AFGHANISTAN in U K H Map 1. Afghanistan
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UZBEKISTAN TAJIKISTAN CHINA A A m m u Da u ry a D a TURKMENISTAN r y Balkh a Mazar-i-sharif H Baghlan S WAKHAN U CORRIDOR K AFGHANISTAN U N D H I Bamiyan Charikar Harirud Jalalabad Herat Kabul KHYBER PASS KOH-I-BABA PAKISTAN Ghazni . R Farah d an m el H Qandahar IRAN RUSSIA REGISTAN DESERT KAZAKHSTAN UZBEKISTAN TURKEY TURKMENISTAN 500 km CHINA SYRIA IRAQ IRAN 250 mi. PAKISTAN SAUDI ARABIA INDIA OMAN Map 1. Afghanistan people and places 19 UZBEKISTAN TAJIKISTAN CHINA TURKMENISTAN Kunduz FIROZKOHI Herat Kabul Arab Baluch TAIMANI Chahar Aimaq DURRANI (Firozkohi, Jamshidi, Taimani, Taimuri) Hazara Kirghiz GHILZAI Pamiris Qandahar Nuristani IRAN Pashtun Tajik UNINHABITED PAKISTAN Turkmen UNINHABITED Uzbek Map 2. Distribution of ethnic groups mixed populations, and hide the crosscutting patterns of intermarriage, bilingualism, and unity through common geography. People of a shared locality (manteqa) may display more solidarity with their immediate neigh- bors of diff erent ethnicities than they do with coethnics from other parts of the country. Whether large or small, the varied ethnic groups residing in Afghani- stan are all products of history. Since the end of the Bronze Age, if not before, new peoples have arrived (mostly from the north and west), bring- ing with them new languages and cultural practices. Th ese new groups partially displaced, but more often amalgamated with, older populations in the major river valleys and urban centers. At the same time, Afghani- stan’s rugged terrain provided refuge for older groups to maintain their people and places 37 0 5 10 20 4 0 80 Fig. 1. A high- prestige qala, measured in meters. Source: Albert Szabo and Th omas Barfi eld, Afghanistan: An Atlas of Indigenous Domestic Architecture. Austin, 1991: University of Texas Press, p. 188. duce crops such as mulberries, stone fruit, and nuts. Livestock, mostly cows and goats, are an important component of the economy, but moun- tain villagers must limit their numbers to those that can be stall fed through the winter. Th e livestock is moved to available pasture in the summer. To facilitate this, people establish special summer villages (ailoq) or, particu- larly in central Afghanistan, make use of portable huts that provide sea- sonal dwellings. 38 chapter one 0 5 10 20 4 0 80 Fig. 2. A farm village qala, measured in meters. Source: Albert Szabo and Th omas Barfi eld, An Atlas of Indigenous Domestic Architecture. Austin, 1991: University of Texas Press, p. 164. pastoral nomads Raising livestock is the primary occupation of nomadic pastoralists in Afghanistan, who by some estimates number more than a million people.24 Th ese nomads take advantage of seasonally changing pastures, spending the winter in the lowlands and the summers in the mountains. Th ey raise sheep and use camels to transport their baggage. Th e map of nomadic people and places 39 UZBEKISTAN TAJIKISTAN CHINA TURKMENISTAN Kunduz Charikar Herat Kabul Approximate limit of winter pasture land Direction of spring migration routes Grazing area of western Pashtuns (mainly Durranis) Grazing area of eastern IRAN Qandahar Pashtuns (mainly Ghilzais) Combined grazing are of western and eastern Pashtuns PAKISTAN Baluch winter quarters UNINHABITED (other Baluch mingled with Pashtuns in the north) Map 3. Nomadic migration routes migrations shows that nomads move toward the highlands of the Hindu Kush in the center of the country or the northeast toward the highland pastures of Badakhshan. Most of the nomads involved in these long- range migrations are Pashtuns, who use black goat- hair tents. Nomads from the Uzbek, Turkmen, or Kirghiz groups normally move their animals only short distances, often moving from winter pastures in the valleys to spring and summer pastures on the steppes and nearby foothills. Th ey live in yurts. A few groups also engage in the caravan trade. All are dependent on the sale of animals, cheese, clarifi ed butter, dried yogurt, wool, or skins to urban markets for cash, with which they then buy wheat. Wheat bread is the main food even of nomads in Afghanistan. people and places 43 UZBEKISTAN TAJIKISTAN CHINA Darwaz A m u D arya TURKMENISTAN Faizabad WAKHAN Aqcha SHAN Tashkurghan Kunduz Shibarghan Mazar-i-sharif Taloqan AKH D NORTH AFGHANISTAN Baghlan BA . Pul-i-khumri Maimana R n b a a g h n Doshi Murg k a ha l am a S NORTHWEST AFGHANISTAN b R. B Bamiyan Charikar NURISTAN Islam Qala Qala-i-nao Panjab Jalalabad Herat Harirud Maidan Kabul CENTRAL AFGHANISTAN Shindand Gardez Khyber ud Pass Peshawar WEST Farahr . Ghazni . R AFGHANISTAN R b EAST d a n d a n AFGHANISTAN a Farah lm h e g H r A Dilaram Qalat Girishk Qandahar . R Indus River Lashkar Gah k na Tar PAKISTAN IRAN Zaranj SOUTH Spin Boldak AFGHANISTAN R. Quetta nd Bolan Helma Pass Map 4. Afghanistan’s regions tained Afghanistan’s distinct regions: Herat in the west, Qandahar in the south, Mazar- i- sharif (Balkh) in the north, and the Kabul- Peshawar axis in the east. Th ese regions (and Afghanistan itself) are part of the larger cultural- historical unit of Turko- Persia that encompasses the entire Iranian plateau. Mountains and Rivers When the Indian tectonic plate slammed into Asia millions of years ago, it raised up an arc of mountain ranges that are among the highest in the world. Afghanistan lies within the most eastern sector of this arc. Th e main conquering and ruling 71 UZBEKISTAN TAJIKISTAN CHINA TURKMENISTAN Kunduz Mazar-i-sharif Khanabad Baghlan Pul-i-khumri Doshi Herat KabulKabul Jalalabad Farah Girishk Lashkar Gah Qandahar IRAN Irrigated cultivation Mixed dry farming PAKISTAN and grazing Forest Sparse vegetation Map 5. Land use in Afghanistan were fortunate. Th ey worked within a political system where the number of contestants for power was limited and they were only rarely challenged by the people they ruled. Premodern Patterns of Establishing Legitimacy in Central Asia and Beyond States have historically used wars of conquest as the primary means to incor- porate contested territory into their polities. For premodern states, wars of conquest were largely competitions among rival elites to control a subject population because the state as an institution was viewed as the property 156 chapter three UZBEKISTAN TAJIKISTAN CHINA TURKMENISTAN Balkh Mazar-i-sharif Baghlan Indus R. Charikar Bamiyan Herat Kabul Kabul R. Jalalabad Peshawar AFGHANISTAN Ghazni Islamabad INDIA North-West Farah Frontier Province Qandahar IRAN Quetta PAKISTAN Baluchistan Province Indus River INDIA The Durrand Line Federally Administered Tribal Areas Arabian Sea Map 6. Afghan state with modern boundary highlighting Durand line with Pakistan UZBEKISTAN TAJIKISTAN CHINA Darwaz Kokcha R. A A m m u Da Kunduz R. SHIWA u ry a D Faizabad a r PAMIR TURKMENISTAN Aqcha y Tashkurghan Kunduz a Shibarghan Mazar- Taloqan H i-sharif Baghlan S . U Maimana R N n K b a A g a T h n U Mur k a D S g I ha l am N a S I R b R. H B Charikar U Islam Qala Qala-i-nao Bamiyan Konar R. Kabul N Harirud Jalalabad Herat Panjab Maidan HAZARAJAT Kabul R. Shindand Logar R. Farahrud Ghazni Gardez . R . d R n a b Paved roads da m n Farah el a PAKTYA Dilaram H h Major unpaved roads rg A Qalat Rivers Girishk Qandahar . R Lashkar Gah k na Cities and towns Tar IRAN Zaranj Spin Boldak population SE ISTAN More than 500,000 R. PAKISTAN 150,000 to 500,000 nd Helma 100,000 to 150,000 50,000 to 100,000 All others Map 7. Contemporary Afghanistan.