Kabul is the name of a province, a city, and a river. The city is in lat. 34° 30' 30" N., long. 69° 6' 8.31"E., and is 6396 feet above the sea. On the right bank of the Kabul river, near the junction of the rivers Kabul and Logar, and at the west extremity of a spacious plain, is an angle formed by the approach of two inferior ridges, the Koh Takht Shah and Koh Khojah Safar. The town is about 3 miles in circumference. The population, as has been said, amounts to 50,000 or 60,000 souls in about 9000 houses. Kabul is well situated as a site for commercial intercourse between India and Turkestan, being at the gorge of the nearest and most practicable passes connecting the two countries. It is the seat of government of Af Flianistan. The thermometer maximum in August Is 90°, the minimum in October 30°.
the Ka zzilbash dwell in the Chandol quarter, without the city, on the W. It is fortified. A brigade of the British Indian army occupied Kabul in the years 1839 to 1841, but had a series of reverses from the 2d November 1841 till the 6th January 1842.
I The province of Kabul has the Koh-i-Baba on the N.W., the Hindu Kush on the N. -; the Panj I slier river is on the N.E., and on the E. it extends as far as Jagdalak. On the S. it has the Safed Koh and Ghazni, and on the W. the country of the Hamra. Much of this province is moun t tainons, but it contains a large quantity of arable ' land, rich along the base of the mountains. Wheat is the chief product, and after it barley and peas, the two last being largely consumed by the poor. Sheep, corn, rice, ghi, horses, and ponies are imported. The annual revenue amounts to £180,000.
The Kabul river rises by two heads, the northern from a copious spring at Sar-i-Chashmah, in lat. 34° 21' N., and long. 68° 20' E., at an elevation of 8400 feet. At a short distance beyond Kabul it receives the Logar river from the S., and thence assumes the form of a large stream, which becomes of importance at Jalalabad, and finally falls into the Indus at Attock, after a course of 300 miles.
Kandahar, a town and fortress in Afghanistan, is in lat. 31° 37' N., and long. 65° 28' E., and 3484 feet above the sea. It is situated between the Argandab and Tarnak rivers on a well-culti vated plain. • It is 233 miles S.W. of Ghazni, 380 miles S.E. of Herat, and 144 miles N.W. of Quetta or Shal. It is an ancient city, supposed to have been one of those built by Alexander the Great, since whose time it has been successively in the hands of the Seleucides, the Arabs for 600 years, the Persians from A.D. 1535, the Chaghtai Turks, the Uzbaks, the Persians again, the Af ghans (1747),the British(1839), again the Afghans, again the British (1880), and again (1881) the Afghans. A brigade of the army of British India held it from the 20th April 1839 to the 8th August 1843. It is surrounded by a mud wall 27 feet high, with six gates, and a ditch 10 feet deep and 24 feet wide. Its districts are occupied by separate tribes, —liarakzai, Nurzai, .Alekozai, Popalzai, Bamezai, Bardurani, and Alizai. The houses are stated by
Hough to be 40,000, by Bellew 16,000 to 20,000, and the population has been estimated at from 15,500 to 100,000. The citadel is on the N., and the tomb of Ahmad Shah is near. The place has many sickly people, and also many poor beggars and idiots (houlliad), who are reverenced. The trade to Herat and Mashad is in the hands of Persians. Wine is made at Kandahar. The slimmer is hot, but the winter pleasant.
The Herat province contains the districts of Ghorian, Sabzawur, Farrah, Bakwa, Kurak, and Obeh, in which there are 446 villages, with about 70,000 fighting men. The tribes are the Turkoman Tekke, Sarakh, and Salor, the Irsali, Charsanghi, the Persian IIazara, Jamshidi, Taemuni, Taemuri, and Firoz Kohi, and the Berbari Hazara. The city of Herat is in lat. 34° 22' N., long. 62° 9' E., and 2650 feet above the sea. It is built on the right bank of the Hari-Rud, and is distant as under: Kandahar,N.W., miles 369 l'eshawur, by Kanda Ghazni, . . . „ 602 bar and Kabul, miles 681 Kabul thro' Hazara, „ 550 Debra Ismail Khan, „ 8V2 „ Ghazni, „ 691 Sakkur, , 762 Teheran, . • . „ 700 Yeza,. . „ 357 Khiva „ 700 Manlitul, . • . „ 215 Bukhara, . „ 600 Balkh, , 370 It is situated in a fertile and well-watered valley, surrounded by lofty mountains. The population has fluctuated from 6000 or 7000 to 100,000, as war or peace reigned. The people aro mostly Shiah Muhammadans, but Afghan, Persian, Indian, Tartar, Turkoman, and Jew are there, all carrying weapons. Herat is the emporium for traffic between Kabul, Kandahar, Hindustan, and Persia. Carpets are made there of great beauty, ranging in prices from 10 to 1000 rupees. Its fortifica tions are nearly of a square form, 1600 yards by 1500 yards. It has been besieged oftener than any city of Asia. It fell to the Turkoman in the reign of Sultan Sanjar in 1157, who left not one stone upon another. In 1232 it was twice taken by Tuli Khan, son of Chengiz Khan. On the first occasion he put all the garrison to death, and on the second he massacred 160,000 of the population, only 40 persons escaping. Centuries afterwards it again revolted, and Miran Shah, son of Timur, entered the city with a large force and decimated the inhabitants ; a similar fate overtook it when taken by Olong Beg, grandson of Timur. In 1477, Jahan Shah, a Turkoman prince, ravaged it. In 1554, Abad Khan, an Uzbak prince, burned and pillaged up to its gates. In 1607 it was sacked by the Uzbaks. In 1730 it was taken by Nadir Shah ; in 1750 it fell to Ahmad Shah, Daurani. In 1823 it was besieged by the Persians ; in 1824, by Kamran ; from November 1837 to the 9th September 1838, it was besieged by the Persians, while Lieutenant Eldred Pottinger was within the walls, and his conduct and influence made the defence successful. On the 24th October 1856 it was surrendered to the Persians. But since then, in 1863 (27th May), it was taken by the Amir Dost 'Muhammad Khan, and after his death was again fought for by his sons and descendants.