Turkestan Province

The Turkestan Province (Persian: ولایت ترکستان; Southern Uzbek: تۆرکستان وﻻيتی), also called Afghan Turkestan, was a large province in northern Afghanistan during the 1800s and early 1900s. It included the areas of today’s Balkh, Jowzjan, Faryab, Sar‑e Pol, and parts of Kunduz.George Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question, Vol. 1, Longmans, 1892, pp. 365–370. The province was important because it was Afghanistan’s border with the Russian Empire. Its borders were fixed after the Anglo‑Russian Agreement of 1873 and the Russo‑Afghan Boundary Commission of 1885.Angus Hamilton, Afghanistan, Hutchinson & Co., 1906, pp. 112–118.

 History 
The province was formed around 1850. At first, Balkh was the capital, but later Mazar‑i‑Sharif became the main city.Henry Walter Bellew, The Races of Afghanistan, Thacker, 1880, pp. 45–48. In 1890, the eastern districts were separated to make the new Qataghan‑Badakhshan Province.Louis Dupree, Afghanistan, Princeton University Press, 1973, p. 375. The province was removed in the early 20th century, and its land was divided into the modern provinces of northern Afghanistan.Martin Ewans, Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics, HarperCollins, 2002, pp. 84–86.

 Geography 
Afghan Turkestan stretched from the Amu Darya in the north to the Hindu Kush mountains in the south. The land had wide plains, river valleys, and mountain areas.Edward Balfour, Cyclopaedia of India, Vol. 3, 1885, pp. 1040–1042.

 People 
The province had many ethnic groups, including Uzbeks, Turkmens, Tajiks, Hazaras, and Pashtuns. Uzbek and Turkmen languages were common, and Dari was used in trade and government.R. G. Watson, History of Persia, Vol. 2, Smith, Elder & Co., 1866, pp. 210–212.

A British survey from 1884 recorded the following population data for Afghan Turkestan, based on the number of families per ethnic group:

+ Population of Afghan Turkestan in 1884 Ethnic group  Number of families Uzbeks  30,080 Arabs  16,070 Hazaras  11,490 Tajiks  10,740 Turkmens  8,505 Baluch and Firozkuhi  3,730 Afghans (Pashtuns)  3,420 Sayyids and Khwajas  1,610 Kipchaks  1,460 Total  87,105

Anna Elisabeth Liechti-Stucki, The Ersari Turkmen of Afghanistan: Some Aspects of Social and Economic Organization and Change in a Central Asian Turkic Society, p.42.

 References 

 Other websites 
 Internet Archive  
 Google Books

Category:Former provinces of Afghanistan
Category:History of Afghanistan
Category:19th century in Afghanistan