Afghan Turkestan , also known as Southern Turkestan , is a region in northern Afghanistan , on the border with the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan , Uzbekistan , and Tajikistan . In the 19th century, there was a province in Afghanistan named Turkestan with Mazar-e Sharif as provincial capital. The province incorporated the territories of the present-day provinces of Balkh , Kunduz , Jowzjan , Sar-e Pol , and Faryab . In 1890, Qataghan-Badakhshan Province was separated from Turkestan Province. It was later abolished by Abdur Rahman .
13-623: The whole territory of Afghan Turkestan, from the junction of the Kokcha river with the Amu Darya on the north-east to the province of Herat on the south-west, was some 800 kilometres (500 mi) in length, with an average width from the Russian frontier to the Hindu Kush of 183 km (114 mi). It thus comprised about 150,000 km (57,000 sq mi) or roughly two-ninths of
26-601: A basin area of 114,000 square kilometres (44,000 sq mi). It forms a considerable part of the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border . The river is formed by the confluence of the Pamir River and the Wakhan River near the village of Qalʿa-ye Panja ( Qalʽeh-ye Panjeh ). From there, it flows westwards, marking part of the border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. After passing the city of Khorugh , capital of
39-474: A century it belonged to the Delhi empire, and then fell into Uzbek hands. In the 18th century it formed part of the dominion of Ahmad Shah Durrani , and so remained under his son Timur. But under the fratricidal wars of Timur's sons the separate khanates fell back under the independent rule of various Uzbek chiefs. At the beginning of the 19th century they belonged to Bukhara; but under the emir Dost Mohammad ,
52-727: The Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan it receives water from one of its main tributaries, the Bartang River . It then turns towards the southwest, before joining the river Vakhsh and forming the greatest river of Central Asia , the Amu Darya. The Panj played an important role during Soviet times, and was a strategic river during the Soviet military operations in Afghanistan in
65-530: The Seleucidae , declared his independence, and commenced the history of the Greco-Bactrian dynasties, which succumbed to Parthian and nomadic movements about 126 BC. After this came a Buddhist era which has left its traces in the gigantic sculptures at Bamian and the rock-cut topes of Haibak. The district was devastated by Genghis Khan , and has never since fully recovered its prosperity. For about
78-638: The 1980s. A water treaty between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan, signed in 1946, allows Afghanistan to draw 9 million cubic metres of water a year from the Panj. It currently draws 2 million cubic metres of water. According to the Panj River Basin Project, environmental damage could be expected if Afghanistan drew the entire amount of water from the river that the treaty allows. The Aga Khan Development Network has been engaged in
91-668: The Afghans recovered Balkh and Tashkurgan in 1850, Akcha and the four western khanates in 1855, and Kunduz in 1859. Dost Mohammad's earliest campaigns begin in the 1830s in the Afghan Turkestan Campaign of 1838-39 . The sovereignty over Andkhoy , Shibarghan , Saripul , and Maymana was in dispute between Bukhara and Kabul until settled by the Anglo-Russian agreement of 1873 in favour of the Afghan claim. Under
104-513: The former Kingdom of Afghanistan . The area is agriculturally poor except in the river valleys, being rough and mountainous towards the south, but subsiding into undulating wastes and pasture-lands towards the Karakum Desert . The province included the khanates of Kunduz , Tashkurgan , Balkh , and Akcha in the east and the four khanates or Chahar Wilayat ("four domains") of Saripul , Shibarghan , Andkhoy (city) , and Maymana in
117-739: The province was assigned to the Northern Bureau in Kabul . Kokcha The Kokcha River ( Persian : رودخانه کوکچه ) is located in northeastern Afghanistan . A tributary of the Panj river , it flows through Badakhshan Province in the Hindu Kush . It is named after the Koksha Valley . The city of Feyzabad lies along the Kokcha. Near the village of Artin Jelow there is a bridge over
130-524: The river. The Kokcha begins in Kuran wa Munjan District near the district center of Kuran wa Munjan and flows north, passing through Yamgan District and Jurm District . Near the village of Baharak , the Warduj river meets the Kokcha. The river then flows east, going around the northern border of Argo District and passing Feyzabad. Finally, the 320-km long Kokcha enters Takhar Province , flows around
143-522: The southern border of Rustaq District , and ends at the Amu Darya by Ai-Khanoum . Panj river The Panj ( UK : / ˈ p æ n dʒ / PANJ , US : / ˈ p ɑː n dʒ / PAHNJ ), traditionally known as the Ochus River , is a river in Afghanistan and Tajikistan and is a tributary of the Amu Darya . The river is 921 kilometres (572 mi) long and has
SECTION 10
#1732772176440156-586: The strong rule of Abdur Rahman these outlying territories were closely welded to Kabul; but after the accession of Habibullah the bonds once more relaxed. In the late 19th and 20th centuries, many ethnic Pashtuns either voluntarily or involuntarily settled in Afghan Turkestan . In 1890, the district of Qataghan and Badakhshan was divided from Afghan Turkestan and made into the Qataghan-Badakhshan Province . Administration of
169-593: The west. The bulk of the people are Uzbeks and Turkmens with large concentrations of Hazaras , Qizilbashs , Tajiks , and Pashtuns . Ancient Balkh or Bactria was an integral part of Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex , and was occupied by Indo-Iranians . In the 5th century BCE, it became a province of the Achaemenian Empire and later became part of the Seleucid Empire . About 250 BC Diodotus (Theodotus) , governor of Bactria under
#439560