Kandahar Province
The province contains about 18 districts, over 1,000 villages, and approximately 1,431,876 people (the 6th most populous province), which is mostly tribal and a rural society. The main inhabitants of Kandahar province are the ethnic Pashtuns. They are followed by the Baloch people, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkmens and Hazaras.
Etymology
There is speculation revolving around the origin of the name "Kandahar". The name Kandahar (Sanskrit: कंधार) is believed to be linguistically corrupted form of a word Gandhāra (Sanskrit: गंधार), which was used between 2000-1700 BCE. It is also believed to have started as one of many cities named after the Hellenistic conqueror Alexander the Great throughout his vast (mainly ex-Achaemenid) empire, its present form deriving from the Pashto rendering of Arabic Iskandariya = Ancient Alexandria (in Arachosia).
A temple to the deified Alexander as well as an inscription in Greek and Aramaic by the emperor Ashoka, who lived a few decades later, have been discovered in the old citadel.
History
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Excavations of prehistoric sites by archaeologists such as Louis Dupree and others suggest that the region around Kandahar is one of the oldest human settlements known so far.
...Early peasant farming villages came into existence in Afghanistan ca. 5000 B.C., or 7000 years ago. Deh Morasi Ghundai, the first prehistoric site to be excavated in Afghanistan, lies 27 km (17 mi.) southwest of Kandahar (Dupree, 1951). Another Bronze Age village mound site with multiroomed mud-brick buildings dating from the same period sits nearby at Said Qala (J. Shaffer, 1970). Second millennium B.C. Bronze Age pottery, copper and bronze horse trappings and stone seals were found in the lowermost levels in the nearby cave called Shamshir Ghar (Dupree, 1950). In the Seistan, southwest of these Kandahar sites, two teams of American archaeologists discovered sites relating to the 2nd millennium B.C. (G. Dales, University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, 1969, 1971; W, Trousdale, Smithsonian Institution, 1971 – 76). Stylistically the finds from Deh Morasi and Said Qala tie in with those of pre-Indus Valley sites and with those of comparable age on the Iranian Plateau and in Central Asia, indicating cultural contacts during this very early age...
The area was called Arachosia and was a frequent target for conquest because of its strategic location in Asia, which connects Southern, Central and Southwest Asia. It was part of the Medes territory before falling to the Achaemenids. In 330 BC it was invaded by Alexander the Great and became part of the Seleucid Empire following his death. The city then became a center of trade.
Later Kandahar came under the influence of the Indian emperor Ashoka, who erected a pillar there with a bilingual inscription in Greek and Aramaic. The territory was ruled by the Zunbils before Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate arrived in the 7th century.
The Arabs advanced through Sistan and conquered Sindh early in the eighth century. Elsewhere however their incursions were no more than temporary, and it was not until the rise of the Saffarid dynasty in the ninth century that the frontiers of Islam effectively reached Ghazni and Kabul. Even then a Hindu dynasty the Hindushahis, held Gandhara and eastern borders.
From the tenth century onwards, as Persian language and culture continued to spread into Afghanistan, the focus of power shifted to Ghazni, where a Turkic dynasty (from the Samanid city of Bokhara) proceeded to create an empire of their own. The greatest of the Ghaznavids was Mahmud, who ruled between 998 and 1030. He expelled the Hindus from Ghandhara.
Mahmud of Ghazni made the area part of the Ghaznavids in the 10th century, who were replaced by the Ghurids. After the destructions caused by Genghis Khan in the 13th century, the Timurids established rule and began rebuilding cities. From about 1383 until his death in 1407, Kandahar was governed by Pir Muhammad, a grandson of Timur.
In the early 16th century, Kandahar briefly fell to Babur. From then on the province was controlled by the Shia Safavids, as their easternmost territories. They regularly had wars with the Sunni Mughals, who ruled Kandahar as a short-lived subah (imperial province) from the 1638 conquest until its loss in 1648 to one of the Safavids' rivals.
Starting in 1709, Mir Wais Hotak rebelled against the Safavids and established the Hotaki dynasty, which became a powerful empire. In 1729, Nader Shah declared war on the Ghilzai rulers. By 1738, the last Hotaki ruler Shah Hussain was defeated in what is now Old Kandahar.
Ahmad Shah Durrani, the founding father of Afghanistan, gained control of the province in 1747 and made the city of Kandahar the capital of his new Afghan Empire. In the 1770s, the capital of the empire was transferred to Kabul. Ahmad Shah Durrani's mausoleum is located in the center of the city.
British-led Indian forces occupied the province during the First Anglo-Afghan War from 1832 to 1842. They also occupied the city during the Second Anglo-Afghan War from 1878 to 1880. It remained peaceful for about 100 years until the late 1970s.
20th century
In the mid-20th century until 1979, Kandahar city was a major stop on a popular road to India used by hippies.
In December 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. This led to a war that lasted for years, between the Soviets and a rebellion by local guerrila groups, known as the Mujahideen. The groups were usually made up of fellow members of local tribes, and were led by a chief who inherited the title.
In 1985, a major guerilla commander, Esmatullah Muslim, joined the forces of the pro-Soviet Afghan government in Kandahar. A leading official of Afghanistan's Communist Party, Hayat Khan, was killed by guerrilas in the province August 1985. The Soviets carpet-bombed the province's southern districts in 1986. Kandahar city became "mostly ruins". Guerilla plans for taking the unoccupied city were thwarted when the Soviet and Afghan government forces returned there in 1988. The Soviets eventually withdrew from the country.
In the early 1990s, the province's governor was Gul Agha Shirzai. The province under his reign was described as anarchic.
The Taliban began in Kandahar in 1994, when Mullah Omar (previously an ally of Mujahideen warlord Rais Abdul Wahid) started an Islamist movement against misrule by the Mujadhideen. He would become Taliban's Supreme Leader. The Taliban would take over almost all of Afghanistan. Under a version of Sharia law, they oppressed women heavily, although there were some minor moves towards equality in 2000. In 1997, due to international pressure, they began a campaign to rid the province of opium and heroin production, but the campaign failed.
21st century
2000s
In October 2001, as a response to the September 11 attacks, the United States and NATO (aided by the Northern Alliance) invaded Afghanistan to depose the Taliban. This began the War on Terror. Initially, it was an air war, and included the bombing of multiple targets near Kandahar city's airport. On the 20th, the war's first ground operation began with a U.S. commando raid near the airport, which the Taliban claimed was unsuccessful.
In December, Kandahar city fell to the invading forces, marking the end of Taliban government at that point. Mullah Omar's presidential palace was bombed by U.S. forces, later being rebuilt and used as a complex for U.S. Special Forces. Omar went into hiding, and pledged to keep fighting against the invasion. In a deal with the U.S., the surrendering Taliban agreed to give up their in the province. Two of the commanders who fought in Kandahar prior to the surrender were Gul Agha Shirzai, who became the province's governor again, and Hamid Karzai, who became the president of Afghanistan.
Kandahar city became a base of U.S. army forces (at Kandahar Airfield), new construction efforts, and was the site of an assassination attempt on Hamid Karzai.
In the following years, a new Taliban insurgency fought against the U.S. and NATO, mostly in Kandahar and Helmand Province. At the same time, the U.S. was searching for Osama bin Laden. Arrested terrorists or suspected terrorists were sent from the Kandahar detention center to the Guantanamo Bay naval base. Afghans detained by Canadian troops were handed over to Afghan's intelligence police, the National Directorate of Security, who (without Canadian knowledge) tortured the detainees during interrogation in jail.
Despite a new focus on gender equality, a dysfunctional legal system allowed for the continuing sale of child brides in the province. This was especially common in its northeastern area, which was discovered to be a Taliban stronghold. By 2004, U.S. and Afghan forces had started a guerrila war against them.
There was a surge in Taliban attacks in May 2006, which caused an influx of villagers across the province to leave their homes for bigger cities. Also that month, a top Taliban commander, Mullah Dadullah, was arrested. In June, a car bomb almost killed the provincial governor. Meanwhile, the U.S. started transferring authority over the province to NATO, which the Taliban used as an opportunity to move in west of Kandahar city, likely to threaten it. The U.S. and NATO started Operation Medusa in September, which reportedly killed, captured, and expelled hundreds of insurgents. However, plenty of civilian property was destroyed. A reconstruction effort began, named Operation Baaz Tsuka.
In 2009, the U.S. started planning for a new anti-Taliban operation in the province, building a presence around Kandahar city. Their Stryker Brigade was sent to the district of Spinboldak, on the Pakistan border, to shut down Taliban infiltration routes.
2010s
In 2010, Kandahar was considered the most dangerous province in the country. It had a lack of government workers, which caused an influx of insurgents. Four of its 17 districts were under Taliban control. Health services and education were "virtually absent" outside of certain towns. In March, a major provincial official, Abdul Majeed Babai, was shot and killed. In the spring, the U.S. experienced fighting before their operation could start. They attempted to attain the military backing of two influential leaders in the region, the warlord Haji Ghani and tribal leader Haji Lala, but only Ghani was receptive. Later, there were two notable incidents of U.S. soldiers massacring Afghan civilians in Maiwand District and Panjwai District.
The U.S. and NATO's combat mission in Afghanistan formally ended in 2014. By 2015, The Guardian wrote Kandahar city was considered "largely secure by Afghan standards". It had gained an extensive police force and blast walls, and commercial and domestic flights had restarted there. However, that year, the U.S. pulled funding from various development programs in the region, and there were fears it could lead to a strengthened Taliban; the Afghan national security forces were "strained" in the absence of international troops.
In 2018, Afghanistan's election commission delayed elections in Kandahar after two senior provincial officials (its police commander and intelligence agency commander) were killed in a Taliban-claimed shooting. The vote eventually took place, peacefully.
2020s
In 2021, as the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan, a Taliban offensive started taking over Afghanistan. On May 1, the U.S. withdrew from Kandahar, and the Taliban started taking nearby districts to Kandahar city. The fighting displaced 150,000 people living nearby. They took the city on August 12. Following this, women and girls in the province were banned from multiple institutions. In 2023, the office of the Taliban's spokesman was moved from Kabul to Kandahar.
Politics and governance
Yousaf Wafa is the current governor of the province. His predecessor was Rohullah Khanzada. In early 2003, Hamid Karzai transferred Sherzai from Kandahar to Jalalabad as Governor of Nangarhar Province. Sherzai was replaced by Yousef Pashtun in Kandahar.
In 2005, when Karzai won the first Afghan Presidential Elections, he appointed Yousef Pashtun as the Minister of Urban Development. After Pashtun, Asadullah Khalid governed the province until the appointment of Rahmatullah Raufi in August 2008. Raufi was replaced by Toryalai Wesa in December 2008.
Demographics
According to the National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA), the total population of the province was estimated at 1,431,876. Pashtuns make up the majority in province. There are also communities of Baloch people, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkmens, Hazaras and others. The main language spoken throughout the province is Pashto. Dari and Balochi is also understood by some, especially in the city of Kandahar where learning of Dari as a second language is promoted in public schools.
Tribes
The main tribes in the province are as follows:
- Sadozai
- Barech
- Popalzai
- Alikozai
- Barakzai
- Noorzai
- Alizai
- Ishaqzai
- Achakzai
- Momand
- Khogyani
- Mohammadzai
- Kakar
- Babai
- Tokhi
- Hotak
- Tarakai
- Loudin
- Brahui
- Quraish
- Sayed
- Yousafzai
- Zurmati
District information
In 1914 Kandahar was divided into the following districts:
- Kariajat (includes the suburbs of Kandahar and the Arghandab Valley)
- Mahalajat (Old Kandahar and surroundings)
- Daman
- Tirin
- Derawat
- Dahla
- Deh-i Buchi
- Khakrez
- Kushk-i Nakhud
- Maiwand
- Nish
- Ghorak
- Kalat-i Ghilzai
- Arghastan
- Tarnak
- Mizan
- Maruf
- Kadanai (named after the Kadanai river that flows through it)
- Shorawak
Today the province is divided into the following administrative divisions:
| District | Capital | Population | Area in km |
Pop. density |
Number of villages and ethnic groups |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arghandab | 70,016 | 606 | 116 | 79 villages. Pashtun | |
| Arghistan | 38,928 | 3,728 | 10 | Pashtun | |
| Daman | 39,193 | 4,179 | 9 | Pashtun. | |
| Ghorak | 10,895 | 1,742 | 6 | Pashtun | |
| Kandahar | Kandahar | 632,601 | 114 | 5,539 | Predominantly Pashtun, few Baloch, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek. |
| Khakrez | 25,774 | 1,738 | 15 | Pashtun | |
| Maruf | 37,333 | 3,335 | 11 | Pashtun | |
| Maiwand | 66,297 | 2,963 | 22 | 160 villages. 95% Pashtun and 5% other. | |
| Miyanishin | 17,006 | 803 | 21 | Pashtun | |
| Nesh | 15,146 | 1,110 | 14 | Pashtun. Used to belong to Uruzgan Province. | |
| Panjwayi | 98,448 | 5,841 | 17 | Pashtun | |
| Reg | 10,097 | 13,470 | 1 | Baloch and Pashtun | |
| Shah Wali Kot | 49,025 | 3,345 | 15 | Pashtun | |
| Shorabak | 13,020 | 4,153 | 3 | Pashtun and Baloch | |
| Spin Boldak | 113,727 | 2,963 | 38 | Pashtun | |
| Takhta-pul | 14,349 | 2,926 | 5 | Pashtun | |
| Zhari | 96,987 | 745,1 | 130 | Pashtun | |
| Dand | 50,752 | 617 | 82 | Pashtun | |
| Kandahar | 1,399,594 | 54,845 | 26 | 98.7% Pashtuns, 0.9% Balochi, 0.1% Tajiks, 0.1% Hazaras, 0.1% Uzbeks, 0.2% others. |
- ^ Note: "Predominantely" or "dominated" is interpreted as 99%, "majority" as 70%, "mixed" as 1/(number of ethnicities), "minority" as 30% and "few" or "some" as 1%.
Transport and economy
The Ahmad Shah Baba International Airport is located east of the city of Kandahar. It is for civilian and military use. It serves the population of southern Afghanistan by providing domestic flights to other cities and international flights to Dubai, Pakistan, Iran and other regional countries. The airport was built by the United States in the 1960s under the United States Agency for International Development program. It was later used by Soviet and Afghan forces during the 1980s and again during the 2001–2021 NATO-led war. The airport was upgraded and expanded during the last decade by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
There is currently no rail service but reports indicate that at least one will be built between the city of Kandahar and the border town of Spin Boldak in the south, which will then connect with Pakistan Railways. Ground transport of goods is done by trucks and cars. A number of important roads run through the province and this helps the area's economy. The town of Spin Boldak serves as a major transporting, shipping, and receiving site. It is being developed so that trade with neighboring Pakistan increases.
Kandahar province has bus services to major towns and village headquarters. Its capital, Kandahar, used to have a city bus service that took commuters on daily routes to different destinations throughout the city. There are taxicabs that provide transportation service inside the city as well as throughout the province. Other traditional methods of ground transportation are also used. Private vehicles are on the rise in the country, with large showrooms selling new or second-hand vehicles imported from the United Arab Emirates. More people are buying new cars as the roads and highways are being improved.
Kandahar has been known for having well-irrigated gardens and orchards, and was famous for its grapes, melons, and pomegranates. The main source of trade is to Pakistan, Iran and other regional countries. Kandahar is an agricultural area and several of the districts are irrigated by the Helmand and Arghandab Valley Authority. The Dahla Dam is located in the province, north of the city of Kandahar. There are approximately 700 greenhouses in the entire province but farmers want the government to build more.
Healthcare
There are a number of hospitals in the province, most of them in the city of Kandahar. They include Aino Mina Hospital, Al Farhad Hospital, Ayoubi Hospital, Mirwais Hospital, Mohmand Hospital, Sial Curative Hospital and Sidal Hospital.
Education
Kandahar University is one of the largest educational institutions in the province. It has over 5,000 students, about 300 of which are female students. In partnership with the Asia Foundation, Kandahar University conducted a pilot project that provided female high school graduates with a four-month refresher course to prepare for the college entrance examination. The university is one of two universities in Kandahar that serve all of southern Afghanistan. The conditions in the university are poor but improving slowly. Kandahar University is far behind many of the other universities in the country because of insecurity and shortage of funding,
There are approximately 377 public and private schools in Kandahar province. The total number of students is 362,000. Of this, 79,000 are female students. Due to insecurity and other issues, many female students drop out before obtaining a diploma. Almost 150 educational institutes were closed in the past, according to the education ministry. Some of the well known public schools in Kandahar are Ahmad Shah Baba High School, Mahmud Tarzi High School, Mirwais Hotak High School, Nazo Ana High School, Shah Mahmud Hotak High School, and Zarghuna Ana High School. Private schools include Afghan Turk High Schools.
Notable people from Kandahar Province
- Royalty and statesmen
- Abdul Aziz Hotak – Second ruler of the Hotaki dynasty
- Abdur Rahman Khan – King of Afghanistan
- Ahmad Shah Durrani – Founding father of Afghanistan (Father of the Nation)
- Ashraf Hotaki – Hotak Emir of Afghanistan and shortly Shah of Persia (1725–1729)
- Dost Mohammad Khan – Founder of the Barakzai dynasty/Emirate of Afghanistan
- Hamid Karzai – President of Afghanistan
- Hussain Hotaki – Last ruler of the Hotaki dynasty
- Mahmud Hotaki – Third ruler of the Hotaki dynasty and Shah of Persia
- Mir Wais Hotak – Founder of Hotaki dynasty
- (Mohammad) Ayub Khan – Afghan Emir, defeated the British in Second Anglo-Afghan War
- Mohammad Hashim Maiwandwal – Prime Minister of Afghanistan
- Nur Jahan – Empress of the Mughal Empire
- Sher Ali Khan – Emir of Afghanistan
- Timur Shah Durrani – Second ruler of the Durrani Empire
- Zaman Shah Durrani – Third ruler of the Durrani Empire
- Other politics, generals and administration
- Ghulam Haider Hamidi – Mayor of Kandahar who was killed in July 2011
- Abdul Ahad Karzai – Former tribal leader of Popalzai tribe, former Deputy Speaker of Afghan Parliament
- Yahya Maroofi – Secretary General of ECO
- Mohammad Arif Noorzai – tribal leader, former Deputy Speaker of Afghan Parliament
- Yousef Pashtun – Senior Advisor to the Afghan President, Former Minister of Urban Development, Former Governor of Kandahar Province
- Mohammad Omar Shairzaad - former member of the House of Elders
- Gul Agha Sherzai – Governor of Nangarhar Province
- Toryalai Wesa – Former Governor of Kandahar Province
- Muhammad Yousuf Wafa - Current Governor of Kandahar Province
- Culture
- Abdul Bari Jahani – Poet, writer, author of the Afghan National Anthem
- Abdul Hai Habibi- Poet, Writer, Historian, Founder and Developer of Academic Pashto era.
- Faizullah Kakar - Afghan epidemiologist. Previous Chief of Staff to President Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan Ambassador to Qatar, the Adviser to president for Health and Education, and the Deputy Minister of Public Health for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.