Kunduz

Kunduz
کندز
City
Kunduz
Location in Afghanistan
Coordinates: 36°43′43″N 68°52′5″E / 36.72861°N 68.86806°E / 36.72861; 68.86806Coordinates: 36°43′43″N 68°52′5″E / 36.72861°N 68.86806°E / 36.72861; 68.86806
Country  Afghanistan
Province Kunduz Province
District Kunduz District
First mention 329 BC
Elevation 391 m (1,283 ft)
Population (2012)[1]
 • City 268,893
 • Urban 268,893
Time zone UTC+4:30 (Afghanistan Standard Time)
Climate BSk

Kunduz (/kʊnduːz/; Pashto: کندز‎; Dari: قندوز‎) is a city in northern Afghanistan, which serves as the capital of Kunduz Province. Kunduz has a population of about 268,893,[2] making it about the 6th-largest city of Afghanistan, while Kunduz District has a population of 304,600.[1] Located in the historical Tokharistan region of Bactria, Kunduz is linked by highways with Kabul to the south, Mazar-i-Sharif to the west, and Fayzabad, Badakhshan to the east. Kunduz is also linked with Qurghonteppa and Dushanbe in Tajikistan to the north via the Afghan border town and port of Sherkhan Bandar, which is 55 km (34 mi) away. The land use of the city (within the municipal boundary) is largely agricultural (65.8% of total area). Residential land comprises nearly half of the 'built-up' land area (48.3%) with 29,877 dwellings.[3] Institutional land comprises 17.9% of built-up land use, given that the airport is located within the municipal boundary.[3]

Etymology

Kunduz is also sometimes spelled as Kundûz, Qonduz, Qondûz, Konduz, Kondûz, Kondoz, or Qhunduz. The name of the city is derived from Persian compound, kuhan diz, "old/ancient fort".

Until the 1960s, the city served as the capital to the now-defunct province of Qataqan, itself meaning "Old/Ancient city" (from Turkic kata ("old/ancient') and Eastern Iranian (Sogdian) kand, "fort", "town").

History

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Kunduz is the site of the ancient city of Drapsaka. It was a great centre of Buddhist learning and very prosperous during the 3rd century AD.

The city used to be called Walwalij[4] (or Varvarliz) and the name Kuhandiz began to be used from the Timurid time.

In the 18th and 19th centuries it was the capital of a rather large eponymous, sometimes independent, sometimes autonomous Uzbek-Tajik khanate that in the 1820s encompassed land from Balkh to the Pamir Mountains. It was part of The Great Game between the British and Russians. This khanate was finally destroyed by Afghanistan in 1859. Between one hundred and two-hundred thousand Tajiks and Uzbeks fled the conquest of their homeland by Russian Red Army and settled in northern Afghanistan.[5]

In the early 20th century, under the governance of Sher Khan Nasher, Kunduz became one of the wealthiest Afghan provinces. This was mainly due to Nasher's founding of the Spinzar Cotton Company, which continues to exist in post-war Afghanistan.

Kunduz is the most important agricultural province which produces wheat, rice, millet, and other products and obtained the nickname of "the hive of the country."

Kunduz is the centre for the northeast provinces and was captured by the Taliban in 1997. It was the last major city held by the Taliban before its fall to US-backed Afghan Northern Alliance forces on November 26, 2001. The city is strategically important because it is the only way connecting Takhar province and Badakhshan provinces, which play a critical role in the existing government.

During the summer of 2015, the Taliban and Afghan forces battled for control of the city. Tens of thousands of inhabitants were displaced internally by the fighting.[6][7][8] On 28 September 2015 the Taliban flag was again raised in the city center and the Taliban managed to capture the city prison and free many prisoners.[9][10] The Afghan Armed Forces counter-attacked and managed to re-capture the city in 15 days. The Taliban announced that, after achieving their objectives, they have withdrawn from the city's center. Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesperson, said that their main object in leaving the city is to avoid civilian casualties from air raids.[11] On April 2018 the Afghan Air Force conducted an airstrike that killed and injured dozens of civilians at a religious school in Kunduz.[12]

Geography

Climate

A valley near Kunduz

Kunduz has a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk) with hot summers and cold winters. Precipitation is generally low except from January to April, with summers almost always rainless.

Climate data for Kunduz
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 21.2
(70.2)		 25.0
(77)		 32.8
(91)		 38.9
(102)		 42.2
(108)		 46.2
(115.2)		 45.3
(113.5)		 44.2
(111.6)		 39.2
(102.6)		 39.4
(102.9)		 28.4
(83.1)		 21.6
(70.9)		 46.2
(115.2)
Average high °C (°F) 6.3
(43.3)		 9.5
(49.1)		 15.8
(60.4)		 23.0
(73.4)		 29.8
(85.6)		 37.3
(99.1)		 39.0
(102.2)		 36.9
(98.4)		 31.8
(89.2)		 24.5
(76.1)		 16.0
(60.8)		 9.7
(49.5)		 23.3
(73.9)
Daily mean °C (°F) 1.6
(34.9)		 4.4
(39.9)		 10.4
(50.7)		 17.2
(63)		 22.9
(73.2)		 29.3
(84.7)		 31.3
(88.3)		 29.2
(84.6)		 23.9
(75)		 16.9
(62.4)		 9.5
(49.1)		 4.4
(39.9)		 16.8
(62.1)
Average low °C (°F) −2.4
(27.7)		 0.0
(32)		 5.7
(42.3)		 11.6
(52.9)		 15.7
(60.3)		 20.9
(69.6)		 23.3
(73.9)		 21.5
(70.7)		 16.3
(61.3)		 10.6
(51.1)		 4.1
(39.4)		 0.0
(32)		 10.6
(51.1)
Record low °C (°F) −22.7
(−8.9)		 −23.1
(−9.6)		 −11.8
(10.8)		 −2.1
(28.2)		 4.2
(39.6)		 12.5
(54.5)		 15.7
(60.3)		 12.6
(54.7)		 3.5
(38.3)		 −2.0
(28.4)		 −9.8
(14.4)		 −20
(−4)		 −23.1
(−9.6)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 44.0
(1.732)		 56.5
(2.224)		 76.7
(3.02)		 54.4
(2.142)		 29.8
(1.173)		 0.1
(0.004)		 1.3
(0.051)		 0.3
(0.012)		 0.1
(0.004)		 7.3
(0.287)		 23.7
(0.933)		 28.4
(1.118)		 322.6
(12.7)
Average rainy days 5 6 11 10 9 1 1 0 0 3 5 6 57
Average snowy days 5 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 14
Average relative humidity (%) 80 75 75 71 54 31 28 29 32 44 63 76 55
Mean monthly sunshine hours 114.4 114.6 158.9 201.0 276.5 332.1 340.2 315.5 289.7 221.8 169.3 118.3 2,652.3
Source: NOAA (1958-1983) [13]

Demography

Ethnolinguistic groups of Afghanistan

The city of Kunduz has a population of about 268,893,[2] while Kunduz District has a population of 304,600.[1] Ethnic Pashtuns make up the largest percent followed by Uzbeks, Tajiks, Arabs and a few others.[5][14][15]

The Kunduz Arabs speak Persian and Pashto, Afghanistan's two official languages, rather than Arabic. However, they claim a strong Arab identity, based on their tribes that originated in Arabia. This may in fact point to the 7th and 8th centuries migration to this and other Central Asian locales of many Arab tribes from Arabia in the wake of the Islamic conquests of the region. There are other such Arabs to the north and west, between Kholm, Mazar-i-Sharif and Shibarghan, as well as in eastern Afghanistan in Jalalabad.[16]

Administration

Airport Kunduz

Kunduz city is divided into 8 Police Districts ('Nahias') with a total land area of 11,206 hectares.[2]

Kunduz Province is divided into six districts: Khan Abad, Ali Abad, Char Dara, Dashti Archi, Qala-e-Zal and Imam Sahib, plus Kunduz City. Kunduz has nine representatives in the lower house and two in the upper house and has a provincial council. The most influential leader of Kunduz was Arif Khan, who was a governor of Kunduz Province and was shot dead in the city of Peshawar, Pakistan in the year 2000. Soon after the incident his brother Haji Omar Khan took his responsibility and was appointed as the Governor of Kunduz (2000–01). In the Karzai administration, Haji Omar Khan was elected to be a representative of Kunduz Province in the Lower House (Wolasi Jirga) and at a time serve as an advisor minister to President Hamid Karzai.

Notable people


See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Settled Population of Kunduz province by Civil Division, Urban, Rural and Sex-2012-13" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-01-12.
  2. 1 2 3 "The State of Afghan Cities 2015". Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  3. 1 2 "The State of Afghan Cities 2015, Volume 2". Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  4. ↑ "Asien-Afrika-Institut". uni-hamburg.de. Archived from the original on 2012-05-09.
  5. 1 2 Wörmer, Nils (2012). "The Networks of Kunduz: A History of Conflict and Their Actors, from 1992 to 2001" (PDF). Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik. Afghanistan Analysts Network. p. 8. Retrieved 2014-01-12.
  6. ↑ "Afghans counter Taliban offensive in northern Kunduz province". BBC News.
  7. ↑ "Taliban and Afghan Government Dispute Status of Kunduz". New York Times. 21 June 2015.
  8. ↑ "Afghanistan: Taliban advance on key northern city". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  9. ↑ "Taliban 'seize half' of Afghanistan's Kunduz city". www.bbc.com. BBC. 28 September 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  10. ↑ "Afghan Taliban seize northern city center in major attack". Reuters. 2015-09-28. Retrieved 2015-09-28.
  11. ↑ "Taliban admit Kunduz withdrawal". 13 October 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2018 – via www.bbc.com.
  12. ↑ April 3, cbs/AFP; 2018; Am, 6:20. "Carnage as airstrike hits boy's school in Taliban territory". Retrieved 2018-04-13.
  13. ↑ "Kunduz Climate Normals 1958-1983". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved December 25, 2012.
  14. ↑ "Kunduz Province" (PDF). Program for Culture & Conflict Studies. Naval Postgraduate School. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 2, 2012. Retrieved 2014-01-12.
  15. ↑ "2003 National Geographic Population Map" (PDF). Thomas Gouttierre, Center For Afghanistan Studies, University of Nebraska at Omaha; Matthew S. Baker, Stratfor. National Geographic Society. 2003. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  16. ↑ Barfield, T.J. (1981), The Central Asian Arabs of Afghanistan: Pastoral Nomadism in Transition, University of Texas Press, ISBN 9780292710665

Further reading

  • Dupree, Nancy Hatch (1977): An Historical Guide to Afghanistan. 1st Edition: 1970. 2nd Edition. Revised and Enlarged. Afghan Tourist Organization.
  • Thomas J. Barfield, The Central Asian Arabs of Afghanistan: Pastoral Nomadism in Transition. 1982.
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