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7 - Afghanistan to 1919

from PART I - THE ONSET OF WESTERN DOMINATION C. 1800 TO C. 1919

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2011

By
Nazif Shahrani
Edited by
Francis Robinson
Francis Robinson
Affiliation:
Royal Holloway, University of London; Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies
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Summary

The place and people

The earliest known reference to ‘Afghanistan’ as a political entity is in the pact signed by Britain and Qājār Iran in 1801. This alliance was formed against military threats in the region from France or attacks on British India by the Afghan (Durrānī Pashtūn) rulers of the kingdom of Kabul. Afghanistan as a territorially defined buffer state between British India and tsarist Russia, with its current boundaries, however, took shape during the last two decades of the nineteenth century.

This overwhelmingly Muslim (over 99 per cent), landlocked country covers an area of 647,500 square kilometers (251,773 square miles), primarily of rugged mountains, steep valleys, deserts and arid plateaus. The Hindū Kush dominate the country’s geography, topography, ecology and economy. Communications and road systems are poor, although a few difficult passes connect them with Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Located in the ‘Heart of Asia’, this ancient land has been an important crossroads for diverse peoples and their cultural and religious traditions.

In 1815 Elphinstone offered the following demographic estimates of the peoples (‘races’) inhabiting the Durrānī empire at the time: ‘Afghauns [i.e. all Pashtūn from Herāt to the Sind River] 4.3 million, Beloches [all the Balūch] one million, Tartars of all description [Uzbeks and Turkmen] 1.2 million, Persians (including Taujiks) 1.5 million, Indians (Cashmeerees, Juts, &c.) 5.7 million, and miscellaneous tribes 0.3 million’.

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The New Cambridge History of Islam , pp. 203 - 211
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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