Charikar was officially renamed in December 2022 to honor the 8th-century Sunni Muslim theologian and jurist Abu Hanifa,[4] who is also sometimes called Imam Azam ("The Great Imam")[5] and was the founder of the Hanafi school of Islamic law. The city lies on the Afghanistan Ring Road, 69km (43mi) from Kabul along the route to the northern provinces. Travelers would pass the city when traveling to Mazar-i-Sharif, Kunduz or Puli Khumri. Despite the proximity to Kabul, slightly more than half of the land is not built-up. Of the built-up land, almost equal parts are residential (37%) and vacant plots (32%), with a grid network of road coverage amounting to 19% of built-up land area, as of 2015[update].[9] The city is at the gateway to the Panjshir Valley, where the Shamali plains meet the foothills of the Hindu Kush, and is known for its pottery and high-quality grapes.[10] It has four police districts (nahias) and a total land area of 3,025ha (11.68sqmi).[9]
In 1221, the Battle of Parwan was fought near Charikar, in which Jalal al-Din Mangburni with a large army defeated a column of 30,000 soldiers of the invading Mongols. He later escaped into the northern Punjab, and avoided the immediate consequences of the fall of the Khwarezmid Empire.[11][12]
At the beginning of the 19th century, Charikar became a flourishing commercial town of several thousand inhabitants.[13] Charikar was the location of major battle during the First Anglo-Afghan War. In 1841 a British garrison was massacred by Afghans led by Mir Masjidi Khan, and the Anglo-Indian army officer Major Eldred Pottinger was badly wounded.[14]
On 14 August 2011, a team of about six suicide bombers attacked the governor's palace in Charikar. The Governor Abdul Basir Salangi survived but 19 people were killed to which the Taliban claimed responsibility.[16]
On 19 May 2020, gunmen opened fire inside a mosque in Charikar, killing 11 worshipers and injuring 16 others when they were offering the evening prayer after breaking their Ramadan fast. The Taliban denied involvement in the attack.[17][18][19]
In late August 2020, the city was the site of floods that killed at least 92 people.[20]
Following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban provincial governor of Parwan province announced in December 2022 that the name of the city would be changed. One news source said the new name of the town was "Imam Abu Hanifa",[4] while another reported the new name as "Imam Azam".[5] A government official from the former Afghan regime said the renaming was the beginning of an anti-Farsi campaign by the regime.[4]
Climate
Charikar has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dsa) with hot summers and cold winters. The winter months are much rainier than the summer months. The warmest month of the year is July, with an average temperature of 25.0°C (77.0°F). January is the coldest month, with temperatures averaging −2.9°C (26.8°F).
According to Afghanistan's National Statistics and Information Authority, Charikar has an estimated population of 222,751 people.[2] They include various ethnic groups of Afghanistan.[6][7] In 2015 there were about 10,671 dwellings in the city.[22] Earlier figures provided 172,200 residents.[23]
↑The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan had announced proposals, intending to rename the town of Charikar to "Imam Abu Hanifa" in late 2021, after the Muslim scholar who was native to the place. However, this name has not been widely adopted nor officially recognized, as most Afghan sources still recognize the town's name as "Charikar" officially, and the name still remains widespread in Afghan media.
12"Parwan Province". Program for Culture & Conflict Studies. Naval Postgraduate School. Archived from the original on 2021-11-07. Retrieved 2013-06-16. The population of approximately 560,000 is composed of Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek, Qizilbash, Kuchi, Hazara, and other minority groups.
12"Regional Command East: Parwan Province". Institute for the Study of War. Retrieved 2013-06-16. The main ethnic groups are Pashtuns and Tajiks, but there are small numbers of Uzbeks, Qizilbash and Hazaras as well.
12"Charikar". The Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixthed.). Columbia University Press. 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-19.
↑Man, John (2005) Genghis Khan: Life, Death, and Resurrection St.Martin's Press, New York, pages 181–182, ISBN978-0-312-31444-6
↑Tucker, Spencer C. (2009). A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East, Volume I ca. 3000 BCE–1499 CE. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p.273. ISBN978-1-85109-667-1.
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