Bādghīs (Dari: ) is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northwest of the country, on the border with Turkmenistan. It is considered to be one of the country's most underdeveloped provinces, with the highest poverty rate. The capital is Qala e Naw, while the most populous city and the district are Bala Murghab. The ruins of the medieval city of Marw al-Rudh, the historical capital of the medieval region of Gharjistan, are located in the province near the modern city of Bala Murghab.
Badghis Province is located in the isolated hills of northwestern Afghanistan and shares its borders with Herat, Ghor, and Faryab provinces as well as Turkmenistan. The province has a total area of 20,591 km2. Hydrologically, the province is dominated by the Murghab River which is used for irrigation. It contains some mountains but is predominantly characterized by rolling hills divided by ravines.
The province is very windy; the name "Badghis" is a corruption of the Persian compound "bâd-khiz", meaning "wind source", referring to the steppe winds that blow into the province from the north and northwest. Its northern border extends to the edge of the part of the Karakum desert known as the Sarakhs desert. Northern Badghis includes the loess and other aeolian formations, known locally as the "chul", through which the Turkmen-Afghan boundary runs. Across the border in Turkmenistan is the Badhyz State Nature Reserve in the Badkhiz-Karabil semi-desert.
Before the Arab conquest, the province was the center of the Kingdom of Badghis, whose king Tarkhan Tirek resisted an Umayyad invasion in 709 AD. After the Arab conquest, the province was rebellious and it served as a haven for religious dissenters until about 1000 AD. Badghis' excellent grasslands were used as summer pastures by the Timurid dynasty in the fifteenth century. By the late 19th century, the province was devastated by Turkmen raids. In 1964, the province was carved out of portions of Herat Province and Meymaneh Province.