Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Kabul encyclopedia

Kabul

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For other places with the same name, see Kabul (disambiguation).

Coordinates: 34°31′59″N 69°09′58″E / 34.53306°N 69.16611°E / 34.53306; 69.16611

Kabul
کابل
Kabul Skyline
Kabul Skyline

Kabul
Province Kabul
Coordinates 34°N 69°E / 34°N 69°E / 34; 69
Population (2009)[1]
- Metro Area (2009)		 2,536,300 (1st)
Less than 5 million[2]
City Districts 18 sectors or boroughs
Area
- Elevation
1,790 m (5,873 ft)
Time zone UTC+4:30 Kabul
Mayor Abdul Ahad Sahebi
Chief of Police Mohammad Ayub Salangi[3]

Not to be confused with Greater Kabul, the province of Kabul City

Kabul (Pashto/Persian: کابل Kābul; Pashto pronunciation: [kɑːˈbol][4]; archaic Caubul), is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of over 2.5 million, and is located in the province of Greater Kabul. The exact number cannot be determined but the total provincial population of Kabul is anywhere between 3.5 to almost 5 million people.[1][2]

It is an economic and cultural centre, situated 5,900 feet (1,800 m) above sea level in a narrow valley, wedged between the Hindu Kush mountains along the Kabul River. The city is linked with Ghazni, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-e Sharif via a circular highway that stretches across the country. It is also the start of the main road to Jalalabad and, further on, Peshawar, Pakistan.

Kabul's main products include munitions, cloth, furniture and beet sugar, but, since 1978, a state of nearly continuous war has limited the economic productivity of the city. Economic productivity has improved since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan 2001.[5]

Kabul is over 3,000 years old, many empires have long fought over the city for its strategic location along the trade routes of Southern and Central Asia. In 1504, Babur captured Kabul and used it as his headquarters until 1526, before his conquest of India. In 1776, Timur Shah Durrani made it the capital of modern Afghanistan.[6] Since the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s until very recent, the city has been constantly a target of destruction by rebels or militants. It is currently in its early phases of reconstruction. [7]

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[edit] History

The city of Kabul is thought to have been established between 2000 BC and 1500 BC.[8] In the Rig Veda (composed between 1700–1100 BC) the word "Kubhā" is mentioned, which appears to refer to the Kabul River. There is a reference to a settlement called Kabura by the Persian Achaemenids around 400 BC which may be the basis for the use of the name Kabura (Κάβουρα) by Ptolemy.[9] Alexander the Great conquered Kabul during his conquest of the Persian Empire. The city later became part of the Seleucid Empire before becoming part of the Mauryan Empire. The Bactrians founded the town of Paropamisade near Kabul, but it was later ceded to the Mauryans in the 1st century BC.

Kushano-Hephthalite Kingdoms in 565 AD.

According to many noted scholars, the Sanskrit name of Kabul is Kamboj.[10][11][12][13][14] It is mentioned as Kophes or Kophene in the classical writings. Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency 1904 maintains that the ancient name of Kabul was Kambojapura, which Ptolemy (160 AD) mentions as Kaboura (from Ka(m)bo(j)pura?). Hiuen Tsang refers to the name as Kaofu (高附), which according to J.W. McCrindle,[15] Sylvain Lévi,[16] B.C. Law,[17] R.K. Mukkerji,[18] N.L. Dey[19] and many other scholars,[20] is equivalent to Sanskrit Kamboja (Kamboj/Kambuj). Kaofu was also the appellation of one of the five tribes of the Yuechi who had migrated from across the Hindukush into Kabul valley around the Christian era.[21] According to some scholars, the fifth clan mentioned among the Tochari/Yuechi may have been a clan of the Kambojas[22]

The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom captured Kabul from the Mauryans in the early 2nd century BC, then lost the city to their subordinates in the Indo-Greek Kingdom in the mid 2nd century BC. Indo-Scythians expelled the Indo-Greeks by the mid 1st century BC, but lost the city to the Kushan Empire nearly 100 years later. It was conquered by Kushan Emperor Kujula Kadphises in the early 1st century AD and remained Kushan territory until at least the 3rd century AD.[23][24] Kabul was one of the two capital cities of the Kushans.

Around 230 AD the Kushans were defeated by the Sassanid Empire and were replaced by Sassanid vassals known as the Kushanshas or Indo-Sassanids. In 420 AD the Kushanshahs (Kushan kings) were driven out of Afghanistan by the Chionites tribe known as the Kidarites, who were then replaced in the 460s by the Hephthalites. The Hephthalites were defeated in 565 AD by a coalition of Persian and Turkish armies, and most of the realm fell to those Empires.

[edit] Shahi Dynasty

Kabul became part of the surviving Shahi Kingdom of Kapisa, who were also known as Kabul-Shahan. Barhatkin was the first Shahi King [25] followed by King Khingala [26] about 5th Century .

“ The Kabul rulers are probably identical with the so called Turk Shahi kings who are known from other sources, as for instance from the work of the earlier Islamic geographer, Abu Rahyan al-Biruni. This famous encyclopedic from Choresmia lived from AD 973 to about AD 1050. and worked at the court of the later Islamic ruler of East Afghanistan, Mahmud of Ghazni. In his large work on India (Tarikh al hind), al Biruni tells that the Turkic kings of Kabul and Gandhara claimed descent from King Kanishk, while at the same time they boasted of their Tibetan origins. They reigned according to al Biruni for 60 generations.[27] ”

The rulers of Kabul-Shahan built a huge defensive wall around the city to protect it from invaders. This wall has survived until today and is considered a historical site.

[edit] Islamic conquest

In 674, the Islamic invasions reached modern-day Afghanistan. Kabul to the east fell in 871 despite the heroic resistance of the Hindushahi.[28]. However, it was not until the 9th century when Ya'qub bin Laith as-Saffar, a coppersmith turned ruler, established Islam in Kabulistan. Over the remaining centuries to come the city was successively controlled by the Samanids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Timurids, Mughols, Durranis, and finally by the Barakzais.

In the 13th century the Mongol horde passed through and took control of the area. It may have been around this time that the name "Kabul" was first given to the city.[29] A Moroccan traveller, Ibn Battuta, visiting Kabul in 1333 writes:[30]

“ We travelled on to Kabul, formerly a vast town, the site of which is now occupied by a village inhabited by a tribe of Persians called Afghans. ”

In the 14th century, Kabul rose again as a trading center under the kingdom of Timur (Tamerlane), who married the sister of Kabul's ruler at the time. But as Timurid power waned, the city was captured in 1504 by Babur and made into his headquarters or capital. Haidar, an Indian poet who visited at the time wrote "Dine and drink in Kabul: it is mountain, desert, city, river and all else."

[edit] Modern history

Nadir Shah of Persia invaded and captured the city in 1738 but was assassinated nine years later. Ahmad Shah Durrani, an Afghan military commander and personal bodyguard of Nader, took the throne in 1747, asserted Pashtun rule and further expanded his new Afghan Empire. His son Timur Shah Durrani, after inheriting power, transferred the capital of Afghanistan from Kandahar to Kabul in 1776.[31] Timur Shah died in 1793 and was succeeded by his son Zaman Shah Durrani.

In 1826, the kingdom was claimed by Dost Mohammed Khan and taken from him by the British Indian Army in 1839, who installed the unpopular puppet Shah Shuja. An 1841 local uprising resulted in the loss of the British mission and the subsequent Massacre of Elphinstone's army of approximately 16,000 people, which included civilians and camp followers on their retreat from Kabul to Jalalabad. In 1842 the British returned, plundering Bala Hissar in revenge before retreating back to India. Dost Mohammed returned to the throne.

Aerial view of Kabul in 1969.

The British invaded in 1878 as Kabul was under Sher Ali Khan's rule, but the British residents were again massacred. The invaders again came in 1879 under General Roberts, partially destroying Bala Hissar before retreating to India. Amir Abdur Rahman was left in control of the country.

In the early 20th century, King Amanullah Khan rose to power. His reforms included electricity for the city and schooling for girls. He drove a Rolls-Royce, and lived in the famous Darul Aman Palace. In 1919, after the Third Anglo-Afghan War, Amanullah announced Afghanistan's independence from foreign interventions at Eidgah Mosque. In 1929, Ammanullah Khan left Kabul because of a local uprising and his brother Nader Khan took control. King Nader Khan was assassinated in 1933 and his 19-year-old son, Zahir Shah, became the long lasting King of Afghanistan.

Kabul University opened for classes in early 1930s, and in 1940s, the city began to grow as an industrial center. The streets of the city began being paved in the 1950s.

In the 1960s, Kabul developed a cosmopolitan mood. The first Marks and Spencer store in Central Asia was built there. Kabul Zoo was inaugurated in 1967, which was maintained with the help of visiting German Zoologists.

In 1969, a religious uprising at the Pul-e Khishti Mosque protested the Soviet Union's increasing influence over Afghan politics and religion. This protest ended in the arrest of many of its organizers including Mawlana Faizani, a popular Islamic scholar.

In July 1973, Zahir Shah was ousted in a bloodless coup and Kabul became the capital of a republic under Mohammad Daoud Khan, the new President. In 1975 an east-west electric trolleybus system provided public transportation across the city. The system was built with assistance from Czechoslovakia.

[edit] Soviet invasion

After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, on December 24, 1979, the Red Army occupied the capital. They turned the city into their command center during the 10-year conflict between the Soviet-allied government and the Mujahideen rebels. The American Embassy in Kabul closed on January 30, 1989. The city fell into the hands of local militias after the 1992 collapse of Mohammad Najibullah's pro-communist government. As these forces divided into warring factions, the city increasingly suffered. In December, the last of the 86 city trolley buses came to a halt because of the conflict. A system of 800 public buses continued to provide transportation services to the city.

By 1993 electricity and water in the city was completely out. At this time, Burhannudin Rabbani's militia (Jamiat-e Islami) held power but the nominal prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami began shelling the city, which lasted until 1996. Kabul was factionalised, and fighting continued between Jamiat-e Islami, Abdul Rashid Dostum and the Hezbi Wahdat. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed and many more fled as refugees. The United Nations estimated that about 90% of the buildings in Kabul were destroyed during these years.

[edit] Taliban capture

Kabul was captured by the Taliban on September 26, 1996,[32] publicly lynching ex-President Najibullah and his brother. During this time, all the fighting between rival groups came to an end. Burhannudin Rabbani, Gulbuddin Heckmatyar, Abdul Rashid Dostum, Ahmad Shah Massoud, and the rest all fled the city.

[edit] United States invasion

Approximately five years later, in October 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan. The Taliban abandoned Kabul in the following months because of extensive American bombing, while the Afghan Northern Alliance (former mujahideen or millias) came to retake control of the city. On December 20, 2001, Kabul became the capital of the Afghan Transitional Administration, which transformed to the present government of Afghanistan that is led by US-backed President Hamid Karzai.

Kabul in 2004.

Since the beginning of 2003, the city is slowly developing with the help of foreign investment. Security was provided by US (Operation Enduring Freedom) and NATO (ISAF) forces until late 2008. Currently, the Afghan National Police (ANP) and the Afghan National Army (ANA) provide security for most of the city.

[edit] Climate

Kabul
Climate chart
J F M A M J J A S O N D
34
4
-7
60
6
-6
68
12
1
72
19
6
23
24
9
1
30
12
6.2
32
15
1.6
32
14
1.7
28
9
3.7
22
4
19
15
-1
22
8
-5
average max. and min. temperatures in °C
precipitation totals in mm
source: [1]

Kabul has a semi-arid climate with precipitation concentrated in the winter (in the form of snow) and spring months. Summers run from June to September and are moderate, with highs in the low 30s and very low humidity. The autumn months of October and November have moderate temperatures and low humidity. Winters are harsh, snowy and long, lasting from December to March. Spring in Kabul starts in late March and is the wettest part of the year.

[edit] Administration

Kabul City is one of the 15 districts of Greater Kabul (the province), and is divided into 18 sectors. Each sector covers several neighborhoods of the city. The number of Kabul's sectors were increased from 11 to 18 in 2005.

Unlike other cities of the world, Kabul City has two independent councils or administrations at once: Prefecture and Municipality. The Prefect who is also the Governor of Kabul Province is appointed by the Ministry of Interior, and is responsible for the administrative and formal issues of the entire province. The Mayor of Kabul City is selected by the President of Afghanistan, who engages in the city's planning and environmental work.

The police and security forces belong to the prefecture and Ministry of Interior. The Chief of Police is selected by the Minister of Interior and is responsible for law enforcement and security of the city.

Map of Kabul City.
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