Afghanistan

by A. Hamilton

Photo, Olufsen

ELDERS FROM WAKHAN

The division of Afghanistan into settled provinces is due to the initiative of Dost Mahommed, the earliest movement in this direction being the despatch of an expedition under Mahommed Akbar Khan, his son. This brought about the downfall of the khanates in the regions south of the Oxus. Turkestan, including what is now described as Badakshan, was not completely subjugated as the result of this individual’s military activities. It was not until about 1866, when Shir Ali despatched Mahommed Alum Khan to Balkh as Governor of that centre, that the operations began which were to lead to the complete conquest by Afghan arms of all the khanates contained within the Oxus region. Mahommed Alum Khan through his general, Hafiz Ullah Khan, defeated Mahmud Shah the ruler of Badakshan. By this victory the dependent states of Shignan, Roshan and Wakhan were occupied. Subsequently, the annexation of Maimana rounded off the operations which, in the first instance at the hands of Mahommed Akbar Khan and later at the instigation of Mahommed Alum Khan, had brought about the extension of the Afghan dominions to the banks of the Oxus and the Murghab. The conquered area was not to remain long without a change in the fashion of its government; one of the earliest administrative acts of Abdur Rahman was to split it up into two divisions—Afghan Turkestan and Badakshan. With this improvement upon the previous condition of their affairs, these troublous little hot-beds of anarchy and misrule were extinguished, the areas being incorporated in one or other of the two provinces; their former boundaries now represent the limits of the districts or counties into which they were converted.

The chief of these khanates was that of Kunduz, presided over by a Mir and covering 19,000 square miles. It was divided into three districts:

(1) Kunduz, with the sub-districts of Baglan, Ghori, Doshi, Killagai, Khinjan, Anderab, Khost, Narin, Ishkashim, Khanabad, Tashkurgan, Haibak.

(2) Talikhan, with the sub-districts of Talikhan, Rustak, Chiab, Faizabad, Jarm, Wakhan.

(3) Hazrat Imam, with the sub-districts of Hazrat Imam, Siab, Kulab, Tapa, Kurgan Yube, Kabadian, Muminabad.

Great changes have taken place in the territory which once belonged to Kunduz. Kulab, Muminabad, Kabadian, have passed into the possession of Russia; while Ghori, Narin, Kunduz, Baglan, Anderab, Rustak, Wakhan and Faizabad have been shorn from its territories and handed over to the province of Badakshan for administrative purposes. In the days when the Khan of Kunduz exercised jurisdiction over a belt of country extending from the Wakhan valley to the Kunduz river, the population was returned at 420,000 people, in the main composed of Uzbegs and Tajiks. At that time, too, the district of Kunduz possessed 60,000 houses, that of Talikhan 25,000 houses, while in Hazrat Imam there were 20,000 houses. Kunduz, the former capital of this territory, has fallen from its high estate. It is nowadays a mean and sparsely inhabited district; the little town itself contains barely 1500 houses, the extreme unhealthiness of the region having caused the residents of this former populous centre to abandon it. The place still boasts traces of a fortress; and a wretched citadel, situated in its north-east corner, is the seat of a petty official. Time has quite obscured the lines of the defences, and a dry ditch, which once surrounded the work, is now laid out in fruit gardens or sown with patches of corn.

West of Kunduz lay the Khanate of Khulm, now eclipsed by the more important centre of Tashkurgan. In the days of its supremacy the Khulm territory included the districts of Tashkurgan, Haibak and Khurram Sarbag. When the seat of local government was removed from Khulm to Tashkurgan, the place lapsed into decay and, now that Haibak has been brought under the direct administration of the Kabul province, Tashkurgan has become the most important centre of what was once a flourishing khanate. The town of Khulm stood out in the Oxus plain, surrounded by a belt of very productive land. The irrigation of this district was highly developed; even now there are numerous orchards and cultivated fields about the site of the ruined city. The population has disappeared and barely 100 families remain on the outskirts.