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Talk:Afghanistan/Archive 6

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checkY== Economy ==

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☒N== Economy ==

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  1. Swedish: Sverige ; Finnish: Ruotsi; Meänkieli: Ruotti; Northern Sami: Ruoŧŧa; Lule Sami: Svierik; Pite Sami: Sverji; Ume Sami: Sverje; Southern Sami: Sveerje or Svöörje; Yiddish: שוועדן, romanized: Shvedn; Scandoromani: Svedikko; Kalo Finnish Romani: Sveittiko.
  2. Swedish: Konungariket Sverige
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QUESTION

I have to ask Afghan people. Our soldiers, from the Netherlands, went to Afghanistan to help the Afghan people, to help with reconstruction, this was told to the soldiers and the people of the Netherlans by our government. But now, they are almost daily under attack, by what our government is telling "suspected Taliban fighters". Are our soldiers really welcome there, to help the Afghan people? All the news we get from there, is first controlled by our Ministry of Defence. THE BULK OF OUR TROOPS ARE AT URUZGAN, AT THE SOUTH. Do the people really want us to be there??? Rob van Doorn 01:40, 20 October 2006 (UTC) (By the way, I am even interested in the point of view, of the people there, as what the government maybe wants.)

RE:Netherland troops in Uruzgan. As far as I know, the Netherland troops have a base in Uruzgan and yes they are involved in reconstruction of the province, and to help the local Afghan government in that province. I am sure the local Afghans there welcome them for helping but the attacks are not specifically aimed at Netherland troops only. These "suspected Taliban fighters" are trained to attack all NATO troops and all Afghan government forces throughout the country. Their aim is to see all foriegn troops withdraw from the country. NATO and Afghan forces, on the other hand, are hunting them down everywhere. Uruzgan is a very isolated province with no proper road connecting to nearby cities, so now there is a highway under construction linking the capital of Uruzgan, "Tarin Kot", with Kandahar city. There are several other major projects under construction in Uruzgan, which will benefit the local people from that area. For example, like health clinics, schools, water, electricity, government institutions and etc. I don't think the Afghan people are against such benefits.

The aim is that by 2010 Afghanistan as a whole will stand on its feet. This is due to the $10.5 billion dollars that was donated to Afghanistan at the London conference in February 2006, which will be spent slowly until 2010. So for the time being, these attacks will occurr here and there until the government of Afghanistan is strong enough to handle the security of their country. You must realize that the entire country is being rebuilt from scratch, and so far, things are going well. The faster the reconstruction work completes...the faster these attacks will end. From my own point of view, the longer NATO and US troops remain in the country...local people will simply start getting adjusted to their stay and attacks will slow down or start fading. In other words, people in the country will learn to live with them, as long as they see improvements in their daily lives. NisarKand 23:49, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

  • Thanks a lot for your clear answer. But day in day out we hear that the attacks of the Taliban at the British, Canadian and Dutch in Helmand, Kandahar and Uruzgan are getting worse. NATO commanders are asking much more troops, but member countries are unwilling to send them in. Also sometimes we hear, the Afghan army is well equiped, but this weekend at a Dutch newssite we heard the report of an independent traveling journalist, saying the Afghan army and police is not so well equiped. Many British (the majority at a poll), Canadians and Dutch want their troops out of there). It is a very difficult situation. Rob van Doorn 19:09, 23 October 2006 (UTC) (Also when you read the independent reprots of the Senlis Council, a think tank, their conclusion is the NATO/international strategy is failing at the south of Afghanistan (somebody brushed the link away from the list with Organisations, but they give very worthful conclusions, some devastating conclusions for the Afghan government (widespread corruption for example) and international community. And it is a group of independent scholars, scientists, policians, who simply wants the best for the Afghan people.) ----- By the way: saturday evening out secretary of state of Defence was at television. He told that they do not know who this Taliban fighters realy are. They think they can be trained fighters, or maybe people who who get payed to take part in one or the other attack at NATO and Afghan National Army soldiers? But 19 October 2006 the Dutch government decided to sent 130 soldiers more, only to protect the soldiers who are already there. So worse the security situation is, and it is only getting worse we hear: Taliban using tactics like road-bombs, suicide attacks and hit-and-run guerrilla tactics.

opium

How does this entry not have any information about Opium production, forever a long historial staple to the Afganistan economy, which underwent an explosion after the Taliban was removed from power? --Howrealisreal 18:01, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I went ahead and did this. --Howrealisreal 17:45, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)

  • One of the conclusions of the Senlis Council is NOT to destroy the poppy fields of the south, because the people will turn against NATO and Afghan government, hunger can come to the people, and at this time the people over there need the money. Their advise is: try to chance the cultivation of it to medical use, because worldwide there is short of medical pain releavers. Also Canadian and British commanders at the ground decided not to destroy, otherwise the insurgent will grow worse.

History, Organisation of the article

One day somebody said the article became too long. But it is not longer than other country profiles. But maybe it can be a good idea to add some sub-paragraphs into the chapter about the history, and to re-organise this discussion page into subdivisions. It is just an idea to work on. By the way: the new picture of the painting is really beautiful! was it not a problem, at that time, to picture people?

A suggestion:

About the lead/introduction of the article

At the introduction is written: (...) "This force, composed of mainly US and NATO troops has protected (...)". But the US are a NATO country (So now it looks like a pleonasm, or tautology, or contradiction?). Maybe it is better to write something like: "composed of NATO troops and NATO partner nations?

It can also be a good idea to add the number of the UN Security Council Resolution? (with maybe a link to it?). (UNSCR 1386) Rob van Doorn 03:17, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N01/708/55/PDF/N0170855.pdf?OpenElement

1. Name

Etymology ...

2. History

2.1 "Oldest" time/ pre-islamic period

2. Islamic period

3. British influence

Main aricle First Anglo-Afghan War lasted from 1839 to 1842.

Return of Dost Mohammad and The Second Anglo-Afghan War (from 1878 to 1880), 1843–1880 (main article: European influence in Afghanistan)

Third Anglo-Afghan War and Independence, (main article: European influence in Afghanistan)

Note: I don't know why somebody brought the Second Anglo-Afghan War below the article European influence in Afghanistan, because at a "new" article there is always the possibility to give further and more information about a topic.

4. Afghanistan as independent nation

5. After the second world war

6. [[Rise of the Taliban

7. Offensive against the Taliban

The taliban suck

8. Karzai government

And possible sub-paragraphes, and internal links ...

The BBC News gives some (very brief) profiles of the most influential figures in the struggle to shape Afghanistan's future. Maybe the source can be useful to other writers, or to start new articles? It is last updated by the BBC Tuesday, 4 July 2006.

Hamid Karzai,Yunus Qanuni, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, General Rashid Dostum, Burhanuddin Rabbani, Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim, General Atta Mohammad, Mohammad Mohaqiq, Gul Agha Sherzai, Ismail Khan, Masooda Jalal, Shahnawaz Tanai, Sayed Muhammad Gulabzoi, Abdul Rassoul Sayyaf, Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Zahir Shah, Foreign forces, Taliban. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3706370.stm)

(Much regards, Rob)

3. Politics

4. Administrative division

5. Geography

6. Economy

Suggestion)(Sub) Paragraphs about; trade,

mining,

industry,

agriculture,

transportation, (road, aviation, ...)

banking, ... Rob van Doorn 03:36, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

7. People

7.1 Demographics

7.2 Languages

7.3 Religions

7.4 Largest Cities (can be below Geography chapter?)

8. Culture

9. Education

10. Images

Köningswinter

The afghan leaders did not meet in Bonn, but in the German town Köningswinter, near Bonn (Rob)

event

An event mentioned in this article is an August 11 selected anniversary

transition

Is Afghanistan still recognized as a transitional government or not now that Karzai has been inaugurated?


-No, Afghanistan is no longer recognized as a transitional gov't; they are now the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

support

It looks like nobody wants to remember that Taliban was strongly supported by Pakistan and CIA when it took power in 1997. Since this is non-government project I would like to remind it in this Article.

Oh, I did put some refernce to it in; unfortunately, it got wiped out. Arno 00:42, 27 Sep 2003 (UTC)
Because that sounds a lot like speculation. The CIA officially ended all operations in Afghanistan in the 1991. We can discuss unofficial CIA operations in the country as well, but then again, those would be unofficial, and therefor unverifiable. And I believe whether or not the CIA supported the Taliban doesn't deserve a mention. The fact the Taliban was present in 1997 and they were there is canon.
  • Note about methods of research: unofficial facts can be, for sure, verifiable. Evidence on the ground, pieces of paper, interview, and so on. At an article it is also possible to give different opinions about situations.

The CIA certainly supported the Pakistani intelligence agency who where prime supporters of the Taliban but I am having trouble finding (of course) mention that the CIA directly helped the Taliban after the Soviets left. I would not be surprised if it were true but it needs support. --rmhermen

To spell the name

Of all countries Afghanistan comes first in the alphabet. It also has 3 consecutive letters ("fgh"), that are consecutive in the alphabet and in alphabetical order.

  • It only looks like it are 3 consecutive letters, but /gh/ is just one sound. It is the Romanisation of the Arabic "gayn", a sound which also exists in Dari and Persian. There is a better way to spell it, for example one /g/ with a dot on it: /غ/ = /ġ/. (Rob).

dear rmhermen

dear rmhermen

Try looking through ZNet on West/Central Asia: http://www.zmag.org/terrorme.htm

e.g. http://www.zmag.org/aliqa.htm here's a cut-n-paste (which is why it's on talk)

Meanwhile the United States decided to destabilise the regime by arming the ultra-religious tribes and using the Pakistan Army as a conduit to help the religious extremists. The Americans were laying a bear-trap and the Soviet leadership fell into it. They sent the Red Army to topple Amin and sustain the PDPA regime by force. This further exacerbated the crisis and the United States gave the call for a jihad against communism. The Pakistani military thought it would help the jihad if a Saudi prince came to lead the struggle, but volunteers from that quarter were not forthcoming. Instead the Saudi regime suggested Ossama Bin Laden to the CIA. He was approved, recruited, trained and sent to Afghanistan where he fought well.

hope this helps.

As I said before we know they supported them during the war with the Soviets but what about afterward. This quote is about the Soviet War. I will search the link some and see if there is anything there. Rmhermen 06:34 Aug 28, 2002 (PDT)

Removed from article: It was expected in advance that cutting off truck transport of food and making mass food transport to and in Afghanistan even more difficult by the bombing attacks would cause about 50% of 7.5 million starving people to die. According to the definitions of the International Criminal Court, this known action of killing millions of people defined by their national group is termed genocide. The final death toll by this genocide-by-cutting-food-supplies is poorly known, but "fortunately" estimated as maybe only about 1 million.

This is an extremely POV statement and needs to be backed up by a source. This was all I could find and it certainly does not agree. Afghans Still Dying by Ian Traynor "Guardian" February 12, 2000]

“In a new study, Carl Conetta of the Commonwealth Institute estimates that up to 1,300 civilians have been killed by US bombs and at least 3,000 other Afghans

are dead because the American campaign worsened the humanitarian emergency.”

Genocide or Peace By George Monbiot Published in the Guardian 2nd October 2001

“The 19-day suspension of aid which came to an end yesterday” (Normal distribution did take a 2-3 months longer to be resumed, I believe.)

Rmhermen 06:48 Aug 28, 2002 (PDT)

I think the flag shoudl go for now as it has not yet been confirmed. Teh flags flown are of the 92 flag: ] and 73: ]

--- Both Afghanistan and Politics of Afghanistan have As of 2002 links that need updating by someone familiar with the current situation than I.... (sorry, I just update links for the most part!) Catherine

oops, great minds etc - I was just saying that in the Politics talk ... Nevilley 18:37 Feb 21, 2003 (UTC)

"Zahir was returned as King, but has largely constitutional power. "

Is this true? I never heard of it. - Montréalais

That is not true. Afghanistan is a republic, and Hamid Karzai is President and Head of State. The former king does play a role in the country, but I don't think he has any official role. Perhaps it's comparable to France, where the late Comte de Paris frequently had roles on official state occasions. john 18:40 Apr 30, 2003 (UTC)

No there is no king of Afghanistan. -fonzy

It took a fair bit of work to enter what was said about the history of Afghanistan. It would be appreciated if it was not arbitarily deleted.

Arno 11:36, 20 Aug 2003 (UTC)~

The history of this section should only give a brief overview. The more detailed history belongs at History of Afghanistan. See Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Countries for a guideline on how to apply the country template. The history section goes first and should not be ridiculously long. --Jiang 15:43, 20 Aug 2003 (UTC)
I wasn't aware of this template until now. However, it is still a poor show to simply throw away a fair bit of research without warning or explanation. I'll have to integrate what I've written later - I'm too pressed for time now.
I will put back the earthquake stuff. Arno 06:57, 21 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Is it in Central, or South Asia? Should Asia be wikified, or Central Asia / South Asia?

flag? coat of arms? controversy?

1911 Encyclopedia

Afghanistan (1911 Encyclopedia) was listed on VfD, but suggestions made that it be merged here instead. It currently redirects here, but from the page history, the original can be found if anyone wants to merge this information. It is also listed on Cleanup. Angela. 22:30, Jan 6, 2004 (UTC)

USSR intervened in the conutry not invaded, as reflected int he UN resolution A/RES/37/37 If we call "Invasion" we will need to call Invasion also to the intervention of USA in Vietnam. Milton 16:32, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

What's the government called?

The article refers to the Afghan Interim Authority (AIA) but I don't know about that. I am reliably informed that at least a year ago it was called the Afghan Transitional Islamic Administration -- at least that's what was on the Ministry for Communication's letterhead.

Why... (Southwest Asia or South Asia or Middle East)

is Afghanistan considered part of Southwest Asia even though South Asia sounds more natural to me based on its geographical location?? 66.32.144.73 02:58, 15 May 2004 (UTC)

It overlaps in many ways and is sometimes also considered part of Central Asia. It is a Middle Eastern due to its relationship with Iran which goes back a long way.

Tombseye 9 July 2005 01:45 (UTC)

No, it's considered a Central Asian country. Like Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyztan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan.
Yep, it is definitely Central Asian!

---But some consider it also as the east of the Middle-East. (Rob)

Official Government Site

Why is the website of Mohammed Zaher Shah considered an "official government website?" Listed as site of the king, sure. But I don't think it counts as official. I'm not getting into a revert war --Golbez 15:14, Jul 16, 2004 (UTC)


Last I heard the Afghans had been given their own top level domain but was being held by US/UN until the countries infrastructure was developed enough. Darthmalt 22:11, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

10 million registered voters

Just read in one of Paul Krugman's columns that some experts think that the number of registered voters exceeds the numeber of eligible voters. (A large percentage of the country is not under the control of the US/U.N./whatever there is of the Afghan government, so this might well be true. Anybody want to check this out?)

I'm interested in hearing about that. Should we also add some details about how the election was held? I understand that voters had their thumb stamped to prevent double voting. It's certainly very different than what I'm used to here in the US. Anyone have the facts on this? Jgardner 17:19, 2004 Oct 14 (UTC)
Any details should be minor, since there is already a full article on the elections. Afghan presidential election, 2004. --Golbez 17:59, Oct 14, 2004 (UTC)

Suggest 3 possible wiki links and 3 possible backlinks for Afghanistan.

An automated Misplaced Pages link suggester has some possible wiki link suggestions for the Afghanistan article:

  • Can link nation-state: ...enghis Khan]] and ]. The Afghanistan nation-state as it is known today came into existence in ] under ... (link to section)
  • Can link ethnic groups: ...he ], and a mix from other regional and ethnic groups formed from the transition government by the ]... (link to section)
  • Can link defense minister: ...trol of warlords. On ], ], Afghan deputy defense minister and powerful warlord General ] create... (link to section)

Additionally, there are some other articles which may be able to linked to this one (also known as "backlinks"):

Notes: The article text has not been changed in any way; Some of these suggestions may be wrong, some may be right.
Feedback: I like it, I hate it, Please don't link to — LinkBot 11:35, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)

counter-argument against "Pashtun majority because of recent elections" theory

The following article is taken from the "Washington Times": 

   The IRI conducted a one-day, public opinion survey on Afghanistan's election day. 
   Over 450 Afghan volunteers interviewed more than 17,000 respondents at 177 locations 
   across Afghanistan and in neighboring Pakistan where more than 700,000 refugee voters 
   also cast their votes.
   According to this survey, Karzai received support from 86 percent of Pashtun voters. 
   This was not surprising as Karzai    also belongs to this ethnic group, which is the largest 
   in Afghanistan. But unexpectedly 40 percent of Tajik voters also said they cast a ballot for Karzai.
   Tajiks are the second largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and the relations between the Tajiks 
   and Pashtuns were strained during the Taliban era because most Taliban leaders were Pashtuns. 
   The Taliban regime persecuted the Tajiks, forcing many to leave the capital, Kabul, and seek 
   refuge in the Tajik-dominated northern provinces.
   That's why when Karzai's Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim, who is a powerful Tajik militia 
   commander, broke with the Afghan president when the election campaign formally started, many predicted 
   the election could turn into a conflict between the Pashtun and Tajik ethnic groups. Fahim severed 
   connections with Karzai and decided to support a rival candidate, former Law Minister Yunus Qanooni, 
   bringing along other powerful Tajik personalities, such as Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. ...
   Besides Pashtuns and Tajiks, according to the survey, Karzai also received the support of 16 percent 
   of Uzbek and 21 percent of Hazara voters. These are the other two large ethnic groups in Afghanistan.
   ... His main rival, Qanooni, received the support of 5 percent of Pashtun voters, 34 percent Tajik, 
   9 percent Uzbek and 5 percent Hazara. Thus, although he is Tajik, Qanooni received fewer votes from his 
   own ethnic group than Karzai.
   http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20041012-031213-5906r.htm

In other words: 86% Pashtuns + 40% Tajiks + 21% Hazaras + 16% Uzbeks = Karzai's (very weak) 54,6%. On the other hand: assuming that Qanooni was voted only by Tajiks (15% of the total results = 1/3 of the total votes), that would mean that Tajiks are ca. 45% of the population (1/3 of Tajiks voted for Qanooni, 2/3 for others --> Qanooni's 15% * 3 = 45%).

So, the recent elections are not a proof that Pashtuns a majority but rather that Pashtuns are NOT the majority.

Nature of the people of Afghanistan

Afghanistan has hardly ever been a single country. It does not even completely represent a people as such, since the Pashtuns are almost evenly split between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Tajiks between Tajikistan and Afghanistan and Uzbeks with Uzbekistan. A census has never been taken, and various pieces of land has belonged to different people. In addition, almost noone can be considered indigenous of the land, due to non-stop invasions throughout the history. The approximate area of Afghanistan has also shifted quite a bit. Ancient Khwarazm was slightly to the north including Bokhara and Samarkand, and so was Bactria and Khorasan. Before the Soviet and British 'Great Game', the size of 'Afghanistan' or Khorasan was more than twice of what it is now. At times it has included lands upto the Indus river, and other times, it was a large remote province of the Persian empire.

Afghanistan for most of its history has been a collection of loosely-connected tribes, most of which lived quite autonomously. This reduces the meaning of 'rules Afghanistan' to ruling Kabul or Kandahar. Afghanistan could never be seen simply as a 'nation' or country of a 'people'. The name 'Afghanistan' was coined by a Pashtun at a time when many other ethnic groups lived autonomously within the region. The central highlands was referred to as Hazarajat or Hazaristan, and the King of Kabul or Kandahar actually paid the Emir of Hazaras for the safe passage of soldiers or traders. Afghanistan in history is best seen as a collection of Khanates in a border only visible to outsiders, who would only deal with the rulers of Kabul.

The demographics and history of Afghanistan are therefore highly disputed. Percentages of population are very frequently overstated, each ethnic group claiming 80% of the population is not uncommon. The population also fluctuates with the movements of the large number of refugees.

While the history of smaller ethnic and religious groups are lost, historians in Iran, Turkey, Pakistan etc constantly view Afghanistan as a part of greater 'Turkistan', 'greater Persia' and so on. This makes the history of the country highly biased and unreliable, and it should be viewed as such.

On the other hand, the various peoples secured their own history better, the history of Pashtuns are best read from a Pashtun perspective, Hazaras from Hazara perspective, Tajiks from Tajik perspective, and always with a grain of salt. Going further back in history, before 1600AD, the people were grouped differently, Tajiks being simply Persian, Hazaras and Uzbek being Turkic/Mongol... and going even further back, Pashtuns are split between tribes of Greek, Jewish and Aryan ancestory, and the Baloch quite possibly being an ofshoot of ancient Persia as well.

This makes the history very interesting, but very difficult to dig up.

Actually, the groups have arrived at different points in time as well. The Persian language originates in southern Iran and spreads to what is today afghanistan later. The Hazaras arrive much later as well. The Pashtuns and related Iranian tribes such as Bactrians are the earliest natives. For the record the Pashtuns are mainly related to the greater Iranian people and there is no genetic evidence to suggest that there is any substantial Greek or Jewish ancestry. It's all myth. The lack of a census makes the numbers very difficult as Tajiks claim that Persian is the majority language, while Pashtuns claim they are the majority etc. This gets down to the bickering over the demographics of cities like Kabul, which are important to both of the main ethnic groups. Very problematic actually and shows the deep ethnic and religious rivalries and frustration in the country. Tombseye 20:18, 21 October 2005 (UTC)


Although they are split into many smaller ethnic groups, they are still in one larger ethnic group (Arabs). → JarlaxleArtemis 23:21, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)
Check the demographics section of this article. I don't think that there are many Arabs at all in Afghanistan. The tribes in Afghanistan are thought to be Turkic, Persian, Mongol and some other (Pashtun?). See the Arab artcile to see what group Arabs are. Jeltz talk 14:42, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Oh no, they are definitely not all Arabs, or even under the larger classification as such. In fact, Arabian is rather small ethnicity in that country. Gibson Cowboy 05:03, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

afganistan

Bold textWhat does afganistan import and export?

Historical names

I deleted the following paragraph:

Afghanistan has gone through a few names changes in its long history. One of the first ancient names was Ariana ("Land of the Aryan"), then it’s name later changed to Khorasan which means "Land of the Sun", and today it is known as Afghanistan, meaning Land of the Afghans.

The claim that Afghanistan was once called "Ariana" is a recent falsification and you cannot find one single credible document that shows any part of Afghanistan was ever called "Ariana". This claim was made after WW-II for the first time. Some Afghans who have been challenged to prove this claim refer to "Aryana Vaego" in the Avesta, but that is clearly not anywhwere near modern Afghanistan (scholars believe Aryana Vaejo would be either right next to the Caspian Sea or the Aral Sea -- nobody has even suggested a third possibility). As for Khorasan, the name Khorasan is a Persian name and it was created during the Sassanid time (specifically, Khosraw-I) and was applied to the eastern region of Iran, because the sun arrives from the east and that is exactly what "Khorasan" in Persian means. Modern Afghanistan contains only parts of what the Old Khorasan (or the Greater Khorasan) was. Mansour 17:06, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

I am reverting back your deletion of my edit. You are in no position to refute the Embassy of Afghanistan. It clearly states it here:
--Zereshk 22:36, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

That's just a web site with no academic authority. Just because you are providing a link doesn't mean you can include any bullshit that you want in Misplaced Pages articles. Here is a link to Iranica's index, with multiple entries on both Afghanistan and Aryana. Show me where it says Aryana or Ariana is or was in Afghanistan. I think encyclopedia Iranica with hundreds of scholars working on it, each a world authority in his/her respective area of experties, is a little more authoritative than a web site of the embassy of Afghanistan. Also etymology of "Khorasan" doesn't mean "Land of the sun" it means "The place the sun comes from". And only parts of today's Afghanistan where part of the old Khorasan province. Why do you insist on inclusion of your misinformation when you are clueless on a subject? Besides, what are you trying to achieve by including this wrong information in this article? Who benefits from it and in what form? Mansour1 04:45, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

    1. I repeat, you are absolutely in no position to call the OFFICIAL website of Afghanistan's largest embassy in the world as "Bullshit", and dismiss it.
    2. Thank You for providing the EI link. I used your link and found the following statements which I am quoting from page 405 of The Encyclopedia Iranica below:
      1. "The Latinized term Ariana...is based upon Old Iranian Aryana- (Avestan Airiiana-, esp. in Airiianem vaejo, the name of the Iranians' mother country...)"
      2. "Aria,...Old Persian Satrapy which enclosed chiefly the valley of the river Hari-Rud,..., the modren Herat,..., the land south of Margiana and Bactria, in the east of the Carmanian desert, north of Drangiana , and west of paropamisadae ,... and corresponds to the province of Herat of today's Afghanistan."
    3. I've monitored your posts. What do you benefit from defending Akhond-philic retrogrades like Ahmadinejad in the recent elections, portraying American elections as undemocratic instead? That says volumes about you. Are you ashamed that Ariana is identified as being in today's Afghanistan?
Kheili kor kori mikhooni. Next time before calling me "clueless", do some research first. It will save you some aberoo.--Zereshk 17:22, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

You *ARE* indeed clueless. Yes, "Ariana" is a different spelling for "Aryana" which does indeed come from the Avestan's "Aryanem Vaejo" (specifically, in Vandidad, Fargard-e Yekom). But the "Aria" that you mention above is Greek for what is in Old Persian "Haraiva" which is modern Herat (Hari-Rud). Looks like you can't even read and understand a simple text in front of you. The Greek "Aria" has NOTHING TO DO with "Arianem Vaejo". Not even a single scholar has ever suggested that Arianem Vaejo is the same as "Haraiva or the Greek "Aria". The Greek "Aria" (Avestan: Harôyu -- Old Persian: Haraiva) is comparable to how in ancient greek texts "Hagmatana" is written "Ekbatana" or many other examples. The Old Persian satapry of Haraiva is clearly mentioned in both Darius I's Behistun Inscription as well as two of Xerxes' inscriptions. "Arianem Vaejo" on the other hand, is mentioned in the Avesta where I told you above, and numerous scholars have published works on the whereabouts of it (including our own late Dr. Bahram Farahvashi who has a full book by that title, called "Iran Vij"). Nobody (other than our great resident scholar "Zereshk" of course) thinks it is the same as Hari-Rud/Haraiva/greek "Aria".

As for "aberoo", I honestly feel sad for you, because your beahviour and edits in Misplaced Pages clearly reveal that you suffer from an inferiority complex and nearly all your edits are about image and not about contents. It is obvious that you try to present an image instead of contributing to contents. I suspect this has to do with the fact that you live in USA (according to your user page) and they have probably called you a camel rider or something along those lines, so this has resulted in the sort of pathetic behaviour that we observe from you here. Mansour1 18:35, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

  1. Stop vandalizing the page. The reference you provided specifically defines Ariane. And it con sisted of today's Afghanistan. I provided you direct quotes from here, and The Embassy of Afghanistan.
  2. Attacking other users is strictly prohibited on Misplaced Pages and can lead to your account termination. Stop attacking me.--Zereshk 23:21, 12 July 2005 (UTC)
btw, Im proud to be an American. But I am also in fact writing this from Tehran.--Zereshk 23:42, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

Well, you claimed that "Airiianem vaejo" is the same as the "Ariana" that you claim to be Afghanistan. I provided you a link to Iranica and asked you to show me where I can find this in there. You failed to show me. I also provided you with academic information which I don't think you deny its correctness. I have also mentioned three of the Achaemenids inscriptions which clearly mention both the words "Arya" (Arya in Old Persian) and the name of modern day Afghan province of Herat (Haraiva in Old Persian, which the Greeks recorded as "Aria") which is the source of this confusion and/or false claim. I have also given you the name of a highly respected scholar, Dr. Bahram Farahvashi, and the title of his book on this very subject of "Aryanem Vaejo". And you still revert to your bullshit on the account that an afghani web site says so?!! I see that you are really brilliant. As for your "proud to be American" -- how boring. Trust me, you are neither Iranian nor American. Torke tabloye taze be dorun reside cheghad zer mizane. Mansour 05:20, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

You may find it to your benefit to consult Misplaced Pages:No personal attacks. siafu 05:26, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

Zereshk, aren't you the person who has uploaded an image of Fravahr and called it Ahura Mazda and included it in that article?! I had to make a correction on that one. If you don't know the difference between Fravahr and Ahura Mazda which is fairly trivial, it would be surprising if you knew about Aryanem Vaejo which is more technical. So instead of getting upset with Mansour who is just correcting a piece of misinformation here, why don't you try to change your attitude and be thankful that someone has taken the time to correct your mistakes and even go the extra step of trying to explain to you a bit of the details? -MJ

Just because someone got x wrong doesn't mean that said user also got y wrong. Can you explain how and/or why the content that was added here is incorrect? siafu 01:00, 15 July 2005 (UTC)
There is detailed explanation right here in this very discussion about the error. Mansour's explanation is absolutely correct. The Greek "Aria" (for Old Persian Haraiva) has nothing to do with the Old Persian Arya that Darius and Xerxes called their clan or the "Aryanem Vaejo" that Zereshk seems to have mistaken for Haraiva. In other words, "Aryanem Vaejo" would not be in Afghanistan. -MJ
The detailed description, laden as it is with invective and personal attacks, is a bit too muddled to wade through. Can this be explained plainly to those of us who are not speakers of the languages in question, and not necessarily experts in Afghani and Persian/Iranian history? siafu 22:36, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

I don't know anything about this but I think that you should wait with readding it untill it has been discussed further. To me Mansour seems to have shown more evidence for his case. People should stop removing and readding the paragraph and try to resolve the issue. Jeltz talk 10:59, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

Mansour's revert war against "Ariana" and "Khorasan"

Here is why there is a revert ar going on:

Mansour (or MJ and his anonymous signatures), disputes the fact that Afghanistan was once called by the names: 1. Ariana (Aryana) 2. Khorasan. Yet the Ariana claim is verified by referring to the following sources:

  • The Embassy of Aghanistan in Washingtin clearly states this here.
  • Encyclopedia Iranica p 405 states it.
  • Ariana was also the name of an Afghan Quarterly printed in Kabul managed by Rahnavard Zariab.
  • There is an entire book called "Aryana or ancient Afghanistan".
  • The first Afghan Encyclopedia was compiled by a group called Anjuman-e Aryana. See: Anjuman-e Aryana Da’irat al-Ma`arif-e Afghanistan, Aryana Da’irat al-Ma`arif, v. III, Kabul: 1956
  • The Embassy of Afghanistan in Canada defines Aryana as: "Ancient Afghanistan" . So does Afghanistan Online: (see section: 2000 BCE- 1500 BCE). So do these websites:
  • "Ariana" is the name of Afghanistan's national airline.
  • "Ariana" is also the name of an Afghan magazine.
  • This website about Afghanistan is also called "Aryana Site".
  • This Dutch website about Afghanistan is also called "Ariana".
  • This book is about Afghanistan. See its title.
  • "Aryana, Khorasan, and today Afghanistan."
  • "Aryana was the original name of Afghanistan."
  • "According to historians, When Afghanistan was called ARYANA..."
  • "ARYANA IS PRESENT DAY IRAN AND AFGHANISTAN." (scroll down to entry by "By Dr. Ariazad")
  • "Afghanistan was called Aryana."
  • "In ancient times, the land was called Aryana."
  • From Aryana to Afghanistan: The Historic Role of the Afghan Flag.
  • "Khorasan of the Middle Ages and Aryana in antiquity, Afghanistan has seen them all pass by."
  • "I am a Tajik from Panjsher, Afghanistan (formerly known as Khorasan/Aryana)." (scroll down to Comments by second anonymous user)
  • In German: "Diese drei, Aryana in der Antike, Khurasan im Mittelalter und Afghanistan im heutigen Zeitalter..."
  • A dozen other websites...

I do not need to prove the fact that present day Afghanistan was part of Greater Khorasan as well. That is well established too, even more.

Finally, "Mansour"'s last post on 05:20, 13 July 2005 contained a racial attack against me, which is easily verifiable by anyone who speaks Farsi. Not good.

That should put an end to Mansour's revert war. Ariana was the name of ancient Afghanistan. Period.--Zereshk 00:42, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

The racial attack is a good reason to remove Mansour from the debate (and possibly wikipedia as a whole), but there may still be an argument against this position that's valid. Below here would be a good place to explain it, if anyone knowledgeable cares to. siafu 00:36, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

Wrong again. So far you have only based your claim on a bunch of obscure web sites, most probably via a google search. Iranica does NOT say that Aryanem Vaejo is in Afghanistan, nor does Iranica say that any part of Afghanistan has ever been called Ariana. If it does, paste the EXACT quote here WITH A LINK to that article. The association of Afghanistan and "Ariana" for the FIRST TIME IN HISTORY appeared after World War II and this includes the name for their airlines "Ariana Airlines". You seem to be of the mindset that no matter what, nobody should change what you put in the articles. This is indicative of poor upbringing by your parents. Your parents have produced a foolish Mr. Know It All who is not smart enough to distinguish between the real world and the our-son-is-never-wrong environment of his mommy's house. This is stupid. I have offered plenty of serious and verifiable examples that shows what you are forcefully injecting in this article is wrong, but it seems that you are only interested in a stupid and stubborn childish game of just winning an argument at any cost, no matter what the truth is. Tell me which of the following points is wrong:

1- No reputable scholar has ever claimed that Aryanem Vajo is in Afghanistan.
2- One scholar, the late Professor Bahram Farahvashi, who dedicated his life to Iranian studies and has several respectable publications, including his award winning Dictionary of Pahlavi Language, has a book by the title of "Iran Vij" which is precisely about Aryanem Vaejo which Zereshk claims to be Afghanistan. According to this book, as well as other scholars, Aryanem Vaejo is next to the Caspian Sea. Farahvashi also mentions the names of the scholars who think (and gives their reasons as to why they think) that Aryanem Vaejo is next to the Aral Sea. In no case anybody has suggested it is in Afghanistan.
3- In at least three of the Achaemenids inscriptions (by Darius I and his son Xerxes) where they mention the word Arya (that is, the Old Persian word Arya) in the SAME INSCRIPTION they also mention Haraiva (modern day Herat which was recorded as "Aria" in Greek texts) as one of the provices under their rule. The two words are DISTINCLY DIFFERENT words with different spellings. Only due to the Greek rendering of Haraiva as Aria this confusion exists today (and even then, it surfaces after World War II, because someone found a way to associate Afghanistan with "Aryan" and others picked it up.)
4- Unlike what Zereshk claims, Encyclopedia Iranica DOES NOT say that Afghanistan is the same as Aryanem Vaejo nor does it anywhere say that Afghanistan has EVER been called "Ariana".
5- Show me one authentic source from BEFORE WORLD WAR II, that shows any part of Afghanistan has ever been called "Ariana" or "Aryana". Just one source would be enough, but it has to be an authentic and academically acceptable source, and NOT a bunch of afghani web sites from the 21st century. By repeating that the "official afghanis website says so" you only show how weak your argument is.
6- Last but not least, in your revert message you offered the reason "the OFFICIAL POSITION of The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan" -- well, that is not good enough. Misplaced Pages is an encyclopedia not the official website of Afghanistan. The "OFFICIAL POSITION of The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan" is irrelevant here. We are interested in correct information. Mansour 01:05, 16 July 2005 (UTC)


OK Zereshk, thank you very much for suggesting that we should read the "Aria" entry of the Iranica. I paste your own EXACT link here "(look up "Aria")" -- please everybody, read his own link. Look up Aria and in there it clearly says: "ARIA, name of a region in the eastern part of the Persian Empire, several times confused with Ariane in the classic sources" and it also explains more in two sub-items about this confusion. And it basically says what I have been saying all along that simply this "Aria" is a greek/latin rendering of "Haraiva". Mansour 01:18, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

  1. Nobody cares what Aryanem Vaejo is, because it doesnt appear in the text on the Afghanistan page.
  2. I have provided 27 sources as proof that Afghanistan was called Aryana (Ariana) in ancient times. Strabo first gave a lengthy account of Ariana as mentioned in EI p405 item #2.
  3. EI, p 405, item 2, defines Ariana's boundaries, starting from line 8. Today's Afghanistan clearly falls inside that territory.
  4. Your last argument doesnt hold either because I have been quoting everything only out of item #2, hence no confusion.
  5. Afghanistan was part of Greater Khorasan as well, a fact which you keep deleting.

Im sorry Mansour, but you simply cannot revise history. The Afghans like the Iranians were part of the Aryan family, and you know it.--Zereshk 02:46, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

And you owe me an apology for attacking me with a racial insult.--Zereshk 02:56, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

I raised 6 points, of which you did not answer any. And in your item 1 above you say "nobody cares what Aryanem Vaejo is"!! I guess you forgot that this was your first claim (it's still on this page!). Allow me to refresh your memory ... you wrote: "The Latinized term Ariana...is based upon Old Iranian Aryana- (Avestan Airiiana-, esp. in Airiianem vaejo, the name of the Iranians' mother country...)". It was you who brought up that term for the first time to support your claim, now you say nobody should care about it?!! I copied the EXACT statement from Encyclopedia Iranica from THE VERY ARTICLE which you yourself were using to support your baseless claim, and now you are pretending as if nothing happened, and you are back to your long list of meaningless google-searched mostly-afghani obscure and/or personal web sites. I will not bother to retype my 6 points above. They are legit and every observer can see them. Asnwer the points. Encyclopedia Iranica is an infinitely more reliable source than some personal web site from an afghan guy who somewho is happy to believe that Afghanistan = Ariana.
"...historians trace the origin of the country into remote prehistory, referring to it as ancient Aryana, or Land of The Aryan." p109, Encyclopedia International, ISBN 0717207048 --Zereshk 09:21, 17 July 2005 (UTC)
Regarding EI page 405 item no.2, this is about ARIA which I pointed out above in bold from the start of the same article. It FIRST EXPLAINS about the confusion about this term with "Ariane" in the classic sources and then goes on to explain the two items. Can't you read and understand simple English in front of your eyes? Even if we ignore all that, STILL, it would only make modern-day Afghanistan a small part of the so-called "Ariana"; so why do you say the name was changed from "ariana" to "khorasan" to "afghanistan" ?!! that is ridiculous.
Item #2 talks about Ariana, not Aria. Aria was part of Ariana, as is stated in line 20 of item#2. Stop attacking me. Please maintain your tone civil. Attack the argument. Not the person.--Zereshk 23:39, 16 July 2005 (UTC)
As for deleting the Khorasan part, it is because it says "Afghanistan later changed its name to Khorasan". Well, that is a gross misstatement. First because Afghanistan has never ever been called "Ariana" and secondly, even if it was called "Ariana", it is wrong to say it changed it's name to Khorasan because a) Khorasan was a much larger land/province than all of Afghanistan today, b) only parts the country today known as Afghanistan used to be part of the greater Khorasan, not all of modern-day Afghanistan, c) Khorasan was the eastern province of Iran which was named "Khorasan" (etymology: "the place the sun arrives ") during the Sassanid reign (specifiaclly, it was named during the reign of Khosraw I a.k.a Khosraw Anushirwan) and even today the eastern province(s) of Iran are called Khorasan. To say that Afghanistan = Khorasan is complete BS. Mansour 04:44, 16 July 2005 (UTC)
  1. Nobody is saying Khorasan = Afghanistan. Youre twisting my words. All we are saying is that Afghanistan was recognized by that name. (but so was current eastern Iran.)
  2. All of Aghanistan (not just parts of it) was in fact part of Khorasan. Dehkhoda clearly states:

این اسم ... بطور کلی بر تمام ایالات اسلامی که در سمت خاور کویر لوت تا کوههای هند واقع بودند اطلاق میگردید

(trans: "this name was given to all Islamic lands east of Kevir-e Lut desert, all the way up to the Indian muntains.")

Pamir and Hindukosh are then afterwards specifically mentioned in the text. See p8457 for more details.

Furthermore, if you read Baladhuri and Hamavi's accounts, the cities they name as being part of Khorasan include almost every city in today's Afghanistan. And what gives the Afghani Khorasan claim even more legitimacy is the fact that Dehkhoda quotes historians in saying that Khorasan was made up of 4 quarters: Merv, Balkh, Bukhara, Herat. Only one is inside today's Iran. The center of gravity was more to the east.

In any case, check out the revised version of the section on the Afghanistan page. See if you agree. It's been worded carefully.--Zereshk 23:39, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

You really are astonishingly stupid AND STUBBORN. Moron, the four cities above are just 4 of many many many cities and villages in the HUGE province of the Khorasan. And unlike what you think of the above four none is in Iran; and Merv and Bukhara are not in Afghanistan. What the hell is the point of mentioning only 4 cities out of scores of cities? Modern Afghanistan is not any more or less "khorasan" than modern Iran or modern Uzbekistan or parts of modern Turkmenistan is. You clearly have no grasp on this subject. What can we expect from a Turkic mutt who thinks "Fravahr=Ahura Mazda" and thinks "Aryana=Afghanistan" and thinks "Khorasan=Afghanistan"? I honestly wish I had your brain .... I would feed it to my plants. I am done with you, you are a complete waste of time. Go ahead and put whatever bullshit you wish in the article and be happy that "you won" cuz your only aim seems to be just winning the argument at any cost, regardless of the facts, and that level of "intelligence" is more than I can handle. If you had even a modicum of a brain, I would have attempted to teach you what yeki bar sare shakh bon miborid means.
I am warning you to stop attacking me. This is your second racial attack against me. Nevertheless, I will go ahead and answer your objections this time. If you attack me one more time, I will have you dealt with properly. You and all the anonymous accounts.
  • They were not "four cities", but 4 regions (nahiyeh) centered around those cities. Two were in current Afghanistan. One in current Turkmenia. One in current Iran. Im not saying this. Dehkhoda is. I provided you a specific page number. I repeat: Im not saying "Afghanistan = Khorasan". Im only saying that Afghanistan was ALSO known by that name. And the center of mass was more to the east than today's Iranian Khorasan.
  • The text you deleted clearly said: "Afghanistan evolved into part of Greater Khorasan,...". I will try to emphasize this in my next edit to correct your confusion.
  • For the Ariana case, you also deleted the text, even though I added the pharse "...according to Afghan historians..." to incorporate your view as well. And I provided clear documentation from Encyclopedia International supporting the Ariana case. In addition to the 27 sources earlier provided, not all of which were Afghani sources as you claim.--Zereshk 09:21, 17 July 2005 (UTC)
Just as an observer of this long thread, Zereshk, aren't you cheating here? You had first written "Merv, Balkh, Bukhara, Herat." as the four names and claimed one is in Iran. When Mansour pointed out that you don't even know that of those four famous places of Khorasan none is in Iran, you then changed what you had written earlier to "Merv, Balkh, Neishabur, Herat." and wrote in bold face that One is in current Iran. That's unbelievably low. --Paul Chiu
When Mansour mentioned "Bukhara", I realized that I had miscopied the names. Sorry about that. The correct 4 are "Balkh, Herat, Merv, Neishabur". This can be verified.--Zereshk 21:44, 17 July 2005 (UTC)
OK, no problem. But I will restore your original writing back, because it is obviously wrong to go back and change what one had written before AFTER people have responded to the original writing. Please do not do this again in the future. By the way, your "correction" to article has another problem which actually replaces a correct bit of information with misinformation. The "stan" part unlike what you have written is actually "istan" and it is not a word, it is a suffix. I advise you to refer to some academic sources regarding that particular suffix. --Paul Chiu
  • Reverting or changing other people's statements on talk pages is a Big no no here on Misplaced Pages. You can only point to what I did by posting a comment. But you cannot change my statements. This is a talk page, not the main article.
  • My argument still holds one way or the other, because I provided a source: Dehkhoda p8457.
  • I did not author the third paragraph about the -stan part.
  • Misplaced Pages does not tolerate personal attacks of any form. Abusers can and are permanently banned.--Zereshk 04:59, 20 July 2005 (UTC)
It looks like just about all your activities (both in articles and discussion areas) end up in fights, trouble, tension and the like. the ONLY EXCEPTIONS are when you are toadying up to an admin. It appears that anything that anybody does that you dislike is immediately labelled "personal attack" or "vandalism". You have no right to go back and edit an error that you have already made in an argument that has been going on for some time and to which your opponent has ALREADY RESPONDED and then turn around and change what you had originally written and make your opponent look like a fool when it was clearly you who was mistaken. Nobody will support you for such a dishonorable behavior in Misplaced Pages and if you want we can go to the admin's board and put this up for judgement. Also, this sort of behavior is a sure bet to make you very unpopular among most admins very fast. I am restoring the text to the original posting, again. If you change it again, next step will be admin's board and I will also open an official request for judgement on this issue for the sake prevention of future dishonorable behavior in Misplaced Pages as well as ensuring someone like you is never nominated for adminship. I can't really believe your behavior. I certainly hope I don't live in a world where people like you outnumber the honorable ones. --Paul chiu
You have already violated Misplaced Pages law by turning a talk page into a personal dispute that is irrelevant to the topic of this page. That and the fact that you have personally attcaked me (instead of my argument) is enough to take you to ArbCom. And you have already attacked me according to Misplaced Pages definitions:
"It is considered a personal attack when a person starts referencing a supposed flaw or weakness in an individual's personality, beliefs, lifestyle, convictions or principles, and use it as a debate tactic or as a means of avoiding discussion of the relevance or truthfulness of what the person said." See: Personal attack
I have already requested the page be monitored by Admin surveillance. Please stop attacking me, and instead let us focus on the topic at hand.--Zereshk 09:42, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

To "Paul Ciu",

I have been monitoring this discussion for a while. You have 14 posts in total ever since you came to Misplaced Pages. Of those, 13 were written in attacking or questioning the integrity of Zereshk, and one was a revert of his text. Other than that, you have had no contributions at all to Misplaced Pages. I strongly advise you to stop your smearing campaign against Zereshk, as he is one of Misplaced Pages's top editors in Iranian related articles. --CJ Wren

LOL .... oh my god. Man, you have some IQ. "CJ Wren" with an IP from Iran who thinks that Zereshk "is one of Misplaced Pages's top editors" ?!! LOL hehe I am creased up with laughter right now. --Paul Chiu
I am also from Iran and I also fully support Zereshk. Eivallah. I have seen his edits everywhere. I am surprised that he hasnt filed a complaint against the racist Mansour or the Hitler Supporter "Paul Chiu", who posted a message calling Iranians "illiterate".--217.218.48.51 03:58, 23 July 2005 (UTC)


If you actually check info on the net about the Aryan race u can see that they resided in modern day Afghanistan, which back then they called Ariana. You wont get this info from any irani based encyclopedia. PLUS if u actually read Afghan history, when the Ahmad Shah Baba killed the Irani king he declared the lands of eastern Iran, Afghanistan, and parts of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan-dont know about paki-land. Anyways, he declared it the Country of Khorasan. Every educated Afghan knows this. Oh and the name changed during the "Great Game" Russia and Britian devised a plan to make boundary's for their "buffer zone" then they decided to call the new land (former khorasan) Afghanistan because many Pashtun's lived there and Afghan means Pashtun. End Of Story.

Therefore Afghanistan Was Khorasan, and was also ARIANA. no matter how much u try u cant say it wasnt. - Afghan Living in Canada

Let's be fair, people

I have now twice edited an incredibly biased, conspiratorial (anti-U.S.) version of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The author calls the Soviet aggression an "intervention" which they were forced to make because the United States wanted them to fall into a trap. Give me a break, people, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Was the U.S. guilty? Yes. But let's be fair here. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, let's use the proper terminology. This would be sort of like a pro-German writing that Hitler "was forced to intervene" in Poland in 1939.

I don't think that anyone removed your edits on purpose the first time. From looking at the history of the article] I guess that it was a mistake. I don't like the soviet bias but I think that your edit makes it a little too much American bias. I'm not really sure how to word it myself and I don't know much about Afghan history either. Jeltz talk 18:29, 17 July 2005 (UTC)

I'll grant you that my first edit might have gone too far the other way. I am struggling with how to word it, too, but I think "invasion" is a better term than "was forced to intervene". Forced by who? I feel that there is a bit of amnesia going on about the Soviet and it's Imperial aims. The United States was not the only superpower attempting to overthrow nations from within, funding revolutionary forces, and trying to set up puppet governments. In fact, those kind of tactics were often used by the KGB. American intervention was often a reaction to an initial covert activity by the Soviet Union. I just do not understand why people cannot be evenhanded, if you're going to claim the U.S. engaged in bad behavior, then admit that the U.S.S.R. did it as well.

But Zbigniew Brzezinski himself has claimed that he masterminded a trap to get the Soviet to intervene in Afghanistan. Read these two interviews: one - two


you can call it what ever you want to but the same terminology should be used to the US involvement in the country in 2001.

Hussain 11:26, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Afghanistan's Geographical Location

Afghanistan, as the article on Central Asia points out, is in Central Asia. It is not part of the Indian subcontinent as it rests upon the Iranian plateau instead. It overlaps and is on the fringes of South Asia, but is actually an extension of the Iranian and Turkic civilizations as well. Eastern Pakistan is where South Asia ends. It ends with the Indic languages of Punjabi and Sindhi. The edits seem to be almost arbitrary as opposed to based upon history and geography. The basic point is that Afghanistan is, in the majority, an extension of Iranian civilization. While South Asia has had a certain unique experience both historically and otherwise, Afghanistan has been on the fringes and absorbed many aspects including a Hindu minority, the majority religion of Buddhism that dominated the region and as the base of Muslim invasions that moved into South Asia. All of this consideration comes to some conclusions. First, it is geographically not on the Indian subcontinent. Second, it has no linguistic affinity to India, but does share linguistic affinity with western Pakistan which is also an extension of Iranian civilization (see Pashtuns and Baluchis). Third, the vast majority of its history is with Iran, Tajikistan etc. Fourth, aside from fitting neatly on a map when mapping out "South Asia", a term often as vague as the Middle East, there is little criteria to include it in South Asia proper. The BBC does place it within South Asia, while UCLA and Harvard do not for example. Border regions like Afghanistan, Turkey, Georgia etc. all require an assessment that is not based upon nationalism or ethno-centrism and a more overall view as to why regional labels are useful and definitive. Otherwise, there's not point at all. Turkey and Georgia are thus, for the record "Eurasian," but can be considered either or since Europe and Asia are not actual continents in the geologic sense, but cultural spheres of some relevance.

Tombseye 23:42, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

YOU ARE SO STUPID, TOMBSEYE!! The Iranian influence in Afghanistan is relatively recent. And, only a part of Afghanistan lies on the Iranian plateau. The whole eastern and central half of Afghanistan was predominantly Indian in culture and people. The Iranian people living there (Kambojas) were also culturally Indian for the most part. There was Iranian influence due to the Achaemenid and Sassanian empires, but Indian culture dominated over these. Throughout most of ancient Indian history from the era before the Persian empire, the country is known as Gandhara, a Hindu kingdom. The Greeks themselves often nicknamed this area White India. The Iranian elements began to dominate only after the arrival of Islam. And even there, it was mostly Turkic/Persian Afghans who brought Islam to India and ruled India as part of the Sultanate for several centuries before another Afghan based people, the Mughals, came in. In both periods of Muslim rule, India and Afghanistan culturally still connected and, during the Mughal era, were brought back together under formal political unification. It was only during the 18th century, during the invasion of Nadir Shah, that Afghanistan and India were finally disconnected politically. There was still some contact during the British Raj (Anglo-Afghan wars) and even today much of Persian-derived parts of Indian and Pakistani culture come from Afghanistan. So Afghanistan is not merely an extension of Iranian civilization. It was extension of Indian civilization before the Muslim era, and it became a center of Persian civilization afterwards. It is an extension and combination of both civilizations and is mostly located in South-Central Asia.

-Afghan historian

I really doubt you're an Afghan historian, and you must be really clueless if you think the Medes are 'recent'. Iranian does not mean Persian AND the Avestan itself may have been written in Afghanistan. As for 'Indian' influence, lol, you mean ancient Indo-Aryan before they went to India. They were not Indian as we know it then. Talk about stupid. Culturally Indian? How do you know that? Because Indian religious books write about them? Hinduism was still in its early stages AND Buddhism is India's main contribution, religiously, not Hinduism. Indian culture dominated over these? So the Pashtuns must be new then? And if they're 'Indian' (which means nothing here as you are clearly confusing Indo-Aryan, probably before they even moved to India, with Indian) then where are all the Indo-Aryan languages spoken in Afghanistan? The Greeks called it White India? What does that mean? Is that what this is about? Race theory? Connecting India to white people? Race itself is highly tenuous and your usage implies more of an interest in India as opposed to Afghanistan. Let's see the reference to that and since the term India was applied originally by the PERSIANS to a small part of the Punjab I doubt your point is valid. This is the result of modern nationalism and not historic record. The Afghans also have their own cultural background and the Pashtuns are Iranic. Even genetic testing that has been done links them to other Iranian peoples. Look it up and then tell me I'm wrong. Mughals/Muslims were in conflict with the Afghans, and let's not forget that actually a lot of those Muslims who came to India came from Afghanistan so the cultural influence was probably more from Afghanistan rather than from India and what does that mean anyway? Ever hear of Khushal Khan Khattak? While the Mughals favored Persian, Khattak and the Pashtuns didn't and there was conflict. Lastly, it's beyond idiotic to say that it was not until Nadir Shah that the Iranian influence took hold. The Safavids came in more than 100 years before. Lastly, Iranian civilization as in Germanic civilization is what is meant by that. Both Pashto and Dari are Iranian languages, the people bear many similar customs, and Afghanistan is much more easily accessible from Iran than it is from India, although western Pakistan is basically also part of historic Afghanistan. It is not an extension of ancient Indian civilization, but a passing point for it. The inscriptions found there, including during the brief Ashokan and Mauryan period are written in Greek, Aramaic, and Persian. Now why is that if Afghanistan's Iranian past is recent? You need to go back and hit the books and stop quoting Indo-centric history and stop pretending to be an Afghan historian since clearly you're not. And for the record my guess is you're an Indian guy pretending to be an Afghan historian as you didn't say much about Afghanistan, but lots about India instead. Tombseye 17:54, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

-Tombseye, I'm not the person who was arguing with you above, I am an Afghan from Kabul who fled during early 90's. I dont know about whether the person arguing with you is Afghan or not but I do know that he is right about many things as much as you are. I highly doubt he was meaning "white race" when he meant "White India" which was a name for the Afghan region applied by the Greeks. The area did have a lot of Indian cultural background in the pre-Islamic era as it did have Iranian background. The Indo-Aryan languages were wiped out by the Muslim and Hunnish invaders. And I highly doubt he was saying Iranian influence took place after Nadir Shah. I think you really took a lot of what he said out of context as well as misunderstood it. And many of the Iranian tribes, especially the Kambojas, followed Indian culture and Iranian culture. And only part of Afghanistan lies on the Iranian plateau, not the whole thing. And Afghanistan was, in my understanding, an area where both civilizations had equal influence before the arrival of Islam in the 7-8th centuries CE. Both Persian and Mauryan empires ruled it for an equal amount of time, approxiamatley. Iranian culture became more strong after the hold of the Safavids. And Mauryan inscriptions there were also in the Gandhari Prakrit as well as Greek and Aramaic. A Hindu dynasty called the Shahis also ruled there for some 2 hundred years as well. Saying Afghanistan is an Iranian extension is a bit too simplistic. Afghanistan was both Iranian and Indian and All three religions, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism were dominant here before Islam. And the term India was applied to the whole Indian subcontinent after the arrival of the Achaemenid Persians. I think you were taking the above person way out of context and I think he himself is partly right but also ultimately making the same mistake you are. Both of you should read Afghan history a bit more thoroughly. And, the Medes did not arrive in Afghanistan, the Persians did. - Khalid Yaqabi.

-By the way Tombseye, this is Afghan historian posting. Just so you know, I'm actually a Pakistani Muslim from Peshawar, which is an Pashtun populated city. And, much of eastern Afghanistan was populated by Indo-Aryan influenced Iranian tribes such as the Kambojas as well as Indo-Aryans like the Gandharis. Persian inscriptions themselves bare witness to the Gandharis. The name Kandahar comes from Gandhara. The Pashtuns did not exist in that era. They are descended from an amalgam of various Iranian tribes, with some Greek ancestry among certain populations. And, if Indian influence in the region was only passing, then why the hell did Buddhism dominate over Zoroastrianism for so long under both the Mauryas, the Indo-Greeks and the Kushans and afterwards? The Greco-Buddhist civilization which originated in Greek-dominated parts of the Indian subcontinent and the Kabul valley had part of its base in the eastern part of what is now Afghanistan. The Indo-Aryan influence came from deep within the subcontinent so yes, it is what would today be considered ancient Indian influence. We Pashtuns may be Iranic but that is only racially and linguistically. In terms of civilization, we are a mix of Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Greek and central Asian. So as our Afghan-born friend said above, dont go trivilizing the Indian aspect of Afghanistan, which came from the subcontinent after the Indo-Aryan migration. If you want a little more proof, there is cold archealogical evidence linking early cultures in the region with the Dravidian Indus Valley Civilization, proving even more its ties to southern Asia. If you dont want Indian for PC reasons, fine. Finally, I apologize for calling you stupid. It was wrong of me. -Afghan historian

Oh come on, you guys are one guy. Exactly the same writing style and everything. Geezus. No sign in name so as to be anonymous, which I have no problem with, but come on. I actually said, the cultural contribution of Buddhism was India's main contribution. However, it's all through an Iranic prism. The Iranian peoples in much of Afghanistan (Zoroastrianism remained in many parts of Afghanistan alongside Buddhism as per archaeological finds dating into the Islamic period) do adopt Buddhism and that is India's main contribution. The Indo-Aryan languages were pushed out by the Iranians more than likely as a split took place between the two branches. Iranian languages have been in Afghanistan for as long as the Indo-Aryans. The Muslim historians write about Iranian peoples or groups similar to them in Afghanistan so I'm not sure how the Indo-Aryans were wiped out at that point. I'm skeptical with a few things as the term Indian keeps being used as synonymous with Indo-Aryan, which in the case of early Afghanistan, is not the case as they hadn't moved to India yet and thus the culture that would emerge by mixing with the aboriginal peoples did not begin. That's an important point here. It's also speculative as to whether the Indus civilization was Dravidian or Elamo Dravidian (a theory that connects Elam is not remotely universal either) as the Indus script has not been deciphered. More evidence might come in the form of DNA testing at some point. The Iranians in the form of the Medes, Achaemenids, Parthians, Scythians, Seleucids and others ruled Afghanistan for over a millenium compared to less than 1 century for the Mauryans who ruled the southeast. How's that the same? The Shahis were in and around Kabul only and they don't really necessarily reflect the religion of the local population at the time as they came in fairly late. These are pretty peripheral contributions and the Indic influence (aside from the Indo-Aryans whom I don't count here) we're talking about is more on par ultimately with Ural-Altaic invaders such as Turks and Huns as opposed to the Iranic which is the predominant through history. Hinduism shows up on the periphery and is not on par with Zoroastrianism (dominant in the west) and Buddhism (in the east). No ancient Hindu temples that compare to the remnants of the other religions. Nor is Hinduism emphasized in Iranic studies pertaining to Afghanistan. That's just an odd thing to bring up in this discussion like the Jews of Afghanistan who were probably a small but vibrant minority. The Medes did rule Afghanistan circa 700 BCE. They make note of their control in inscriptions. Sorry, but you're incorrect here. As for the Greek ancestry of Afghanistan, it's tiny and genetic tests who virtually non-existent. In fact, genetic tests show that the Pashtuns and Baluchis cluster with other Iranian peoples and not people east of the Indus. These debates on ancestry are highly speculative unless backed up with some hard evidence. Kandahar is also hypothesized as a local name for Alexandria (Iskandar). We don't know if it's connected to Gandhara, but it's one of the possibilites, not a certainty. You may be right that the Pashtuns did not exist in Gandhara until much later as evidence is quite scant and only vague references to Pactyans and the Pactuike aren't enough to substantiate such claims. On the other hand, Gandhara may have had a mixed population of both Iranic and Indo-Aryan origin. This is of course outside of afghanistan and into northwest Pakistan where the Pashtuns are the majority now. Your other points aren't valid. Pashtuns/Afghans as well as Tajiks are not contiguous with Indian civilization, but Iranic. It's not a 'mix' of Greeks either or racial. Genetic testing aside, their languages are Iranian, their culture before Islam Iranian, most of their history Iranian (not just Persian mind you). Their connections to the subcontinent ultimately begin and end with Buddhism and some limited cultural inroads. To call Indian influence the same as Iranic is not correct. I'm not being "PC" at all actually. That's also not an accurate term. I explained what I meant by Indo-Aryan and then modern Indian. It's not the same thing. People change when they move and/or are absorbed by other populations. Afghanistan is predominantly Iranian linguistically and culturally. The influence is not at all even. The Indo-Iranian crossroads you're talking about is in Pakistan where the Iranic and Indo-Aryan worlds met and mingled. Afghanistan is solidly Iranic. For the record, apology accepted. Tombseye 10:24, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

-Some Dardic Indo-Aryan languages are still spoken in Afghanistan. And, I did read somewhere that Pashto, despite being Iranian, has a great deal of Indo-Aryan influence. If such influence does exist, it may point to an earlier Indo-Aryan speaking population living there. I might be wrong though. 

 User

-"Afghan"/Pakistani historian again. Just because Iranic studies dont focus on Hinduism doesnt mean it didnt exist there. And, archaeological finds show that the Indus civilization was distinctly Dravidian. I mean, Shiva and south Indian symbology. Its obvious. And, Brahui, a Dravidian language, is still spoken in Balochistan and Afghanistan as well as on the Iranian border. And, Zoroastrianism only dominates western Afghanistan, not eastern Afghanistan. And, eastern Afghanistan is not just a periphery, it is the Hindu Kush mt range with Kabul and Kandahar attached. If Buddhism dominated for such a long period of time, its not peripheral.

You still don't understand what this all means. First off, just because they spoke Indo-Aryan tongues is not a link to the culture of India TODAY. Pashto has borrowed words from Urdu and Punjabi because they are close-by. It doesn't mean that Pashto was IndoAryan before, except of course both branches were once a single language as Indo-Iranian. Actually, Indic studies have not shown anything as the Indus script has not been deciphered. These are all remnants of archaeological clues that MIGHT mean that the people spoke some Dravidian language, but no one really knows for sure. Now with DNA testing of some people they find they might find out more, but that hasn't happened yet. Brahui is believed to have arrived much later actually by most academics and is no longer believed to be an early remnant of the Indus Valley. Yes we just got through discussing that Buddhism was there and was predominant in parts of Afghanistan. Religion is one aspect of 'culture' at any rate and the people still spoke Iranic languages. Sorry, but Afghanistan is an Iranic region and most evidence supports that this has been the case for most of its history. Look, Afghanistan is Iranic predominantly and has had Indic influences mainly through Buddhism. It's not comparable. Tombseye 09:13, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

About the CIA Implications: I found an interesting chapter in Peter Bergen's Book "Holy War, Inc.", published by The Free Press, NY, 2002, titled "Blowback, the CIA and the afghan war". The most relevant part states something that we can all agree about, that although many think that Osama Bin Laden is a CIA product, and that CIA directly armed and trained the afghan arabs and the Taliban, the reality is much more subtle than that. It is true that CIA made many tactical mistakes during the afghan-soviet war, and some of these mistakes contributed to the improvement of certain anti-western factions allied with the arab militants. This statement settles the discussion for me about CIA involvement, and therefore I would be glad if someone with better wiki knowledge than me could insert this in the main article.

Dr_Spielmann 22 September 2005.

Can you clarify and expand a bit as to what points you want put into the article Dr. Spielmann? Is the point that OBL is a product of the CIA and was also a tactical mistake in hindsight? Tombseye 20:12, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

name change

User 70.29.3.153 just took out the Official name of Afghanistan and replaced it with the Pashtun equivalent. Just thought you might wanna know about this.--Zereshk 00:37, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

Cultures of the World

Would you consider contributing? Or how about voting for it as collaboration of the week for this new but important article.--Culturesoftheworld 19:34, 18 December 2005 (UTC)


ARYANA IS PRESENT DAY IRAN AND AFGHANISTAN

By Dr. Ariazad


The lands of Iran and Afghanistan are as complex as are its people. About two hundred years ago, Afghanistan became an independent nation under Ahmad Shah Durani. Iran and Afghanistan are nations that have analgous historical relationship to each other. It is amazing that some writer still debate Afghan-Iranian identity and both their histories. I have spent most of my life researching the Afghan-Iranian relationship, and intern my research revealed that their ancestral roots were the Aryan. Furthermore, to assess unaware readers in understanding the relationship of Iranians-Afghans better, I have provided the fallowing analogy of other nations that are encapsulated in a similar circumstance. Here are the relevant references; (England and Scotland), (Germany and Austria), (North Korea and South Korea), (Bella Russia and Russia), (Pakistan and Bangladesh with India), (Sicily and Sardinia with Italy), (Montenegro and Kosova with Albania). All these people share a common history and culture but hold their affinity to their territorial states.

Historically, for thousands of years, Afghanistan and Iran have fallen under different groups of people. The reason for this was that both countries did not exist as separate nations but were merely a geographical location on earth that people sought to prosper in. Archaeologist indicate that the first people who came to these parts where called the Aryans. They migrated from the Russian-Caucus via the Khorasan passage; a region between Northeastern Iran and western Afghanistan, approximately between the modern cities of Mashed and Balkh. Aryans spread thorough these lands and called themselfs by the cities they established. Medes, Sodganas, Bactrians, Fars etc. They spoke the same language but of different dialects. This ancient language was preserved by an Aryan priest named Zoroaster in Old-Persian (Zardasht) in a secret book called Avesta. Modern Afghan and Iranian Persian/Dari-Farsi, Pashto, Kurdish, Baluchi all are derivatives of this language. The Persian language had three stages; Old Persian spoken by the Achmianid Dynasty, Middle Persian spoken by the Sassanian Dynasty, Modern Persian that derived from Pahlavi in Khorasan is called Dari today. Both the Iranians and Afghans share this modern Farsi language. The confusion that Iranian speak Farsi-Persian and Afghans speak Dari- Persian is as false as to say American speak American and the British speak English, this holds also true for the Australians. The truth is both Afghans and Iranians speak the same language, and I will point out where the confusion is dormant. As indicated previously the Aryans established the city called Fars approximately where modern day Isfahan is located. Here, the Aryans became politically strong establishing commerce and trade. Soon their influence reached across Aryana (Afghanistan-Iran). They became known as the Achaemenids Dynasty and because of their wealth, political structure they organized a powerful military system attracting people from all over Aryana. Darius The Great extended this influence as far as China and Northern Greece. Getting back to the main idea, the Greeks had a city state system and when a city ruled over a land mass that land mass was named after that city. Much like if you would call America Washington D.C. The Achaemenids never considered Aryana to be called after their city Fars. Like in modern day politics Fars was a capital to the land it dominated, it was a region where power was centralized. The Greeks also pronounced Fars as Persia and that is what the western world has referred to this land as. Later, the borrowed Greek culture by the Romans and from them the British Empire to Modern day United States has enhanced its use of the word thorough the succession of western civilizations. To put it in a nutshell Farsi means Persia and visa-versa. As indicated before the Persian language went through three stages. The first stage was the Achaemenid-Persians whom I briefly introduced, the second and the third stage will produce our final thoughts on this subject. The second stage of the Persian language and culture came after the fall of the Achaemenid Dynasty by Alexander the Great. Here, Greek culture and language influenced the Persian language receiving many Greek loan words. After the death of Alexander, Aryana was Hellenized or (Greekized). Many factions tried to take control of this land. The land had split under three Greco-Perso ruling powers; the Selecuids, the Parthnians and the Bactrians. The Parthnians were unique in that even though they had Greek influences they held national pride in old Achaemenid traditions, in hope to rebound anther empire from Aryana. The Parthnians were successful later calling themselves the Sassianian Empire. Here is where Middle Persian/Farsi took stage. During the third stage when the Arabs arrived, they called the language Pahlavi. This was because they took control of Arayna's central power territory, the state of Khorasan also known as (Parthia). The Arabs orally pronounced Parthia as Pahlavi which is commonly used and mis-used by writers today. Parthia was the Greco-Roman pronunciation. The last stage is the invention of modern Persian/Farsi called Dari, which became the language of the kings royal courts. The Arabs had brought Persian/Farsi to a near extinction when poets concealed nationalism amongst Aryans to revive their language and culture from total Arabization. One man in particular whom brought a sense of dignity to the demoralized Aryans was Frowdosi Tossi of Khorasan. He reinvented Persian/Farsi by using Arabic letters writing a glories story about the ancient kingdoms of Aryana. This intern brought a sense of unity and nationalism revolutionizing Persian/Farsi into what is Dari-Persian/Farsi. Dari is the modern literal Persian/Farsi and has derived into several dialects. Like English, we could hear many variations from different regions. Some are close and others sound distinct. For example when you hear Australian or Jamaican you might not understand it if your from London, but it is still a literal English language. Farsi has the same properties, if your from Tehran and I am from Kabul there is a distinction in our language, but it is still literally Farsi. Persian/Farsi speaking region will have loan words from a geographically close neighboring nation. Languages like Pashto, Kurdish and Baluchi are close to Persian/Farsi but have become distinct Aryana languages of their own. These languages were all one language with Persian/Farsi during the arrival of the Aryans, but was less influenced by Persian/Farsi during its development phase in Aryana and took its own course. Theory suggests that this was because of its geographical remoteness in Aryana. In closing Dari is the new third stage of Persian/Farsi used today. When an Afghan says he is speaking Farsi he is one hundred percent correct, he is speaking Afghani-Farsi dialect and an Iranian is speaking his or her dialect, they all speak Dari-Farsi/Persian dialects. One more thing, the shah of Iran in the early 1900’s summonsed the Europeans to stop referring to it as Persia and call it by its original name “Elm- A – Aryan”, which means in English “Land Of The Aryans”.

female literacy rates

The following is in the article:

'Literacy of the entire population is estimated at 36%, Male Literacy rate is 51% and female literacy is 21%. The male is higher because of Taliban laws prohibiting education of women.'

The Taliban were in power for 6 years, that is not a primary reason for women having a literacy rate of 30% less then men. The artlce would be better to leave the "explanation" out of the statistic, it is quite telling as it is.12.20.127.229 16:17, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

I totaly agree with the fact that there is no reliable information on Afghanistan's ethnic composition. This is due to the fact that Pashton dominated governments in Afghanistan never had the intention to have the sensus of the country. Being aware of the facts in the ground, when ever they distribute the ID cards( Tazkera) they labeled all people as "Afghan". But in books and periodicals some times they put the Pashtons as majority and now they say they are "at least the largist ethnic group" with no proof. The reality is that Pashtuns make hardly one third of the Afghan population and Tajiks together with Aimaqs and Qezibash are almost 40% of the Afghan population. Based on the Bonn Agreement the UN should have helped Afghanistan to carry out its population syrvey but this was not carried out. No Pashton dominated government in Afghanistan will be ready to make a reliable survey of ethnic composation of Afghanistan people. They as always, would say: " we all are Afghans no division". On the othe hand, in official documinatation and in international media, they put Pashtons as "mojority" or at least the largest ethnic group", which is not .

Afghanistan's name section is almost as long as the history section

AND the information is repeated over and over again. Perhaps just a link to the origins of the name so that people can just know the basics, Afghan in its current usage is synonymous with Pashtun and stan means country in Persian and the name thus means land of the Afghans/Pashtuns. The rest of the theory might as well be in a separate article. Tombseye 09:16, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

On very quick observation, it seems to me that the cuurent Islamic Republic of Afghanistan should be a seperate article (it currently redirects here), just as the Republic of Ireland is a seperate article. That said, I have very little knowledge of Afghanistan, so for all I know there could be a specific reason that it is all one article. Canaen 04:08, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

The only reason Republic of Ireland is a separate article is because the island of Ireland is split between two countries. Just as Hispaniola and Haiti are different articles. In our case, the name of the country outweighs the name of the region; Ireland is somewhat of a unique case, since there are two countries there which both have Ireland in their name, and it's a political issue. --Golbez 04:31, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure how beneficial this discussion would be, as politicians and warlords have already hacked out the country's official name as 'Islamic Republic of Afghanistan'. However, this is based purely on dirty politics and serves only power-mongers as they try to abuse the name of Islam to stay in the game. It has nothing to do with the way the people feel. There was no referendum, not even an opinion poll to gauge the people's will.

Of course, Afghanistan is predominantly a Muslim nation. This has been the case in the last 1200 - 1400 years, and it always will be. Nobody will ever be able to take Islam away from Afghans. The only period of threat (to some people’s religious tendencies) was during the Soviet invasion, which actually worked contrary to Russian wishes, as people's faith was strengthened even more. That is why there is no need to call the country 'the Islamic Republic of'. Afghanistan doesn't need to prove that it is Islamic. The world knows it. And the people don't care. They just call it Afghanistan. There is no need for political differentiation as there is no other country by the same name, like Ireland. China and Iran have (or had?) a reason to call themselves People's Republic of ... and The Islamic Republic of ...; in both countries, the government was/is attempting to make fundamental changes to culture and/or to portray a new image in the world. This is not the case in Afghanistan.--Breaker-One 16:17, 31 January 2006 (CET)

National Anthem

I found a link to the national anthem here but I don't know how verifiable it is. -LichYoshi 13:54, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

The link "Sououd-e-melli" is misspelled. it should be "Soroud-e-Melli". Same correction should be made it its page heading, and I don't know how to do that.

Too long sections

Some sections in the article are extremely too large and should be shortened and moved to the relevant articles which directly discuss the matter. Plesae notice that in this article we should not write any thing on Afghanistan in details but a fine introduction on various sides of the country such as its economy, history, politics etc. Thanks. Diyako Talk + 13:29, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Jewish Origin

The article claims, the Jewish origin were a "myth". Large parts of the article are copied from one linked source. And frankly, I think it should not simply brushed away as a myth. The reasoning is very weak. Just because racist arguments were used in the time of the Moghuls does not mean they were invented. And it is EXTREMELY arrogant to simply discount a people's own history records as myths. Is there any precedent for a country inventing its history?!? Why would the Afghan Muslims want to claim to be of Jewish descent? Is the name Afghanistan also an invention? What about the traditional Jewish behavior, clothing that was noticed until by many visitors at least until a century ago? This should not be debunked as a myth without sound proof, so I changed the article. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.137.149.6 (talk • contribs) .

If people have a lot of arguments for and against this particular theory, maybe they should all be laid out in a separate article (I suggest calling it Bani-Israel) that would be linked from this one?...? ፈቃደ (ውይይት) 22:32, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Demographics

I updated the demographic makeup of Afghanistan according to the CIA world Factbook https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/af.html. I did so as the figures were outdated and once again someone placed incorrect information falsely stating that the CIA factbook stated the Demographic of Afghanistan was mainly made up of "Iranian People". Which is nowhere to be found on that site. The proper demographic facts have been placed on the page. Thank you.

Demographics Again

Please do not use old figures. I am using the exact same website, the CIA World Factbook to derive the figures that are in the demographics part. If this upsets you, there is nothing I can do about that except to ask you to respect the updated numbers from the CIA website, the same site you used for figures from 3 years ago. Thank you. Stop trying to impose your opinion on Misplaced Pages and start placing only factual information on it. Thank you.

GA / References

I added the {{GA}} template to this page, because this article does a good job of covering its topic. However, in its current state, the references are a mess. All works used to write the article included in a "References" section at the bottom of the page, not in the middle of the prose. Inline citations can be used within the text itself to refer to specific references in the list, but full bibliographic information does not belong in the text itself. —Spangineer (háblame) 20:38, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

How to improve this article to make it a featured article

Hello all. I noticed that this article has rise to good article status and could be a featured article if we make some changes. iyako makes some valid points regarding the length of some sections. Also, regarding Afghanistan's neighbors, Iran failed to become a featured article, while Pakistan made it. from what I can gather, Pakistan's sections are shorter and more succinct. Also, there is nothing on Afghanistan's widelife (including plants etc.). The references should all be at the end of the article (thus economic references should be moved) and the constitution should be placed within the government and politics section rather than having its own section. The pictures section as part of the View of Afghanistan should be removed as a section as the pictures could simply be placed in appropriate parts of the article. I wanted to talk about this before I started making any radical moves. What are some of the opinions? Thanks. Tombseye 18:58, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

I also move that we create an article for the Origin of the name Afghanistan as a separate article and give a brief explanation of it in the opening segment as is the case with the Pakistan article. Any objections? Tombseye 16:04, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Burqa is NOT Afghan culture

In the culture section, there is a picture of a women wearing a picture and is titled, "Afghan woman wearing a cultural Burqa".

The Buraq is NOT Afghan culture. It was imposed by the Taliban in the 1990's. Things that people are FORCED to do are NOT culture.

This picture should be replaced by a picture of real Afghan culture. I will remove it for now. And I will add a picture showing real Afghan cultural/traditional clothing.

It still reflects the history of Afghanistan, how women were forced to wear it during the Taliban regeme - I find it to be quite fascinating. How about if we change the caption to "During Taliban rule, women were forced to were buqas"? --Khoikhoi 20:37, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

The Burqa picture will NOT be under culture.

It should be under Taliban rule or Taliban oppression. The excuse that it is part of the history does not make it a part of the culture. Should we put pictures of of Iranian people holding Americans hostage and say that it is a part of the Iranian culture because it was an important part of Iranian history? Come on!! We're taking it off and it can be placed under a different category, NOT culture. Sorry, but it is not culture, but oppression. You cannot take a couple of years of oppression and put a picture so horrible, to sum up Afghan culture which is thousands of years old. Sorry.

Calm down, I'll move it to history, ok? --Khoikhoi 03:02, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

No, it is not ok.

I checked other countries with periods of oppression and other countries that did not have less than a decade of oppression, but decades of it, and there are no pictures of such htings. We may speak of the oppression of the Taliban, but there is no reason to place a picture on the main page or on the history of Afghanistan page. Like I said, 1,000's of years of history and culture and someone wants a picture from a period of less than 7 years? I don't think so, and anyone that knows anything about Afghanistan will agree.

Removing the picture would be like removing this from the Holocaust page. Yes of course it's painful, but it's a part of Afghanistan's history and just like all the other events, cannot be erased. --Khoikhoi 03:14, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

Totally Agree

The Burqa picture does not belong on any page accept one specific to the Taliban. In no way shape or form is that going to be on the Afghanistan page with millions of other things to exemplify Afghan culture and / or history with. Once again, it's the same old groups trying to place words and pictures without really knowing what they are really doing. Everyone, should read the discussion two or three above, where one says that it is a "fascinating" part of Afghan culture. It goes on to say the woman wearing a cultural burqa. Anyone who places that on the page should have the authority to place anything else on that page. Come on and let's be equal selectivity on country pages. If it's done for Afghanistan, than it has to be done for Iran and everyone else with many dodgy things in their recent past. Thank you.

I disagree. It's a part of Afghanistan's history, no matter how much you don't like it. --Khoikhoi 03:20, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

Not saying that it is not part of the history.

What we are trying to say is that it should be mentioned but it should not be the one of a few pictures that are placed on the page to exemplify a culture and history of a country with 1,000's of years of culture and history. I hope you understand what I am trying to say. Part of the history - yes. Should it be one of the few pictures to exemplify any category of Afghanistan - absolutely not. The same goes for any other country. Should we post a picture of the Iranians who took the Americans hostage on the main page of Iran? Or should it be specific to Iran Hostage?

Picture & explanation

There is a large picture of the burqa on the Taliban page. Why repeat yourself? It is under the treatment of women. Check it yourself unless someone takes it off. The picture depicts a man beating a woman on the street. Not enough huh? you need it on the Afghan page too? I think the picture on the Taliban page is sufficient and the entire section on that page dedicated to treatment of women under them is good. Thank you.


Full Burqas are still used today even after the fall of Taliban. This is part of there culture. Chaldean 13:40, 15 April 2006 (UTC)



It is NOT part of their culture. They are scared to death from the taliban. Most of the Afghan women had seen their best friend shot for not wearing a burqa. All they want is to be on the safe side. In a couple of years the women will go back to wearing regular head scarfs. Wearing head scarfs is part of Afghan culture.LF2 19:33, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Please read the above discussion before changing items on the page wantonly.

If you read the above discussions, you would understand that their is already a picture of the oppression of women under the taliban on that page specifically. It is not a picture that should be used to sum up the history and culture on the main page. When you only have limited space, it is necessary to place pictures that encompass the 1,000's of years of culture, not just a period of a little over 5 years. Thank you. The excuse that some still wear them does not suffice to have it as one of the main pictures on the front page. Should I have a picture of men stoning women after she has been found to have been raped on the page for some Muslim countries because a few still do that? No, of course not. It may possibly be mentioned but not made a feature on the main page. One must place pictures that encompass the 1,000's of years of history when you have limited space. Come on get real, read the above discussions before you change things you may not understand.

Vandalism

Someone vandalised this page!!! And (s)he also vandalised Holland, Zimbabwe and other articles. --Anis1 17:56, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

I'd like to think it's good faith, if perhaps misguided. The problem with removing the comment in this instance is that while the US may have invaded to help (which is debatable) even a "helpful" invasion is still an invasion. Ahwell. ~Kylu (u|t) 03:33, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

Future of Afghanistan section

This section is just asking for POV claims (there are a few there), and seems to be, in my opinion, a violation of WP:NOT. Editing may help, but I really think the section should be removed. -- Scientizzle 00:22, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

land mines

The article mentions in the last paragraph of History:

'possibly the largest concentration of land mines on earth and other unexploded ordinance'

Given the number killed each year I would expect an explanation: which country supplied the mines, who placed them, are they in well-defined areas, and how long will the mines remain dangerous.

- Jon McKenney, updated 12:36 07 June 2006

Official Name

Can we please come to a consensus on the country's name in the infobox and in the intro? The official name, as per the current Afghan constitution, current government, and CIA World Factbook, as well as pretty much every other official source, is the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The Islamic State of Afghanistan was the government of mujahdeen that 'ruled' the country from 1992-1996 and then again for a month immediately after the fall of the Taliban. The Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan, which someone keeps listing in the infobox, was the transitional government led by Hamid Karzai from 2002-2004, when the current constitution came into usage. Again, can we please get a consensus here? If something as basic as the official name is being reverted over and over, this article will never become featured. -Helmandsare 08:22, 28 May 2006 (UTC).

The correct name is Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. End of story. —Sesel 19:30, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Ordnance vs. Ordinance

The article discusses Afghanistan as having a high density of other unexploded "ordinance". I believe the author meant ORDNANCE. Could some with the necessary permissions please fix this?

Repository of images

Greetings,

I have made an Asian repository of images, similar to the one that exists for Europe. Please complete the part pertaining to this country as you see fit, preferably similar to those of France, Britain et al:

Misplaced Pages:List of images/Places/Asia

Thanx.--Zereshk 14:54, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Central Asia

WikiProject Central Asia has finally been created! If you're interested, please consider joining us. Aelfthrytha 21:56, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

the Burqa image is unacceptable

the Burqa is a very painful memory to Afghans, just like the gas chambers are to Jews, we do not want to see it and it should be replaced with another image.

I just searched for Israel and Jews. and NEITHER of those articles had images of the Holocaust or anything even slightly relating to that.

So we want the same. We do not want painful memories of our oppression.

I will delete that image, and get another image of Afghanistan's history.

But ofcoarse, the information will be there about our oppression and about the Burqa.

But images are VERY painful.

Please do not insult us or hurt our feelings again by putting this picture back up.


Aren't you over-reacting a bit comparing clothing with genocide? If you have picture of typical clothing then post it but according the media reports I read people still wear the burqa. You can't just delete stuff because it isn't the way you wish it was. Also, please put your username at the bottom of your statements. It helps with keeping track of who said what. --MarsRover 09:15, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

I'm not comparing it with genocide. The clothing is a symbol of Afghan oppression and genocide. Over 2 million have died in these wars due to bulles and bombs. Many more have died due to starvation and disease. And even more are severly oppressed. And the Burqa is a symbol of all these things. It remind us of those things.

And yes, people still wear the Burqa. But in all parts of the country were there is now liberty and freedom, people have abandoned the burqa. Peoply ONLY wear it because they have to and are forced to by the remnants of Taliban ideology.

It is NOT a part of culture. Culture isnt something that is FORCED on people.

When women have a choice, they do not wear the Burqa. In the free parts of the country (such as Kabul) most women have chosen not to wear it. They still wear Hijabs, which is ok.

Can you post a picture of typical Afghans wearing a Hijab? and hopefully not just people in Kabul? Also, like a said previously, you should sign your comments. People generally don't trust anonymous comments. --MarsRover 20:24, 8 July 2006 (UTC)
  • At our country, the Netherlands, there are pictures in our history books, also at the schoolbooks for children (13-18 years old) of the Holocaust, for example. This shows us how terrible this was. The question is, in my opinion, how relevant a picture is to tell us something about history, or culture, or traditions. (Rob)

Greeks and Macedonians

"An ancient land that has often been plundered, and also a focal point of trade, the region of present-day Afghanistan has seen several invading forces come and go, including Aryan nomads, the Mede and Persian Empires, Greeks and Macedonians, Arabs, Turks, and Mongols."

Firstly I would like to say tham I am Greek, and there is an ongoing dispute between the Greeks and people from F.Y.R.O.M. on the valid uses of the name Macedonia.

In the above context it seems like the original author suggests that "Greeks" and "Macedonians" are two different people.

The correct would be "Greek Macedonians", in comfortance with the F.Y.R.O.M. claims that they are eligible to the name (as "Slav Macedonias") as they (now and for maybe a couple of centuries) occupy a tiny fraction of the (then) historical Macedonia. (But this can only lead to a flame war - and it's stupid).

There is no dispute that the Macedonians who were lead by Alexander the Great to conquere the then known world were Hellenes.

But, the above passage is still wrong, as there weren't only Greek Macedonias in Alexander's army. Greeks from Athens, Peloponisos, Thrace, Asia Minor and the rest of the Greek world (except Spartans), followed Alexander's march, not long after he was crowned King of (all) Greeks. So we can safely ommit that "Macedonias" went to Afghanistan, as we need not write that Athenias or Thracians went to Afghanistan.


Bin Laden, The CIA and Pakistan: Regarding the Bin Laden / CIA issue. What I think should be precised is the fact that the funding and training of Osama Bin Laden's group was done through Pakistani agencies that received US funding. The US probably didn't know where exactly the money was going, only were happy to fund anti-soviet resistance groups. But the actual selection of funding targets was done by the Pakistani agencies. Dr_Spielmann

Bin Laden's "nom de guerre"

Can a reference or citation be provided for the claim that Osama bin Laden was a Stinger missile expert and was known as "The Archer" during the war with the Soviets? I recall a character from a Tom Clancy novel who fit that description; this is the first place I've seen the claim that bin Laden was known as such.

Landmine deaths

I changed 1286 to 409 deaths. As you may read oin the official ICRC document concerning landmine victims: http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/nairobisummit_res/$File/C-ASIA%20FS%20ENG.pdf

The number of new victims of anti -personnel mines recorded each year has dropped dramatically in recent years.Data collected by the ICRC through some 450 medical facilities in Afghanistan has shown the number of deaths and injuries caused by anti -personnel mines dropped by some 50%,from 409 in 2002 to 205 in 2003.

Sorry, first editing for me!!! Luk

--physicq210 01:09, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

"Poorest country outside Africa"

This cannot be true, because the poorest country in the world is East Timor, which is in SE Asia, if one goes by per capita GDP. If one goes by the UN Human Development index, then this statement is also incorrect, because Afghanistan wasn't included in the rankings. I'm going to remove this unless the statement is clarified or cited. Cheers! --Chuchunezumi 22:01, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

I said poorest country outside of AFRICA. http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-03/2005-03-28-voa53.cfm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3582023.stm

I spent time citing the sources and you deleted them. It is very annoying. Please dont do this again or I'll report you. Thanks. And the reports of Afghanistan's poverty were calcualted after the American invasion to get rid of terrosists from Afghanista. Please dont remove the citaions again, or I WILL report you. BBC is plenty reliable source. THANKS


Look at WP:DR instead of "reporting" people, please. Debate the information here, not air your grievances in nonexistent places. --physicq210 01:05, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
And sign your edits on talkpages. --physicq210 01:05, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

Im sure you'd be mad if you were in the same situation. If cited 2, very RELIABLE sources, and this person deleted them not once, but twice.

It was me who deleted your sources. I thought they were vandalism. Sorry. You can add the info back again. --physicq210 01:09, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
Again, sign your comments, please. --physicq210 01:09, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Im not sure how to sign comments, so ill just type my username - Cranberryjuice

I'm sorry, what are the "editorial comments" you mentioned? I apologize if I sound rude. --physicq210 01:22, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
  • No worries, I was just really taken aback, since I've never reverted any of your edits and your message seemed pretty hostile. I appreciate your removing the comment, which read "". I promise I have no agenda, but the addition of that fact seemed questionable, given the reasons I stated. I apologize for the confusion. Cheers!--Chuchunezumi 02:55, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

Now I'm confused. That first citation article (VOANEWS) says that Afghanistan is "near the bottom of the 178 countries surveyed', and just ahead of some sub-saharan African countries. That's not the same things as being the poorest country outside of Africa - 'poorest country outside of Africa' means that the only poorer countries are inside Africa, and that article simply does not say that. And the first guy's link sez pretty clearly that East Timor is the poorest country in the world, which would make it the poorest country both inside and outside Africa. The BBC article says only that 'on some measures' Afghanistan is the poorest country in the world. The only measure it actually gives is that the infant mortality rate is even worse than the poorest countries inside Africa. Which may or may not be a good measure. I'd think there might be factors that go into infant mortality rates other than wealth. I.e. warfare, history, priorities, local illnesses etc. I mean I'm willing to belive Afghanistan is the poorest, I just don't see the evidence.

NAME

The 'official' name or 'long' name, according to all UN documents (and a committee meeting published paper located here] as of 2002), is "The Islamic State of Afghanistan". So I was incorrect with the older adaptation of "Transitional". The name "Republic" does not belong in the title. Thanks! Rarelibra 21:17, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Mujahadeen Confusion

In Afghanistan, mujahadeen is a highly ambiguous term. The article is clear about what sort of mujahadeen were appointed to office, but the elected officials are left wide open. Could someone clarify?

WHY SO MUCH ON IRAN?

It is ok to mention Iran's ties to Afghanistan, but that does not mean that every single section has to have something linking everything to Iran or "what is now Afghanistan". Once again, the page has been used to push Iranian this and Iranian that. Enough of this.

This areticle is mostly sourced, and so are the articles linked to this site. Modern Afghanistan (mainland Afghanistan) used to be part of Iran up to the 18th century, the Western parts of modern Afghanistan (Herat, Farrah, Ghor) were Iranian provinces up to the middle of the 19th century, and Iranian control and influence on these territories was eventually stoped in 1919 (less than 100 years ago), when Afghanistan was finally recognized by the international community as an independent nation.
There is nothing wrong with those parts of the article. Tājik 13:05, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Signs of war wit Iran and Syria and the ties to Afghanistan

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=NAZ20061001&articleId=3361


Irrelevant texts

The third King in Qajar dynasty was Fath Ali Shah's grandson Mohammad Shah, who fell under the influence of Russia and made two unsuccessful attempts to recapture Herat. When Iran's King "Mohammad Shah" died in 1848, the kingdom passed to his son Nasser-e-Din. In 1856 Britain prevented Iran from reasserting control over Herat, which had been part of Iran during the ages, but had been ruled by native Afghans since the mid-18th century. Britain supported the eastern part of Khorasan incorporation into Afghanistan; therefore the current borders of Afghanistan would not be determined until the coming of the British.

This text does not have any special importance to be mentioned in Afghanistan's main page. While, it can be a very significant and important point to be mentioned in Qajar dynasty's article. Or even more, it can be added in the sub-article of History of Afghanistan, because the main article is getting too long.

If one mentions the history of the Afghan-Iran border called "Fakhri" (the same border lying between Herat and Iran, and which the above text is talking about), so he must also mention the history of other borders i.e. Afghan-Iran border called "McMahan" (the border was created during the ruling of Abdur Rahman Khan by the interfence of British empire in the dispute between Afghanistan and Iran over the late regions of Hilmad River, in which Afghanistan lost its south-western regions for Iran), Afghan-Russian border (created during the ruling of Abdur Rahman because of a Russian attack over Panjdeh village, and Afghanistan lost its Northern territories) and then the Durand Line which does NOT have any importance either to be mentioned. Ariana310 12:25, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

I disagree, a brief section defining the modern day borders of Afghanistan and how they got there would be appropriate in this article. Although this one paragraph could be edited down to one sentence. There could be another article that goes into depth on Afghanistan's borders through history, and the borders should be defined from the Afghan perspective, while the other countries' perspectives should be the focus in their country articles. KP Botany 15:16, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

NisarKand's edits

...have been reverted for now. Here is an extensive changelog, we are currently awaiting rationale from NisarKand for such sweeping changes. and

I will attempt to merge in un-contested edits (quite a bit of good work was also unfairly reverted!) — Edward Z. Yang 17:01, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

The only possibly controversial edit I kept is the last paragraph in the leading section: someone check that and remove if necessary. The remander of NisarKand's edits were subtractive, nomenclature-related or copyedits, which need to be checked out more indepth. — Edward Z. Yang 17:11, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
I didn't follow all of them, but there were quite a few necessary copyedits. I've been trying to stop by and make copyedits here and there. Quite a few of the articles about Afghanistan and Afghans need a lot of copyedit work. Please discuss which ones by NisarKand you felt were controversial. There were so many, major and minor, that it was hard to follow. This article, however, does need quite a bit of clean-up. KP Botany 17:34, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
Tajik, please post in here which edits by NisarKand you disagree with. Thanks KP Botany 17:34, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
NisarKand's edits were mostly POV. Besides that, he deleted sourced info (for example the Encyclopaedia of Islam quote), deleted the Arabic transliteration, etc.
If you go thourgh the articles history, you will see all of his changes.
Tājik 17:41, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
Well NisarKand made so many edits that it's hard to follow the history. Maybe if I had faster than DSL. Some of them were necessary copyedits, though, and a couple looked like he edited out POV, rather than adding it. The article still needs quite a bit of copyediting, and needs some stuff removed to other articles, and some other work, which I was hoping was what he was doing when he started. I wasn't checking the Arabic transliterations, though. And I have to say that source information is not one of the problems this article has--it's one of the few country articles that is well-sourced in general, so references and sources should not be removed, particularly a source so accessible for English-speaking non-Muslims. Oh, well, I'll continue with copyediting now and then.KP Botany 18:18, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
The two diffs I cited above are essentially his edits (with a few blips, but those are far and inbetween). — Edward Z. Yang 21:19, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
Most of these edits actually make the article more accessible for the average laymen who is just trying to learn generally about Afghanistan, not publish an entire history, and they remove a lot of POV from the article. The latter is what tends to make the article unwieldingly long and not particularly useful. Some of the Latin alphabet transliterations were changed also, but Afghans use diverse and often unusual transliterations so I tend to ignore those along with the Arabic script ones--I don't know what's official for transliterations from Pashto or Dari or whatever language. The Encyclopedia of Islam quote that was deleted is convoluted, too detailed, and redundant to other sections and this sections itself. I think this was probably a strong edit by someone trying to make the article more useful, more clear and less biased. I think that your reverting them wholesale was a mistake. KP Botany 21:51, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
If Tajik (the person who asked me to revert) doesn't respond soon, please revert my revert! Subtractive edits are very difficult to evaluate, especially if you're not knowledgeable about the subject. Quite honestly, I'm not really qualified: I just took a few looks, saw that a lot of material was deleted without explanation, and decided to revert. — Edward Z. Yang 23:09, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Here are some topics up for discussion:

  • Transliterations and native transcriptions of the country name
  • Persian versus Persian (Dari)
  • Declaration of independence
  • Applicability of a modern analysis of the country's state
  • Appropriateness of a map picture in the Name section

I'm going to restore some of the copyedits. — Edward Z. Yang 23:18, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Most of the copyedits were restored. The only unchanged things now are the quote and the text of the leading section, which should not be changed without discussion. — Edward Z. Yang 23:25, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
@ KP Botany: could you please explain which "POV" he deleted?! User:NisarKand:
  • changed Persian language to Dari, which is wrong. The proper name for that language in the English language is "Persian". This has been discussed many times in many different articles. See Dari (Afghanistan) and Persian language for more information.
  • deleted sourced information about the origin of the name "Afghanistan" and replaced it with POV.
  • claims that Ahmad Shah Durrani was the "founder of Afghanistan". In fact, this is believed by many people, but it is wrong. Ahmad Shah Abdali started the Durrani dynasty of Khorasan (the deignation of the Durrani Shahs was "Emperors of Khorasan"). "Afghanistan" as a nation-state was created more than a century later, and was recognized as such in 1919.
  • is inserting non-existing terms into the article, such as "Pashtun-Afghan". If you follow the link of Afghan, you will see that it is the same as Pashtun ("Pashtun" is the historical and only correct meaning of the word "Afghan").
Could you please elaborate on what exactly you consider "POV"?!
Tājik 23:50, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
No, I can no longer follow who did what when to what, there were just too many changes. I will continue looking at the article and doing copyedits and encourage folks to continue to make the article more readable. When I find things that I currently consider POV I will post here first, or on your talk page, before making any changes. I would like to not chase away copyeditors, particularly in areas I consider important.
Plenty of people say "Dari" in English and mean the Persian spoken in Afghanistan by the Tajiks. This is simply a regionalism. And this horse has been flayed to death, so I'm not jumping on. (I'll admit plenty of English-speakers also call Afghans "afghanis" for some reason. So, just because speakers of English use a term, doesn't make it correct.) More important than us discussing this is someone cleaning up the Dari page so its readable.
Oh, I see, parenthetically calling the Ghilzai Pashtun-Afghans--a bit silly. However, the sentence could stand a parenthetic remark that Ghilzai are a Pashtun tribe. You argue, though, that Pashtuns are the only Afghans, yet English speakers use Afghan to mean all people whose homeland is Afghanistan, to include Tajiks and Hazara and etc. And you argue the reason for using Persian instead of Dari is the former is its proper name in English. Well, Afghan, in English, isn't limited to meaning Pashtun. So, if the term is used for both all the peoples of Afghans and the Pashtuns who originate there in the same article, as it is, some flexibility is needed. A parenthetical comment after Ghilzai would add clarity and make the article useful to non-Afghans, non-Tajiks, etc. But, yes, delete the Pashtun-Afghan--it doesn't mean anything.
Afghanistan existed long before any Western political concepts allowed it to be included in encyclopedias. Both the way you write it and the way NisarKahn writes it are POV. However, you argue both for inclusion of the quote from the Encyclopaedia of Islam putting the political formation of united Afghans in the 18th century and here for the Western nation state Afghanistan of 1919. This is confusing to people who are reading the article to learn about Afghanistan--which one is it? Both should be under political hisotry of the nation-state.
I suggest the article be cleaned up, streamlined, copyedited, and divided into smaller articles on big subjecst like the history of Afghanistan. But a little at a time. And with some discussion beforehand. KP Botany 00:31, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
Misplaced Pages is an encyclopaedia (and by know the one that used most among all) and should keep encyclopaedic standards. If you look up "Afghanistan" in the Encyclopaedia of Islam (and I repeat it again: the EI is a collection of scholarly articles!), you will find the same thing I have written here. I am not trying to impose "my opinion" on the readers, but what the most authoritative sources say. Misplaced Pages is not a there to falsefy truth and facts, only to make it easier for readers to understand - if that were the case, then all articles dealing with physics, mathematics, or chemestry would be totally false! Misplaced Pages is there to give the best and best sourced information available - for free.
Afghanistan did not exist long before any Western political concepts allowed it (you can trust me: I am from Afghanistan and have done a lot of research about this), the same way Pakistan did not exist long before that concepts. In fact, both Afghanistan (created in the 19th century) and Pakistan (created 100 years later) are products of the Russian and Brittish politics of that era. In case of Pakistan, everyone understands that this nation was created in middle of the 20th century and once used top be part of what we call "India". So why shouldn't the reader understand that modern "Afghanistan" was also part of other larger territories of the past and emerged as a nation-state much later?! The name "Afghanistan" itself is a product of the British colonial power. These are pure facts, and it's not difficult to underline them with reliable sources.
I suggest you to look up the Encyclopaedia of Islam (or ask someone else who has access to it) and see what "Afghan" and "Afghanistan" mean.
Tājik 08:38, 10 October 2006 (UTC)


Hi folks, Edward Z. Yang, KP Botany and Tajik...I like to begin by saying I appologize for making mass sudden changes too quickly. My editings are intended to make readers get a complete understanding of Afghanistan and its people. It's rather not important to focus too much on Iran or Persia when "AFGHANISTAN" is the main subject, although I am fully aware that both nations shared history in the past. In most of the editings, the attention of readers is too much directed to one specific tiny section of the country, which is the area close to Iran. I see too many words Persia, Iran, Persian, Iranian, Persian Empires, and ect. while nothing is mentioned about the eastern culture. More importantly, the much needed history of the main inhabitants of the country "the Pashtuns" that are the real owners of the land. As I read the report on Afghanistan, I got the notion that someone of an Iranian or Persian origin had written it. Why isn't anything mentioned about the Afghans? I was the one who placed the image of Ahmad Shah Durrani, the father of the nation. Afghanistan did not only share history with Iran or former Persia, in fact, the only area that was influenced by Iran or Persia was mainly the City of Herat, which is the only inhabitated area close to Iran's border. Both places speak entirely different dialogs of the Persian language, and, the dialog spoken in Kabul (DARI) is far different from both Herati Persian or the Iranian Persian. Therefore, the writings make Afghanistan appear to the readers as if Iran's people and Afghanistan's people are both the same. However, this is not because the Afghans are the Pashtuns, they are not Iranians or former Persians. Afghans have a seperate history of their own which can be traced 5,000 years back...and further back to 50,000 years. In the near future I do plan to share this information here.
Now over to other issues. First, I completely deleted the Islamic Encyclopaedia stuff because it's errelevent and a waste of space. I also partially deleted the second paragraph under "Name" because Afghanistan was NEVER a state of Iran or Persia before the 18th century. However, there was Iranian/Persian influence in some smaller section of the country but the remaining larger section was independent for ages. It is 100% false statement to say Afghanistan was state of Iran or Persia before the 18th century, and I'm sure every Afghan on earth would challenge this claim. Khorassan simply did not have possession of Afghanistan....now over to Islamic Encyclopaedia...If you read the statement it first says..."Afghānistān has borne that name only since the middle of the 18th century"...then it states..."The earlier meaning of the word was simply “the land of the Afghans”...to the average reader this makes no sense because they already are aware that Afghanistan means land of the Afghans. If prior to middle of 18th century, the location was called land of the Afghans then it was Afghanistan...because Afghanistan means land of the Afghans. It's recorded that Alexander the Great had mention a word much similar to "Afghans" for the natives that lived in Afghanistan at the time of his arrival. In several of Hindu Books dating back to apprixmately 5,000 years, the name Afghan is also mentioned. So what's the big deal about someone using this name in the 18th century??? It is mentioned that the name Afghanistan derived from Persian language meaning "land of the Afghans". Are all the countries ending with "stan" Persian names? including Arabistan and Hindustan? Somewhere else I read that Afghanistan is Arabic name...for land of the Afghans...given during in or about the 7th century. So, if the name Afghanistan was given or made up by the Arabs that far in time...how can it be a Persian name? I feel that the words Persian language be deleted in the top first paragraph. Because the evidence is not convincing. It should just read "Afghanistan means land of the Afghans".
Next, Ahmad Shah's last name was "Abdali" when he was an army general, before becoming a king and before him choosing the new last name "Durrani". This makes his official name Ahmad Shah Durrani because it is what he wanted to be remembered by. That makes Ahmad Shah Abdali his A.K.A. alias name. Using the alias name is improper and an act to discredit someone. Besdies, his alias name is used in his detailed biography report (see Ahmad Shah Durrani). Also, please do not use the term "tribal chief" for someone already being described as an army or military general. That's like calling President Hamid Karzai a tribal chief instead of a President. About Persian (Dari), I believe the proper way to write is "Dari (Persian)" because people in Afghanistan speak Dari, which is a dialog from the Persian language. If you write it vice versa (Persian (Dari)...only very few would understand.
Finally, regrading Pashtun-Afghan......"Ghilzais" are Afghans from the Pashtun ethnics...same as saying "Cherokees" are Indian-Americans or Native-Americans. If someone reads "Cherokees are Natives" or "Cherokees are Americans", they would only half understand the full picture. Pashtun is the older name and Afghan is the modern name. Therefore, to make readers fully understand...at a certain given point...words may be made in ways to better benefit the readers, this is the main purpose here. In this part of the argument, I sense that Tajik is not understanding because he is obviously not Pashtun...he prefers to see "Pashtun" instead of Afghan or vice versa. A reminder again...the subject is "AFGHANISTAN" as a nation and its people. So the main focus must be on the Pashtuns (Afghans) rather than Iranians, Persians, or others. Readers who are interested about Iran, Iranians, Persia, Persians or Persian Empires can do specific search on those topics. Thanks
OK, I will wait for your reponse(s) and would be happy to discuss with you further on any topic. Sorry again for causing mass sudden changes and please understand that I only do edits to make people understand the facts about Afghanistan. I will be adding what's important for the country and deleting or changing the unimportant stuff. By the way I am very new here what is "POV"?.

NisarKand 11:02 AM, October 10, 2006

Afghanistan is also the modern land, not just the people, and the people who live in the modern land are not just the Pashtuns, but also the Tajiks, Hazara, Balouch, etc. So remember to put your content in the correct place, Afghans under Afghan and Afghanistan under Afghanistan. Pashtun-Afghan is simply confusing not clarifying in the instance. Ghilzai (a Pashtun tribe) might be okay, but Pashtun-Afghan doesn't work. You're doing necessary work, although I don't agree with all of it, but still this article does overemphasize the history of Afghanistan from the Enclopedia of Islam ancient empires perspective, and needs to let modern people understand what Afghanistan is. More comments later. KP Botany 18:24, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
Can you work on just sections at a time and discuss your changes first? KP Botany 18:25, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
Starting at the very top...I am not fully satisfied so I will cause some few minor changes or rearrangements...the first is the language. According to the latest Afghanistan's constitution, it states that Pashto and "Dari" are the official languages of the country. So...the proper way to write it should be "Dari (Persian)". For example, if you look at Pakistan's official language...you see "Urdu", which originates from Hindi or perhaps other languages. Yet there is no need to tag along those former languages with Urdu.
However, in this case we can tag Persian next to Dari but should be last...meaning it's a form of Persian language. Mostlly all Afghan government uses "Dari", which is the precise name given to the language by the Afghan government.
Next is to rearrange South Asia and Middle East...by placing South Asia first and adding the word "perhaps" in the sentence. Because in very rare cases it is mentioned or stated that Afghanistan is part of Middle East. However, the name "Middle East" may stay because it is in some minor ways tied together. Along with these minor changes...I will later go down to the year 1747 history and onwards...there is something very important missing that needs to be added and or fixed. NisarKand 3:335 AM. October 11, 2006 (UTC)
Yes it could be a bit confusing, the crossroads South Asia and Middle East, depending upon which Middle East you are talking about. I agree with putting South Asia first. There is a Latin phrase that means in its strictest sense that would be better than a perhaps. If you change this part I will edit it to include in its narrowest sense, or look at the Middle East article and see what they call the traditional-sense Middle East. KP Botany 15:13, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
NisarKand, you are inserting certain POV in the text which HAS to be reverted and deleted:
  • The quote of the Encyclopaedia of Islam cannot be deleted, because it is an authoritative scholarly work, written by leading experts. No other encyclopaedia - neither Britannica nor any other - has the same status as the EI.
  • You are correct that this article is about the nation "Afghanistan". But you forget that this nation did not exist before 1919. Not even pre-modern "Afghanistan", the Durrani kingdom of Khorasan, existed before 1748. So basically, if we were to minimize the history of Afghanistan to Afghanistan, we had to delete everything dealing with pre-1748 Durrani Afghanistan. Before 1748, Afghanistan was part of the larger cultural dominion known as Persia (which is NOT the same as modern Islamic Republic Iran).
  • Afghanistan as a name for this nation did not exist before the late 19th century. The word Afghanistan means Land of Afghans, and because historically Afghan is a synonym of Pashtun, the correct translation of the term is Land of Pashtuns (the same way Uzbekistan means Land of Uzbeks, although nowadays all citizens of Uzbekistan are popularly known as Uzbeks). It is a well researched and well-known fact that before the 19th century, the term Afgghanistan was only limited to the Pashtun-inhabited areas to the south of Kabul. This is even reported by the Mongol warlord Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire:
"... In the country of Kābul there are many and various tribes. Its valleys and plains are inhabited by Tūrks, Aimāks, and Arabs. In the city and the greater part of the villages, the population consists of Tājiks (Sarts). Many other of the villages and districts are occupied by Pashāis, Parāchis, Tājiks, Berekis, and Afghans. In the hill-country to the west, reside the Hazāras and Nukderis. Among the Hazāra and Nukderi tribes, there are some who speak the Moghul language. In the hill-country to the north-east lies Kaferistān, such as Kattor* and Gebrek. To the south is Afghanistān. There are eleven or twelve different languages spoken in Kābul: Arabic, Persian, Tūrki, Moghuli, Hindi, Afghani, Pashāi, Parāchi, Geberi, Bereki, and Lamghāni. ..." (from Baburnama --> )
This is exactly the information given in the Encyclopaedia of Islam.
  • You are making a mistake by defining the Safavids and Ghilzais with modern nationalism. The Safavids were not "Iranians" or "Persians", but simply ONE FAMILY who were not interested in ethnicity. In fact, the Safavids were Turkish-speaking. The same goes to the Ghilzais: they were NOT "Afghan nationalists" fighting "foreign invaders" ... the Ghilzai never regarded the Safavids or their Persian army as "invaders" or "foreigners". The problem was not ethnicity or language, but religion: the Ghilzai Pashtuns were orthodox Sunnis, while the Safavids were a Shia Sufi dynasty - both clans were of diverse ethnic background, and both clans used Persian as a literary and administrative language. Your concept of "Afghans fighting Iranians" is totally wrong and POV. It was a fight between "Shia Safavids" and "Sunni Ghilzai".
  • When the Ghilzai attacked Persia, they did not have the support of the Abdalis. Later on, the Abdalis were allied to Nadir Shah against their own Pashtun kinsmen. When the Ghilzai reached Isfahan, their leader, Ashraf Hotaki, declared himself "Shah of Persia", and until today the Hotakis are regarded as a native Iranian dynasty - they were not foreigners to the thrown of Persia, but subjects of the same cultural domain.
  • You mention a "Ghaznavid Khan Nasher" ... this is pure POV. The Nasher family of Kunduz is of Pashtun origin, but the claim that they are Ghaznavids is nothing but a family myth. They are NOT Ghaznavids, and they are NOT "lords". They are simply a very poweful Pashtun family with a lot of family legends, most of them created in the late 19th century.
  • It's Persian language and not Dari. Dari is only a local name given to the dialects of Kabul and surrounding areas - the original Dari of classical poetry was a totally different language. Besides that, there is no such thing as Afghan Persian, because the Persian language has many different dialects in Afghanistan. The dialect of Herat (Afghanistan), for example, is identical to the diact of Nishapur (Iran), while it is much different from the dialect of Kabul (Afghanistan). The dialect of Kabul on the other hand is - despite the different pronounciations - much closer to the dialect of Tehran than to the dialect of Herat.
Tājik 16:20, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Paragraphs please

Is it not possible to make paragraphs in the chapter about history????? (Rob)


Nation began

I've just made recent edits and I will explain them in here, and give full details on why. Before I proceed...your latest responses to me are not related to my arguments...meaning you are arguing with own selves. Because I am here trying to explain exactly how AFGHANISTAN came to existence and when, while keeping in mind that Afghanistan's government records are the most trusted and official source than any other source. I am not into all those detailed ethnical disputes, and those long details on how many different tribes or short dynasties of unpopular people existed, prior to the existense of Afghanistan. However, we may mention those accordingly but not go too deep. It's Afghans who created Afghanistan in 1747, and that's the most important thing. What more source of information do you need to prove that Afghanistan existed as a nation or empire since 1747??? It's a clear contradiction to mention first that Afghanistan was founded in 1747, and then write that it began in early 1800s or 1919 because documents say so. For example...if a man gets born in 1747, but register's his birth certificate with the government in 1780...what would this persons proven birth date be? The answer would obviously be 1747 but if he can't remember then it's whatever year he claims. This is the case with Afghanistan. It was born in 1747 but the article is trying to ignore that fact.

After the death of Nader Shah (Iranian) in 1747...Ahmad Shah Durrani (Afghan) became the ruler over Khorassan (Iran), entire Afghanistan, including entire Pakistan and some smaller parts of India (Delhi). This occurred approximately 3 years after he took power (1750). Then, in late 1700s and onwards...Afghanistan slowly began shrinking until finally 1893, when the Durrand Line was created between Afghanistan and Pakistan, by the British. Prior to that in 1837-1838...the Border of Iran (Khorassan) and Afghanistan had been officially made and settled already, also by Britian. "Afghanistan" was written in English language and kept as records by the British ever since. This clearly means that Afghanistan existed prior to that but had lost some of its territories to its neighbors. The country did not ever change its name since 1747. If Britian intervened in 1747 between Iran and Afghanistan...obviously the name "AFGHANISTAN" would have been written and recorded by the British government. So therefore, we can't just rely on English records. We have to consider the actions that were taken in the country to determine when was the birthdate of Afghanistan.

About the ethnical stuff...I believe it is not a good idea to mention different tribes of Pashtuns, as this will confuse many and it is something people don't want to know. So I will only write....Afghans....Pashtuns....Tajiks....Uzbeks...Hazaras and others, no reason to define these groups of people in this article. Anyone interested may do it their self by mouse clicking.

Now I will explain about my recent edits at Afghanistan....."NAME"....I did not like the way it was prepared...unimportant plus not verifiable. Like I stated before...Alexander the great used the name "Afghan" way before Islam. "Afghanistan" means land of the Afghan in more than one language so no need to mention Persian. Last... Afghanistan was NOT part of Iran before 18th century...it was part of Moghul Empire...prior to that Timurid Empire prior to that Mongol Empire...prior to that Ghaznavid Empire prior to that Ghouri Empire and so on. It is 100% false to state that Afghanistan was always part of Iran before the mid 18th century. So I delete that and will not want to see it again. Most of those rulers I mentioned were Afghans themselves and they adopted their ethnicity to Afghans. Ghaznavid was from Ghazni...Oh one more thing....Safavids were Shias I am fully aware....in fact they started the Shiah sect of Islam....as the Afghans were all Sunnis. So the battle was strictly over religion I know that, Sunnis vs. Shiahs. At the end, Sunnis won and kicked the Shiahs back to Iran and then the Sunnis captured Khorassan (Iran) by killing all the Safavid Mullahs or whatever they were. That is the precise reason why Afghanistan and Iran have differences, because of religion sects. Iran is a nation of Shias while Afghanistan is a nation of Sunnis. ~Nisar NisarKand 11:56 October 11, 2006 (UTC)

I have (again) reverted most of your latest edits, because you do not provide ANY sources. Besides that, you use confusing wording (you diffenciate between "Pashtuns" and "Afghans" when it is not needed, and then you do not differenciate between these two words when it is needed).
  • Your claim that "Alexander used the term Afghan" is POV and totally baseless. Do you have ANY sources for that?!
  • You claim that "Afghanistan was part of the Mughal Empire" is onyl true when the term Afghanistan is limitted to its historical meaning: Pashtun-inhabited areas to the south of Kabul. The rest of Afghanistan (especially modern Western and Central Afghanistan) was mostly part of the Safavid Persia. Small portions of the north were part of the Uzbek Khanate.
  • The Timurid and Ghaznavid empires are regarded part of the History of Iran, and represent the same cultureal domain: Persian culture. In fact, it were these dynasties (Ghaznavids, Ghoris, Seljuqs, Il-Khans, Timurids, Safavids) that ensured the domincance of the Persian language and culture in the Eastern domains of the Islamic world (while Arabic became the major language of the Western lands). Until the creation of Afghanistan, even Kandahar was part of Safavid Persia. You very obviously confuse the terms Historical Iran and modern Islamic Republic Iran (click on the links).
  • Your claim that "Safavids started Shiism" is totally baseless and POV - it may even be regarded as very offensive! (see Safavids and Shiism for more info). The region of modern Afghanistan was always home to a large Shia community. Many famous scholars and scientists of that region, including Avicenna, Ferdousi, or Rumi, were Shia in faith. The war between the tribal Ghilzai chiefs and the Safavid central government was an extended fight between the Sunni Ottoman Khalifs and their long-time Shia rivals in Persia. Before Mir Wais Khan Khotak attacked the Safavids, he went to Mecca (back then an Ottoman colony) and asked the leading Mufti for a fatwa to "declare all Shias infidles" (in fact, this was the beginning of the Shia-Sunni confrontation in Afghanistan that is still going in the shape of Hezbi Wahdat fighting Sunni fundamentalists, such as the Taliban). Keeping in mind that the Grand Mufti of Mecca was a loyal servant of the Ottoman Khalif, Mir Wais' ask for a fatwa was the same as asking the Ottoman for direct support against the Safavids.
  • Your claim that "Sunni Afghans kicked Shias back to Iran" is pure offensive POV. You probably have forgotten that still 20% of Afghanistan (or maybe more) is of Shia faith, most of them being Hazaras. You also forget that cities in the west, such as Herat, have a Shia population of up to 40%! You also did not mention that the very first kings of Afghanistan, like Ahmad Shah Abdali, were extremly Shia friendly and appointed Shia Kizilbash to high governmental positions. 2 of Afghanistan's kings were born to Shia Kizilbash mothers. Before the reign of Amir Abdur Rahman Khan and the systematic massacre of Shias and Nuristanis, the Shia population of Afghanistan was much larger. The percentage of Shias in Afghanistan was much more than the present 20%.
And PLEASE discuss your edits FIRST, BEFORE changing the articles. Otherwise your changes will be reverted.
Tājik 22:02, 11 October 2006 (UTC)


I WILL PROVIDE ALL THE SOURCES...before reverting, why don't you ask me to provide to you the sources? Anyway...I am gonna have to slow down a little because I don't think you are as fast learner as me, and I will also go few steps at a time with you...so that we can both understand and come to one happy conclusion.

About Alexander the great using the term "Afghan"...that is something I read in the past and I'm gonna have to search again and find it. It's not important at the moment because my argument is somewhere else. Now why would you say it's baseless when you're not even sure if he used this term or not???

Next, most of the time when I mention "Afghanistan" I am refering to the present map of Afghanistan and it's headquarter, which is Kabul the capital. You claimed...The rest of Afghanistan (especially modern Western and Central Afghanistan) was mostly part of the Safavid Persia. Small portions of the north were part of the Uzbek Khanate.....This is false because look at these 2 maps showing the Safavid Empire...

Later, the Safavids of Iranian descendants challenged Mughal rule with the Iranians reacquiring the area by the mid-17th century.

This must be deleted and that's that....it is false...the map and history both can prove this to be false. Moughul Empire ruled most of present-day Afghanistan until mid 17th century. Up until 1738 Mougul Empire ruled present-day Afghanistan then until 1747 Nader Shah ruled...from 1747 onwards Afghans (Pashtuns) took it until 2006.

Then you argue and say that The Timurid and Ghaznavid empires are regarded part of the History of Iran,...are they not part of the History of Afghanistan, History of Pakistan and History of India??? I am not here to fight or argue with you deep ethnical or religious beliefs. I was pointing out that the rulers of those empires were residents or nationals of Afghanistan, which they were and that was my point. To me you are an Afghan national...regardless who your ancestors where...that's only for you to keep.

Next...this is what it says under Safavid - were a native Iranian dynasty from Iranian Azarbaijan that ruled from 1501 to 1736, and which established Shi'a Islam as Iran's official religion and united its provinces under a single Iranian sovereignty, thereby reigniting the Persian identity and acting as a bridge to modern Iran.

Next...if you look at the map of Safavid's Empire...you see it did not reach Kandahar, Ghazni, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kabul and other locations to the south and east. And did you know that Kandahar, Ghazni, Kabul Jalalabad were always the most populated areas...because that was the Silk Road. Even until today all the Afghans in Afghanistan live within 15 miles from the former Silk Road Kabul-Kandahar Highway.

Therefore, the Safavid Empire did not take control of the Moughul Empire, which was in total control of the capital city Kabul, Ghazni, and Kandahar. The Safavid Empire ruled Iran and about 15% section of Afghanistan in the west.

I am aware there are Shia Muslims in Afghanistan...some statistics show 15% while others show little up or down. The reason why People from Kandahar decided to fight and push back the Safavids to Iran was a religious cause. It is stated the Sufis were forcefully converting people to Shiism. So the people decided to revolt against them. Ok I guess I am done on this argument...

It should be concluded that from Moughul Empire came Nader Shah's short lived Empire (from 1738 to 1747) and right after that in 1751 the entire present-day Afghanistan was held by Pashtuns (Afghans) until today with Hamid Karzai.

I want to know why would you get angry at Mir Wais Khan Hotak? Maybe I did not use appropriate words when I mentioned that "they were kicked back to Iran"....I saw similar thing written about the Afghans that were forced or expelled from Iran in 1738, by Nader Shah. I will put it in better words this time, but we can't conceal history...because it was something that already happened. So I suggest the paragraph mentioning "Mir Wais Khan Hotak" be left alone....it is the missing piese of the puzzle. And I will remove the last sentence stating that Safavid regained Afghanistan from the Moughal Empire by mid 17th century. I already proved, with clear and convincing evidence, that this was totally false....Safavids DID NOT take control of Kandahar, Ghazni, Kabul from the Moughal Empire. ~Nisar NisarKand 

6:11 AM, October 12, 2006 (UCT)

Corrections

During Taliban rule the population faced massive restrictions of freedom and human rights violarions. Women were fired from jobs, girls forbidden to attend their universities. Those who resisted were killed. Communists were systematically eradicated and Islamic Sharia imposed.

This needed corrections and should be like this...

During Taliban rule the population faced massive restrictions of freedom and human rights violations. Women were fired from jobs, girls forbidden to attend schools or universities. Those who resisted were punished. Communists were systematically eradicated and Islamic Sharia imposed. Taliban did not kill girls or women for attending schools or colleges....they were simply punished by other means. Unless, you show me reports to back up your claim. ~Nisar NisarKand 10:16 PM, October 11, 2006 (UTC)


To User:NisarKand

  1. The Safavid Empire was - like all empires of that time - a dynamic kingdom that changed its borders many times ... due to conquest and losses. See this map for more information.
  2. Of course the Timurids, Ghaznavids, and Mughals were part of the "history of India" or "history of Pakistan". But - at the same time - they represent a certain cultural domain which was neither Indian not Pakistani or Afghanistani. Afghanistan as a nation-state did not exist before 1748. All history before that time is part of the "Persian history", which you - wrongly - confuse with the "history of the Islamic Republic Iran".
  3. Of course Kandahar was part of the Safavid Empire. Why, do you think, did all the revolts break out?! Pashtuns who lived within Mughal borders always faught their Mughal masters (for example Khushal Khan Khattak), while Pashtuns in the Safavid Empire fought for independence from Isfahan.
  4. Neither Kandahar nor Kabul were part of the Silk Road, as you claim. See this map for more detail.
  5. Nadir Shah's mission against India was ment to punish the Mughals. When Babur's son Humayun needed the help of the Safavids, he was welcomed in Persia and was a personal guest of the Shah for more than 10 years. But when the Safavids were attacked by the Pashtuns and by the Ottomans, the Mughals did not send any help. That's why Nadir Shah, who considered himself the rightful successor of the Safavids (in fact, he used to be called Qoli Beg, meaning "slave of the king"), he attacked India and plundered Delhi because of the coward behaviour of the Mughals.
  6. I am not angry at Mir Wais. I see him as a historical figure, neither good nor bad. He had his political and religious views, and he fought for his views. I do not consider him any different from the Shahs of Persia, from the Mughals, from the Ottomans, from the Timurids, or from the Mongols under Genghis Khan. It just happens that some were more powerful than the others.

Tājik 17:35, 12 October 2006 (UTC)


  1. You're showing me the same map I displayed in my previous post, and the map showes that only 10% to 15% present-day Afghanistan was controlled by the Safavids. Besides, the map was made by someone last month using computer art.
  1. Why are you keep repeating to me that Afghanistan as a nation-state did not exist before 1748? I already know all that. I am Afghan and I am an expert in history of my country. I told you that the kings of Timurids, Ghaznavids, Ghouri, Mughals and ect., were people who were living in present-day Afghanistan (they were on the soil or earth of a place which is now called Afghanistan). So...they were Afghans because "AFGHANISTAN IS LAND OF THE AFGHANS". It does not matter what their language or backrounds were. Just like when someone from Asia goes to America, lives there and establish citizenship....they are then called Americans, regardless which ethnic, race, color or language they speak. You make people confuse by putting Persian everywhere. "Persian" has more than one meaning...a persian who was from former Persia or someone who speaks the Persian language. Anyone on earth can be Persian, as long as they can speak Persian language.
  1. Kandahar in early 1700s was not the size it is today. Remember there is Kandahar the city and Kandahar the Province. The city was ruled by Safavid for a very short period, while the Kandahar region was not. At that time Kandahar included present day Quetta, Pakistan. Most of Southern Afghanistan which is in the boundry of the Safavid Empire is empty desert, where nobody can live....it's all sand. The only important place the Safavids held was Herat, the remaining larger and important cities were held by Moghuls or were self ruled. About Khushal Khan....that's NWFP area which is part of Pakistan now. It is not anywhere near Kandahar, which was the border between Safavif Empire and Moghul Empire. Knowing all this, you cannot and you must not claim that Safavid ruled Afghanistan. It only ruled a smaller portion for a short period until they were defeated and crushed by the Afghans in or about 1722. Afghans ruled Isfahan (Iran) from 1722 until 1736.
  1. Are you saying Nader Shah was ruler of the Safavid? and was he Shia Muslim? Anyway...AFGHANISTAN, which is land of the Afghans. The first person that began the creation of Afghanistan was Mir Wais Khan Khottak. President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, who is Pashtun, in 2002 made Tajik Ahmad Shah Massoud "National Hero", why can't Mir Wais Khan Khottak be mentioned and called a national hero?....Pashtuns are known to be non-racists...that's why God gave them power to rule, and they get along with everyone else fine. By the way...you know Pashtun from Afghanistan went to space before United Kingdom, Japan, China, Israel, and many more countries. ~Nisar NisarKand 9:43 PM, October 12, 2006
  1. No, I was NOT showing you the same map again. And that map clearly shows that MOST of present-day Afghanistan was part of the Safavid Empire (the entire west, the entire south, including Kandahar, and large parts of modern Hazarajat).
  2. Please do not misunderstand me, but I do not think that you are an expert. Your argumentation actually shows that you are a beginner. Especially your claim that Timurids, Ghorids, Ghaznavids etc "were Afghans because they lived in the land of Afghans". This sentense is totally illogical and false - in every point. None of these dynasties actually resided in the "Land of Afghans" (which is the limitted territory inhabited by Pashtuns), some did not even reside within the modern political borders of Afghanistan (the Timurids, for example, were Mongols residing in Samarqand and Ferghana). And since "Afghanistan" as a nation did not exist 500 or 1000 years ago, NO ONE living in that area - except ethnic Pashtuns - was "Afghan". Your claim is like saying that Genghis Khan was a "Russian" only because he was born in a region that is now part of Russia, or that Mahmud Kashgari "was a Chinese", because nowadays Kashgar is part of China. That's pure nonsense! What if Afghanistan were part of China today?! Would that make Ahmad Shah Abdali a "Chinese warlord"?!
  3. Mir Wais Hottaki was not from "Afghanistan", because THERE WAS NO AFGHANISTAN AT THAT TIME. Ahmad Shah Massoud was a CITIZEN of the modern nation Afghanistan. He was born and he died as an Afghanistani citizen. Mir Wais, on the other hand, did not know "Afghanistan", he did not act as an "Afghanistani citizen", and he was probably not even interested in his "Afghan heritage" (keeping in mind that HE and HIS family were the one who imprisoned the later founder of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Abdali). Neither Mir Wais nor Khushal Khan Khattak are "Afghan heroes" in the sence of the modern nation "Afghanistan". They are "Afghan heroes" in the sence of "hero for ethnic Pashtuns". Usually, Tajiks and Hazaras are not interested in Pashtun heroes ... I am an ethnic Tajik, and I do not consider Mir Wais as "my hero" ... in fact, I have to admit that I consider him "foreign". This is certainly not true for "Tajik heroes", such as Avicenna or al-Biruni whom I consider part of my heritage.
  4. The Pashtuns was sent to space by the Soviet Union. It was not an achievement of the Pashtuns as a people, but a present from the Soviet Union to their allies in Afghanistan. I still remember the day when that astronaut was shot to space ... entire Kabul ... all of Afghanistan was watching. But that was not an achievement of the Pashtuns ... it was political propaganda of the Soviets to distract the people from the bloody war they were fighting in Afghanistan. It might also interest you that the Pashtun-dominated Khalq-Party of Afghanistan prevented Ghulam Masum Daouran to go to space. He was the original candidate for the project. But the preoblem was that Ghulam Masum Daouran was a Persian-speaker. Instead, they decided to send Abdul Ahad Mohmand - a Pashto-speaker from Sardah.
Tājik 09:59, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Pashtuns above 42%

As of 2002..over 4.5 million Afghan refugees were repatriated to Afghanistan...most of them from Pakistan and others from Iran...and....the majority of those were Pashtuns. Therefore, the 4.5 million (mostly Pashtuns) returning back to Afghanistan makes a huge impact on the % ratio of the Pashtuns, which means the number of Pashtuns would rise dramatically in Afghanistan in the near future. Another fact...many Dari speakers in Kabul, Herat and other cities are Pashtuns by ethnic but simply speak Dari language. The real and official figure of ethnic Pashtuns is in the 70% area. This will be researched and will be shown in the near future. The same goes in Pakistan...many Pashtuns are used to speaking Urdu language there but are Pashtuns by ethnic. One example out of many is Imran Khan, who speaks Urdu only but is Pashtun by ethnic. There are large number of Pashtuns who speak different languages but are ethnically Pashtuns. It is errelevent to use language as someone's ethnic. According to the CIA world factbook...Pashtuns are 42% while Tajiks are 27%....this is acceptable for the time being until a more clear census is made in the country in the near future. But the real figure is that ethnic Pashtuns are in the 70% area. ~Nisar NisarKand 12:AM October 14, 2006 (UCT)

Now, this is called pseudo-scientific and ethnocentric POV ... Tājik 01:59, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
The national census would not be in a near future. It would be in 2015, acccording to the Central Statistics Office of Afghanistan. And things will do change, especially the concept of "majority". Ariana310 11:29, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Afghanistan (Pashtunistan)

Afghanistan means nothing but Pashtunistan. It is land of the Pashtuns, while others may also live there. Tajiks have a country and it's called Tajikistan...Uzbeks have a country of their own and it's called Uzbekistan...Hazaras are Shia Muslims and they have a country of their own that is Iran. Punjabis, Urdu speakers, Sindhis, Baloch people, on the other hand have their own country and it's called Pakistan. Since Afghanistan means land of the Afghans....it actually means "land of the Pashtuns", so it's Pashtunistan. Since the land is Pashtunistan (modern name Afghanistan) or land of the Pashtuns...then the history of Pashtuns must be clearly and fully explained so that people of the world learn exactly how Pashtuns came to power, and started their own country and own rule. The only way to explain is by reading history of the first Pashtun Mir Wais Khan Khotak or (Hotaki) Dynasty that initiated the creation of Pashtun kingdom, which started in 1708 in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The non-Pashtun Afghans call themselves...Tajik-Afghan...Uzbek-Afghan...Hazara-Afghan....yet these same people claim there is no such thing as Pashtun-Afghan. Wonder why is that???

Another thing is the languages of Afghanistan...according to Afghanistan's constitution, CIA world factbook and 1,000s of other sources along with about 30 million people of Afghanistan...Pashto and "Dari" are the official languages of the contry. A reminder that "Dari" and Persian language are totally different, and that's why both have different names. It's exactly like English and Spanish. Why is here only 1 or 2 people claiming that Dari is not the language of Afghanistan and that it is Persian???

Many people think that USA is against Pashtuns and are supporters of Tajiks because Taliban were mostly Pashtuns. This is not the case at all...America as a whole loves President Hamid Karzai and Zalmai Khalilzad, who is US ambassador to Iraq. There are many Pashtuns that work inside the Pentagon in Washinton, DC. Pashtuns in America are well recognized by the Americans as the best of the Afghans. Pashtuns in America are well established and have hands in politics there as well as owners of a huge business industry that helps America's economy. The United States turned against Taliban because of not surrendering Osama when requested to do so...other than that...Taliban were doing a great job on erradicating drugs and crimes in their country. The very proof to this is that in sping of 2001...the United States rewarded Taliban with $43 million dollars. The Taliban were not going around killing people for no reasons. They faced the same insurgency that is faced by US and Nato troops. However, the insurgents fighting the Taliban were opposition groups mainly the Shia Hazaras followed by the Tajiks and Uzbeks. That's why people were being killed on both sides at that time. When the United States first came to Afghanistan, they had little information on the exact cause of the fighting between Taliban and opposition groups....after years passed and everything was observed in the country....they learned that Taliban were not as bad as what everyone thought. It is clear fact that opposition groups to Taliban would say everything possible to make the image of Taliban look as nasty and as evil.

If you look at the situation now, Taliban is impossible to defeat because like President of Pakistan Musharraf said...every Pashtun is Taliban supporter, and there are approximately 50 million of them in the region, also backed up by another 150 million or so Pakistanis and Arabs. These people are determined to fight and never to give up.

As an American...I am now clearly convinced that we are on the wrong path both in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are sacraficing our own men to strengthen Iran (Shia), who is spreading its influence in both of these conflict zones. Even our top military commanders are saying that a new strategy must be implimented in order to stop the insurgents from attacking or using suicides. If America was invaded by Taliban and the white Americans were removed from power, replaced by the Afro-Americans or Hispanic Americans, I'm 100% sure the white Americans would've sarificed themselves by launching suicides attacks...the same way Taliban are doing it in Afghanistan. While US forces are killing Taliban in Afghanistan...the over all situation is becoming worst by the days. I believe the only way to solve this huge problem would be to allow back the Taliban, make them sign a deal that they stop fighting and follow the new constitution of the country instead of the Sharia law which they used in the past. Pashtuns are known to stick to their words. However, this does not mean US and Nato troops would withdrawl from the country, they must stay and continue to provide security for the country and help with reconstruction. It is very risky and uncomfortable to be doing construction work while watching your back every minute to make sure somebody don't attack and shoot you. So...this kind of strategy is being spoken around by all the Pashtuns in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and it must be considered as an option. I just hope that some sort of deal is made soon so that things get back to normal and both sides come out happy. Hey, we may be laughed at for few days for signing a deal with Taliban but it's much better then being laughed at for decades. If not then we will be like the biggest fools on earth...working for Iran (Shia) by defeating their enemies (Sunnis). We must not allow Iran to build a nuclear weapon, as this would lead to major war in the region. So the bottom line is that we must stop defeating Taliban instead bring them to the table and make them agree that they stop attacks. At the same time we must help them with what they want and that is law and order in Afghanistan. I know all this sounds very disturbing for many but it's the only way to help bring stabality to a country. ~Nisar NisarKand 22:10, 15 October 2006 (UCT)

Islamic Encylopedia clearly states that "Afghanistan" was born as a nation in the mid 18th century (refering to 1747)...and that before this time the nation did not exist as a one piece. Records of history also backs this claim because in 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani, who was an Afghan (Pashtun) that created a nation (Afghanistan) for his own people.

Even before 1747...the Afghans (Pashtuns) attempted to create their own nation in 1708, by rising against the Safavids, an empire which they defeated by 1722 and held control of Isfahan (present-day Iran) until 1729. However, the Afghans were removed from power and forced back to their land (present-day Afghanistan)...meaning the first attempt failed. Nader Shah from Persia (Iran) invaded present-day Afghanistan and took control for 10 years until he died in 1747. After his death, Ahmad Shah Durrani rose to power as the new king in the area...he captured entire present-day Afghanistan...entire present-day Pakistan along with Kashmir...Delhi in India....and northeast Iran, which was then called Khorassan.

In the year 1838, after a war between Persia (Iran) and Afghanistan...the present-day Afghanistan-Iran border was marked by the government of Persia, Afghanistan and Britian. Then in 1893, the present-day Afghanistan-Pakistan border (Durand Line) was marked by the government of Afghanistan and British India.

So the bottom line is this...Afghanistan was created as a nation in 1747, regardless if other nations recognized it or not. A land existed on earth, in which people called it "Afghanistan" (English: Afghanland). It is a pure myth for people to believe that British gave it this name in 1838, by calling it Afghanland, and then Afghans adopted that name to Afghanistan. If such thing had happened it would've been recorded by the British, unless you believe the British don't keep their records of events, or perhaps you believe they kept this a top secret. ~Nisar NisarKand 05:44, 17 October 2006


I think this is worth reading

This article put the multi-billion dollar opium-herion industry into scope in regards to Afghanistan. If you want to learn more about this aspect of Afghansitan and how it ties in witht he rest of the world and the world economy read this article.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=NAZ20061017&articleId=3516

User:NisarKand and POV issues

I have put the totally disputed tag on the page, because of the recent POV edits by User:NisarKand. Almost all of his edits are ethno-centric POV edits, totally unsourced. He himselfs believes that other Misplaced Pages articles and certain maps and pictures are reliable sources.

He has messed up the history part, he was trying to mess up the "name" part, and he is trying to push for a POV version in the culture part (including his rediculous claim that "Dari" and "Persian" are "different languages, like English and Spanish").

No one else feels responsible for this site, and even User:KP Botany who was actually supporting NisarKand's POV edits has no disappeared from the discussion.

Tājik 16:22, 17 October 2006 (UTC)


Although I couldn't follow up all the discussion between Tājik and User:NisarKand, I think there are two disputable points among you two:

1. Persian is used for both Farsi and Dari. Persian is an English word used by European and Western scholars for both the languages. Despite the fact that Persian is derived from Persia meaning language of Persians and goes exactly similar to Farsi, today it is used for both Farsi and Dari. Both "Farsi" and "Dari" are unfamiliar and foreign words for Europeans and Westerners. In order to avoid any misconception, the word Persian must be used in wikipedia. My suggestion for Nisarkand is to avoid pushing his Pashtun nationalistic views, while he can't give solid historical reasons based on linguistic researches.

I assume both you and Tajik do not speak American English, but rather British or Canadian or Australian or some other English. "Dari" is used by many Americans meaning Afghan Persian, although many Californians say "Afghan Farsi" and "Farsi" rather than "Afghan Persian" and "Persian." Neither "'Farsi' 'Dari' are unfamiliar and foreign words for ... Westerners" in America. If you believe (POV) that "Farsi" and "Dari" are unfamiliar to Europeans, that is merely your POV, and apparently Tajik's. However, I can google "Dari" AND "Afghan" for UK sites and get almost 20,000 hits--not the final say on the matter, but it certainly seems the word is at least familiar enough in part of the English-speaking, non-American Western world, that your POV is incorrect. I don't think that "Dari" is as unfamiliar to Westerners as your POV asserts it is.
However, you are inserting your Persian-biased and non-American English biased POV about Dari.
I agree that Nasar is inserting a Pashtun-biased POV. However, he is also removing a lot of Persian-biased POV from the Afghanistan article, which, before he came, should have been retitled, "Iran East." As Tajik won't compromise on the article being about Greater-Iran, and NasarKand won't compromise on it being about Pashtunistan, what should be done? The article is important, but adding more supporters of either bias, the Tajik all-Iranian-Afghanistan or the NasarKhan all-Pashtun-Afghanistan will neither make the article better reflect the reality of the modern political entity nor resolve the issues between them.
http://www.unomaha.edu/world/cas/?menu=publication&sub=publication&show=dari#start
KP Botany 19:21, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
The expression "Afghan Persian" is not accurate. It doesn't exist any Iranian Persian or Afghan Persian. Moreover, Persian is generally used by western scholars for both Dari and Farsi. I am not totally agree with Tājik, especially his own position for Iran whether because of ethnic or shiism issues. And furthermore as you said, he does not even allow editing Iran to Greater Iran, although historically and basically it should be mentioned Greater Iran. Ariana310 19:52, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
Nice side-stepping completey of the point that Dari is used by Wester scholars, as you yourself now admit. Possibly I did not follow your English meaning in your original post. Are you arguing that "Dari" is not used by Westerners or that it is used by Westerners? Possibly you did not follow what I said. The issue is about the use of Dari, not about Afghan Farsi or Afghan Persian. Please clarify what you mean about Dari in your earliest comment. It is good that you see some problems with Tajik's POV, though.KP Botany 20:11, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
In fact, from a more historical point of view, Dari and Farsi are two distinct languages. Farsi developed from Sassanid Pahlavi while Dari developed from Parti (Ashkanian Pahlavi),Soghdi and Takhari languages. Farsi was the language of Zoroastrian religous leaders in Persia, while Dari was then the official language of Sassanid Court. Dari was the language of eastern regions of Persia, Greater Khorasan. For more details, sources and linguistic researches please refer to Dari (Afghanistan) article. I have recently edited the article. The old article contained lots of incorrect, false and Iranian-oreiented theories. Although I did not modified completely the article, but I kept both theories about Dari language: the one that I just mentioned in this paragraphe, and the other one which Dari and Farsi are the same language developing from Pahlavi. So the main article of Dari in wikipedia contains both theories with sources. But the western and european scholars consider Dari and Farsi the same unique language with the difference of dialects. You can refer to Encyclopedia Britannica, Iranica and other western sources. They all have used the word "Persian" in their scholaric research articles for both the languages. In the old litereture books "Farsi-e Dari" has been used, which refers to both language (although this is one of the main disputable points between Iranian and Afghan scholars), so "Persian" has been constated as an equal term for "Farsi-Dari". The new term "Afghan Persian", created in USA according to you, is completely incorrect from linguistic researches point of view. First, "Afghan" is the name of an ethnic group who do NOT speak Persian. If we consider Afghan as a nationality, then "Dari" existed before the 18th century (formation of new Afghan state: Afghanistan). Dari is a 2000-year old language. So the expression "Afghan Persian" is totally incorrect. Secondly, "Persian" (as a language) was used by all the territories of Persia. Again we come up to two contradictory opinions: Afghanistan was called as part of Persia - and - Afghanistan was not part of Persia, but as an independent state called Khorasan, but had been conquered by Persian several times in a long period. I AM NOT TAKING ANY POSITION BETWEEN THESE TWO OPINIONS. Thus, saying "Afghan Persian" is again inappropriate, one has to say "Eastern Persian" (considering Dari and Farsi as the same language, Faris the western dialect of Farsi-Dari (Persian) and Dari the eastern dialect). These were the reasons for avoiding using Afghan Persian, instead whether it should be used "Dari" or "Eastern Persian". Ariana310 20:35, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

2. "Afghanistan" is a new word used in 18th century. It does show that Afghanistan was formed as a state in 18th century, but it does not mean that the people living in this territory were all part of other countries e.g. Pakistan, whose most people were part of India and the rest part of the old Afghanistan. The current Afghan territories were always known as "Khorasan". I am not going on the issue whether Khorasan was an independent state or part of Persia. Even during the government of Ahmad Shah Baba, it was called Khorasan. The name "Afghanistan" was first used in a treaty between Shah Shuja, British empire and Ranjeet Singh in 1838 in Lahore (source The reality of Political situation of Afghanistan, by Mohammad Akbar Shormach (an Afghan national)). Here are some other clues:

  • Abdullah Khan Popalzayee uses the word Khorasan when Ahmad Shah Abdali created the new city of Kandahar (of that time):

دمی که شاه شهامت مداراحمدشاه به استواری همت بنای شهر نهاد، جمال ملک خراسان شد این تازه بنا زحادثات زمانش خدا نگهدارد

  • Abdul Rahi Hotak, a Pashtun poet also uses the word Khorasan:
بیا یی به موند هیح راحت له خواشینه

چه داخوار رحیم راووت له خراسانه

دخراسان دسحر باده په جانان وایه په پردیسو سلامونه 

پر هندوستان می گل کرلی پر خراسان ولاره یم بوی یی راخینه
  • Gul Mohammad uses the same word for Abdul-Rahman Khan:
 په زمین دخراسان کشی پیدا کری رب سلطان دی
دده نوم په تمام جهان کشی خپورته هر چاته عیان دی
  • In 1284, the same word used in one of the poems: دوفوج مشرق ومغرب زهم مفصل شد امیر ملک خراسان محمد افضل شد
  • Other Persian-speaking or Dari-speaking poets who lived in India always used the word Khorasan for this territory. For example Zeb-un-Nissa Makhfi (1638-1702), a famous poet and daughter of Awrangzeb Moghul, has used several times this word:

باز دلم سوی خراسان رفته است رشته کفر بریدست به ایمان رفته است

ز روی لطف به تقصیر من قلم درکش که باتو هست مرا نسبت خراسانی

تواز ملک خراسانی به اصطبل وطن سازی به خواب شد اگر رنج و غم هندوستان بینی

دل آشفته مخفی به فن خود ارسطویی است به هند افتاده است اما خراسان است یونانش

بوعلی روزگارم از خراسان آمده از پی اعزاز بردرگاه سلطان آمده

And several other examples, especially in the old books such as Tarikh-e Baihaqee, Hudoodul Alame menal Mashreq menal Maghreb, Tarikh-e mallahand, etc. But I only gave examples of 17th century onwards. So the claim of User:NisarKand who says the current Afghan territory was known as Afghanistan or should be called Afghanistan, is obviously ridiculous. Although the word "afghan" or awghan or apagan, according to some sources, is a very old term, but it cannot be a reason to call the current Afghan territories as Afghanistan before the 18th century, because before the 18th century "afghan" or "afghanistan" was never used for a territory or for other people other than Pashtuns. Calling Ghaznavids, Timurids, Ghorids and others as Afghans, is totally a false and stupid claim. (And of course, we cannot call them Iranians either. They were Aryans by race or civilisation but not by nationality referring them to the contemporary Iran. We can only say that they ruled on Khorasan, on the current Afghan territories) Before the 19th or 18th century, the word "Afghan" was never used for any Nationality, only the name of an ethnic group who lived ONLY in the north of Sindh river in the south-eastern Afghanistan. While only after the 19th century, "afghan" was referred as a Nationality. But of course, today Tajik, Hazaras, Uzbeks and others are called Afghan nationals. So some claims like: Afghanistan same as Pashtunistan, or the land of Pashtuns, is completely baseless. May I ask User:NisarKand who were really ruling on these territories (current Afghan terriotry) before the 18th century? Were they Pashtuns/Afghans? It is really strange, the people who ruled on these territories for about 2000 years are now called as "foreigners" and are referred to other countries such as Tajikistan and Iran. Ahmad Shah Baba was crowned by a Kabuli citizen, Saber Shah. The word Afghanistan is a pure Dari word. The suffix "istan" is a pure Dari or Persian word. I already presented the arguements that even during the ruling of Ahmad Shah Baba, Afghanistan was not called as Afghanistan, but as Khorasan. Ariana310 18:53, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

User:NisarKand who calls himself a historian of Afghanistan MUST AT LEAST know that 18th century begins from 1700 and finishes up to 1799. So modifying 18th century to 1747 and writing in comments 17th century is obiously ridiculous. I just re-edited the Name section. I would like to ask him to first write his reasons in discussion page with trustable sources, then edit the article. Ariana310 19:30, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

In addition I would like to ask Tājik please not to try to impose his POVs for Iran. By considering both Afghanistan and Iran, as contemporary countries, Afghanistan was NOT part of Iran. However, it was part of the Greater Iran or Ariana or Eran-shahr but not part of the current Iran country which is not but a small part of the Greater Iran. I am also agree that being the major regions of Khorasan, it had been conquered by Persian Empires, sometimes it was part of Persia as a state i.e. Khorasan, and sometimes it had its own independent dynasties i.e. Kushans, Ghaznavids, Timurids, Ghorids, Samanids, etc. Ariana310 20:49, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

DO NOT GET ANGRY!...but after reading all this, I am left very confused to knowing what is being argued here? I am doing everything possible to make people understand the region (Afghanistan), with less confusion. Let me start again...who are Pashtuns??? Where they come from??? Do you believe Pashtuns were dropped down from the sky or they walked out of the ocean to the land??? What makes you think Pashtuns are not the real Aryans (people that lived in present-day Afghanistan approximately 50,000 years ago). Aryans were very light skinned...I mostly see light skinned people among Pashtuns, while the Persians are mostly dark. We Pashtuns are well known to the entire world that throughout the entire recorded history, we always fought invaders and defeated them. This is perhaps the biggest reason to believe that Pashtuns remained pure for a very long time. Again...these are simply considerations to consider when focusing on the history of the region (Afghanistan). According to Afghanistan's earliest history (at least 50,000 years ago), the "Aryans" lived in present-day Afghanistan...these Aryans slowly migrated to different parts....some went south towards present-day India and some went west towards present-day Iran. The area was occupied and controlled by the Aryans for a very long time...under different dynasties or ethnic groups that were formed among the Aryans. The last people to control present-day Afghanistan are obviously "Pashtuns". During the long history that Afghanistan has, invaders came from other faraway places and spread their influences in the region...from Greece, India, Arabia, Turkey, China, Britian, Russia and America. ]

It now appears to me that Persian speakers think or assume they are the original Aryans, and the rest of the people that are non-Persian speakers living in the region are left overs of those who came to invade the region in the past. There are not many options left to believe....it's either believe that Pashtuns are Aryans or believe that Pashtuns are left over from invaders. Just these 2 options on the table to choose from. Pashtuns obviously did not come down from the sky or walked out of the ocean. The most logical belief is that Pashtuns are clearly Aryans that lived in the region for at least 50,000 years.

We know very well that as time passes every once and then...people naturally divide...introduce new culture, new language, new religion, new governance, new way of living, new way of thinking, and etc. That's just the way GOD created everything. At one time there was no such thing as English language...however...it is now a world wide language. We are all communicating through this English language...I guess because it is unique or perhaps easy to understand. I fully understand that there Persian language, and that it has a history in Afghanistan. I am also aware there are many many dialects of Persian language. Pashto is another great language and there is no idea when Persian or Pashto really began, and I don't think it is that important to know. Perhaps they both started slowly...from other languages. Since 1940s...Afghanistan's official language was ONLY Pashto. However, in 2004 the Afghan government decided to make "Pashto" and "Dari" both the official languages of their country. If Dari is a language that comes from Persian language...then it is no longer Persian language. The same way Persian language at one point came from some other one. Tajik wants to preserve Persian language because I guess he is against the people of Afghanistan for giving their language a different name to it...that is his own POV. It does not make Afghanistan's Dari language a Persian language because Afghan government says so. The argument must first be with Afghan government before changes take effect.

About me getting confused with 18th century....not the case. When you talk about modern era....you can't place centuries any longer...you must be more specific. You must at least indicate early century, mid century or in the end of the century. A century is 100 years, which is very long time. If you state that the name "Afghanistan" was pronounced by its name since 18th century...it leaves most people to believe as of 1700s...some would think maybe in the 1750s...while only few would assume since the late 1700s. According to the Pashtuns...they all claim that present-day Afghanistan was called "land of the Afghans" for ages. However, since they don't speak English or Persian language...they had different names for it, which basically means the same as Afghanistan, Afghanland or land of the Afghans. In other words...it was no man's land. The same way like NWFP (North West Frontier Province and FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Area) of present-day Pakistan. The Pashtun areas of present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan were not part of Khorassan. This includes Kandahar, Ghazni, Kabul, Jalalabad, NWFP and FATA. Khorassan was the place where ONLY those that spoke Persian language.

I my self do not follow poetry, and I don't believe in poetry. I only believe history from historians, those who are historians by profession. Poetry is poetry...while history is history. My message to the Afghan editors (Ariana and Tajik)...do not try putting your own feelings, beliefs or views in Afghanistan's article because eventually you will lose credibility. We must only put actuall facts only. This is what I'm trying to do. Ariana stated that a man from Kabul crowned Ahmad Shah Baba in Kandahar. I want to say to Ariana that if you think you know so much...please explain who that man was and how did he end up living in Kandahar if he was from Kabul. By the way, Ahmad Shah did not even capture Kabul at that time when he was becoming crowned in 1747. According to what everyone in Kandahar believe is that the man was a local "Sayed" (decendent of prophet Mohammad)...he was well known by everyone in Kandahar. Also like to mention that Kandahar is very a small place where almost everyone know one another. It always has been this way. NisarKand 12:58, 19 October 2006

You seem to be reflecting your own feelings without any scientific or historic reasons. I am sorry, I did not have enough time to read completely what you wrote so long without any solid arguement. But by paying a glance on it, here I am only pointing VERY BRIEFLY out your incorrect claims:
1. Pashtuns are from the Aryan race. Let me correct you that Aryan tribes came from the north of Amy Darya after 3,000 BC and according to other sources between 2000 BC and 1800 BC; AND NOT 50000 ago. 50,000 years ago, only the human tribes used to live in Mountain caves in today's Afghan regions, but they were not Aryans. So Pashtuns are also the descendents of Aryan Race. But this tribe of Aryans (Pashtuns) were only limited to the Northern areas of Sindh river and around the Sulaiman Koh mountains. They were called "awghan" by Persians (refer to Shahnama). Awghans used to live on mountains, but were known for their bravery and strictness. Pashtuns/ Awghans converted to Islam by Subuktageen, father of Shah Mahmood Ghaznavi, when he conquered the Khorasani regions. You can refer to "Tareekh-e Baihaqee", Abul Fazl Baihaqee has clearly written it. So the people who ruled on the Khorasani regions until the 17th century were Dari-speaking Persians (Tajiks or Persians) and Turkish. I am not trying to show any hatred against any ethnic, nor I am trying to insert my own point of views, but I am only writing the truth.
Since 1940s...Afghanistan's official language was ONLY Pashto. This is a false and ridiculous claim. Can you provide me any source for it? You can however show me any Afghan consitution..... Pashto became the official language of Afghanistan in 1929. Before the 1929, the only official language was Dari. Ahmad Shah Baba, Timur Shah and other Durranis and Sadwazayees have a complete poetry Diwan in Dari language. The official language since Ahmad Shah Baba's government was Dari. And Pashto became the second official language in 1929, a short while late the Pakhto Tolena was created.
I do not have any prejudice against our Pashtoon brothers. Today we are all called as Afghan Nationals. And I never intend to write incorrectly the factual and historical facts about Afghanistan, I only write what was and what is the truth. I never insert my own feelings and POVs. I do not consider myself a Tajik while writing in Misplaced Pages, but an independant user. And don't think that I am agree with Tajik and that I am in favour of his Persian/Iranian POVs. I hope you will also stop pushing your pro-Pashtoon POVs, calling Afghanistan as Pashtunistan, a stupid claim. Manena! Ariana310 11:44, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

RE: Ariana310 If you haven't read what I wrote in my previous post then that's your first mistake. First of all...I was trying to shorten the 50,000 years old history...I did not say I 100% claim that those people living in Afghan region 50,000 years ago were called Aryans...that's something we don't have any information on. I am telling you there are signs that at least 50,000 years ago people in Afghanistan lived....it's not important if they lived in the north, south, east or west...as long as they lived in Afghanistan. There is little information on those folks. However, an excavation was performed in 1960s or 70s, finding objects and clues indicating that there were people living in the region at least 50,000 years ago. Perhaps they were cavemen or they were the forefathers of the people that are living in present-day Afghanistan...as we don't know much about them for now. By the way...it's "Indus River" you're refering to and not Sindh River. Then you claim that Persians gave Pashtuns the name "Awghan"...before saying that...you must have clear and convincing evidence. You should not consider Pashtuns as mountain people....because they don't live on mountains. If you look at all the Pashtun areas....it's open plains, flat land and very little mountains. It is the Tajiks that live on mountains. Therefore, Pashtuns cannot be considered as those that live on mountains because they don't. Neither is Kandahar, Ghazni, Kabul, Jalabad or the Pashtuns areas in Pakistan mountains. I've been to those places many times by road.

Why did you brought Islam into this debate...I did not mention anything about Islam in my previous post. By the way my great great grandfathers introduced Islam to the Persians and converted the Persians from their religion to Islam. So I am Arab decendent from my father's side...just so you know. According to history...Islam made its way into Afghanistan mainly by Arabs that sailed in ships crossing the Persian Gulf...landing in present-day Karachi City, Balochistan, Pakistan, and some landing in present-day southern Iran. While another front was crossing from present-day Iraq to Iran and then into Afghanistan. Islam was first rejected by the Pashtuns and the Arabs were defeated. After holding loya jirgas (peaceful meetings) many years later, between Arabs and Pashtuns, Islam was finally accepted by the Pashtuns as their official religion. However, the Persians and Hindus were forcefully converted by the Arabs. Another point I'd like to add is that Tajik and Persian is modern names...made up recently. In the past there were no such people as "Persians"...especially "Tajik". Persian is a western given name. I'm not sure but I think Persians were called "Parsibans" (Parsi speakers). To make me understand...what did Persians in the past call one another...according their to pronounciation?

About Pashto being the ONLY official language since 1940s....notice I did not mention that it started in 1940s. I said since 1940s...which means at least since 1940s. Or I can say that before 2004...Pashto was the official language of Afghanistan, while Dari was the second language. However, as of 2004 until now...both are official languages of the country. So I was not wrong and I did not make a false or ridiculous claim. Read the following....

"In 1936, as part of Zahir Shah's family the Musahiban's attempt to strengthen the national ideology, Pashto was recognized as the official language. During King Amanullah's reign (1919-1929) both Pashto and Dari (Afghan Persian) were considered official languages" (Zulfacar, Page 14).

The government decided to replace the language of instructions, Dari, with only Pashtu in an attempt to bolster the state's claim on Pashtunistan, currently Pakistan's Northwestern Frontier Province.

Therefore, I am correct when I said that since 1940s Pashto was the ONLY official language. By the way...you may do your own search and find out all this. I am also not prejudice against anyone. Everyone born in Afghanistan is considered an Afghan national or Afghan native. However, I only see non-Pashtuns from Afghanistan using Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara and other names before Afghan. The only reason I decided to edit Afghanistan's article was because there was no Pashtun mentioned or very little mentioned. So I decided to explain a little about Pashtun history. According to Pashtuns....Pashto language existed at least 2,500 years ago. So don't mind me share information about Pashtuns and their history...as you may explain about your people's history...but I only like to see everything from well known sources and not from people who write poetry. NisarKand 03:11, 20 October 2006

Dismabiguation

I've disambiguated the same Persian wikilink to Persian language three times in the past two days. Please stop putting it back to Persian. There should be no links to disambiguation pages; see WP:DPL. -- Jeff3000 15:20, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

@ NisarKand

... what's wrong with you? You are flooding the article with wrong information and POV. It is very obviousl that you are pushing for an extreme anti-Persian and anti-Tajik POV.

Most of your claims, like saying that "Dari and Persian are different languages" or labeling Farhad Darya as a Pashtun or Pashtun nationalists are totally hillarious.

You are also falsefying the history part. Your edits totally contradict the Indo-Iranians article, or ANY other sourced article about this region. Your claim that "there have never been Persians in Afghanistan" is totally stupid! Maybe you should look up the meaning of the word Tajik, the meaning of Kizilbash, or the meaning of Farsiwan. Maybe you should look up the article Ghurids or Samanids.

Please stop destrying this article with your stupid POV.

Tājik 20:55, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

There is nothing wrong with me...I am putting 100% facts in Afghanistan's article. I am not racist in any sense, Persians are simply people that speak the Persian language. Tajiks are people that you don't know, while I know more about them. You are confusing everyone that read Afghanistan's article by inserting Persian this Persian that. The fact is that Aryans first settled in Afghanistan and then moved to Iran's and India's regions. Afghanistan was called "Aryana" (Land of the Aryans). Dari and Persian are 2 different languages in the eyes of the world...especially in the eyes of Afghans. I don't need to look up...I am already know. Only Iranians assume or think they are the true Aryans...this is 1000% false. Afghanistan was always the center of Aryans....while Iran was part of it...the same way India was part of it. Remember the name "Iran" was made up Persians very recently....before that...there was NO IRAN. Again..."Persian" simply means anyone that speaks any branch of the Persian language. You assume Persian only means Aryan....this is totally false. Aryans were those that lived in Afghanistan 1,000s of years ago...eventually they broke down to many different tribes or people. Tajik is someone that has Turkish father and Persian mother...or sometimes vice versa. I am making it clear so English people can clearly understand all this...I am not destroying Afghan article...it is you who are doing it, and I suggest you stop. Pashtuns...also known as Afghans...are Aryans...they've been living in Afghanistan for ages and they ruled Afghanistan since 1747 and are still ruling it. Learn to live with it...if not...then take a hike to Tajikistan or Iran.

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