Kandahar is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of 1,010 m (3,310 ft). It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the capital of Kandahar Province and the centre of the larger cultural region called Loy Kandahar. Kandahar is the founding city and spiritual center of the Taliban. Despite the capital of Afghanistan being Kabul, where the government administration is based, Kandahar is the seat of power in Afghanistan as the supreme leader and his spiritual advisers are based there. Kandahar has therefore been called the de facto capital of Afghanistan, though the Taliban maintain Kabul is the capital.
Kandahār is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southern part of the country, sharing a border with Pakistan, to the south. It is surrounded by Helmand in the west, Uruzgan in the north and Zabul Province in the east. Its capital is the city of Kandahar, Afghanistan's second largest city, which is located on the Arghandab River. The greater region surrounding the province is called Loy Kandahar. The Emir of Afghanistan sends orders to Kabul from Kandahar making it the de facto capital of Afghanistan, although the main government body operates in Kabul. All meetings with the Emir take place in Kandahar, meetings excluding the Emir are in Kabul.
George XI, known as Gurgin Khan in Iran, was a Georgian monarch who ruled the Kingdom of Kartli as a Safavid Persian subject from 1676 to 1688 and again from 1703 to 1709. He is best known for his struggle against the Safavids which dominated his weakened kingdom and later as a Safavid commander-in-chief in what is now Afghanistan. Being an Eastern Orthodox Christian, he converted to Shia Islam prior to his appointment as governor of Kandahar.
Lashkargāh, historically called Bost or Boost, is a city in southwestern Afghanistan and the capital of Helmand Province. It is located in Lashkargah District, where the Arghandab River merges into the Helmand River. The city has a population of 201,546 as of 2006. Lashkargah is linked by major roads with Kandahar to the east, Zaranj on the border with Iran to the west, and Farah and Herat to the north-west. It is mostly very arid and desolate. However, farming does exist around the Helmand and Arghandab rivers. Bost Airport is located on the east bank of the Helmand River, five miles north of the junction of the Helmand and Arghandab rivers. Because of the trading hubs, it is Afghanistan's second largest city in size, after Kabul and before Kandahar.
The Hotak dynasty was an Afghan monarchy founded by Ghilji Pashtuns that briefly ruled portions of Iran and Afghanistan during the 1720s. It was established in April 1709 by Mirwais Hotak, who led a successful rebellion against the declining Persian Safavid empire in the region of Loy Kandahar in what is now southern Afghanistan.
Education in Afghanistan includes K–12 and higher education, which is under the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education. In 2021, there were nearly 10 million students and 220,000 teachers in Afghanistan. The nation still requires more schools and teachers. Soon after the Taliban take took the country in August 2021, they banned girls from secondary education. Some provinces still allow secondary education for girls despite the ban. In December 2022, the Taliban government also prohibited university education for females in Afghanistan, sparking protests and international condemnation. In December 2023, investigations were being held by the United Nations into the claim that Afghan girls of all ages were allowed to study at religious schools.
Mir Ways ibn Shah 'Alam, also known as Mirwais Khan Hotak was an Afghan ruler from the Ghilji tribe of Pashtuns of Kandahar, Afghanistan, and the founder of the Hotak dynasty.
Nangarhar University is a government-funded higher learning institution in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. It is the second largest university in Afghanistan. It has 13 colleges and 15,385 students.
Kandahar University is located in the north-western section of Kandahar, Afghanistan, next to the Lowala neighborhood. Established during the Presidency of Mohammad Najibullah in 1990, it is one of the largest public universities in the country. It is under the Ministry of Higher Education, which is headquartered in Kabul. The university was expanded in the last two decades with many new buildings and facilities being added. It also has a large library and a multipurpose sports ground. A 25 million afghanis development work on the university's campus is ongoing, which includes adding roads and sidewalks, and improving the overall landscape.
Shaikh Zayed University, also known as Khost University, is a public university in the city of Khost, southeastern Afghanistan. With its original name Afghan University Peshawar, it was initially established in 2000 in Peshawar. It was shifted to Khost by special orders of the former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and was officially registered in 2003. The university was named after Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the first President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who sponsored the construction of its campus in Khost.
The Mirwais Regional Hospital, also known as Shafakhanai Chinai, is a general hospital in the Shahr-e Naw neighborhood of Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan. It is one of several advanced medical-treatment facilities in the area, and is administered by the Ministry of Public Health. The name of the hospital relates to Mirwais Hotak, who is known as Mirwais Neeka.
The name Afghānistān means "land of the Afghans", the name "Afghan" originally referred to a member of the Pashtuns. which originates from the ethnonym Afghan. Historically, Pashtuns were referred to as Afghans, the largest ethnic group of Afghanistan. The earliest reference to the name is found in the 10th-century geography book known as Hudud al-'Alam. The last part of the name, -stān is a Persian suffix for "place".
Abdul-Hai Habibi was a prominent Afghan historian for much of his lifetime as well as a member of the National Assembly of Afghanistan during the reign of King Zahir Shah. A Pashtun nationalist from Kakar tribe of Kandahar, Afghanistan, he began as a young teacher who made his way up to become a writer, scholar, politician and Dean of Faculty of Literature at Kabul University. He is the author of over 100 books but is best known for editing Pata Khazana, an old Pashto language manuscript that he claimed to have discovered in 1944; but the academic community does not unanimously agree upon its genuineness.
Nāzo Tokhī, commonly known as Nāzo Anā, was an Afghan poet and writer in the Pashto language. Mother of the famous early-18th century Afghan king Mirwais Hotak, she grew up in an influential family in the Kandahar region. She is remembered as a brave woman warrior in Afghan history and as the "Mother of the Afghan Nation".
Shah Hussain Hotak, son of Mirwais Hotak, was the fifth and last ruler of the Hotak dynasty. An ethnic Pashtun (Afghan) from the Ghilji tribe, he succeeded to the throne after the death of his brother Mahmud Hotak in 1725. He was also a Pashto language poet. While his cousin Ashraf ruled most of Persia from Isfahan, Hussain ruled Kandahar, but was defeated.
Shāh Abdul Azīz Hotak was the second ruler of the Ghilji Hotak dynasty of Kandahar, in what is now the modern state of Afghanistan. He was crowned in 1715 after the death of his brother, Mirwais Hotak. He was the father of Ashraf Hotak, the fourth ruler of the Hotak dynasty. Abdul Aziz was killed in 1717 by his nephew Mahmud Hotak.
The Department of International Relations at Sakarya University, located at the Esentepe campus, Serdivan, Sakarya, provides undergraduate and graduate education about international politics. As a department within Faculty of Political Sciences, it has an integrated curriculum with other departments of this faculty such as public administration, and economics. Established in 1997, the department of international relations has more than 4.000 alumni including business leaders, journalists, diplomats, district governors, and academics. The department has 14 full-time faculty and 11 research assistants.
Higher education in Afghanistan, including post-secondary education, known locally as third-level or tertiary education, falls under the Ministry of Higher Education which establishes government policies to reform higher education at Afghan universities.
Mirwais Azizi is a Dubai-based Afghan businessman. He is the chairman of Azizi Group of companies, which he founded in 1989 with a presence in realty, banking, investment, and hospitality. He is also the chairman of Azizi Bank, which he established in 2006 in Kabul, Afghanistan, with $7.5 million in equity capital and has since reached up to $80 million.
