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Concept
Afghan Turkestan
Summary
Afghan Turkestan, also known as Southern Turkestan, is a region in northern Afghanistan, on the border with the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. In the 19th century, there was a province in Afghanistan named Turkestan with Mazari Sharif as provincial capital. The province incorporated the territories of the present-day provinces of Balkh, Kunduz, Jowzjan, Sar-e Pol, and Faryab. In 1890, Qataghan-Badakhshan Province was separated from Turkestan Province. It was later abolished by Emir Abdur Rahman.
The whole territory of Afghan Turkestan, from the junction of the Kokcha river with the Amu Darya on the north-east to the province of Herat on the south-west, was some in length, with an average width from the Russian frontier to the Hindu Kush of . It thus comprised about or roughly two-ninths of the former Kingdom of Afghanistan.
The area is agriculturally poor except in the river valleys, being rough and mountainous towards the south, but subsiding into undulating wastes and pasture-lands towards the Karakum Desert.
The province included the khanates of Kunduz, Tashkurgan, Balkh, and Akcha in the east and the four khanates or Chahar Vilayet ("four domains") of Saripul, Shibarghan, Andkhoy (city), and Maymana in the west.
The bulk of the people are Uzbek and Turkmen with large concentrations of Hazara, Tajik and Pashtun.
Ancient Balkh or Bactria was an integral part of Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex, and was occupied by Indo-Iranians. In the 5th century BCE, it became a province of the Achaemenian Empire and later became part of the Seleucid Empire. About 250 BC Diodotus (Theodotus), governor of Bactria under the Seleucidae, declared his independence, and commenced the history of the Greco-Bactrian dynasties, which succumbed to Parthian and nomadic movements about 126 BC. After this came a Buddhist era which has left its traces in the gigantic sculptures at Bamian and the rock-cut topes of Haibak. The district was devastated by Genghis Khan, and has never since fully recovered its prosperity.
Official source
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