EXPLORE THE WORLD: Cities of Afghanistan

Showing posts with label Cities of Afghanistan. Show all posts

Friday, November 11, 2011

Zaranj; a Border City in Western Afghanistan

Zaranj or Zarang (Pashto: زرنج Persian: زرنج) is a border town in south-western Afghanistan, with a population of approximately 49,851 people as of 2004. It is the capital of Nimruz province and is situated next to Milak, Iran. It is linked by highways with Lashkar Gah to the east, Farah to the north and Zabol in Iran to the west. Zaranj serves as the border crossing between Afghanistan and Iran, which is of significant importance to the trade-route between Central Asia and the Middle East.

Demographics and population:

Like in the rest of Afghanistan, no exact population numbers are unavailable. The Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) along with UNHCR and Central Statistics Office (CSO) of Afghanistan estimated the population of the district to be around 49,851 (2004). According to the same sources, Baloch make up 44% of the total population followed by Pashtuns at 34% and Tajiks at 22%.

Zaranj

History:

Zaranj is an ancient city which derives its name from Old Persian Zaranka ("waterland"; cf. Pashto dzaranda). In Greek, this word became Drangiana. Other historical names for Zaranj include Zirra, Zarangia, Zarani etc.

Per Arab geographers, prior to Zaranj the capital of Sistan was Ram Shahristan (Abrashariyar). Ram Shahristan had been supplied with water by a canal from the Helmand River, but its dam broke, the area was deprived of water, and the populace moved three days' march to found Zaranj.

In 661, a small Arab garrison reestablished its authority in the region after having temporarily lost control due to skirmishes and revolts.

In the 9th century Zaranj was the capital of the Saffarid dynasty, whose founder was Ya'qub-i Laith Saffari.

A Nestorian Christian community is recorded in Zaranj in the sixth century, and by the end of the eighth century there was a Jacobite diocese of Zaranj.

Nimruz Bridge connecting Afghanistan with Iran

Recent developments:

A new highway called Route 606 was built between Zaranj and Delaram by the Indian Government's Border Roads Organization at a cost of about US $136 million to open up a link between the deep sea port at Chabahar in Iran to Afghanistan's main ring road highway system which connects Kabul, Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif and Kunduz. The 215-km long highway, a symbol of India's developmental work in the war-ravaged country, was handed over to Afghan authorities by Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on 22 January 2009 in the presence of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta. "Completion of the road reflects the determination of both India and Afghanistan that nothing can prevent or hinder collaboration between the two countries," Mukherjee said at a function to mark this handover. On the occasion, Karzai said, the completion of the project is a message to those who want to stop cooperation between India and Afghanistan. "Our cooperation will not stop". The Taliban was opposed to this project and launched frequent attacks on the construction workers in an attempt to force the winding up of the work. A total of six Indians, including a Border Roads Organisation driver and four ITBP soldiers, and 129 Afghans were killed in these attacks.

The province has been one of the 7 (Nimruz, Helmand, Kandahar, Oruzgan, Ghazni, Paktika and Zabul) where the Taliban have been recently regrouping.

Due to its proximity to Iran, Persian artifacts and carpets or other merchandise are available in Zaranj. In addition, Iran recently received permission from the Afghan government to excavate the site of the Saffarid capital in Zaranj.

The city or town is served by Zaranj Airport.

Taloqan; a Beautiful City of Afghanistan

Takhar Provincial Governor's Office Taloqan

Tāloqān (Persian: تالقان, also transcribed Tāleqān or Tāluqān) is the capital of Takhar Province, in northern Afghanistan. It is located in the Taluqan District. The population was estimated as 196,400 in 2006.

History:

The old city to the west on the riverside was described by Marco Polo in 1275 CE as:

"a castle called Taikhan, where there is a great corn-market, and the country round is fine and fruitful. The hills that lie to the south of it are large and lofty. They all consist of white salt, extremely hard, with which the people for a distance of thirty days' journey round, come to provide themselves, for it is esteemed the purest that is found in the world. It is so hard, that it can be broken only with great iron hammers. The quantity is so great that all the countries of the earth might be supplied from thence."

In 1603, Taloqan ("Talhan") was visited by another European explorer, Bento de Góis, who was traveling with a caravan from Kabul to Yarkand (then the capital of Kashgaria).

NATO in Taloqan

Recent history:

Taloqan was the last major city to fall to the Taliban, in January 2001, after a bloody siege which claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians. Its capture by the Taliban also triggered a mass exodus in the population, with civilians fleeing towards Imam Sahib and the Panjshir Valley. Irregular Northern Alliance fighters managed to stop the Taliban advance to the north and to the east of the city, but weren't able to retake it. When Taloqan was liberated in November 2001 by Northern Alliance fighters, a mass grave containing the bodies of 70 women and children was found, reportedly the remaining families of captured/killed taleban soldiers and of ethnic Pashtuns.

Taloqan in Islamic sources

The testament of islamic Prophet Mohammad indicates that the first Mahdi is called “Ahmad”, and then we look into the narrations that refer to Al-Yamani, such as the narrations of the black standards, the treasures of Taloqan, the standards of Khurasan and the standards of the east, because there are no narrations that describe them as being disobedient or insubordinate to the standard of Al-Yamani, for he who revolts against him (Al-Yamani) will be cast into the Fire, and all the narrations confirm that those standards will fight to pave the way for the advent of Imam Al-Mahdi.

People of Taloqan Protest against NATO in 2011

Following the same narrative chain, Al-Baqir narrated the following on the authority of Jabir: [Allah Almighty has a treasure in Taloqan; it is of neither gold nor silver but consists of twelve thousand (men) in Khurasan, having “Ahmad Ahmad” for emblem. They will be lead by a Hashemite young man riding a gray mule and wearing a red headband. I can almost see him crossing the Euphrates; should you hear of his coming, rush to him even if you have to crawl over the snow.

Taloqan (a region in Afghanistan) that at that place are treasures of Allah, but these are not of gold and silver but consist of people who have recognised Allah as they should have. (Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Al-Burhan fi Alamat al-Mahdi Akhir al-zaman, p.59)

Demography:

Taloqan is dominated by Tajiks (60%). The second largest group are the Uzbeks (32%), followed by Pashtuns and Kyrgyz people.

Sheberghan; the City of Dasht-e-Laila

Shberghan

Sheberghān or Shaburghān (Persian: شبرغان), also spelled Shebirghan and Shibarghan, is the capital city of the Jowzjan Province in northern Afghanistan.

Location:

Sheberghan is located along the Safid River banks, about 130 km (81 mi) west of Mazari Sharif on the national primary ring road. Sheberghan airport is situated between Sheberghan and Aqchah.

Ethnography:

The city is the single most important Uzbek-dominatedcity in all of Afghanistan. But, although Uzbeki is the mother language of a majority of the inhabitants, the city is multi-lingual. Large numbers of Tajiks, Hazaras, Pashtuns, and Arabs live in the city per se.

Sheberghan

The Sheberghan "Arabs," however, are all Persian-speaking and have been so since time immemorial. However, they claim an Arab identity. There are other such Persian-speaking "Arabs" to the east, between Shebergan, Mazar-i Sharif, Kholm and Kunduz living in pockets. Their self-identification as Arabs is largely based on their tribal identity and may in fact point to the 7th and 8th centuries migration to this and other Central Asian locales of many Arab tribes from Arabia in the wake of the Islamic conquests of the region.

In 1856, J. P. Ferrier wrote:

"Shibberghan is a town containing 12,000 souls. Uzbeks and Tajiks, the former being in a great majority."

History:

Sheberghan was once a flourishing settlement along the Silk Road. In 1978, Soviet archaeologists discovered the famed Bactrian Gold in the village of Tillia Tepe outside Sheberghan. In the 13th century Marco Polo visited the city and later wrote about its honey sweet melons. Sheberghan became the capital of an independent Uzbek khanate that was allotted to Afghanistan by the 1873 Anglo-Russian border agreement.

Sheberghan has for millennia been the focal point of power in the northeast corner of Bactria. It still sits astride the main route between Balkh and Herat, and controls the direct route north to the Oxus/Amu Darya, about 90 km away, as well as the important branch route south to Sar-e Pol.

In 1856, J. P. Ferrier reports:

The town has a citadel, in which the governor Rustem Khan resides, but there are no other fortifications. It is surrounded by good gardens and excellent cultivation. The population of Shibberghan has a high character for bravery, and I may safely say it is one of the finest towns in Turkistan on this side of the Oxus, enjoying, besides its other advantages, an excellent climate. It is, however, subject to one very serious inconvenience: the supply of water, on which all this prosperity depends, comes from the mountains in the Khanat of Sirpool; and as there are frequent disputes between the tribes inhabiting it and those living in the town, a complete interruption of the supply is often threatened, and a war follows, to the very great injury of the place. Shibberghan maintains permanently a force of 2000 horse and 500 foot, but, in case of necessity, the town can arm 6000 men.

The heavily fortified town of Yemshi-tepe, just five kilometres to the northeast of modern Sheberghan, on the road to Akcha, is only about 500 metres (547 yards) from the famous necropolis of Tillya-tepe, where an immense treasure was excavated from the graves of the local royal family by a joint Soviet-Afghan archaeological effort from 1969 to 1979.

In 1977 a Soviet-Afghan archaeological team began serious excavations 5 km north of the town for relics. They had uncovered mud-brick columns and a cross-shaped altar of an ancient temple dating back to at least 1000 BC.

Six royal tombs were excavated at Tillia Tepe revealing a vast amount of gold and other treasures. Several coins dated up to the early 1st century CE, with none dated later.

Sheberghan has been proposed as the site of ancient Xidun, one of the five xihou, or divisions, of the early Kushan Empire.

Dasht-e-Laila Massacre

Sheberghan was the site of the Dasht-i-Leili massacre in December 2001 during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan where between 250 and 3,000 (depending on sources) Taliban prisoners were shot and/or suffocated to death in metal truck containers, while being transferred by American and Northern Alliance soldiers from Kunduz to Sheberghan prison.

Sheberghan was the stronghold of Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who had been vying with his Tajik rival General Mohammed Atta for control of northern Afghanistan.

The name of the city might be a derivative of Shaporgan, meaning "City of Shapor." Shapur, was the name of two Sasanian kings, both of whom built a great number of cities. However, Shapur I was the governor of the eastern provinces of the empire, and it is more likely that he is the builder of a great many cities in this general area that bear his name. These include, in possible addition to Sheberghan, Nishapur ("Good deed of Shapor") and Bishapur in Iran and Peshawar in Pakistan.

A Beautiful Field in Sheberghan

Economy:

Sheberghan is surrounded by irrigated agricultural land.

With Soviet assistance, exploitation of Afghanistan's natural gas reserves began in 1967 at the Khowaja Gogerak field, 15 kilometers east of Sheberghan in Jowzjan Province. The field's reserves were thought to be 67 billion cubic meters. In 1967, the Soviets also completed a 100-kilometer gas pipeline linking Keleft in the Soviet Union with Sheberghan.

Sheberghan is important in the energy infrastructure of Afghanistan:

The Zomrad Sai Oilfield is situated near Sheberghan

The Sheberghan Topping Plant processes crude oil for consumption in heating boilers in Kabul, Mazari Sharif and Sheberghan

The Jorqaduk, Khowaja Gogerak, and Yatimtaq gas fields are all located within 20 miles (32 km) of Sheberghan.

Beautiful and Historic Mazar-e-Sharif; Image Gallery

Mazār-i-Sharīf or Mazār-e Sharīf (Persian/Pashto: مزارِ شریف, ˌmæˈzɒːr ˌi ʃæˈriːf) is the fourth largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 375,181 as of 2006. It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by roads to Kunduz in the east, Kabul in the south-east, Herat to the west and Uzbekistan to the north. The city is a major tourist attraction because of its famous shrines as well as the Muslim and Hellenistic archeological sites.

Mazari Sharif means "Noble Shrine", a reference to the large, blue-tiled sanctuary and mosque in the center of the city known as the Shrine of Hazrat Ali or the Blue Mosque. But it lacks authenticity as the real Shrine of Hazrat Ali (R.A) is hidden and no one knows the real location of that.

Any way, I am going to take you on a cyber tour to the historic city of Mazar-e-Sharif. I hope you will like the journey.

Allegedly the Shrine of Hazrat Ali

Some people believe that the tomb of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad, is at this mosque in Mazari Sharif. Twelver Shi'as however, believe that the real grave of Ali is found within Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, Iraq, as was disclosed by the Sixth Twelver Shi'a Imam, Ja'far as-Sadiq. On the other hand, some believe that it is possible that the shrine in Mazari Sharif is of Zoroaster (Zarathushtra), the founder of the first universally monotheistic religion.

Abdurrasheed Dostum

This man once has been very powerful in Afghanistan and Mazar-e-Sharif especially. He is one of the biggest responsible for the destruction and disability of Afghanistan.

Cemetery of Taliban martyred in Mazar in 1998

In 1998 Taliban captured Mazar-e-Sharif and Abdul Malik, an Afghan Commander surrendered to Taliban and later he deceived them and killed thousands of Taliban who were unaware of the conspiracy of Abdul Malik.

NATO Troops in Mazar

NATO hands over the control of Mazar to local Afghans

Afghan people protest against USA Army in Mazar

Nawroz celebration in Mazar

The city is a centre for the traditional buzkashi sport, and the Blue Mosque is the focus of Afghanistan's Nawroz celebration.

Hazrat Ali's Shrine in Mazar

Blue Masjid in Mazar

Cemetery of Taliban Martyred in Mazar

None of international human rights organization or other NGOs spoke about this massacre and these guys are still forgotten. The human rights agencies and NGOs were sleeping at that time, perhaps.