the Tashkent dialect, Afghan dialect, the Ferghana dialect, the Khorezm dialect, the Chimkent-Turkestan dialect, 1928–1940, the Latin-based Yañalif used officially. 1940–1992, the Cyrillic script used officially, since 1992, Yañalif is official in Uzbekistan, although the Cyrillic script is still widely used. Despite the official status of the Latin script in Uzbekistan, the use of Cyrillic is still widespread, especially in advertisements, in newspapers, scripts may be mixed, with headlines in Latin and articles in Cyrillic. The Arabic script is no longer used in Uzbekistan except symbolically in limited texts or for the studies of Chagatai. In the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, where there is an Uzbek minority, however, the Uyghur Arabic alphabet is sometimes used
14.
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
15.
Languages of Afghanistan
–
Afghanistan is a multilingual country in which two languages – Dari and Pashto – are both official and most widely spoken. Dari is the name of the Persian language in Afghanistan. Both Pashto and Persian are Indo-European languages from the Iranian languages sub-family, other regional languages, such as Uzbek, Turkmen, Balochi, Pashayi and Nuristani are spoken by minority groups across the country. Minor languages may include Ashkunu, Kamkata-viri, Vasi-vari, Tregami and Kalasha-ala, Pamiri, Brahui, Qizilbash, Aimaq, linguist Harald Haarmann believes that Afghanistan is home to more than 40 minor languages, with around 200 different dialects. Dari is the most spoken language of Afghanistans official languages, in 1980, other regional languages were granted official status in the regions where they are the language of the majority. The practical modalities for implementation of this provision shall be specified by law, Dari is a term long recommended by Afghan authorities to designate the Persian dialects spoken in Afghanistan, in contrast to the dialects spoken in neighboring Iran. Although still widely known as Farsi to its speakers, the name was officially changed to Dari in 1964. Dari must not be confused with the dialect of Kabul, which is the dominant Persian dialect in Afghanistan, apart from a few basics of vocabulary, however, there is little difference between formal written Persian of Afghanistan and of Iran. The term Dari is often used for the characteristic spoken Persian of Afghanistan – in general the dialect of Kabul – but is best restricted to formal spoken registers. Dari functions as the lingua franca and is the native tongue of various Afghan ethnic groups including the Tajiks, Hazaras. Pashto is the tongue of the Pashtuns, the dominant ethnic group in Afghanistan. Due to Afghanistans multi-ethnic character, language variety as well as bilingualism and multilingualism are common phenomena, the exact figures about the size and composition of the various ethnolinguistic groups are unavailable since no systematic census has been held in Afghanistan in decades. Second, Pashto was the first language of 40% of the people, while an additional 28% spoke it as a second language. Uzbek was the first language of 9% and a language for 6%. Turkmen was the first language of 2% and a language for 3%. English was spoken by 8% and Urdu by 7%, Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors, The Changing Politics of Language Choice Distribution of languages map from Columbia University Linguistic map of Afghanistan
16.
Population
–
A population is the number of all the organisms of the same group or species, which live in a particular geographical area, and have the capability of interbreeding. In sociology, population refers to a collection of humans, Demography is a social science which entails the statistical study of human populations. This article refers mainly to human population, in population genetics a sexual population is a set of organisms in which any pair of members can breed together. This means that they can regularly exchange gametes to produce normally-fertile offspring and this also implies that all members belong to the same species. If the gamodeme is very large, and all gene alleles are uniformly distributed by the gametes within it, however, there may be low frequencies of exchange with these neighbours. This may be viewed as the breaking up of a sexual population into smaller overlapping sexual populations. The overall rise in homozygosity is quantified by the inbreeding coefficient, note that all homozygotes are increased in frequency – both the deleterious and the desirable. The mean phenotype of the collection is lower than that of the panmictic original – which is known as inbreeding depression. It is most important to note, however, that some lines will be superior to the panmictic original, while some will be about the same. The probabilities of each can be estimated from those binomial equations, in plant and animal breeding, procedures have been developed which deliberately utilise the effects of dispersion. It can be shown that dispersion-assisted selection leads to the greatest genetic advance and this is so for both allogamous and autogamous gamodemes. In ecology, the population of a species in a certain area can be estimated using the Lincoln Index. As of todays date, the population is estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be 7.496 billion. The US Census Bureau estimates the 7 billion number was surpassed on 12 March 2012, according to papers published by the United States Census Bureau, the world population hit 6.5 billion on 24 February 2006. The United Nations Population Fund designated 12 October 1999 as the day on which world population reached 6 billion. This was about 12 years after world population reached 5 billion in 1987, the population of countries such as Nigeria, is not even known to the nearest million, so there is a considerable margin of error in such estimates. Researcher Carl Haub calculated that a total of over 100 billion people have probably been born in the last 2000 years, Population growth increased significantly as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace from 1700 onwards. In 2007 the United Nations Population Division projected that the population will likely surpass 10 billion in 2055
17.
Refugee
–
A refugee, generally speaking, is a displaced person who has been forced to cross national boundaries and who cannot return home safely. Such a person may be called an asylum seeker until granted refugee status by the state or the UNHCR if they formally make a claim for asylum. The lead international agency coordinating refugee protection is the United Nations Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations have a second Office for refugees, which is the UNRWA. This however is solely responsible for supporting Palestinian refugees and it refers to shelter or protection from danger or distress, from Latin fugere, to flee, and refugium, a taking refuge, place to flee back to. In Western history, the term was first applied to French Huguenots, after the Edict of Fontainebleau, who again migrated from France after the Edict of Nantes revocation. The word meant one seeking asylum, until around 1914, when it evolved to mean one fleeing home and this legal concept of a refugee was expanded by the Conventions 1967 Protocol. European Unions minimum standards definition of refugee, underlined by Art, in UN parlance, the concept of refugee also includes descendants of refugees but only in the case of two specific groups, viz. Palestinian refugees and Sahrawi refugees. The UN does not consider refugee status to be hereditary for any other group, the UNHCR also protects people in refugee-like situations. It gives credence to the notion that personal individualized ‘fear of being persecuted’ is the reason for needing support. War, upheaval, famine and pestilence do not in the conventional definition make for refugee status. It does not matter that civilian deaths as a proportion of deaths in war escalated to 10% in World War I and it only matters that persons fear the persecution of their state. Furthermore, not all reasons for seeking asylum in another country satisfy the definition of refugee according to article 1A of the 1951 Refugee Convention, fleeing droughts and hunger, fleeing economic hardship, natural disasters and not even war or terror satisfied the definition of 1951. The idea that a person who sought sanctuary in a place could not be harmed without inviting divine retribution was familiar to the ancient Greeks. However, the right to asylum in a church or other holy place was first codified in law by King Æthelberht of Kent in about AD600. Similar laws were implemented throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, the related concept of political exile also has a long history, Ovid was sent to Tomis, Voltaire was sent to England. By the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, nations recognized each others sovereignty, the term refugee is sometimes applied to people who might fit the definition outlined by the 1951 Convention, were it to be applied retroactively. The repeated waves of pogroms that swept Eastern Europe in the 19th, beginning in the 19th century, Muslim people emigrated to Turkey from Europe. The Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 caused 800,000 people to leave their homes, various groups of people were officially designated refugees beginning in World War I
18.
Afghans in Pakistan
–
This article is about Afghan immigrants in Pakistan. Not to be confused with the Pashtuns of Pakistan, Afghans in Pakistan are immigrants, mostly refugees, who have fled major wars in Afghanistan. Most of them were born and raised in Pakistan in the last 30 years but are considered citizens of Afghanistan. They are under the protection and care of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, in addition to refugees, there is a small number of Afghan asylum seekers, migrant workers, merchants, businesspersons, and to some extent exchange students and diplomats. The first wave of Afghan refugees to Pakistan began during the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the late 1970s, by the end of 2001, there were over 4 million of them in Pakistan. Most of them repatriated to Afghanistan since 2002, the UNHCR reported in February 2017 that approximately 1.3 million registered Afghan citizens remained in Pakistan, with distribution as follows, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Balochistan, and Sindh. The overwhelming majority of these Afghans were actually born and raised in Pakistan in the last 30 years but are considered citizens of Afghanistan. They include mostly Afghanistans Pashtuns followed by Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, Baloch, Turkmen, as of March 2012, Pakistan has banned extension of visas to all foreigners. Dynasties, especially from the time of the Ghaznavids of Ghazni, moreover, interaction and migration between the native people in this region was common. During the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan, a number of Afghans began leaving their country. The migration began after December 1979 when the former Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan with over 100,000 troops, in late 1988, approximately 3.3 million Afghan refugees were housed in 340 refugee camps along the Afghan-Pakistan border in what is now called Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Located on the outskirts of Peshawar, the now-closed Jalozai camp was one of the largest refugee camps in NWFP and this included mostly foreign militant groups, local Taliban members and some ordinary Afghans who feared that they may end up being bombed by mistake. By the end of 2001, there were approximately 5 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, the Afghan diaspora in Pakistan formed the largest group of Afghans living outside their country at the time. It was projected that number would increase due to sustained US-led intervention Since March 2002. The Government of Pakistan receives $133 million a year from UNHCR for hosting Afghans on its side of the border, in 2005, the Government of Pakistan began a registration process of Afghans living in its country. The total number of registered Afghans was reported at 2.15 million in February 2007 and they were issued computerized proof of registration cards with special biometric features, similar to the Pakistani National Identity Card but has Afghan Citizen on the front. More than 357,000 Afghans were repatriated from Pakistan in 2007, the repatriation process took place between March and October of every subsequent year. It was reported that returnees to Afghanistan were to be provided free land by the Government of Afghanistan to build a new home, each person received a travel package of about 100 US dollars
19.
Afghans in Iran
–
Afghans in Iran are mostly refugees who have fled wars in Afghanistan since the April 1978 Saur Revolution in Kabul. It also includes a number of illegal migrant workers as well as a smaller number of traders, exchanged students, diplomats. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as of 2016 there are 951,142 registered Afghan citizens living in Iran, most of these were born and raised in Iran during the last three and a half decades. Afghans in Iran are under the care and protection of the UNHCR and they cannot obtain Iranian citizenship or permanent residency, and live in Iran under time-limited condition of stay. Iran opened its gates to Afghans escaping from the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Many face forceful deportation every year, which began in 2006 when about 146,387 undocumented Afghans were deported, in 2010, six Afghan prisoners were executed by being hanged in the streets of Iran, which sparked angry demonstrations in Afghanistan. Approximately 4,000 and 5,000 Afghans were reported in 2010 to be in Iranian jails, as neighbouring countries with cultural ties, there has been a long history of population movements between Iran and Afghanistan. Southern Afghanistan was contested between the Persian Safavid dynasty and the Moghuls of India until 1709 when Mir Wais Hotak, founder of the Hotaki dynasty, during the reign of Nader Shah, the brother of Ahmad Shah Durrani was made Governor of Mazandaran Province. In 1747 Durrani and his Afghan army took control of the Khorasan and Kohistan provinces of Iran, the regions remained as part of the Afghan Empire but were lost to the Qajar dynasty in 1800. During the early 19th century, the Persian army invaded Herat several times, communities made up of 2,000 and 5,000 households of ethnic Hazaras were formed in Torbat-e Jam and Bakharz in Iran. The 1857 Treaty of Paris ended hostilities of the Anglo-Persian War, the modern day Afghan-Iranian border gradually began to take shape in the second half of the 19th century. Young Hazara men have embraced migrant work in Iran and other Persian Gulf states in order to save money for marriage and become independent, such work has even come to be seen as a rite of passage. Such migration intensified in the early 1970s due to famine, and by 1978, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, which erupted in 1979, was the beginning of a series of major waves of refugee flight from Afghanistan. Those who came to Iran often augmented the ranks of migrant workers already there, the new Islamic Republic took place around the same time as the influx of masses of Afghan migrants to other countries, fleeing the plagues of problems in their own country. Iran started recognising those Afghans listed as workers or refugees as legals. They issued them blue cards to denote their status, entitling them to free primary and secondary education, as well as subsidised healthcare, however, the government maintained some restrictions on their employment, namely prohibiting them from owning their own businesses or working as street vendors. Most of the academic attention on these new immigrants was focused on ethnically Pashtun Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Studies on Afghans in Iran came later due to the situation during the Iran–Iraq War
20.
Multilingualism
–
Multilingualism is the use of two or more languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the worlds population, more than half of all Europeans claim to speak at least one other language in addition to their mother tongue. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of globalization, people who speak several languages are also called polyglots. Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one language during childhood, the first language is acquired without formal education, by mechanisms heavily disputed. Children acquiring two languages in this way are called simultaneous bilinguals, even in the case of simultaneous bilinguals, one language usually dominates the other. People who know more than one language have been reported to be adept at language learning compared to monolinguals. Multilingualism in computing can be considered part of a continuum between internationalization and localization, the definition of multilingualism is a subject of debate in the very same way as the definition of language fluency. On one end of a sort of continuum, one may define multilingualism as complete competence. The speaker would presumably have complete knowledge and control over the language so as to sound native, on the opposite end of the spectrum would be people who know enough phrases to get around as a tourist using the alternate language. Since 1992, Vivian Cook has argued that most multilingual speakers fall somewhere between minimal and maximal definitions, in addition, there is no consistent definition of what constitutes a distinct language. For instance, scholars disagree whether Scots is a language in its own right or a dialect of English. Many small independent nations schoolchildren are today compelled to learn multiple languages because of international interactions, for example, in, all children are required to learn at least two foreign languages, the other national language and one alien language. Many Finnish schoolchildren also select further languages, such as German or Russian, in some large nations with multiple languages, such as India, school children may routinely learn multiple languages based on where they reside in the country. In major metropolitan areas of Central, South and East India, thus a child of Telugu parents living in Bangalore will end up speaking his or her mother tongue at home and the state language, Hindi and English in school and his or her surroundings. Many myths and much prejudice has grown around the notions of bi- and these are all harmful convictions which have long been debunked, yet still persist among many parents. A multilingual person is someone who can communicate in more than one language, more specifically, the terms bilingual and trilingual are used to describe comparable situations in which two or three languages are involved. A multilingual person is referred to as a polyglot. Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one language during childhood, the first language is acquired without formal education, by mechanisms heavily disputed
21.
Central Asia
–
Central Asia stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to China in the east and from Afghanistan in the south to Russia in the north. It is also referred to as the -stans as the five countries generally considered to be within the region all have names ending with the Persian suffix -stan. Central Asias five former Soviet republics are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Central Asia has historically been closely tied to its nomadic peoples and the Silk Road. It has acted as a crossroads for the movement of people, goods, the Silk Road connected Muslim lands with the people of Europe, India, and China. This crossroads position has intensified the conflict between tribalism and traditionalism and modernization, in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, Central Asia was predominantly Iranian, peopled by Eastern Iranian-speaking Bactrians, Sogdians and Chorasmians and the semi-nomadic Scythians and Parthians. Central Asia is sometimes referred to as Turkestan, the idea of Central Asia as a distinct region of the world was introduced in 1843 by the geographer Alexander von Humboldt. The borders of Central Asia are subject to multiple definitions, historically built political geography and geoculture are two significant parameters widely used in the scholarly literature about the definitions of the Central Asia. The most limited definition was the one of the Soviet Union. This definition was also used outside the USSR during this period. However, the Russian culture has two terms, Средняя Азия and Центральная Азия. Since then, this has become the most common definition of Central Asia, the UNESCO general history of Central Asia, written just before the collapse of the USSR, defines the region based on climate and uses far larger borders. An alternative method is to define the region based on ethnicity and these areas include Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Turkic regions of southern Siberia, the five republics, and Afghan Turkestan. Afghanistan as a whole, the northern and western areas of Pakistan, the Tibetans and Ladakhi are also included. Insofar, most of the peoples are considered the indigenous peoples of the vast region. Central Asia is a large region of varied geography, including high passes and mountains, vast deserts. The vast steppe areas of Central Asia are considered together with the steppes of Eastern Europe as a geographical zone known as the Eurasian Steppe. Much of the land of Central Asia is too dry or too rugged for farming, the Gobi desert extends from the foot of the Pamirs, 77° E, to the Great Khingan Mountains, 116°–118° E. Central Asia has the following geographic extremes, The worlds northernmost desert, at Buurug Deliin Els, Mongolia, the Northern Hemispheres southernmost permafrost, at Erdenetsogt sum, Mongolia, 46°17′ N
22.
South Asia
–
Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian Plate, which rises above sea level as Nepal and northern parts of India situated south of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. South Asia is bounded on the south by the Indian Ocean and on land by West Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, the current territories of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka form the countries of South Asia. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is an economic cooperation organisation in the region which was established in 1985, South Asia covers about 5.1 million km², which is 11. 51% of the Asian continent or 3. 4% of the worlds land surface area. The population of South Asia is about 1.749 billion or about one fourth of the worlds population, overall, it accounts for about 39. 49% of Asias population and is home to a vast array of peoples. The area of South Asia and its extent is not clear cut as systemic. Aside from the region of South Asia, formerly part of the British Empire, there is a high degree of variation as to which other countries are included in South Asia. Modern definitions of South Asia are consistent in including Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar is included by some scholars in South Asia, but in Southeast Asia by others. Some do not include Afghanistan, others question whether Afghanistan should be considered a part of South Asia or the Middle East, the mountain countries of Nepal and Bhutan, and the island countries of Sri Lanka and Maldives are generally included as well. Myanmar is often added, and by various deviating definitions based on often substantially different reasons, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the common concept of South Asia is largely inherited from the administrative boundaries of the British Raj, with several exceptions. The Aden Colony, British Somaliland and Singapore, though administered at various times under the Raj, have not been proposed as any part of South Asia. Additionally Burma was administered as part of the Raj until 1937, the 562 princely states that were protected by but not directly ruled by the Raj became administrative parts of South Asia upon joining Union of India or Dominion of Pakistan. China and Myanmar have also applied for the status of members of SAARC. This bloc of countries include two independent countries that were not part of the British Raj – Nepal, and Bhutan, Afghanistan was a British protectorate from 1878 until 1919, after the Afghans lost to the British in the Second Anglo-Afghan war. The United Nations Statistics Divisions scheme of sub-regions include all eight members of the SAARC as part of Southern Asia, population Information Network includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as part of South Asia. Maldives, in view of its characteristics, was admitted as a member Pacific POPIN subregional network only in principle, the Hirschman–Herfindahl index of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific for the region includes only the original seven signatories of SAARC. The British Indian Ocean Territory is connected to the region by a publication of Janes for security considerations, the inclusion of Myanmar in South Asia is without consensus, with many considering it a part of southeast Asia and others including it within South Asia. Afghanistan was of importance to the British colonial empire, especially after the Second Anglo-Afghan War over 1878–1880, Afghanistan remained a British protectorate until 1919, when a treaty with Vladimir Lenin included the granting of independence to Afghanistan. Following Indias partition, Afghanistan has generally included in South Asia
23.
Western Asia
–
Western Asia, West Asia, Southwestern Asia or Southwest Asia is the westernmost subregion of Asia. The concept is in limited use, as it overlaps with the Middle East. The term is used for the purposes of grouping countries in statistics. The total population of Western Asia is an estimated 300 million as of 2015, in an unrelated context, the term is also used in ancient history and archaeology to divide the Fertile Crescent into the Asiatic or Western Asian cultures as opposed to ancient Egypt. As a geographic concept, Western Asia almost always includes the Levant, Mesopotamia, the term is used pragmatically and has no correct or generally agreed-upon definition. In contrast to this definition, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation in its 2015 yearbook also includes Armenia and Azerbaijan, unlike the UNIDO, the United Nations Statistics Division excludes Iran from Western Asia and include Turkey, Georgia, and Cyprus in the region. These four countries are listed in the European category of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, the Olympic Council of Asias multi-sport event West Asian Games are contested by athletes representing these thirteen countries. Among the regions sports organisations are the West Asia Basketball Association, West Asian Billiards and Snooker Federation, West Asian Football Federation, Western Asia was in use as a geographical term in the early 19th century, even before Near East became current as a geopolitical concept. Use of the term in the context of contemporary geopolitics or world economy appears to date from the 1960s, Western Asia is located directly south of Eastern Europe. The region is surrounded by seven major seas, the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea. The Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut deserts in eastern Iran naturally delimit the region somewhat from Asia itself, three major tectonic plates converge on Western Asia, including the African, Eurasian, and Arabian plates. The boundaries between the plates make up the Azores-Gibraltar Ridge, extending across North Africa, the Red Sea. The Arabian Plate is moving northward into the Anatolian plate at the East Anatolian Fault, several major aquifers provide water to large portions of Western Asia. In Saudi Arabia, two large aquifers of Palaeozoic and Triassic origins are located beneath the Jabal Tuwayq mountains and areas west to the Red Sea. Cretaceous and Eocene-origin aquifers are located beneath large portions of central and eastern Saudi Arabia, including Wasia, flood or furrow irrigation, as well as sprinkler methods, are extensively used for irrigation, covering nearly 90,000 km² across Western Asia for agriculture. Western Asia is primarily arid and semi-arid, and can be subject to drought, the region consists of grasslands, rangelands, deserts, and mountains. Water shortages are a problem in parts of West Asia, with rapidly growing populations increasing demands for water. Major rivers, including the Tigris and Euphrates, provide sources for water to support agriculture
24.
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
25.
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
26.
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
27.
Hindu Kush
–
It forms the western section of the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region. It divides the valley of the Amu Darya to the north from the Indus River valley to the south, the eastern end of the Hindu Kush in the north merges with the Karakoram Range. Towards its southern end, it connects with the Spin Ghar Range near the Kabul River, the Hindu Kush range were a historically significant center of Buddhism with sites such as the Bamiyan Buddhas. The range and communities settled in it hosted ancient monasteries, important trade networks, Buddhism declined, then vanished, after Islam arrived in the region. The Hindu Kush range has also been the passageway during the invasions of the Indian subcontinent and this collision created the Himalayas, including the Hindu Kush. The Hindu Kush range remains geologically active and are still rising, the origins of the name Hindu Kush are uncertain, with multiple theories being propounded by different scholars and writers. The Persian-English dictionary indicates that the word koš is derived from the verb, the word and suffix -kush means kill, slay, death. In his travel memoirs about India, the 14th century Moroccan traveller Muhammad Ibn Battuta mentioned crossing into India via the passes of the Hindu Kush. In his Rihla, he mentions these mountains and the history of the range in slave trading, to Arab geographers, states Allan, Hindu Kush was the frontier boundary where Hindustan started. According to McColl, yet another possibility is that the name may be from the ancient Avestan language, the mountain range was also called Paropamisadae by Hellenic Greeks in the late first millennium BC. Some scholars remove the space, and refer to Hindu Kush as Hindukush, the mountains have historical significance in the Indian subcontinent and China. The Hindu Kush range was a center of Buddhism with sites such as the Bamiyan Buddhas. It has also been the passageway during the invasions of the Indian subcontinent, a region where the Taliban and Al Qaeda grew, Buddhism was widespread in the ancient Hindu Kush region. Ancient artwork of Buddhism include the giant rock carved statues called the Bamiyan Buddha and these statues were blown up by the Taliban Islamists. One of the early Buddhist schools, the Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda, was prominent in the area of Bamiyan, the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang visited a Lokottaravāda monastery in the 7th century CE, at Bamiyan, Afghanistan. Some manuscripts are in the Gāndhārī language and Kharoṣṭhī script, while others are in Sanskrit, after the Islamic conquest of the region and Islam becoming the state religion, Buddhism vanished and locals became Muslims. The significance of the Hindu Kush mountain range has been recorded since the time of Darius I of Persia, alexander the Great entered the Indian subcontinent through the Hindu Kush as his army moved past Bactria into the Afghan valley in the spring of 329 BCE. He moved towards the Indus valley river region in 327 BCE, the region became a part of the Kushan Empire in centuries around the start of the common era
28.
Indus River
–
The Indus River, also called Sindhū or Abāsīn, is a major south-flowing river in South Asia. The total length of the river is 3,180 km which makes it one of the longest rivers in Asia and it is the longest river and national river of Pakistan. The river has a drainage area exceeding 1,165,000 km2. Its estimated annual flow stands at around 207 km3, making it the twenty-first largest river in the world in terms of annual flow, the Zanskar is its left bank tributary in Ladakh. In the plains, its left tributary is the Chenab which itself has four major tributaries, namely, the Jhelum, the Ravi, the Beas. Its principal right tributaries are the Shyok, the Gilgit, the Kabul, the Gomal. Beginning in a spring and fed with glaciers and rivers in the Himalayas. The Indus forms the delta of present-day Pakistan mentioned in the Vedic Rigveda as Sapta Sindhu, the river has been a source of wonder since the Classical Period, with King Darius of Persia sending his Greek subject Scylax of Caryanda to explore the river as early as 510 BC. In Pali, Síndhu means river, stream and refers to the Indus River in particular, the word Indus is the romanised form of the ancient Greek word Indós, borrowed from the old Persian word Hinduš which is in turn borrowed from the Sanskrit word Sindhu. Megastheness book Indica derives its name from the rivers Greek name, Indós, the ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indói, literally meaning the people of the Indus. The country of India and the Pakistani province of Sindh owe their names to the river, Rigveda also describes several mythical rivers, including one named Sindhu. The Rigvedic Sindhu is thought to be the present-day Indus river and is attested 176 times in its text –95 times in the plural, more often used in the generic meaning. In the Rigveda, notably in the hymns, the meaning of the word is narrowed to refer to the Indus river in particular. The Rigvedic hymns apply a feminine gender to all the rivers mentioned therein, Sindhu is seen as a strong warrior amongst other rivers which are seen as goddesses and compared to cows and mares yielding milk and butter. The Indus River provides key resources for Pakistans economy – especially the breadbasket of Punjab province, which accounts for most of the nations agricultural production. The word Punjab means land of five rivers and the five rivers are Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, the Indus also supports many heavy industries and provides the main supply of potable water in Pakistan. The ultimate source of the Indus is in Tibet, the river begins at the confluence of the Sengge Zangbo and Gar Tsangpo rivers that drain the Nganglong Kangri, the Indus then flows northwest through Ladakh and Baltistan into Gilgit, just south of the Karakoram range. The Shyok, Shigar and Gilgit rivers carry glacial waters into the main river and it gradually bends to the south, coming out of the hills between Peshawar and Rawalpindi
29.
Islam in Afghanistan
–
Islam in Afghanistan began to be practiced after the Arab Islamic conquest of Afghanistan from the 7th to the 10th centuries, with the last holdouts to conversion submitting in the late 19th century. Today, Islam is the state religion of Afghanistan, with approximately 99. 8% of the Afghan population being Muslim. About 80-90% practice Sunni Islam, belonging to the Hanafi Islamic law school, most Shias belong to the Twelver branch and only a smaller number follow Ismailism. During the 7th century, the Rashidun Caliphate Arabs entered modern-day Afghanistan after decisively defeating the Sassanian Persians in Nihawand, following this colossal defeat, the last Sassanid Emperor, Yazdegerd III, who became a hunted fugitive, fled eastward deep into Central Asia. A large number of the inhabitants of northern Afghanistan accepted Islam through Umayyad missionary efforts, particularly under the reign of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, in south, Abdur Rahman bin Samara introduced Islam to the natives of Zabulistan which was ruled by the Zunbils. The father of Abu Hanifa, Thabit bin Zuta, was a native from modern-day Afghanistan and he immigrated to Kufa, where Hanifa was born. Later, the Samanids propagated Sunni Islam deep into the heart of Central Asia, since then, Islam has dominated the countrys religious landscape. Islamic leaders have entered the sphere at various times of crisis. The remnants of a Shahi presence in Peshawar were expelled by Mahmud of Ghazni during 998 and 1030, the Ghaznavids were replaced by the Ghurid Dynasty who expanded the already powerful Islamic empire. Believed to be first built during the Ghurids in the 12th century, during this period, known as the Islamic Golden Age, Afghanistan became the second major learning center in the Muslim world after Baghdad. After the Mongol invasion and destruction, the Timurids rebuilt the area, Shia Islam made its way to southern Afghanistan during the Safavid rule in the 16th century. Until Mir Wais Hotak liberated the Afghans in 1709, the Kandahar region of Afghanistan was often a battleground between the Shia Safavids and the Sunni Mughals, the first systematic employment of Islam as an instrument for state-building was introduced by King Abdur Rahman Khan during his drive toward centralization. He decreed that all laws must comply with Islamic law and thus elevated the Shariah over customary laws embodied in the Pashtunwali, the ulama were enlisted to legitimize and sanction his state efforts as well as his central authority. This enhanced the community on the one hand, but as they were increasingly inducted into the bureaucracy as servants of the state. His successors continued and expanded King Abdur Rahman Khans policies as they increased the momentum of secularization, Islam remained central to interactions, but the religious establishment remained essentially non-political, functioning as a moral rather than a political influence. Nevertheless, Islam asserted itself in times of national crisis, and, when the religious leadership considered themselves severely threatened, charismatic religious personalities periodically employed Islam to rally disparate groups in opposition to the state. They rose up on several occasions against King Amanullah Shah, for example, subsequent rulers, mindful of traditional attitudes antithetical to secularization were careful to underline the compatibility of Islam with modernization. Even so, and despite its position within the society which continued to draw no distinction between religion and state, the role of religion in state affairs continued to decline
30.
Sunni Islam
–
Sunni Islam is the largest group of Islam. Its name comes from the word Sunnah, referring to the behavior of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. According to Sunni tradition, Muhammad did not clearly designate a successor and this contrasts with the Shia view, which holds that Muhammad intended his son-in-law and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib to succeed him. Political tensions between Sunnis and Shias continued with varying intensity throughout Islamic history and they have been exacerbated in recent times by ethnic conflicts, as of 2009, Sunni Muslims constituted between 87–90% of the worlds Muslim population. Sunni Islam is the worlds largest religious denomination, followed by Catholicism and its adherents are referred to in Arabic as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah or ahl as-sunnah for short. In English, its doctrines and practices are sometimes called Sunnism, while adherents are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis, Sunnites, Sunni Islam is sometimes referred to as orthodox Islam. The Quran, together with hadith and binding juristic consensus form the basis of all traditional jurisprudence within Sunni Islam, sunnī, also commonly referred to as Sunnīism, is a term derived from sunnah meaning habit, usual practice, custom, tradition. The Muslim use of this term refers to the sayings and living habits of the prophet Muhammad, in Arabic, this branch of Islam is referred to as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah, the people of the sunnah and the community, which is commonly shortened to ahl as-sunnah. One common mistake is to assume that Sunni Islam represents a normative Islam that emerged during the period after Muhammads death, and that Sufism and Shiism developed out of Sunni Islam. This perception is due to the reliance on highly ideological sources that have been accepted as reliable historical works. Both Sunnism and Shiaism are the end products of centuries of competition between ideologies. Both sects used each other to further cement their own identities and doctrines, the first four caliphs are known among Sunnis as the Rashidun or Rightly-Guided Ones. Sunni recognition includes the aforementioned Abu Bakr as the first, Umar who established the Islamic calendar as the second, Uthman as the third, Sunnis believe that the companions of Muhammad were the best of Muslims. Support for this view is found in the Quran, according to Sunnis. Sunnis also believe that the companions were true believers since it was the companions who were given the task of compiling the Quran, furthermore, narrations that were narrated by the companions are considered by Sunnis to be a second source of knowledge of the Muslim faith. A study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2010 and released January 2011 found that there are 1.62 billion Muslims around the world, Islam does not have a formal hierarchy or clergy. Leaders are informal, and gain influence through study to become a scholar of Islamic law, according to the Islamic Center of Columbia, South Carolina, anyone with the intelligence and the will can become an Islamic scholar. During Midday Mosque services on Fridays, the congregation will choose a person to lead the service
31.
Hanafi
–
The Hanafi school is one of the four religious Sunni Islamic schools of jurisprudence. It is named after the scholar Abū Ḥanīfa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit, the other major schools of Sharia in Sunni Islam are Maliki, Shafii and Hanbali. Hanafi is the fiqh with the largest number of followers among Sunni Muslims and it is predominant in the countries that were once part of the historic Ottoman Empire, Mughal Empire and Sultanates of Turkic rulers in the Indian subcontinent, northwest China and Central Asia. Thus, the Hanafi school came to be known as the Kufan or Iraqi school in earlier times. Ali and Abdullah, son of Masud formed much of the base of the school, as well as other such as Muhammad al-Baqir, Jafar al-Sadiq. Many jurists and historians had lived in Kufa including one of Abu Hanifas main teachers, in the early history of Islam, Hanafi doctrine was not fully compiled. The fiqh was fully compiled and documented in the 11th century, the Abbasids patronized the Hanafi school from the 10th century onwards. The Seljuk Turkish dynasties of 11th and 12th centuries, followed by Ottomans adopted Hanafi fiqh, the Turkic expansion spread Hanafi fiqh through Central Asia and into South Asia, with the establishment of Seljuk Empire, Timurid dynasty, Khanates and Delhi Sultanate. Nurit Tsafrir, The History of an Islamic School of Law, the Second Formation of Islamic Law, The Ḥanafī School in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire
32.
Shia Islam in Afghanistan
–
Shia Islam in Afghanistan is practiced by a minority of the population, estimates vary from 7% to 15% or 20%. Afghan Shia are primarily the Twelvers, while a minority are Ismailis, the majority of Afghan Shia are Twelvers, primarily of the Hazara ethnicity. The next-largest Twelver community are the Farsiwan of the western Herat, other, far smaller, Afghan Twelver communities include the Bayat and Qizilbash populations, as well as some of those who claim to be Sayeds. A smaller portion of Afghan Shia are Nizari Ismailis, these include many of the Pamir language speakers of the northeastern portion of the country. Baghlan Province is also home to an Ismaili community, the Sayeds of Kayan and their leader is Sayed Mansur Naderi and his son, Sayed Jaffar Naderi. During the Soviet-Afghan War, about 10,000 Ismaili militamen defended the Baghlan Ismaili stronghold of Kayan and they have sided with the Soviets due to differences with the other groups of fighters. In 2003 it was reported that unlike other Ismaili communities in the region and worldwide, the Baghlan Ismailis did not defer to the leader of Ismailis worldwide. Islam in Afghanistan Religion in Afghanistan Islamic conquest of Afghanistan Afghan Shia News Agency
33.
Twelver
–
Twelver Shia Islam or Imamiyyah is the largest branch of Shia Islam. Twelver belief is based on the Quran and the message of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad attested in hadith, according to Shia tradition, the Mahdis tenure will coincide with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, who is to assist the Mahdi against the Masih ad-Dajjal. Twelvers believe that the Twelve Imams are the spiritual and political successors to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Iran is the only country with state religion as Shia Islam. They also differ in the role and overall definition of an Imam, alevis in Turkey and Albania and Alawis in Syria share belief in the Twelve Imams with Twelvers, but their theological doctrines are remarkably different. The Twelvers are also known by names, The Shiah is commonly used as a synonym for Twelvers since this branch comprises the majority group in Shia Islam. Shia refers to a group of Muslims who believe that the succession to Muhammad must remain in his family for specific members who are designated by a divine appointment, tabatabaei states that the word referred to the partisans of Ali at the time of Muhammad himself. Jafari refers exclusively to the Twelver Juridical school which is followed by the majority of Shias and it also refers to the minority Akhbaris who advocate a distinct juridical approach within Jafari Jurisprudence. The term is derived from the name of Jafar al-Sadiq who is considered by the Twelvers to be their Sixth Imām, Jafar al-Sadiq is also respected and referenced by the founders of the Sunni Hanafi and Maliki schools of jurisprudence. Imami or Imamiyyah or Imamite is a reference to the Twelver belief in the infallibility of the Imāms, Ali is quoted as arguing that unity of God means that he has no like, he is not subject to numeration and is not divisible either in reality or imagination. On another occasion, he is quoted saying, The first step of religion is to accept, understand, the correct form of belief in his unity is to realize that he is so absolutely pure and above nature that nothing can be added to or subtracted from his being. That is, one should realize there is no difference between his person and his attributes, and his attributes should not be differentiated or distinguished from his person. Sayyid Haydar Amuli a prominent Shia mystic and philosopher defines God as alone in being, along with his names, his attributes, his actions, the totality of being therefore is he, through him, comes from him, and returns to him. God is not a next to or above other beings, his creatures, he is being. The divine unitude does not have the meaning of a unity, among, next to. For, if there were being other than he, God would no longer be the Unique, as this Divine Essence is infinite, his qualities are the same as his essence, Essentially there is one Reality which is one and indivisible. According to Twelvers theology, Tawhid consists of several aspects including Tawhid of the Essence, the attributes, the creatorship, Tawhid of the essence of God means his essence is one and peerless. Regarding this, Quran 112 states, Say, He is Allah, One, Allah and he neither begets nor is born, Nor is there to Him any equivalent. Tawhid of the attributes means Gods names and attributes have no other reality than His essence, Ali argues that Every attributes testifies to its being other than the object to which it is attributed, and every such object in turn testifies to its being other than the attribute
34.
Isma'ilism
–
Ismāʿīlism is a branch of Shia Islam. Ismailis believe in the oneness of God, as well as the closing of divine revelation with Muhammad, the Ismāʿīlī and the Twelvers both accept the same initial Imams from the descendants of Muhammad through his daughter Fatimah and therefore share much of their early history. Both groups see the family of Muhammad as divinely chosen, infallible, and guided by God to lead the Islamic community, Ismaili thought is heavily influenced by neoplatonism. There are also a significant number of Ismāʿīlīs in Central Asia, Ismailism shares its beginnings with other early Shi‘i sects that emerged during the succession crisis that spread throughout the early Muslim community. From the beginning, the Shia asserted the right of Ali, cousin of Muhammad and this also included his two sons, who were the grandsons of Muhammad through his daughter Fatimah. Soon after his ascendancy, Aisha, the third of the Prophets wives, claimed along with Usmans tribe, the Ummayads, ‘Ali voted against it as he believed that situation at that time demanded a peaceful resolution of the matter. Both parties could rightfully defend their claims, but due to escalated misunderstandings, following this battle, Muawiya, the Umayyad governor of Syria, also staged a revolt under the same pretences. ‘Ali led his forces against Muawiya until the side of Muawiya held copies of the Quran against their spears, ‘Ali accepted this, and an arbitration was done which ended in his favor. A group among Alis army believed that subjecting his legitimate authority to arbitration was tantamount to apostasy and this group was known as the Khawarij and ‘Ali wished to defeat their forces before they reached the cities where they would be able to blend in with the rest of the population. While he was unable to do this, he defeated their forces in subsequent battles. Regardless of these defeats, the Kharijites survived and became a problematic group in Islamic history. The Entrusted Imam is an Imam in the full sense except that the lineage of the Imamate must continue through the Permanent Imam. However, the caliphate was soon taken over by Muawiya. Even some of Ali’s early followers regarded him as “an absolute and divinely guided leader who could demand of them the kind of loyalty that would have been expected for the Prophet. ”For example, one of Ali’s supporters who also was devoted to the Prophet said to him, “our opinion is your opinion. The early followers of ‘Ali seem to have taken his guidance as “right guidance” deriving from Divine support, in other words, ‘Ali’s guidance was seen to be the expression of God’s will and the Qur’anic message. This spiritual and absolute authority of ‘Ali was known as walayah and it was inherited by his successors, the Imams. In the first century after the Prophet, the sunnah was not specifically defined as “Sunnah of the Prophet” but was used in connection to Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, Uthman. The idea of “Hadith” or traditions ascribed to the Prophet was not mainstream nor was Hadith criticism, even the earliest legal texts by Malik b
35.
Sikhism in Afghanistan
–
Sikhism in Afghanistan is limited to small populations, primarily in major cities, with the largest numbers of Afghan Sikhs living in Jalalabad, Kabul, and Kandahar. These Sikhs are Afghan nationals and mostly Pashto-speakers, though some also use Dari and their total population is around 1200 families or 8000 members. During the Afghan Civil War of the 1990s, seven of Kabuls eight Gurdwaras were destroyed, only Gurdwara Karte Parwan, located in the Karte Parwan section of Kabul, remains. As of 2001, Jalalabad had 100 Sikh families, totaling around 700 people, legend states that the older of the Gurudwaras was built to commemorate the visit of Guru Nanak Dev Ji. Kandahar has a remarkably small Sikh community, with only about 15 families living there as of 2002, some early Khatri Sikhs established and maintained colonies in Afghanistan for trading purposes. Later, conflicts between the Sikh misls and empire against the Afghan-based Durrani Empire led to tension, Sikhs also served in the British Empires military during several operations in Afghanistan in the 19th century. During the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan, many Afghan Sikhs fled to India, where the Sikh community is well-established, Sikh gurdwaras throughout the country were destroyed in the Afghan Civil War of the 1990s, leaving only the Gurdwara Karte Parwan in Kabul. Under the Taliban, the Sikhs were a relatively tolerated religious minority, however, the Sikh custom of cremation of the dead was prohibited by the Taliban, and cremation grounds vandalized. In addition, Sikhs were required to wear yellow patches or veils to identify themselves, by tradition, Sikhs cremate their dead, an act considered sacrilege in Islam. As of 2010, cremation in Kabul is still reported as being disapproved of by locals, Sikhs in Afghanistan continue to face problems, with the issue of the Sikh custom of cremation figuring prominently. City development also threatens to destroy the Gurudwara Karte Parwan and adjoining shrine to Guru Nanak, in September 2013, Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed a legislative decree, reserving a seat in the National Assembly of Afghanistan for the Hindu and Sikh minority. Before the 1990s, the Afghan Sikh population was estimated around 50,000, as of 2013, they are around 800 families of which 300 families live in Kabul. Sikh leaders in Afghanistan claim that the number of Sikhs are 3,000. Many Sikh families have chosen to emigrate to countries including, India, North America, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Pakistan. Deccan Herald,12 November 2010 Afghan Sikhs, Forgotten Victims, the Guardian,6 July 2010 Afghanistan, Sikhs rebuilding gurdwaras. Gurinder Randhawa - Indo-Asian News Service 25 Aug 2005300 more Afghan Sikhs flee, Times of India, Oct 20,2001. A NATION CHALLENGED, LIFE IN KABUL, Keeping Their Faiths Under Taliban Rule Drew Sikhs, amy Waldman, New York Times,20 January 2002 Pakistan, The Embattled Sikhs in Taliban Territory
36.
Hinduism in Afghanistan
–
Hinduism in Afghanistan is practiced by a tiny minority of Afghans, believed to be about 1,000 individuals who live mostly in Kabul and other major cities of the country. Before the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan, the Afghan people were multi-religious, the majority were followers of Hinduism and Buddhism. Most Hindu temples were destroyed or converted into mosques by the 11th century, at the same time, most historians maintain that Afghanistan was inhabited by ancient Arians tribes followed by the Achaemenid before the arrival of Alexander the Great and his Greek army in 330 BC. It became part of the Seleucid Empire after the departure of Alexander three years later, in 305 BCE, the Greeks gave up control of the territory south of the Hindu Kush to the Indian Maurya Empire as part of an alliance treaty. They stated that Buddhism was practiced in different parts between the Amu Darya in the north and the Indus River. However, they did not mention much about Hinduism although Song Yun did state that the Hephthalite rulers did not recognize Buddhism but preached pseudo gods, the Chinese monks were followers of Buddhism, it is possible that they had no interest in writing about other religions. In addition, traveling in the Afghanistan region was too risky due to warlords, before the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan, the territory was a religious sediment of Zoroastrianism, Paganism, Buddhism, Hinduism and others. It was inhabited by peoples, including Persians, Khalaj, Turks. South of the Hindu Kush was ruled by the Zunbils, offspring of the southern-Hephthalite, the east was controlled by the Kabul Shahis. The Zunbil and Kabul Shahis were connected by culture with the rest of the Indian subcontinent, the Zunbil kings worshipped a sun god by the name of Zun from which they derived their name. Some contemporary historians wrongly assume that everyone who worshipped idols in South Asia were Hindus, for example, André Wink writes that the cult of Zun was primarily Hindu, not Buddhist or Zoroastrian. Not all idol worship is considered part of Hinduism, idol worship existed all over the world, including in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The General of the Arab army broke of a hand of the idol, the Kabul Shahi ruled north of the Zunbil territory, which included Kabulistan and Gandahara. The Arabs reached Kabul with the message of Islam but were not able to rule for long, the Kabul Shahis decided to build a giant wall around the city to prevent more Arab invasions, this wall is still visible today. Willem Vogelsang in his 2002 book writes, During the eighth and ninth centuries AD the eastern parts of modern Afghanistan were still in the hands of non-Muslim rulers. The Muslims tended to them as Indians, although many of the local rulers were apparently of Hunnic or Turkic descent. Yet, the Muslims were right in so far as the non Muslim population of Eastern Afghanistan was, most of them were either Hindus or Buddhists. In 870 AD the Saffarids from Zaranj conquered most of Afghanistan and it is reported that Muslims and non-Muslims still lived side by side before the arrival of the Ghaznavids in the 10th century
37.
Pashtunwali
–
Pashtunwali or Pakhtunwali is a non-written ethical code and traditional lifestyle which the indigenous Pashtun people follow. It is a system of law and governance that began during prehistoric times and is preserved and still in use today and its meaning may also be interpreted as the way of the Pashtuns or the code of life. Pashtunwali dates back to ancient pre-Islamic times and is practiced among Pashtuns. During the Pashtun-dominated Taliban regime, Pashtunwali was practiced throughout the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in conjunction with the Talibans interpretation of Deobandi Islam, the native Pashtun tribes, often described as fiercely independent people, have inhabited the Pashtunistan region since at least the 1st millennium BC. During that period, much of their mountainous territory has remained outside government rule or control and this is perhaps the main reason why indigenous Pashtuns still follow Pashtunwali, which is a basic common law of the land or code of life. Pashtunwali rules are accepted in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and also in some Pashtun communities around the world, some non-Pashtun Afghans and others have also adopted its ideology or practices for their own benefit. Conversely, many urbanized Pashtuns tend to ignore the rules of Pashtunwali, passed on from generation to generation, Pashtunwali guides both individual and communal conduct. Practiced by the majority of Pashtuns, it helps to promote Pashtunization, ideal Pukhtun behaviour approximates the features Pukhtunwali, the code of the Pukhtuns, which includes the following traditional features, courage, revenge, hospitality, generosity to a defeated. Pashtuns embrace an ancient traditional, spiritual, and communal identity tied to a set of codes and rules of behaviour. Pashtunwali promotes self-respect, independence, justice, hospitality, love, forgiveness, revenge and it is considered to be the personal responsibility of every Pashtun to discover and rediscover Pashtunwalis essence and meaning. It is the way of the Pathans and we have melmestia, being a good host, nanawatai, giving asylum, and badal, vengeance. The Pathan tribes are always engaged in private or public war, Every man is a warrior, a politician and a theologian. Every large house is a feudal fortress. Every family cultivates its vendetta, every clan. Nothing is ever forgotten and very few debts are left unpaid, winston Churchill Although not exclusive, the following eleven principles form the major components of Pashtunwali. They are headed with the words of the Pashto language that signify individual or collective Pashtun tribal functions, melmastia - Showing hospitality and profound respect to all visitors, regardless of race, religion, national affiliation or economic status and doing so without any hope of remuneration or favour. Pashtuns will go to lengths to show their hospitality. Nanawatai - Derived from the meaning to go in, this refers to the protection given to a person against his enemies. People are protected at all costs, even those running from the law must be given refuge until the situation can be clarified, a notable example is that of Navy Petty Officer First Class Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of a US Navy SEAL team ambushed by Taliban fighters
38.
Rural area
–
In general, a rural area or countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Whatever is not urban is considered rural, typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas are rural, though so are others such as forests. Different countries have varying definitions of rural for statistical and administrative purposes, in Canada, the census division has been used to represent regions and census consolidated sub-divisions have been used to represent communities. Intermediate regions have 15 to 49 percent of their living in a rural community. Predominantly urban regions have less than 15 percent of their living in a rural community. Predominantly rural regions are classified as rural metro-adjacent, rural non-metro-adjacent and rural northern, following Ehrensaft, as well, rural northern regions encompass all of the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Statistics Canada defines rural for their population counts and this definition has changed over time. Typically, it has referred to the population living outside settlements of 1,000 or less inhabitants, the current definition states that census rural is the population outside settlements with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants and a population density below 400 people per square kilometre. 84% of the United States inhabitants live in suburban and urban areas, Rural areas occupy the remaining 90 percent. The U. S. Census Bureau, the USDAs Economic Research Service, an urbanized area consists of a central surrounding areas whose population is greater than 50,000. USDA The USDAs Office of Rural Development may define rural by various population thresholds, for example, a metropolitan county is one that contains an urbanized area, or one that has a twenty-five percent commuter rate to an urbanized area regardless of population. In 2014, the USDA updated their rural / non-rural area definitions based on the 2010 Census counts, Rural health definitions can be different for establishing under-served areas or health care accessibility in rural areas of the United States. This became the Goldsmith Modification definition of rural, health care delivery in rural areas of the United States can be challenging. From 2005-2011, the rate of potentially preventable hospitalizations for acute conditions was highest in rural areas, in Brazil, theres different notions of rural area and countryside. Rural areas are any place outside an urban development and its carried by informal usage. Otherwise, countryside are officially defined as all municipalities outside the capitals metropolitan region. Some states as Mato Grosso do Sul doesnt have any metropolitan region, thus all of the state, Rio de Janeiro is singular in Brazil and its de facto a metropolitan state, as circa 70% of its population are located in Greater Rio
39.
Economy of Afghanistan
–
The recent improvement is also due to dramatic improvements in agricultural production and the end of a four-year drought in most of the country. The government of Afghanistan claims that the country holds up to $3 trillion in untapped mineral deposits. However, due to the conflicts, it one of the least developed countries in the world. The nations GDP stands at about $34 billion with a rate of $19.85 billion. About 35% of its population is unemployed and 36% live below the poverty line, suffering from shortages of housing, clean drinking water. Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in Eurasia, historically, there has been a lack of information and reliable statistics about Afghanistans economy. In the early modern period under the rule of kings Abdur Rahman Khan and Habibullah Khan and this slowed the long-term development of Afghanistan during that period. An emphasis was placed on the manufacture of weapons and other military materiel and this process was in the hands of a small number of western experts invited to Kabul by the Afghan kings. Otherwise, it was not possible for outsiders, particularly westerners, the country began facing severe economic hardships during the 1970s when neighboring Pakistan, under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, began closing the Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossings. This move resulted in Afghanistan increasing political and economic ties with its northern neighbor, the 1979 Soviet invasion and ensuing civil war destroyed much of the countrys limited infrastructure, and disrupted normal patterns of economic activity. Eventually, Afghanistan went from an economy to a centrally planned economy up until 2002 when it was replaced by a free market economy. Gross domestic product has fallen substantially since the 1980s due to disruption of trade and transport as well as loss of labor, continuing internal strife severely hampered domestic efforts to rebuild the nation or provide ways for the international community to help. According to the International Monetary Fund, the Afghan economy grew 20% in the year ending in March 2004. The growth is attributed to international aid and to the end of droughts, an estimated $4.4 billion of aid entered the nation from 2002 to 2004. A GDP of $4 billion in fiscal year 2003 was recalculated by the IMF to $6.1 billion, mean graduate pay was $0.56 per man-hour in 2010. The Afghan economy has always been agricultural, despite the fact that only 12% of its land is arable. Agriculture production is constrained by an almost total dependence on erratic winter snows, as of 2007, the countrys fruit and nut exports were at $113 million per year, but according to an estimate could grow to more than $800 million per year in 10 years given sufficient investment. Afghanistan is known for producing some of the finest fruits and vegetables, especially pomegranates, apricots, grapes, melons, several provinces in the north of the country are famous for pistachio cultivation but the area currently lacks proper marketing and processing plants
40.
Afghan diaspora
–
Afghan diaspora or Afghan immigrants are citizens of Afghanistan who have immigrated to other countries, or people of Afghan origin who are born outside Afghanistan. Traditionally, the borders between Afghanistan and its southern and eastern neighboring countries have been fluid and vague and this means that historically there was much movement across present day barriers. After the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, refugees have fled to neighboring Pakistan and Iran, when the Soviet war ended in 1989, the Afghan refugees began returning to their homeland. In April 1992, a civil war began after the mujahideen took over control of Kabul. Afghans again began fleeing to neighboring countries, Afghan Sikhs and Afghan Hindus journeyed to India. Since March 2002, most Afghan refugees have been repatriated to Afghanistan with UNHCRs assistance, around 1.3 million still remain in Pakistan, while 2.5 million are in Iran. Several countries that were part of International Security Assistance Force have granted permanent residency to smaller number of Afghans that worked with their respective forces, Afghan natives now reside in at least 78 countries around the world. Afghans returning from Pakistan often complain that they have beaten and slapped. Returnees from Iran experience similar or worst punishments, a number of returnees to Afghanistan make new journeys to the European Union to seek asylum there. To abide by United Nations Convention against Torture, Pakistan has agreed that no Afghan refugee would be removed from its country. Under a new agreement between Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UNHCR, the Afghans in Pakistan are officially allowed to remain until the end of 2017, the Afghans in Iran have also been given extended time. Afghan refugees UNHCR India Government of Afghanistan, tough times follow Afghan refugees fleeing Taliban to Delhi. Afghan refugees in India become Indian, at last, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Kabul looks to Qatar support at aid meet, information Centre about Asylum and Refugees. Afghan Migration after the Soviet Invasion, Afghan Migrants in Iran Face Painful Contradictions but Keep Coming. Afghans take hope from UAEs achievements, UK, Denmark to give Afghan interpreters visas. Immigrant population by place of birth and period of immigration,2011 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates
41.
Expatriate
–
An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of their citizenship. In common usage, the term refers to professionals or skilled workers sent abroad by their companies. However, it can refer to retirees and others who have chosen to live outside their native country. Historically, it has referred to exiles. The word expatriate comes from the Latin terms ex and patria, dictionary definitions for the current meaning of the word include, Expatriate, A person who lives outside their native country, or living in a foreign land. The varying use of terms for different groups of foreigners can thus be seen as implying nuances about wealth, intended length of stay, perceived motives for moving, nationality. An older usage of the word expatriate was to refer to an exile, as far back as antiquity, people have gone to live in foreign countries, whether as diplomats, merchants or missionaries. The numbers of such travellers grew markedly after the 15th century with the dawn of the European colonial period, in the 19th century, travel became easier by way of steamship or train. People could more readily choose to live for years in a foreign country. After World War II, decolonisation accelerated, however, lifestyles which had developed among European colonials continued to some degree in expatriate communities. Remnants of the old British Empire, for example, can still be seen in the form of gated communities staffed by domestic workers, social clubs which have survived include the Hash House Harriers and the Royal Selangor. Homesick palates are catered for by specialist food shops, and drinkers can still order a gin and tonic, although pith helmets are mostly confined to military ceremonies, civilians still wear white dinner jackets or even Red Sea rig on occasion. The use of curry powder has long since spread to the metropole, from the 1950s, scheduled flights on jet airliners further increased the speed of international travel. This enabled a hypermobility which led to the jet set, and eventually to global nomads, since the 1990s, the rise of the Internet has allowed some types of worker to become digital nomads. Websites aimed at expatriates began to appear about the same time, the number of expatriates in the world is difficult to determine. In 2013, the United Nations estimated that 232 million people, or 3.2 per cent of the world population, in 2007, only 20 per cent of Dubais population were citizens. Singapore, where 40 per cent of the inhabitants were foreign-born workers, many multinational corporations send employees to foreign countries to work in branch offices or subsidiaries. Expatriate employees allow a parent company to more closely control its foreign subsidiaries and they can also improve global coordination
42.
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
43.
Kandahar
–
Kandahar or Qandahar is the second-largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 491,500 as of 2012. Formerly called Alexandria Arachosia, the city is named after Alexander the Great, Kandahar is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at an altitude of 1,010 m above sea level. The Arghandab River runs along the west of the city, the city of Kandahar has a population of 557,118. It has 15 districts and a land area of 27,337 hectares. The total number of dwellings in Kandahar is 61,902, Kandahar is one of the most culturally significant cities of the Pashtuns and has been their traditional seat of power for more than 200 years. It is a trading center for sheep, wool, cotton, silk, felt, food grains, fresh and dried fruit. The region produces fine fruits, especially pomegranates and grapes, and the city has plants for canning, drying, and packing fruit, the area is believed to be the birthplace of cannabis indica. The region around Kandahar is one of the oldest known human settlements, Alexander the Great had laid-out the foundation of what is now Old Kandahar in the 4th century BC and gave it the Ancient Greek name Αλεξάνδρεια Aραχωσίας. Many empires have long fought over the city due to its location along the trade routes of southern, central. In 1709, Mirwais Hotak made the region an independent kingdom, in 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani, founder of the last Afghan empire, made it the capital of modern Afghanistan. A temple to the deified Alexander as well as an inscription in Greek and Aramaic by Emperor Ashoka, Ibn Batutta mentions Kandahar in the 14th century by describing it as a large and prosperous town three nights journey from Ghazni. It has been then mentioned extensively by Mughal Emperor Babur and others, an alternative story describes Khandahar as Gandhara in Mahabharata ruled by Suvala and later by Shakuni. The princess of Hastinapur, Gandhari was born in Gandhara, a folk etymology offered is that the word kand or qand in Persian and Pashto means candy. The name Candahar or Kandahar in this form probably translates to candy area and this probably has to do with the location being fertile and historically known for producing fine grapes, pomegranates, apricots, melons and other sweet fruits. Ernst Herzfeld claimed Kandahar perpetuated the name of the Indo-Parthian king Gondophares, excavations of prehistoric sites by archaeologists such as Louis Dupree and others suggest that the region around Kandahar is one of the oldest human settlements known so far. Early peasant farming villages came into existence in Afghanistan ca.5000 B. C. or 7000 years ago, deh Morasi Ghundai, the first prehistoric site to be excavated in Afghanistan, lies 27 km southwest of Kandahar. Another Bronze Age village mound site with multiroomed mud-brick buildings dating from the same period sits nearby at Said Qala, Bronze Age pottery, copper and bronze horse trappings and stone seals were found in the lowermost levels in the nearby cave called Shamshir Ghar. In the Seistan, southwest of these Kandahar sites, two teams of American archaeologists discovered sites relating to the 2nd millennium B. C, while the Diadochi were warring amongst themselves, the Mauryan Empire was developing in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent
44.
Kabul Province
–
Kābul, situated in the east of the country, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. The capital of the province is Kabul city, which is also Afghanistans capital, the population of the Kabul Province is nearly 4 million people as of 2012, of which almost 80 percent live in the urban areas. The current governor of the province is Hamid Karzai, Kabul is located between Latitude 34-31 North and Longitude 69-12 East at an altitude of 1800 m above sea level, which makes it one of the worlds highest capital cities. Kabul is strategically situated in a surrounded by high mountains at crossroads of north-south. One million years ago the Kabul region was surrounded from south-east between Lowgar and Paghman Mountains, Charikar in the north and the Ningai Ghar mountains in the west and this region formed an icy sea. Some deep wells in the region of todays Poli Charkhi in the east part of city are the evidence of that time, Kabul is surrounded by Koh-e Paghman Mountain from the east, Koh-e Qrough Mountain from the south-west and Koh-e Shirdarwaza Mountain from the north-east. Kabul has only one river which is called Kabul River, Kabul River rises at the Paghman Mountain toward South Pass about 70 km west of Kabul. It flows in a direction, past Kabul, and through Jalalabad city. The climate within region of Kabul is considered to be arid to semi-arid steppe, because of the very low amounts of precipitation, especially from May to November, Kabul can be very dry and dusty. Extreme temperature changes occur from night to day, season to season, the chief characteristic of Afghanistans climate is a blue cloudless sky with over 300 days of sunshine yearly. Even during the winter, skies usually remain clear between snowfalls, which are on average 15–30 cm annually, the daily temperature for Kabul city in winter is −1 °C and in summer 24 °C. The coldest month of the year is January and the hottest month is July, the maximum temperature has been recorded as +42.7 °C in July and the minimum as -26.3 °C in January. Kabuls history dates back more than 3,500 years and it was once the center of Zoroastrianism and subsequently also a home for Buddhists and Hindus. The native citizens of Kabul as per the records of the British Museum are Pashtuns, the city was invaded by Arab Muslims in the 7th century by introducing Islam but was slowly taken back by the Hindu Shahis of Kabul. It was re-invaded by the Saffarids and Samanids in the 9th century followed by Mahmud of Ghaznavi in the 11th century and it became part of the Ghurids after defeating the Ghaznavids, and later it was invaded by the Mongols under Genghis Khan. Timur, founder of the Timurid dynasty, invaded the region in 14th century, in 1504, the city fell to Babur from the north of the country and was made into his capital, which became one of the principal cities of his later Mughal Empire. In 1525, Babur described Kabulistan in his memoirs by writing that, In the country of Kābul there are many and its valleys and plains are inhabited by Tūrks, Aimāks, and Arabs. In the city and the part of the villages, the population consists of Tājiks
