Badakhshan

Badakhshan is a region comprising parts of northeastern Afghanistan and of Tajikistan. Badakhshan Province is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the east of Afghanistan, containing the Wakhan Corridor. A part of Badakhshan is located in Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan in the in south-east of the country.

History

Its boundaries were decided by the Anglo-Russian agreement of 1873, which expressly acknowledged "Badakhshan with its dependent district Wakhan" as "fully belonging to the amir of Kabul," and limited it to the left or southern bank of the Oxus. On the west, Badakhshan was bounded by a line which crosses the Turkestan plains southwards from the junction of the Kundus and Oxus rivers till it touches the eastern water-divide of the Tashkurghan River, and then runs southeast, crossing Kunduz, until it strikes the Hindu Kush. The southern boundary was carried along the crest of the Hindu Kush as far as the Khawak pass, leading from Badakhshan into the Panjshir valley. Beyond this it was indefinite.

Related Topics:
Anglo - Russia - 1873 - Oxus - Turkestan - Kundus - Oxus - Tashkurghan River - Kunduz - Hindu Kush - Khawak pass - Panjshir

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It was known that the Kafirs occupied the crest of the Hindu Kush eastwards of the Khawak, but how far they extended north of the main watershed was not ascertainable. The southern limits of Badakhshan became definite again at the Dorah pass. The Dorah connects Zebak and Ishkashim at the elbow, or bend, of the Oxus with the Lutku valley leading to Chitral. From the Dorah eastwards the crest of the Hindu Kush again became the boundary till it effects a junction with the Muztagh and Sarikol ranges, which shut off China from Russia and India. Skirting round the head of the Tagdumbash Pamir, it finally merged into the Pamir boundary, and turned westwards, following the course of the Oxus, to the junction of that river and the Khanabad (Kunduz).

Related Topics:
Kafir - Dorah pass - Zebak - Ishkashim - China - India - Tagdumbash Pamir - Pamir

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So far as the northern boundary followed the Oxus stream, under the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush, it was only separated by the length of these slopes (some 8 or 10 miles) from the southern boundary along the crest. Thus Badakhshan reached out an arm into the Pamirs eastwards - bottle-shaped - narrow at the neck (represented by the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush), and swelling out eastwards so as to include a part of the great and little Pamirs.

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Before the boundary settlement of 1873 the small states of Roushan and Shougnan extended to the left bank of the Oxus, and the province of Darwaz, on the other hand, extended to the right bank. Then, however, the Darwaz extension northwards was exchanged for the Russian Pamir extension westwards, and the river throughout became the boundary between Russian and Afghan territory; the political boundaries of those provinces and those of Wakhan were no longer coincident with their geographical limits.

Related Topics:
Roushan - Shougnan - Darwaz - Russian Pamir

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The following were the chief provincial subdivisions of Badakhshan, omitting Roushan and Shougnan: on the west Rustak, Kataghan, Ghori, Narin and Anderab; on the north Darwaz, Ragh and Shiwa; on the east Charan, Ishkashim, Zebak and Wakhan; and in the centre Faizabad, Farkhar, Minjan and Kishm. There were others, but nothing certain is known about these minor subdivisions.

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In 1895 the Panj River was defined as part of the border between Afghan and Russian Badakhshan. Within the Soviet Union, the former Russian part was organized as the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous oblast within the Tadzhik S.S.R. (from 1991, independent Tajikistan).

Related Topics:
1895 - Soviet Union

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