Afghanistan

The land that is now Afghanistan first enters recorded history as Bactria, a fertile province of river valleys and mountain passes north of the Hindu Kush. Incorporated into the Achaemenid Persian empire under Cyrus the Great around the mid-sixth century BCE, it was conquered by Alexander the Great between 329 and 327 BCE in some of the hardest campaigning of his career. Greek settlers remained behind, and after Alexander's death the region passed to the Seleucids before Diodotus I broke away around the mid-third century BCE to found the independent Greco-Bactrian kingdom, a remarkable Hellenistic state set deep in Central Asia.

From the first century CE the Kushans, descended from the nomadic Yuezhi, forged an empire across Bactria and Gandhara that straddled the southern Silk Road. Under King Kanishka the Kushan realm became one of the great powers of its age, a hub through which Buddhism, Greek art and Indian thought flowed between India, Central Asia and China. The fusion of Hellenistic and Indian styles produced the celebrated Gandhara school of sculpture, and Buddhist monasteries, stupas and pilgrimage routes spread across the country.

Nowhere was this Buddhist civilisation more monumental than at Bamiyan, a valley on the pilgrimage and trade routes through the Hindu Kush. There, probably in the sixth century CE, monks carved two colossal standing Buddhas, roughly 55 and 38 metres tall, into the cliff face, surrounded by painted caves, chapels and monasteries. The valley remained a centre of pilgrimage for centuries and is today inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site, even after the destruction of the great statues in 2001.

Turning points

1. 329–327 BCEWar & Rupture

   Alexander the Great conquers Bactria

   Alexander of Macedon overruns Bactria and the lands of modern Afghanistan in a gruelling campaign, leaving Greek garrisons and settlers that seeded later Hellenistic kingdoms.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [7]

2. c. 256 BCEFormation

   The Greco-Bactrian kingdom

   Diodotus I breaks Bactria away from the Seleucid empire to found the independent Greco-Bactrian kingdom, a Hellenistic state that fused Greek and local traditions north of the Hindu Kush.

   [1] [2]

3. 2nd century CECulture & Ideas

   The Kushan empire and Gandhara art

   Under rulers such as Kanishka the Kushans build an empire across Bactria and Gandhara, spreading Buddhism along the Silk Road and giving rise to the Greco-Buddhist Gandhara school of sculpture.

   [3] [4]

4. 6th century CEReligion

   The Bamiyan Buddhas carved

   Monks carve two colossal Buddhas, about 55 and 38 metres high, into the cliffs of the Bamiyan Valley, a great centre of Buddhist pilgrimage on the routes through the Hindu Kush.

   [5] [6]

Figures of the era

Following the fall of Sasanian Persia, Arab Muslim armies pushed eastward and took Herat around 642 CE, beginning the long, contested Islamisation of the Afghan lands. Conversion was gradual and resisted by mountain tribes, but by the ninth century local dynasties such as the Saffarids had carried Islam to Ghazni and Kabul. The decisive transformation came under the Ghaznavids: founded by the former Turkic slave Sebüktigin, the dynasty reached its zenith under Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni (998–1030), who launched more than a dozen campaigns into India and made his capital Ghazni a cultural centre rivalling Baghdad.

In the twelfth century power shifted to the Ghurids of the remote mountain province of Ghur, who sacked Ghazni around 1150 and went on to carry Muslim rule deep into northern India, laying foundations for the later Delhi Sultanate. Their monuments, such as the soaring Minaret of Jam, still stand in Afghanistan's interior. After the Ghurids the region was repeatedly overrun, most catastrophically by the Mongols of Genghis Khan in the thirteenth century, whose campaigns devastated cities such as Balkh, Herat and Bamiyan.

Out of the Mongol aftermath rose the Timurids. When Timur's son Shah Rukh moved the dynasty's capital from Samarkand to Herat in the early fifteenth century, the city became one of the most brilliant cultural centres in the Islamic world. Under Shah Rukh and his cultured queen Gawhar Shad, Herat fostered architecture, poetry and a renowned school of miniature painting associated with the master Bihzad. This Timurid renaissance left Afghanistan a legacy of art and learning before the rise of the Safavids, Mughals and, ultimately, the Durranis.

Turning points

1. c. 642 CEReligion

   Arab conquest and the coming of Islam

   Arab Muslim forces take Herat in the wake of the conquest of Persia, beginning the gradual and long-contested Islamisation of the Afghan lands.

   [8] [9]

2. 998–1030 CEPolitics & Power

   Mahmud of Ghazni and the Ghaznavid empire

   Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni builds a vast empire from Afghanistan into Iran and India and turns his capital Ghazni into a centre of Islamic culture and learning.

   [10] [11]

3. c. 1150 CEWar & Rupture

   The Ghurids sack Ghazni

   The Ghurids of central Afghanistan overthrow Ghaznavid power, sacking Ghazni and extending Muslim rule into northern India; their Minaret of Jam survives as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

   ↗See the data

   [10] [12]

4. 15th century CECulture & Ideas

   Herat, capital of the Timurid renaissance

   Shah Rukh moves the Timurid capital to Herat, where he and Queen Gawhar Shad make the city a dazzling centre of architecture, poetry and miniature painting.

   [13] [9]

Figures of the era

In 1747, on the assassination of the Persian conqueror Nadir Shah, a jirga of Afghan chiefs at Kandahar elected Ahmad Shah, an Abdali cavalry commander, as their ruler. Taking the title Durrani, he forged an empire that at its height ran from the Amu Darya to the Arabian Sea and from Khorasan to Kashmir and the Punjab, raiding repeatedly into India. Though his successors lost much of this territory to internal feuds and rising rivals, the Durrani state founded at Kandahar is regarded as the birth of modern Afghanistan, and Ahmad Shah Durrani is honoured as the father of the nation.

By the nineteenth century Afghanistan lay between two expanding empires: British India to the south-east and Tsarist Russia advancing through Central Asia. Their rivalry to dominate or neutralise the country became known as the 'Great Game'. Fearing Russian influence over Kabul, the British twice invaded. The First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–1842) ended in catastrophe, with a British-Indian column annihilated during its retreat from Kabul. The Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878–1880) forced Afghanistan, under the Treaty of Gandamak, to cede control of its foreign relations to Britain in exchange for protection and subsidy.

Under the 'Iron Amir' Abdur Rahman Khan (1880–1901), Afghanistan's modern borders took shape, including the disputed Durand Line agreed with British India in 1893, which split Pashtun lands and remains contested today. He and his successors built a more centralised state while remaining shut out of foreign affairs. That constraint, the last legacy of the Great Game, would be thrown off only when a new amir, Amanullah Khan, challenged Britain in 1919.

Turning points

1. 1747Formation

   Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state

   A jirga at Kandahar elects Ahmad Shah Durrani ruler after Nadir Shah's death; the Durrani Empire he founds is regarded as the origin of the modern Afghan state.

   [14] [9]

2. 1839–1842War & Rupture

   First Anglo-Afghan War

   Britain invades to install a friendly ruler but is overwhelmed; a British-Indian force is destroyed during its disastrous 1842 retreat from Kabul, an early clash of the Great Game.

   ↗See the data

   [15]

3. 1878–1880War & Rupture

   Second Anglo-Afghan War and the Treaty of Gandamak

   Britain invades again over fears of Russian influence; the 1879 Treaty of Gandamak gives Britain control of Afghan foreign affairs in return for subsidy and protection.

   ↗See the data

   [15]

4. 1893Politics & Power

   The Durand Line drawn

   Amir Abdur Rahman Khan agrees the Durand Line with British India, fixing a frontier that divides Pashtun communities and remains a source of dispute with Pakistan to this day.

   [9] [7]

Figures of the era

In February 1919 Amanullah Khan became amir and at once repudiated British control of Afghan foreign affairs, declaring full independence. The brief Third Anglo-Afghan War followed in May 1919, and though militarily inconclusive it forced Britain to the table. The Treaty of Rawalpindi, signed on 8 August 1919, recognised Afghanistan's right to conduct its own foreign relations; Afghans mark 19 August as Independence Day. Amanullah then pursued sweeping reform, abolishing slavery, opening schools for girls and boys, and pressing Western dress and the unveiling of women.

His reforms outran the country's tolerance. Tribal and religious revolt erupted in late 1928, and in January 1929 Amanullah abdicated and fled into exile. After a chaotic interlude in which the bandit Habibullah Kalakani briefly seized Kabul, Nadir Shah restored order, only to be assassinated in 1933. His son Mohammad Zahir Shah then reigned for forty years, the longest rule since the Durrani founding. He steered a careful course of gradual modernisation and neutrality, and in 1964 promulgated a constitution that introduced a more open, if fragile, experiment in parliamentary politics.

Cold War rivalry shaped these decades, as both the United States and the Soviet Union courted Kabul with aid and arms. In July 1973, while Zahir Shah was abroad, his cousin and former prime minister Mohammad Daoud Khan seized power in a bloodless coup, abolished the monarchy and proclaimed a republic with himself as president. Daoud sought to balance the superpowers and curb the influence of the Soviet-aligned left, but his rule was brief, and the tensions he failed to master soon erupted in revolution.

Turning points

1. 1919Independence

   Independence and the Treaty of Rawalpindi

   Amir Amanullah Khan repudiates British control of foreign affairs and, after the Third Anglo-Afghan War, secures the Treaty of Rawalpindi (8 August 1919) recognising Afghan control of its own foreign relations.

   ↗See the data

   [15] [16]

2. 1929Politics & Power

   Amanullah's reforms collapse

   Sweeping modernising reforms provoke tribal and religious revolt; Amanullah Khan abdicates and flees into exile in January 1929, plunging the country briefly into civil strife.

   [17] [9]

3. 1933–1973Politics & Power

   The long reign of Zahir Shah

   Mohammad Zahir Shah rules for four decades of cautious modernisation and neutrality, introducing in 1964 a constitution that opens a brief era of parliamentary politics.

   [18] [9]

4. 1973Politics & Power

   Daoud Khan founds the republic

   Mohammad Daoud Khan overthrows his cousin Zahir Shah in a bloodless coup, abolishes the monarchy and proclaims Afghanistan a republic with himself as president.

   [9] [7]

Figures of the era

In April 1978 the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) seized power in the Saur Revolution, killing President Daoud and his family. The new Marxist government's radical reforms and repression provoked widespread armed revolt by Islamic insurgents, known collectively as the mujahideen. As the PDPA splintered and the countryside slipped from its control, the Soviet Union intervened directly: on the night of 24 December 1979 Soviet forces invaded, killed the Afghan leader Hafizullah Amin and installed Babrak Karmal.

What Moscow expected to be a brief stabilisation became a ten-year war. The mujahideen, supplied with arms and money by the United States, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, fought a grinding insurgency from the mountains and from bases across the Pakistani border, while millions of Afghans fled as refugees. Unable to win, the Soviets agreed under the 1988 Geneva Accords to withdraw, and the last Soviet troops left on 15 February 1989. The war had cost enormous loss of life and shattered much of the country.

The Soviet-backed government of Mohammad Najibullah held on until 1992, when its funding dried up, it collapsed, and mujahideen factions poured into Kabul. But the victors at once fell to fighting among themselves, and the early 1990s saw a devastating civil war as rival commanders shelled the capital and carved the country into warring fiefdoms. Tens of thousands of civilians died and much of Kabul lay in ruins. Into this anarchy, in 1994, emerged a new movement of religious students drawn largely from the Pashtun south, promising order and the rule of Islamic law: the Taliban.

Turning points

1. April 1978Politics & Power

   The Saur Revolution

   The communist PDPA overthrows and kills President Daoud Khan, seizing power in the Saur Revolution and imposing radical reforms that ignite armed rebellion across the country.

   [19] [9]

2. 24 Dec 1979War & Rupture

   The Soviet invasion

   Soviet forces invade on 24 December 1979, kill the Afghan leader Hafizullah Amin and install Babrak Karmal, beginning a decade-long war against the US-backed mujahideen.

   ↗See the data

   [19] [20]

3. 15 Feb 1989War & Rupture

   Soviet withdrawal

   Under the 1988 Geneva Accords the Soviet Union pulls out; the last troops leave on 15 February 1989 after a war that killed huge numbers of Afghans and displaced millions.

   ↗See the data

   [20] [19]

4. 1992–1996War & Rupture

   Collapse of the communist government and civil war

   Najibullah's government falls in 1992 and rival mujahideen factions turn on one another, devastating Kabul in a civil war that opens the way for the Taliban.

   ↗See the data

   [9] [21]

Figures of the era

In September 1996 the Taliban captured Kabul and proclaimed the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under Mullah Mohammad Omar, recognised by a council as 'commander of the faithful'. Their rule imposed a severe interpretation of Islamic law, sharply curtailing the rights of women and girls, and drew international condemnation. In March 2001 the regime dynamited the ancient Bamiyan Buddhas as idolatrous, an act mourned worldwide as the destruction of a unique heritage of humanity.

After al-Qaeda, sheltered by the Taliban, carried out the attacks of 11 September 2001, a US-led coalition intervened and, with the Afghan Northern Alliance, swiftly toppled the Taliban government. At the Bonn Conference in December 2001 a new political order was agreed, with Hamid Karzai leading an interim administration and, from 2004, an elected presidency under a new constitution. Yet the Taliban regrouped as an insurgency, and the conflict became the longest war in American history, sustaining an internationally backed Afghan republic against a resilient insurgency for two decades.

In February 2020 the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement in Doha setting a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign forces. As that withdrawal proceeded in 2021 the Afghan government collapsed with startling speed; the Taliban entered Kabul on 15 August 2021 as President Ashraf Ghani fled, and re-established the Islamic Emirate. The return brought renewed restrictions, above all on women's education and work, a severe humanitarian and economic crisis, and a government that, as of 2026, remains unrecognised by the United Nations even as it controls the country.

Turning points

1. 1996Politics & Power

   The Taliban capture Kabul

   The Taliban, led by Mullah Omar, seize Kabul and proclaim the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, imposing a severe religious order and isolating the country internationally.

   [21] [22]

2. March 2001Catastrophe

   Destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas

   The Taliban dynamite the colossal sixth-century Buddhas of Bamiyan as idolatrous, destroying a unique monument of world heritage months before their own fall.

   ↗See the data

   [5] [6]

3. Oct–Dec 2001War & Rupture

   US-led intervention topples the Taliban

   After the 11 September attacks a US-led coalition and the Northern Alliance overthrow the Taliban; the Bonn Agreement of December 2001 installs Hamid Karzai's interim government.

   ↗See the data

   [23] [21]

4. 15 Aug 2021Politics & Power

   Taliban return to power

   Following the 2020 Doha agreement and the withdrawal of foreign forces, the Afghan government collapses and the Taliban retake Kabul on 15 August 2021, re-establishing the Islamic Emirate.

   [24] [23]

Figures of the era