Turkestan Province
| Province of Turkestan (1850–c. 1946)ولایت ترکستانWelāyat-e Turkestān Province of Mazar-i-Sharif (c. 1946–1964) ولایت مزار شريفWelāyat-e Mazār-e Sharīf | |
|---|---|
| Province of Afghanistan | |
| 1850–1964 | |
 | |
| Turkestan in 1929 | |
| Capital | Balkh (1850–1854) Takhtapul (1854–1869/74) Mazar-i-Sharif (1869/74–1964) |
| Demonym | Turkestani |
| • Type | Province |
| History | |
• Established | 1850 |
• Disestablished | 1964 |
| Today part of | Afghanistan |
The Province of Turkestan (Persian: ولایت ترکستان, romanized: Wilāyat-i Turkistān), historically also known as Balkh, Afghan Turkestan or Lesser Turkestan[1] and since the 1940s as the Province of Mazar-i-Sharif, was a province of the Emirate of Afghanistan and later the Kingdom of Afghanistan, situated in the north of the country in the region historically known as Afghan Turkestan.
History
With the Afghan conquest of the Khanate of Balkh in 1849, the region came under Kabul's direct control,[2] and the province of Turkestan was established the following year, with Balkh serving as its capital. As the city was largely in ruins by that time, the capital was relocated in 1854 to Takhtapul by governor Muhammad Afzal Khan.[3][4] The Afghan consolidation of the north proceeded in stages: following the conquest of Balkh and Tashkurgan in 1850, the western khanates of Aqcha, Sar-e Pol, Sheberghan, Andkhoy and Maimana were brought under Afghan control in 1855, and Kunduz in 1859, with the subjugated Khanate of Kunduz and the Mirdom of Badakhshan gradually integrated into the province thereafter.[5][6] The sovereignty over Andkhoy, Sheberghan, Sar-e Pol and Maimana had been disputed between Bukhara and Kabul until settled in Afghanistan's favour by the Anglo-Russian agreement of 1873. The northern frontier was subsequently delimited by the Russo-Afghan Boundary Commission of 1885, an episode that gave rise to the Panjdeh incident.[5] Between 1869 and 1873/74, governor Muhammad ʿAlam Khan transferred the seat of administration to Mazar-i-Sharif, which remained the provincial capital thereafter.[7] Under the centralising rule of Abdur Rahman Khan, these outlying territories were closely integrated into the Afghan state, though the bonds of central control again relaxed following the accession of Habibullah Khan.[5]
In 1890, the districts of Qataghan and Badakhshan were separated from Turkestan and merged into a unified district named Badakhshan under the administration of the Northern Bureau in Kabul. This arrangement proved temporary as by 1905, Badakhshan had been resubordinated to Turkestan,[8][9] though it continued to function as a distinct "great political division" within the province under its own governor.[10]. The separation became permanent only with the administrative reorganisation under King Amanullah Khan in 1921/22, when Qataghan and Badakhshan was reconstituted as a distinct province. With the same decree, the western portion of the province — encompassing the former khanates of Maimana, Andkhoy, Darzab, and Gurziwan — was detached and reconstituted as the High Governorate of Maimana.[11]
The name Turkestan is still present on an administrative map dated 1929, at which time the province was governed by Khwajah Mir Alam, who had possibly been assigned the office in January 1929 during the Afghan Civil War, when Habibullah Kalakani seized control of Kabul.[12] Around 1946, coinciding with the national population census, the province was renamed Mazar-i-Sharif and had a population of 944,020.[13] Between 1958[14] and 1964,[15] the district of Sheberghan — encompassing the former khanates of Sheberghan, Aqcha, and Sar-e Pol — was separated to form its own province, reducing Mazar-i-Sharif to the territory of the former Khanate of Balkh and the portions of the historical Khanate of Kunduz west of the Kunduz River. Both Sheberghan and Mazar-i-Sharif were subsequently reorganised in the nationwide restructuring of 1964, resulting in the present-day province of Jowzjan and the provinces of Balkh and Samangan respectively.[16]
Political administration
In the 19th century, Afghan Turkestan was governed by a governor (hakim) appointed by the Amir.[6] Below is a list of governors of Afghan Turkestan.
- Sardar Mohammad Akram Khan - 1850 - 1852
- Sardar Mohammad Afzal Khan - 1852 - 1864
- Sardar Fath Mohammad Khan - 1864 - 1865
- Fayz Mohammad Khan - 1865 - 1867
- Naib Muhammad Alam Khan - 1868 - 1876[17]
- Shahghasi Sherdil Loynab Khan - 1876 -1878
- Sardar Abdul Wahab Khan - 1911 - 1919[18]
Subdivisions
In 1886 the administrative divisions of Afghan Turkestan were as follows:[19]
- Mazar-i Sharif (with the districts of Shor Tapa, Boinkara, Kishindi, Aq Kupruk, Tunj
- Balkh (directly administered by the Sardar of Turkistan)
- Aqcha (with the districts of Khwaja Salar and Dawlatabad)
- Tashkorgan (with the districts of Pir Nakchir and Ghaznigak)
- Sheberghan
- Andkhui
- Aybak
- Dara-i Suf
- Doab
- Saighan and Kahmard
- Balkh-ab (high up the Band-i Amir river)
- Sangcharak
- Sar-i Pol
- Maimana
See also
References
- ↑ Emergence of Afghanistan as a Political Entity and the Use of Polity Names
- ↑ COLONEL GRODEKOFF'S RIDE FROM SAMARCAND TO HERAT, THROUGH BALKH AND THE UZBEK STATES OF AFGHAN TURKESTAN, 1880, p. 40.
- ↑ Ḥabībī, ʿA. "AFŻAL KHAN, AMIR MOḤAMMAD". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
- ↑ de Planhol, Xavier. "MAZĀR-E ŠARIF". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
- 1 2 3 Holdich, Thomas Hungerford (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 319.
- 1 2 Christine Noelle. State and tribe in nineteenth-century Afghanistan: the reign of Amir Dost Muhammad Khan (1826-1863). Routledge, 1997. pp. 101
- ↑ McChesney, R. D. (2014). Waqf in Central Asia: Four Hundred Years in the History of a Muslim Shrine, 1480–1889. Princeton University Press. p. 270.
- ↑ The Statesman's Year-Book 1905, p. 392. "The dominions [of Afghanistan] are politically divided into the four provinces of Kabul, Túrkistán. Herát, and Kandahár, Badakhshán being now under Túrkistán"
- ↑ Hamilton, Angus (1906). Afghanistan. W. Heinemann. p. 247.
Quite lately Habib Ullah has proposed to re-distribute the various districts which make up the provinces of Badakshan and Afghan Turkestan, so that two new provinces may soon come into existence. These will have their headquarters at Mazar-i-Sharif and Khanabad respectively. The first will consist of the districts of Balkh, Akcha, Shibirghan, Andkhui and Tashkurgan, extending to the Oxus on the north and Bamian on the south. The second will take in all the country eastwards to Chitral, including Badakshan and Wakhan. Each province will have a Governor with two Deputies. Sirdar Ghulam Ali Khan, brother of the Amir, will be Governor of one, and another brother, Sirdar Omar Khan, will have his headquarters in the other.
- ↑ Ludwig W. Adamec. Historical and Political Gazetteer of Afghanistan, Vol. 1: Badakhshan Province and Northeastern Afghanistan. Graz: Akad. Druck- und Verl.-Anst., 1972, p. 26.
- ↑ Niẓāmnāmah-ʼi taqsīmāt-i mulkīyah-ʼi Afghānistān
- ↑ Muḥammad, Fayz̤; Hazārah, Fayz̤ Muḥammad Kātib (1999). Kabul Under Siege: Fayz Muhammad's Account of the 1929 Uprising. Markus Wiener Publishers. p. 128. ISBN 9781558761551.
- ↑ "Afghanistan Provinces". www.statoids.com. Retrieved 2018-12-22.
- ↑ Statoids: Provinces of Afghanistan
- ↑ Historical and Political Gazetteer of Afghanistan, Vol. 4, 1979
- ↑ Kabul Times, 30 April 1964, p. 1.
- ↑ Lee, Jonathan L. (1996-01-01). The "Ancient Supremacy": Bukhara, Afghanistan and the Battle for Balkh, 1731-1901. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-10399-3.
- ↑ Adamec, Ludwig W. (1975). Historical and political who's who of Afghanistan. Hauptbd: Historical and political Who's who. Graz: Akad. Druck- u. Verlagsanst. p. 101. ISBN 978-3-201-00921-8.
- ↑ Adamec, Ludwig W.; Branch, India Army General Staff (1979). Historical and Political Gazetteer of Afghanistan, Vol. 4: Mazar-I-Sharif and North-Central Afghanistan. Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt. ISBN 978-3-201-01089-4.
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