Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is within the jurisdiction of Kabul District and has an estimated population of 5,333,284 people. Located in the eastern half of the country, forming part of the Kabul Province, the city is administratively divided into five zones and 22 municipal districts. The current mayor of the city is Mawlawi Abdul Rashid.
The population of Kabul primarily speaks Dari (Persian) and Pashto. Kabul has long been Afghanistan's political, cultural and economic center. Rapid urbanization has made it the country's primate city. It is located high in a narrow valley in the Hindu Kush mountain range, and is bounded by the Kabul River. At an altitude of 1,791 m (5,876 ft) above sea level, it is one of the highest capital cities in the world. The center of the city contains its oldest neighborhoods, including the areas of Bala Hisar, Deh Afghanan and Murad Khane.
Kabul is believed to be over 3,500 years old. It was mentioned at the time of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Located at a crossroads in Asia—roughly halfway between Istanbul, in the west and Hanoi, in the east—the city is situated in a strategic location along the trade routes of Central Asia and South Asia. As a key destination on the ancient Silk Road, it is traditionally seen as the meeting point between Tartary, Hindustan and Persia. Over the centuries Kabul was claimed by various empires, including the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Greco-Bactrian, Mauryan, Kushan, Samanid, Ghaznavid, Ghorid, Khwarazmian, Timurid and others.
In the 16th century, rulers of the Mughal Empire used Kabul as their summer capital, during which time it prospered and increased in significance. It briefly came under the control of the Afsharids following Nader Shah's invasion of India, until finally becoming part of the Durrani Empire in 1747. Kabul became the capital of Afghanistan in 1776 during the reign of Timur Shah Durrani. In the 19th century the city was briefly occupied by British forces during the First and Second Anglo-Afghan wars.
Kabul is known for its historical gardens and palaces such as Arg, Bagh-e Babur, Bagh-e Bala, Chihil Sutun, Darul Aman, Tajbeg, and many more. In the second half of the 20th century, the city became a stop on the hippie trail undertaken by many Europeans and gained the nickname "Paris of Central Asia". This period of tranquility ended in 1978 with the Saur Revolution and the subsequent Soviet military intervention in 1979, which sparked a 10-year Soviet–Afghan War. The 1990s were marked by a civil war between splinter factions of the disbanded Afghan mujahideen, which destroyed much of the city. In 1996, Kabul was captured by the Taliban. The city fell to coalition forces during a United States-led invasion in 2001, and was recaptured by the Taliban in 2021 following the United States' withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Toponymy and etymology
Kabul has been known by different names throughout its history. Its meaning is unknown, but it is believed to originate before the early Muslim conquests, when the city lay on trade routes between India and the Hellenistic world. In Sanskrit, it was known as Kubha, whereas Greek authors of classical antiquity referred to it as Kophen, Kophes or Koa. The Chinese traveler Xuanzang (fl. 7th century) recorded the city as Gāofù (Chinese: 高附). The name "Kabul" was first applied to the Kabul River before being applied to the area situated between the Hindu Kush and Khyber pass (present-day Pakistan). This area was also known as Kabulistan. Alexander Cunningham noted in the 19th century that Kaofu, as recorded by the Chinese was in all likelihood the name of "one of the five Yuchi or Tukhari tribes". Cunningham added that this tribe gave its name to the city after it was occupied by them in the 2nd century BC. This "supposition seems likely" as the Afghan historian Mir Ghulam Mohammad Ghobar (1898–1978) wrote that in the Avesta (sacred book of Zoroastrianism), Kabul was known as Vaekereta, whereas the Greeks of antiquity referred to it as Ortospana ("High Place"), which corresponds to the Sanskrit word Urddhastana, which was applied to Kabul. The Greek geographer Ptolemy recorded Kabul as Καβουρα (Kabura).
According to legend, a lake existed in Kabul, in the middle of which the so-called "Island of Happiness" was located, where a joyous family of musicians resided. According to this same legend, the island became accessible by the order of a king through the construction of a bridge (i.e. "pul" in Persian) made out of straw (i.e. "kah" in Persian). According to this legend the name Kabul was thus formed as a result of these two words combined, i.e. kah + pul. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names argues that the "suggestion that the name is derived from the Arabic root qbl 'meeting' or 'receiving' is unlikely".
It remains unknown when the name "Kabul" was first applied to the city. It "came into prominence" following the destruction of Kapisa and other cities in what is present-day Afghanistan by Genghis Khan (c. 1162–1227) in the thirteenth century. The centrality of the city within the region, as well as its cultural importance as a nexus of ethnic groups in the region, caused Kabul to become known as the Paris of Central Asia in the late 20th century.
History
Antiquity
The origin of Kabul, who built it and when, is largely unknown. The Rigveda, composed between 2000 and 1500 BC and one of the four canonical texts of Hinduism, and the Avesta, the primary canon of texts of Zoroastrianism, refer to the Kabul River and to a settlement called Kubha.
The Kabul Valley was part of the Median Empire (c. 678–549). In 549 BC, the Median Empire was annexed by Cyrus the Great and Kabul became part the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550–330). During that period, Kabul became a center of learning for Zoroastrianism, followed by Buddhism and Hinduism. An inscription on Darius the Great's tombstone lists Kabul as one of the 29 countries of the Achaemenid Empire.
It is mentioned as Kophes or Kophene in some classical Greek writings. When Alexander the Great annexed the Achaemenid Empire, the Kabul Valley came under his control. After his death, his empire was seized by his general Seleucus, becoming part of the Seleucid Empire. In 305 BC, the Seleucid Empire ceded satrapies of Gandhara, including Kabul Valley, Arachosia and Gedrosia to the neighbouring Maurya Empire after a brief conflict.
During the Mauryan period, trade flourished due to the use of uniform weights and measures. Irrigation facilities for public use were developed, resulting in an increased crop harvest. People were also employed as artisans, jewelers, and carpenters.
The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom took control of Kabul from the Mauryans in the early 2nd century BC, then lost the city to their successors in the Indo-Greek Kingdom around the mid-2nd century BC. Buddhism was patronized by these rulers, and the majority of the region's population was adherent of the religion. Indo-Scythians expelled the Indo-Greeks by the mid 1st century BC, but lost the city to the Kushan Empire in the first century AD.
The Chinese Buddhist monk Hsuan Tsang refers to the city as Kaofu in the 7th century AD, which is the appellation of one of the five tribes of the Yuezhi who had migrated from across the Hindu Kush into the Kabul Valley around the beginning of the Common Era. It was conquered by Kushan Emperor Kujula Kadphises in about 45 AD, and remained Kushan territory until at least the 3rd century. The Kushans were Indo-European-speaking peoples related to the Yuezhi and based in Bactria.
Around 230, the Kushans were defeated by the Sasanian Empire and replaced by vassals known as the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom. During this period, the city was referred to as "Kapul" in Pahlavi scripts.
Kapol in New Persian means "Royal Bridge", which is due to the main bridge on the Kabul that connected the east and west of the city. In 420, the Kushano-Sasanians were driven out of Kabul Valley by the Xionites known as the Kidarites, who were then replaced in the 460s by the Hephthalites. It became part of the surviving Kingdom of Kapisa, also known as Kabul-Shahan. According to Táríkhu-l Hind by al-Biruni, Kabul was governed by princes of Turkic lineage. It was briefly held by the Tibetan Empire between 801 and 815.
Islamisation and Mongol invasion
The Islamic conquest reached modern-day Afghanistan in 642 AD, at a time when Kabul was independent. Until then, Kabul, ruled by Kabul Shahis, was considered politically and culturally part of the Indian world. A number of failed expeditions were made to Islamise the region. In one of them, Abdur Rahman bin Samara arrived in Kabul from Zaranj in the late 600s and converted 12,000 inhabitants to Islam before abandoning the city. Muslims were a minority until Ya'qub bin Laith as-Saffar of Zaranj conquered Kabul in 870 from the Hindu Shahis and established the first Islamic dynasty in the region, although the city reverted back to Shahi rule around 900. It was reported that the rulers of Kabul were Muslims with non-Muslims living close by. Iranian traveller and geographer Istakhri described it in 921:
Kábul has a castle celebrated for its strength, accessible only by one road. In it there are Musulmáns, and it has a town, in which are infidels from Hind.
Sabuktigin, the father of Mahmud of Ghazni, conquered Kabul permanently from the Shahi king Jayapaladeva around 977. Over the following centuries, the city was successively ruled by the Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Khwarazmshahs, and Qarlughids. In the 13th century, the invading Mongols caused major destruction in the region. Report of a massacre in the nearby Bamiyan is recorded around this period, where the entire population of the valley was annihilated by the Mongol troops as revenge for the death of Genghis Khan's grandson. As a result, many natives of Afghanistan fled south toward the Indian subcontinent, where some established dynasties in Delhi. The Chagatai Khanate and Kartids were vassals of the Ilkhanate until the dissolution of the latter in 1335.
In 1333, the Moroccan scholar Ibn Battuta visited Kabul and described the region as:
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. They hold mountains and defiles and possess considerable strength, and are mostly highwaymen. Their principal mountain is called Kuh Sulayman.
Timurid and Mughal era
In the late 14th century, Kabul became a major trading centre in the kingdom of Timur (Tamerlane), and in following decades was ruled by branches of Timurid dynasty. In 1504, the city was captured by Babur from its Arghun usurper after his uncle Ulugh Beg II, who had previously ruled Kabul, died in 1501, and was made his headquarters, which later became one of the principal cities of the Mughal Empire. In the early 16th century, Babur described Kabulistan in his memoirs by stating the following:
There are many differing tribes in the Kābul country; in its dales and plains are Turks and clansmen and 'Arabs; and in its town and in many villages, Sārts; out in the districts and also in villages are the Pashāi, Parājī, Tājik, Bīrkī and Afghān tribes. In the western mountains are the Hazāra and Nikdīrī tribes, some of whom speak the Mughūlī tongue. In the north-eastern mountains are the places of the Kāfirs, such as Kitūr and Gibrik. To the south are the places of the Afghān tribes.
Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat, an author and general from Moghulistan who visited at the time, wrote: "Dine and drink in Kabul: it is mountain, desert, city, river and all else." It was from here that Babur began his 1526 conquest of Hindustan, which was ruled by the Afghan Lodi dynasty by crossing the Indus River in present-day Pakistan. Babur loved Kabul and its weather that he was used to. He was initially buried in Agra but following his wish, he was later buried in Kabul. The inscription on his tomb contains the famous Persian couplet, which states:
اگرفردوس روی زمین است همین است و همین است و همین است
Transliteration:
Agar fardus rui zameen ast, hameen ast, o hameen ast, o hameen ast.
Translation:
If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, and it is this, and it is this!
Kabul remained in Mughal control for the next 200 years. Though Mughal power became centred within the Indian subcontinent, Kabul retained importance as a frontier city for the empire; Abul Fazl, Emperor Akbar's chronicler, described it as one of the two gates to Hindustan (the other being Kandahar). As part of administrative reforms under Akbar, the city was made capital of the eponymous Mughal province, Kabul Subah. Under Mughal governance, Kabul became a prosperous urban centre, endowed with bazaars such as the non-extant Char Chatta. Kabul served as a mint centre, producing gold and silver Mughal coins up to the reign of Alamgir II. It acted as a military base for Shah Jahan's central Asian campaigns in Balkh and Badakhshan. Kabul was also a recreational retreat for the Mughals, who hunted here and constructed several gardens. Most of the Mughals' architectural contributions to the city (such as gardens, fortifications, and mosques) have not survived. During this time, the population was about 60,000.
Under later Mughal Emperors, Kabul became neglected. The empire lost the city when it was captured in 1738 by Nader Shah, who was enroute to invade the Indian subcontinent.
Durrani and Barakzai dynasties
Nine years after Nader Shah and his forces invaded and occupied the city as part of the easternmost parts of his Empire, he was assassinated by his own officers, causing its rapid disintegration. Ahmad Shah Durrani, commander of 4,000 Abdali Afghans, asserted Pashtun rule in 1747 and further expanded his new Afghan Empire. His ascension to power marked the beginning of Afghanistan. By this time, Kabul had lost its status as a metropolitan city, and its population had decreased to 10,000. Interest in the city was renewed when Ahmad Shah's son Timur Shah Durrani, after inheriting power, transferred the capital of the Durrani Empire from Kandahar to Kabul in 1776. Kabul experienced considerable urban development during the reigns of Timur Shah and his successor Zaman Shah; several religious and public buildings were constructed, and diverse groups of Sufis, jurists, and literary families were encouraged to settle the city through land grants and stipends. Kabul's first visitor from Europe was Englishman George Forster, who described 18th-century Kabul as "the best and cleanest city in Asia".