Afghanistan

by A. Hamilton

As a province Afghan Turkestan ranks among the most important in the State. Before its division at the hands of Abdur Rahman it embraced much of the territory which he apportioned to the province of Badakshan, including every important khanate contained within the Oxus region. If now, when Afghanistan has been reduced to order and a settled system of administration has given place to the authority of the Khans, its revenues are less than others, its position is equal to Herat and Kandahar. In importance it has ranked hitherto with the capital province and contained the divisions of Maimana, Andkhui, Balkh and Khulm, together with a number of so-called industrial centres, including Tashkurgan, a commercial market and Mazar-i-Sharif. The limits of the province include the southern half of the Oxus basin from the frontier of Badakshan on the east to the upper waters of the Murghab on the west. The Oxus forms the northern border from the confluence of the Kokcha river to Khwaja Sala. To the south it is contained by the high mountains of the Hindu Kush, which form the dividing line of the country from east to west.

Quite lately Habib Ullah has proposed to re-distribute the various districts which make up the provinces of Badakshan and Afghan Turkestan, so that two new provinces may soon come into existence. These will have their headquarters at Mazar-i-Sharif and Khanabad respectively. The first will consist of the districts of Balkh, Akcha, Shibirghan, Andkhui and Tashkurgan, extending to the Oxus on the north and Bamian on the south. The second will take in all the country eastwards to Chitral, including Badakshan and Wakhan. Each province will have a Governor with two Deputies. Sirdar Ghulam Ali Khan, brother of the Amir, will be Governor of one, and another brother, Sirdar Omar Khan, will have his headquarters in the other. It is intended at a later date to subdivide the provinces of Herat and Kandahar in similar fashion, all the governors being of royal blood.

A BALUCHI SHEPHERD

The province of Herat extends, east and west, from near the sources of the Hari-Rud to the Persian boundary beyond Ghorian, some 300 miles; and in length, between its northern frontier and Seistan in the south, some 200 miles. As a whole the region lacks any particular industrial or agricultural activity, its present appearance suggesting that the unsettled conditions prevailing on its northern frontiers have discouraged all efforts towards local development. Although it contains such centres as Obeh and Sabzawar, besides places of less note, it is an impoverished province and requires years of honest administration before it can recover from the ill-effects of the abuses which have distinguished its existence.

Although the Herat province for a long time has been the seat of Afghan government, sometimes in subordination to Kabul or upon occasion independent, it has been, nevertheless, the object of constant attention from Persia. Since Ahmed Shah Durani founded the Durani empire Herat has ranked as one of the three chief cities of the country; and, even with the downfall of the dynasty which Ahmed Shah established and his son Timur wrecked, it has contrived to play an interesting part in the fortunes of the State, if not always an important one. But from the time when it was incorporated in the Afghan kingdom by Dost Mahommed forty-three years ago, it has experienced without any serious interruption the yoke of the Kabul Government, until, freed from the menace of Persian aggression by British intervention, it needs to-day only a period of equitable government to restore its fortunes.

At the present date the province comprises between five and six hundred villages, with some forty-five thousand households distributed over the centres of Ghorian, Sabzawar, Farah Bakwa, Kurak, Obeh, Ghor and Kala Nao. In the days when it formed a separate principality, many tribes, now lying within the Persian and Russian boundaries, were allied in arms with Herat, the prestige of its reputation enforcing a general recognition of its position and obedience to its behests. The old order has now quite disappeared. With the advance of Russia to the northern frontier of Afghanistan the independence of these roving peoples has been curtailed and their love of war suppressed, the new arrangement depriving the former khanate of no small proportion of its earlier glories. As a province of Afghanistan, Herat is the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the north-western frontier and the seat of a provincial governor; it remains to be seen whether it becomes a centre of industrial activity in connection with the army.

While it is impossible to define with absolute accuracy the various boundaries, there is no doubt that in point of size the province of Kandahar is the most extensive of any in Afghanistan. Although it has long ceased to be the seat of the supreme government of the country, this province is second to none in the value of its commercial importance, while its revenues have become an important factor in the upkeep of the kingdom. The dimensions of its wide area extend from a few miles south of Ghazni in the north-east to the Persian frontier and from the northern extremity of the Hazara country to the Afghan-Baluch border. The district centres which the province contains are Farah, Kelat-i-Ghilzai, Girishk, Laush, Khash, Barakail and Afghan-Seistan. A division of interests marks the relations existing between Kandahar and the Farah district which, although governed from Kandahar, exercises complete jurisdiction over its own revenues. Excluding this source, the local revenue, which is assessed in grain, returns a little short of a million rupees annually, the customs and town duties of Kandahar city equalling the land revenues of the entire province. Lying somewhat closer to Kabul than does Herat, Kandahar has shared the fortunes of the capital city, revealing the effect in itself of any change of rulers in Kabul. Nevertheless, while it has experienced certain intervals of independence, Kandahar province unlike Herat province has not suffered from the effects of continuous dynastic wars and the dread of Persian invasion. In general, too, the tide of its disasters has flowed from India, British armies of occupation having been in possession of its areas at various dates since Anglo-Indian arms first supported the cause of Shah Shujah. The days of British intervention have passed long since and the province, no less than the city, is now an integral part of the Amir’s dominions.