Kabul – A Short History
Kabul is located high in a narrow valley in the Hindu Kush mountain range, and is bounded by the Kabul River. At an elevation of 1,790 metres (5,873 ft), it is one of the highest capital cities in the world.
Kabul is said to be over 3,500 years old, and was mentioned at the time of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Located at a crossroads in Asia—the city is situated in a strategic location along the trade routes of Central Asia and South Asia. It was a key destination on the ancient Silk Road and was traditionally seen as the meeting point between Tartary, India and Persia.
Over the centuries Kabul has been under the rule of various dynasties and empires, including the Seleucids, Greeks,Persians , Turks, Samanids, Timurids, and Mongols.
A settlement in this area is mentioned in the Rigveda (the oldest Hindu scripture, dating from c. 1500 BCE) and by Ptolemy, the Alexandrian astronomer, geographer, and mathematician, in the 2nd century CE.
The strategic location enabled control of important trade routes: from the north through the Hindu Kush mountains, from the south through the towns of Ghaznī and Gardēz, and to the east through the Khyber Pass leading to Pakistan and India.
At times part of various Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms in the region, Kabul was first conquered by Arab forces in 870 CE.
Kabul was heavily damaged and looted by Mongol forces under Genghis Khan in 1221 and remained in a diminished state for more than a century afterward. Timur(Tamerlane) captured Kabul in 1398, and the city began to revive under Timurid rule.
Kabul became the initial capital of the Mughal dynasty in 1504, when occupied by the emperor Bābur, who invested in public buildings and gardens. By his own account, it was Kabul’s climate and its fruit that caused Bābur to fall in love with the city.
His successors established their capital at Agra in India, and Kabul became little more than a regional outpost of the Mughal Empire until 1738, when it was occupied by the Persian general Nādir Shāh, known as Persia’s Napoleon
Following his assassination, Aḥmad Shah Durrānīe merged as ruler from the power struggle, and created the Afgan Empire in 1747 and it was his son, Timur Shah (whose restored mausoleum stands on the bank of the Kabul River), who moved his capital to Kabul.
In the 19th century the city was occupied by the British: after establishing foreign relations and agreements, they withdrew from Afghanistan and returned to British India.
Kabul is known for its historical gardens, bazaars, and palaces such as the Gardens of Babur, Darul Aman Palace and the Arg. In the second half of the 20th century, the city became a stop on the hippie trail undertaken by many Europeans.
This period of tranquility ended with the Soviet military intervention in 1979 which sparked a 10-year Soviet–Afghan War. The 1990s were marked by civil wars between splinter factions of the disbanded Afghan mujahideen which destroyed much of the city.
In 1996, Kabul was captured by the Taliban after four years of intermittent fighting. The Taliban-ruled city fell to the United States after the American-led invasion of Afghanistan which followed the September 11 attacks in the US in 2001.
In 2021, Kabul was re-occupied by the Taliban following the withdrawal of American and NATO-led military forces from Afghanistan.
Content courtesy of Wikipedia and Britannia
Destination: Afghanistan
