Abdul Rashid Dostum
Abdul Rashid Dostum is an Afghan politician and general in the Afghan National Army who has served as Vice President of Afghanistan since 2014. An ethnic Uzbek, he is a former communist general and warlord known for siding with winners during different wars in Afghanistan, he is the founder of Junbish-e Milli. During the Soviet–Afghan War in the 1980s, Dostum was part of the Afghan National Army and the regional commander of the country's north, commanding about 20,000 Uzbek soldiers participating in battles against mujahideen rebels. In 1992, he deserted the Mohammad Najibullah government shortly before its collapse, joining the mujahideen, forming his Junbish-e Milli party and militia and becoming an independent warlord, he subsequently became the de facto leader of Afghanistan's Uzbek community, controlling the country's northern provinces and Mazar-i-Sharif creating his own proto-state with an army of up to 40,000 men with tanks supplied by Uzbekistan and Russia and jets. He supported the new government of Burhanuddin Rabbani in Kabul but in 1994 switched sides and allied with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
In 1995, he backed Rabbani. In 1997, he was forced to flee after his former aide Abdul Malik Pahlawan took Mazar-i-Sharif, before he fought back and regained control. In 1998, the city was overrun by the Taliban and he fled again. Dostum returned to Afghanistan in 2001 and joined the Northern Alliance after the US invasion, leading his faction in the Fall of Mazar-i-Sharif. After the fall of the Taliban, he joined Hamid Karzai's presidential administration but spent most of his time in Turkey, he served as Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Afghan Army, a role viewed as ceremonial. From 2011, he was part of the leadership council of the National Front of Afghanistan along with Ahmad Zia Massoud and Mohammad Mohaqiq. In 2014, he joined Ashraf Ghani's presidential administration as a vice president, but was forced to flee again in 2017 after being accused of sexually assaulting a political rival. In 2018, he narrowly escaped a suicide bombing by ISIL-KP as he returned to Afghanistan at Kabul airport.
In 2019, he escaped an hours-long attack by the Taliban on a convoy. Dostum was born in 1954 in Khwaja Du Koh near Sheberghan in Afghanistan. Coming from an impoverished Uzbek family, he received a basic traditional education as he was forced to drop out of school at a young age. From there, he took up work in the village's major gas fields. Dostum began working in 1970 in a state-owned gas refinery in Sheberghan, participating in union politics, as the new government started to arm the staff of the workers in the oil and gas refineries; the reason for this was to create "groups for the defense of the revolution". Because of the new communist ideas entering Afghanistan in the 1970s, he enlisted in the Afghan National Army in 1978. Dostum received his basic military training in Jalalabad, his squadron was deployed in the rural areas around Sheberghan, under the auspices of the Ministry of National Security. By the mid-1980s, he commanded around 20,000 militia men and controlled the northern provinces of Afghanistan.
While the unit recruited throughout Jowzjan and had a broad base, many of its early troops and commanders came from Dostum's home village. He returned after the Soviet occupation began. During the Soviet–Afghan War, Dostum was commanding a militia battalion to fight and rout mujahideen forces; this became a regiment and became incorporated into the defense forces as the 53rd Infantry Division. Dostum and his new division reported directly to President Mohammad Najibullah. On he became the commander of the military unit 374 in Jowzjan, he defended the Soviet-backed Afghan government against the mujahideen forces throughout the 1980s. While he was only a regional commander, he had raised his forces by himself; the Jowzjani militia Dostum controlled was one of the few in the country, able to be deployed outside its own region. They were deployed in Kandahar in 1988. Due to his efforts in the army, Dostum was awarded the title "Hero of the Republic of Afghanistan" by President Najibullah. Dostum's men would become an important force in the fall of Kabul in 1992.
In April 1992, the opposition forces began their march to Kabul against the government of Najibullah. Dostum had allied himself with the opposition commanders Ahmad Shah Massoud and Sayed Jafar Naderi, the head of the Isma'ili community, together they captured the capital city, he and Massoud fought in a coalition against Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Massoud and Dostum's forces joined together to defend Kabul against Hekmatyar; some 4000-5000 of his troops, units of his Sheberghan-based 53rd Division and Balkh-based Guards Division, garrisoning Bala Hissar fort, Maranjan Hill, Khwaja Rawash Airport, where they stopped Najibullah from entering to flee. Dostum left Kabul for his northern stronghold Mazar-i-Sharif, where he ruled, in effect, an independent region referred as the Northern Autonomous Zone, he printed his own Afghan currency, ran a small airline named Balkh Air, formed relations with countries like Uzbekistan. While the rest of the country was in chaos, his region remained prosperous and functional, it won him the support from people of all ethnic groups.
Many people fled to his territory to escape the violence and fundamentalism imposed by the Taliban
Descent from Genghis Khan
Descent from Genghis Khan called Genghisids, is traceable in Mongolia, China, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. His four sons and other immediate descendants are famous by deeds. Asian potentates attempted to claim descent from the Borjigin on flimsy grounds, such as was considered Mongol matrilineal descent. In the 14th century, valid sources all but dried up. With the recent popularity of genealogical DNA testing, a larger and broader circle of people started to claim descent from Genghis Khan. Jochi, Genghis Khan's eldest son, had many more recorded progeny than his brothers Ögedei and Tolui—but there is some doubt over his paternity. According to The Secret History of the Mongols, the boy was sent to Genghis by Chilger, who had kidnapped his first wife Börte, keeping her in captivity for about a year. In one passage, Chagatai refers to Jochi as "bastard". To this, Genghis Khan responds: "How dare you talk about Jochi like this? Is not he the eldest of my heirs? That I never heard such wicked words again!".
All in all, Genghis Khan pronounces. Modern historians speculate that Jochi's disputed paternity was the reason for his eventual estrangement from his father and for the fact that his descendants never succeeded to the imperial throne. On the other hand, Genghis always treated Jochi as his first son, while the failure of the Jochid succession may be explained by Jochi's premature death. Another important consideration is. For instance, the Jochids took wives from the Ilkhan dynasty of Persia, whose progenitor was Hulagu Khan; as a consequence, it is that many Jochids had other sons of Genghis Khan among their maternal ancestors. Asian dynasties descended from Genghis Khan included the Kublaids of China, the Hulaguids of Persia, the Jochids of the Golden Horde, the Shaybanids of Siberia, the Astrakhanids of Central Asia; as a rule, the Genghisid descent played a crucial role in Tatar politics. For instance, Mamai had to exercise his authority through a succession of puppet khans but could not assume the title of khan himself because he lacked Genghisid lineage.
Timur Lenk, the founder of the Timurid Dynasty, claimed descent from Genghis Khan. He never assumed the title "Khan" for himself, but employed two members of the Chagatai clan as formal heads of state; the Mughal imperial family of the Indian subcontinent descended from Timur through Babur and from Genghis Khan. The ruling Wang Clan of the Korean Goryeo Dynasty became descendants of the Genghisids through the marriage between King Chungnyeol and a daughter of Kublai Khan. All subsequent rulers of Korea for the next 80 years, through King Gongmin married Borjigid princesses. At a period, Tatar potentates of Genghisid stock included the khans of Qazan and Qasim and the Giray dynasty, which ruled the Khanate of Crimea until 1783. Other countries ruled by dynasties with descent from Genghis Khan are Moghulistan, the Northern Yuan dynasty, Kara Del, Khanate of Kazan, Qasim Khanate, the Kazakh Khanate, the Great Horde, the Khanate of Bukhara, the Khanate of Khiva, the Yarkent Khanate, the Arghun dynasty, the Kumul Khanate and the Khanate of Kokand.
The khans of the Khoshut Khanate were indirect descendants. They were descendants from a younger brother of Qasar; as the Russian Empire annexed Turkic polities, their Genghizid rulers entered the Russian service. For instance, Kuchum's descendants became Russified as the Tsarevichs of Siberia. Descendants of Ablai Khan assumed in Russia the name of Princes Valikhanov. All these families asserted their Genghisid lineage; the only extant family of this group is the House of Giray, whose members left Soviet Russia for the United States and United Kingdom. More a Russian tsar Simeon Bekbulatovich as a grandson of Ahmed Khan bin Küchük was a descendant of Genghis Khan; the Qing of China exterminated one branch of the Borjigids after an anti-Qing revolt in 1675 by Ejei Khan's brother Abunai and Abunai's son Borni against the Qing. The Qing Emperors placed the Chahar Mongols under their direct rule; the Emperors of the Qing dynasty and the Emperor of Manchukuo were indirect descendants by Qasar, a younger brother of Genghis Khan.
After the Mongol invasion of Rus', the Rurik dynasty rulers of Russian principalities were eager to obtain political advantages for themselves and their countries by marrying into the House of Genghis. Alexander Nevsky was adopted by Batu Khan as his son. Alexander's grandson Yury of Moscow married a sister of Öz Beg Khan. On the other hand, petty Mongol princelings of Genghisid stock rarely settled in Russia. For instance, Berke's nephew adopted the Christia
British Raj
The British Raj was the rule by the British Crown in the Indian subcontinent from 1858 to 1947. The rule is called Crown rule in India, or direct rule in India; the region under British control was called British India or India in contemporaneous usage, included areas directly administered by the United Kingdom, which were collectively called British India, those ruled by indigenous rulers, but under British tutelage or paramountcy, called the princely states. The whole was informally called the Indian Empire; as India, it was a founding member of the League of Nations, a participating nation in the Summer Olympics in 1900, 1920, 1928, 1932, 1936, a founding member of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945. This system of governance was instituted on 28 June 1858, after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the rule of the British East India Company was transferred to the Crown in the person of Queen Victoria, it lasted until 1947, when it was partitioned into two sovereign dominion states: the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan.
At the inception of the Raj in 1858, Lower Burma was a part of British India. The British Raj extended over all present-day India and Bangladesh, except for small holdings by other European nations such as Goa and Pondicherry; this area is diverse, containing the Himalayan mountains, fertile floodplains, the Indo-Gangetic Plain, a long coastline, tropical dry forests, arid uplands, the Thar Desert. In addition, at various times, it included Aden, Lower Burma, Upper Burma, British Somaliland, Singapore. Burma was separated from India and directly administered by the British Crown from 1937 until its independence in 1948; the Trucial States of the Persian Gulf and the states under the Persian Gulf Residency were theoretically princely states as well as presidencies and provinces of British India until 1947 and used the rupee as their unit of currency. Among other countries in the region, Ceylon was ceded to Britain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens. Ceylon was part of Madras Presidency between 1793 and 1798.
The kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan, having fought wars with the British, subsequently signed treaties with them and were recognised by the British as independent states. The Kingdom of Sikkim was established as a princely state after the Anglo-Sikkimese Treaty of 1861; the Maldive Islands were a British protectorate from 1887 to 1965, but not part of British India. India during the British Raj was made up of two types of territory: British India and the Native States. In its Interpretation Act 1889, the British Parliament adopted the following definitions in Section 18: The expression "British India" shall mean all territories and places within Her Majesty's dominions which are for the time being governed by Her Majesty through the Governor-General of India or through any governor or other officer subordinates to the Governor-General of India; the expression "India" shall mean British India together with any territories of any native prince or chief under the suzerainty of Her Majesty exercised through the Governor-General of India, or through any governor or other officer subordinates to the Governor-General of India.
In general, the term "British India" had been used to refer to the regions under the rule of the British East India Company in India from 1600 to 1858. The term has been used to refer to the "British in India"; the terms "Indian Empire" and "Empire of India" were not used in legislation. The monarch was known as Empress or Emperor of India and the term was used in Queen Victoria's Queen's Speeches and Prorogation Speeches; the passports issued by the British Indian government had the words "Indian Empire" on the cover and "Empire of India" on the inside. In addition, an order of knighthood, the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, was set up in 1878. Suzerainty over 175 princely states, some of the largest and most important, was exercised by the central government of British India under the Viceroy. A clear distinction between "dominion" and "suzerainty" was supplied by the jurisdiction of the courts of law: the law of British India rested upon the laws passed by the British Parliament and the legislative powers those laws vested in the various governments of British India, both central and local.
At the turn of the 20th century, British India consisted of eight provinces that were administered either by a governor or a lieutenant-governor. During the partition of Bengal, the new provinces of Assam and East Bengal were created as a Lieutenant-Governorship. In 1911, East Bengal was reunited with Bengal, the new provinces in the east becam
Emirate of Afghanistan
The Emirate of Afghanistan was an emirate between Central Asia and South Asia, now today's Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The emirate emerged from the Durrani Empire, when Dost Mohammed Khan, the founder of the Barakzai dynasty in Kabul, prevailed; the history of the Emirate was dominated by'the Great Game' between the Russian Empire and the United Kingdom for supremacy in Central Asia. This period was characterized by the expansion of European colonial interests in South Asia; the Emirate of Afghanistan continued the war with the Sikh Empire, which led to the invasion of Afghanistan by British-led Indian forces who did not accomplish their war objectives. However, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, the British again fought against the Afghans and this time the British took control of Afghanistan's foreign affairs until Emir Amanullah Khan regained them after the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919 was signed following the Third Anglo-Afghan War. Escalated a few years after the establishment of the Emirates in 1837, the Russian and British interests were in conflict between Muhammad Shah of Iran and Dost Mohammed Khan, which led to the First Anglo-Afghan War, fought between 1839 and 1842.
During the war, Britain occupied the country, in an effort to prevent Afghanistan from coming under Russian control and curb Russian expansion. The war ended with a temporary victory for the United Kingdom, however, had to withdraw so that Dost Muhammad came to power again. Upon the death of Dost Muhammad in 1863, he was succeeded by Sher Ali Khan. However, three years his older brother Mohammad Afzal Khan overthrew him. In 1868, Mohammad Afzal Khan was himself overthrown and replaced as Emir by Sher Ali, who returned to the Throne. Sher Ali had spent his few short years in exile in Russia, his return as Emir led to new conflicts with Britain. Subsequently, the British marched on 21 November 1878 into Afghanistan and Emir Sher Ali was forced to flee again to Russia, but he died in 1879 in Mazar-i-Sharif, his successor, Mohammad Yaqub Khan, sought solutions for peace with Russia and gave them a greater say in Afghanistan's foreign policy. However, when the British envoy Sir Louis Cavagnari was killed in Kabul on the 3 September 1879, the British offered to accept Abdur Rahman Khan as Emir.
The British concluded a peace treaty with the Afghans in 1880, withdrew again in 1881 from Afghanistan. The British in 1893 forced Afghanistan to consent to the Durand Line, still straight through the settlement area of the Pashtuns runs and about a third of Afghanistan to British India annexing. After the war, Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, who struck down the country reformed and repressed numerous uprisings. After his death in 1901 his son Habibullah Khan succeeded as continued reforms. Habibullah Khan sought reconciliation with the UK, where he graduated in 1905 with a peace treaty with Russia, stretching for defeat in the Russo-Japanese War had to withdraw from Afghanistan. In the First World War, Afghanistan remained, despite Ottoman efforts, neutral. In 1919 Habibullah Khan was assassinated by political opponents. Habibullah Khan's son Amanullah Khan was in 1919 against the rightful heir apparent Nasrullah Khan, the Emir of Afghanistan. Shortly afterwards another war broke; this war was ended with the Treaty of Rawalpindi after which, the Afghans were able to resume the right to conduct their own foreign affairs as a independent state.
Amanullah Khan began the reformation of the country and was crowned 1926 Padshah of Afghanistan and founded the Kingdom of Afghanistan. European influence in Afghanistan List of monarchs of Frank. Conflict in Afghanistan: A Historical Encyclopedia
Ancient history of Afghanistan
Archaeological exploration of the pre-Islamic period of Afghanistan began in Afghanistan in earnest after World War II and proceeded until the late 1970s when the nation was invaded by the Soviet Union. Archaeologists and historians suggest that humans were living in Afghanistan at least 50,000 years ago, that farming communities of the region were among the earliest in the world. Urbanized culture has existed in the land from between 3000 and 2000 BC. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Neolithic and Iron ages have been found inside Afghanistan. After the Indus Valley Civilization which stretched up to northeast Afghanistan, it was inhabited by the Iranic tribes and controlled by the Medes until about 500 BC when Darius the Great marched with his Persian army to make it part of the Achaemenid Empire. In 330 BC, Alexander the Great of Macedonia invaded the land after defeating Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela. Much of Afghanistan became part of the Seleucid Empire followed by the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom.
Seleucus I Nicator gave his daughter in peace treaty. The land was inhabited by various tribes and ruled by many different kingdoms for the next two millenniums. Before the arrival of Islam in the 7th century, there were a number of religions practiced in ancient Afghanistan, including Zoroastrianism, Surya worship, Paganism and Buddhism; the Kaffirstan region, in the Hindu Kush, was not converted until the 19th century. Louis Dupree, the University of Pennsylvania, the Smithsonian Institution and others suggest that humans were living in Afghanistan at least 50,000 years ago, that farming communities of the region were among the earliest in the world. Archaeologists have found evidence of human habitation in Afghanistan from as far back as 50,000 BC; the artifacts indicate that the indigenous people were small farmers and herdsmen, as they are today probably grouped into tribes, with small local kingdoms rising and falling through the ages. Afghanistan seems in prehistory, as well as in ancient and modern times, to have been connected by culture and trade with the neighbouring regions.
Urban civilization, which includes modern-day Afghanistan, North India, Pakistan, may have begun as early as 3000 to 2000 BC. Archaeological finds indicate the possible beginnings of the Bronze Age, which would spread throughout the ancient world from Afghanistan, it is believed that the region had early trade contacts with Mesopotamia. The Indus Valley Civilization was a Bronze Age civilization extending from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has been found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. Apart from Shortughai is Mundigak, another notable site. There are several smaller IVC colonies to be found in Afghanistan. Between 2000–1200 BC, a branch of Indo-European-speaking tribes known as the Aryans began migrating into the region; this is part of a dispute in regards to the Aryan invasion theory. They appear to have split into Iranic peoples and Indo-Aryan groups at an early stage between 1500 and 1000 BC in what is today Afghanistan or much earlier as eastern remnants of the Indo-Aryans drifted much further west as with the Mitanni.
The Iranians dominated the modern day plateau, while the Indo-Aryans headed towards the Indian subcontinent. The Avesta is believed to have been composed as early as 1800 BC and written in ancient Ariana, the earliest name of Afghanistan which indicates an early link with today's Iranian tribes to the west, or adjacent regions in Central Asia or northeastern Iran in the 6th century BC. Due to the similarity between early Avestan and Sanskrit, it is believed that the split between the old Persians and Indo-Aryan tribes had taken place at least by 1000 BC. There are striking similarities between Avestan and Sanskrit, which may support the notion that the split was contemporary with the Indo-Aryans living in Afghanistan at a early stage; the Avesta itself divides into Old and New sections and neither mention the Medes who are known to have ruled Afghanistan starting around 700 BC. This suggests an early time-frame for the Avesta that has yet to be determined as most academics believe it was written over the course of centuries if not millennia.
Much of the archaeological data comes from the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex that played a key role in early Aryanic civilization in Afghanistan. The Medes, a Western Persian people, arrived from what is today Kurdistan sometime around the 700s BC and came to dominate most of ancient Afghanistan, they were an early tribe that forged the first empire on the present Iranian plateau and were rivals of the Persians whom they dominated in the province of Fars to the south. Median domination of parts of far off Afghanistan would last until the Persians challenged and replaced them from rule; the city of Bactria, is believed to have been the home of Zarathustra, who founded the Zoroastrian religion. The Avesta refers to eastern Bactria as being the home of the Zoroastrian faith, but this can be a reference to either a region in modern Afghanistan or Border line of Afghan-Pakistan. Regardless of the debate as to where Zoroaster was from, Zoroastrianism spread to become one of the world's most influential religions and became the main faith of the old Aryan people for centuries.
It remained the official religion of Persia until the defeat of the Sassanian ruler Yazdegerd III—over a thousand years after its founding—by Muslim Ara
Amu Darya
The Amu Darya called the Amu or Amo River, known by its Latin name Oxus, is a major river in Central Asia. It is formed by the junction of the Vakhsh and Panj rivers, in the Tigrovaya Balka Nature Reserve on the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, flows from there north-westwards into the southern remnants of the Aral Sea. In ancient times, the river was regarded as the boundary between Greater Turan. Persian: آمودریا, translit. Âmudaryâ. Ôxos). In classical antiquity, the river was known as the Ōxus in Latin and Ὦξος in Greek — a clear derivative of Vakhsh, the name of the largest tributary of the river. In Vedic Sanskrit, the river is referred to as Vakṣu; the Brahmanda Purana refers to the river as Chaksu. The Avestan texts too refer to the River as Yakhsha/Vakhsha. In Middle Persian sources of the Sassanid period the river is known as Wehrōd; the name Amu is said to have come from the medieval city of Āmul, in modern Turkmenistan, with Darya being the Persian word for "river". Medieval Arabic and Islamic sources call the river Jayhoun, derived from Gihon, the biblical name for one of the four rivers of the Garden of Eden.
Western travelers in the 19th century mentioned that one of the names by which the river was known in Afghanistan was Gozan, that this name was used by Greek, Chinese, Persian and Afghan historians. However, this name is no longer used. "Hara and to the river of Gozan...""the Gozan River is the River Balkh, i.e. the Oxus or the Amu Darya...""... and were brought into Halah, Habor, Hara, to the river Gozan..." The river's total length is 2,400 kilometres and its drainage basin totals 534,739 square kilometres in area, providing a mean discharge of around 97.4 cubic kilometres of water per year. The river is navigable for over 1,450 kilometres. All of the water comes from the high mountains in the south where annual precipitation can be over 1,000 mm. Before large-scale irrigation began, high summer evaporation meant that not all of this discharge reached the Aral Sea – though there is some evidence the large Pamir glaciers provided enough melt water for the Aral to overflow during the 13th and 14th centuries.
Since the end of the 19th century there have been four different claimants as the true source of the Oxus: The Pamir River, which emerges from Lake Zorkul in the Pamir Mountains, flows west to Qila-e Panja, where it joins the Wakhan River to form the Panj River. The Sarhad or Little Pamir River flowing down the Little Pamir in the High Wakhan Lake Chamaktin, which discharges to the east into the Aksu River, which in turn becomes the Murghab and Bartang rivers, which joins the Panj Oxus branch 350 kilometres downstream at Roshan Vomar in Tajikistan. An ice cave at the end of the Wakhjir valley, in the Wakhan Corridor, in the Pamir Mountains, near the border with Pakistan. A glacier joins the Pamir River about 50 kilometres downstream. Bill Colegrave's expedition to Wakhan in 2007 found that both claimants 2 and 3 had the same source, the Chelab stream, which bifurcates on the watershed of the Little Pamir, half flowing into Lake Chamaktin and half into the parent stream of the Little Pamir/Sarhad River.
Therefore, the Chelab stream may be properly considered the true source or parent stream of the Oxus. The Panj River forms the border of Tajikistan, it flows west to Ishkashim where it turns north and north-west through the Pamirs passing the Tajikistan–Afghanistan Friendship Bridge. It subsequently forms the border of Afghanistan and Uzbekistan for about 200 kilometres, passing Termez and the Afghanistan–Uzbekistan Friendship Bridge, it delineates the border of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan for another 100 kilometres before it flows into Turkmenistan at Atamurat. It flows across Turkmenistan south to north, passing Türkmenabat, forms the border of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan from Halkabat, it is split by the Tuyamuyun Hydro Complex into many waterways that used to form the river delta joining the Aral Sea, passing Urgench, Daşoguz, other cities, but it does not reach what is left of the sea any more and is lost in the desert. Use of water from the Amu Darya for irrigation has been a major contributing factor to the shrinking of the Aral Sea since the late 1950s.
Historical records state that in different periods, the river flowed into the Aral Sea, into the Caspian Sea, or both, similar to the Syr Darya. The 534,769 square kilometres of the Amu Darya drainage basin include most of Tajikistan, the southwest corner of Kyrgyzstan, the northeast corner of Afghanistan, a narrow portion of eastern Turkmenistan and the western half of Uzbekistan. Part of the Amu Darya basin divide in Tajikistan forms that country's border with China and Pakistan. About 61% of the drainage lies within Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, while 39% is in Afghanistan; the abundant water flowing in the Amu Darya comes entirely from glaci
Ghurid dynasty
The Ghurids or Ghorids were a dynasty of Iranian descent from the Ghor region of present-day central Afghanistan, but the exact ethnic origin is uncertain. The dynasty converted to Sunni Islam from Buddhism, after the conquest of Ghor by the Ghaznavid sultan Mahmud of Ghazni in 1011. Abu Ali ibn Muhammad was the first Muslim king of the Ghurid dynasty to construct mosques and Islamic schools in Ghor; the dynasty overthrew the Ghaznavid Empire in 1186, when Sultan Mu'izz ad-Din Muhammad of Ghor conquered the last Ghaznavid capital of Lahore. At their zenith, the Ghurid empire encompassed Khorasan in the west and reached northern India as far as Bengal in the east, their first capital was Firozkoh in Mandesh, replaced by Herat, Ghazni. Lahore was used as an additional capital in the late Ghurid period during winters; the Ghurids were patrons of Persian heritage. The Ghurids were succeeded in Khorasan and Persia by the Khwarazmian dynasty, in northern India by the Mamluk dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.
In the 19th century, some European scholars, such as Mountstuart Elphinstone, favoured the idea that the Ghurid dynasty relate to today's Pashtun people, but this is rejected by modern scholarship, and, as explained by Morgenstierne in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, is for "various reasons improbable". Instead, the consensus in modern scholarship holds that the dynasty was most of Tajik origin. Bosworth further points out that the actual name of the Ghurid family, Āl-e Šansab, is the Arabic pronunciation of the Middle Persian name Wišnasp; the Ghuristan region remained populated by Buddhists till the 12th century. It was Islamised and gave rise to the Ghurids; the Ghurids' native language was different from their court language Persian. Abu'l-Fadl Bayhaqi, the famous historian of the Ghaznavid era, wrote on page 117 in his book Tarikh-i Bayhaqi: "Sultan Mas'ud left for Ghoristan and sent his learned companion with two people from Ghor as interpreters between this person and the people of that region."
However, like the Samanids and Ghaznavids, the Ghurids were great patrons of Persian literature and culture, promoted these in their courts as their own. Contemporary book writers refer to them as the "Persianized Ghurids". There is nothing to confirm the recent surmise that the inhabitants of Ghor were Pashto-speaking, claims of the existence of Pashto poetry from the Ghurid period are unsubstantiated. A certain Ghurid prince named Amir Banji, was the ruler of Ghor and ancestor of the medieval Ghurid rulers, his rule was legitimized by the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid. Before the mid-12th century, the Ghurids had been bound to the Ghaznavids and Seljuks for about 150 years. Beginning in the mid-12th century, Ghor expressed its independence from the Ghaznavid Empire. In 1149 the Ghaznavid ruler Bahram-Shah of Ghazna poisoned a local Ghurid leader, Qutb al-Din Muhammad, who had taken refuge in the city of Ghazni after having a quarrel with his brother Sayf al-Din Suri. In revenge, Sayf defeated Bahram-Shah.
However, one year, Bahram returned and scored a decisive victory against Sayf, shortly captured and crucified at Pul-i Yak Taq. Baha al-Din Sam I, another brother of Sayf, set out to avenge the death of his two brothers, but died of natural causes before he could reach Ghazni. Ala al-Din Husayn, one of the youngest of Sayf's brothers and newly crowned Ghurid king set out to avenge the death of his two brothers, he managed to defeat Bahram-Shah, had Ghazna sacked and burned and put the city into fire for seven days and seven nights. It earned him the title of Jahānsūz, meaning "the world burner"; the Ghaznavids lost it to Oghuz Turks. In 1152, Ala al-Din Husayn refused to pay tribute to the Seljuks and instead marched an army from Firozkoh but was defeated and captured at Nab by Sultan Ahmed Sanjar. Ala al-Din Husayn remained a prisoner for two years, until he was released in return for a heavy ransom to the Seljuqs. Meanwhile, a rival of Ala al-Din named Husayn ibn Nasir al-Din Muhammad al-Madini had seized Firozkoh, but was murdered at the right moment when Ala al-Din returned to reclaim his ancestral domain.
Ala al-Din spent the rest of his reign in expanding the domains of his kingdom. Ala al-Din died in 1161, was succeeded by his son Sayf al-Din Muhammad, who shortly died two years in a battle. Sayf al-Din Muhammad was succeeded by his cousin Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad, the son of Baha al-Din Sam I, proved himself to be a capable king. Right after Ghiyath's ascension, he, with the aid of his loyal brother Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad, killed a rival Ghurid chief named Abu'l Abbas. Ghiyath defeated his uncle Fakhr al-Din Masud who claimed the Ghurid throne and had allied with the Seljuq governor of Herat, Balkh. In 1173, Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad reconquered the city of Ghazna and assisted his Ghiyath in his contest with Khwarezmid Empire for the lordship of Khorasan. Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad captured Multan and Uch in 1175 and annexed the Ghaznavid principality of Lahore in 1186, he was alleged by contemporary historians to exact revenge for his great grandfather Muhammad ibn Suri. After the death of his brother Ghiyath in 1202, he became the successor of his empire and ruled until his assassination in 1206 near Jhelum by Khokhar tribesmen.
A
Afghanistan
Faryab Province
