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Afghanistan i// (Persian/Pashto: , Afnistn), officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in Central Asia, South Asia, and is a part of the Greater Middle East.[8][9] It has a population of around 30 million inhabiting an area of approximately 652,000km2 (252,000sqmi), making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and the east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the far northeast.

Afghanistan has been an ancient focal point of the Silk Road and human migration. Archaeologists have found evidence of human habitation from as far back as the Middle Paleolithic. Urban civilization may have begun in the area as early as 3,000 to 2,000 BC.[10] Sitting at an important geostrategic location that connects the Middle East culture with Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent,[11] the land has been home to various peoples through the ages[12] and witnessed many military campaigns, notably by Alexander the Great, Arab Muslims, Genghis Khan, and in modern-era Western forces.[10] The land also served as a source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Mughals, Durranis and others have risen to form major empires.[13]

Most of Afghanistan's history prior to the modern state of Afghanistan took place within the context of the various Persian Empires.[14] The political history of the modern state of Afghanistan begins in 1709 with the rise of the Pashtuns - historically known as "Afghans" - when the Hotaki dynasty was established in Kandahar followed by the rise of the Durrani Empire in 1747.[15][16][17] In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a buffer state in the "Great Game" between British India and the Russian Empire. Following the 1919 Anglo-Afghan War, King Amanullah began a European style modernization of the country but was stopped by ultra-conservatives. During the Cold War, after the withdrawal of the British from neighboring India in 1947, the United States and the Soviet Union began spreading influences in Afghanistan,[18] which led in 1979 to a bloody war between the US-backed mujahideen forces and the Soviet-backed Afghan government in which over a million Afghans lost their lives.[19][20] This was followed by a 1990s civil war, the rise and fall of the extremist Taliban government, and the 2001present war.[21] In December 2001, the United Nations Security Council authorized the creation of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to help maintain security in Afghanistan and assist the Karzai administration.[22]

Three decades of war made Afghanistan one of the world's most dangerous countries.[23] While the international community is rebuilding war-torn Afghanistan, terrorist groups such as the Haqqani Network and Hezbi Islami[24] are actively involved in a nationwide Taliban-led insurgency,[25] which includes hundreds of assassinations and suicide attacks.[26] According to the United Nations, the insurgents were responsible for 80% of civilian casualties in 2011 and 2012.[27][28] It suffers from several challenges, including being world's most corrupt country and is the World's largest source of refugees.

The name Afghnistn (Persian: , [avnestn])[29] means "Land of the Afghans",[30] which originates from the ethnonym "Afghan". Historically, the name "Afghan" mainly designated the Pashtun people, the largest ethnic group of Afghanistan.[31] This name is mentioned in the form of Abgan in the third century CE by the Sassanians[32] and as Avagana (Afghana) in the 6th century CE by Indian astronomer Varahamihira.[31] A people called the Afghans are mentioned several times in a 10th-century geography book, Hudud al-'alam, particularly where a reference is made to a village: "Saul, a pleasant village on a mountain. In it live Afghans."[33]

Al-Biruni referred to them in the 11th century as various tribes living on the western frontier mountains of the Indus River, which would be the Sulaiman Mountains.[34]Ibn Battuta, a famous Moroccan scholar visiting the region in 1333, writes: "We travelled on to Kabul, formerly a vast town, the site of which is now occupied by a village inhabited by a tribe of Persians called Afghans. They hold mountains and defiles and possess considerable strength, and are mostly highwaymen. Their principle mountain is called Kuh Sulayman."[35] One prominent 16th-century Persian scholar explains extensively about the Afghans. For example, he writes:

"The men of Kbul and Khilj also went home; and whenever they were questioned about the Musulmns of the Kohistn (the mountains), and how matters stood there, they said, "Don't call it Kohistn, but Afghnistn; for there is nothing there but Afghns and disturbances." Thus it is clear that for this reason the people of the country call their home in their own language Afghnistn, and themselves Afghns."[36]

It is widely acknowledged that the terms "Pashtun" and Afghan are synonyms,[31] something that is even mentioned in the 17th-century poetry of Khushal Khan Khattak: For example, he states: "Pull out your sword and slay any one, that says Pashtun and Afghan are not one! Arabs know this and so do Romans: Afghans are Pashtuns, Pashtuns are Afghans!"[37]

The last part of the name, -stn is a Persian suffix for "place". The name "Afghanistan" is described by the 16th century Mughal Emperor Babur in his memoirs as well as by the later Persian scholar Firishta and Babur's descendants, referring to the traditional ethnic Pashtun territories between the Hindu Kush mountains and the Indus River.[38] In the early 19th century, Afghan politicians decided to adopt the name Afghanistan for the entire Afghan Empire after its English translation had already appeared in various treaties with Qajarid Persia and British India.[39] In 1857, in his review of J.W. Kaye's The Afghan War, Friedrich Engels describes "Afghanistan" as:

"an extensive country of Asia... between Persia and the Indies, and in the other direction between the Hindu Kush and the Indian Ocean. It formerly included the Persian provinces of Khorassan and Kohistan, together with Herat, Beluchistan, Cashmere, and Sinde, and a considerable part of the Punjab... Its principal cities are Kabul, the capital, Ghuznee, Peshawer, and Kandahar."[40]

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Afghanistan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia