The Karabair is an old Uzbek breed of horse developed through a mix of Arab and Mongol horses. The Karabair stands between 14.2 and 15 hands high and is mostly grey, chestnut or brown in colour. A fast, and courageous breed, the Karabair is used for riding and driving as well as to play the fast and violent Uzbek game of Kokpar. Research Karabair
Abbas I (Abbas The Great) was a Shah of Persia. He was born in 1557 and died in 1629. In 1597 he crushed the Uzbek rebels, advanced into Afghanistan and in 1605 defeated the Turks. Under his rule, which lasted from 1587 to 1629, Persian territory was extended from the Tigris to the Indus. Research Abbas I
Afghanistan is a country in Asia. It has a total area of 647,500 km2 and a land area of 647,500 km2. The climate is extremely cold in the higher, and intensely hot in the lower regions, yet on the whole it is salubrious. The most common trees are pines, oaks, birch, and walnut. In the valleys fruits, in the greatest variety and abundance, grow wild. The principal crops are wheat, forming the traditional staple food of the people; barley,rice, and maize. Other traditional crops were tobacco, sugar-cane, and cotton, though since the 20th century opium has become a major crop.
Afghanistan consists chiefly of lofty, bare, uninhabited table-lands, sandy barren plains, ranges of snow-covered mountains, offsets of the Hindu Kush or the Himalayas, and deep ravines and valleys. Many of the last are well watered and very fertile, but about four-fifths of the whole surface is rocky, mountainous, and unproductive. The surface on the north-east is covered with lofty ranges belonging to the Hindu Kush, whose heights are often 18,000 and sometimes reach perhaps 25,000 feet. The whole north-eastern portion of the country has a general elevation of over 6000 feet; but towards the south-west, in which direction the principal mountain chains of the interior run, the general elevation declines to not more than 1600 feet. In the interior the mountains sometimes reach the height of 15,000 ft. G-reat part of the frontier towards India consists of the Suleiman range, 12,000 feet high. There are numerous practicable avenues of communication between Afghanistan and India, among the most extensively used being the famous Khyber Pass, by which the river Cabul enters the Punjab; the Gomul Pass, also leading to the Punjab; and the Bolan Pass on the south, through which the route passes to Sind.
Natural resources include opium, natural gas, crude oil, coal, copper, talc, barites, sulphur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semi-precious stones. The inhabitants belong to different races, but the Afghans proper form the great mass of the people. They are allied in blood to the Persians, and are divided into a number of tribes, among which the Duranis and Ghiljis are the most important. The Afghans are bold, hardy, and warlike, fond of freedom and resolute in maintaining it, but of a restless, turbulenttemper, and much given to plunder. Tribal dissensions have constantly been in existence, and seldom or never do all the Afghans pay allegiance to the nominal ruler of their country .The religion is 74% SunniMuslim, 15% Shia Muslim and 11% other. The official language is Pashto spoken by half the population, with 35% speaking Afghan Persian (Dari), 11% Turkic languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen), 4% thirty minor languages (primarily Balochi and Pashai) with widespread bilingualism.
In 1738 the country was conquered by the Persians under Nadir Shah. On his death in 1747 Ahmed Shah, one of his generals, obtained the sovereignty ofAfghanistan, and became the founder of a dynasty, which lasted. about eighty years. At the end of that time Dost Mohammed, the ruler of Kabul, had acquired a preponderating influence in the country. On account of his dealings with the Russians the British resolved to dethrone him and restore Shah Shuja, a former ruler.
In April, 1839, a British army under Sir John Keane entered Afghanistan, occupied Kabul, and placed Shah Shuja on the throne, a force of 8000 being left to support the new sovereign. Sir W Macnaghten remained as envoy at Kabul, with Sir Alexander Burnes as assistant envoy. The Afghans soon organized a widespread insurrection, which came to a head on November the 2nd,1841, when Burnes and a number of British officers, besides women and children, were murdered, Macnaghten being murdered not long after. The other British leaders now made a treaty with the Afghans, at whose head was Akbar, son of Dost Mohammed, agreeing to withdraw the forces from the country, while the Afghans were to furnish them with provisions and escort them on their way.
On the 6th of January, 1842 the British left Kabul and began their most disastrous retreat. The cold was intense, they had almost no food - for the treacherous Afghans did not fulfil their promises - and day after day they were assailed by bodies of the enemy. By the 13th of January 26,000 persons, including camp-followers, women and children, were killed. Some were kept as prisoners, but only one man, Dr. Brydon, reached Jelalabad, which, as well as Kandahar, was still held by British troops. In a few months General Pollock, with a fresh army from India, retook Kabul and soon finished the war.
Shah Shuja having been assassinated, Dost Mohammed again obtained the throne of Kabul, and acquired extensive power in Afghanistan. He joined with the Sikhs against the British, but latterly made an offensive and defensive alliance with the latter. He died in 1863, having nominated his son Shere Ali his successor. Shere Ali entered into friendly relations with the British, but in 1878, having repulsed a British envoy and refused to receive a British mission (a Russian mission being meantime at his court), war was declared against him, and the British troops entered Afghanistan. They met with comparatively little resistance ; the ameer fled to Turkestan, where he soon after died; and his son Yakoob Khan having succeeded him concluded a treaty with the British at Gandamak in May, 1879, in which a certain extension of the British frontier, the control by Britain of the foreign policy of Afghanistan, and the residence of a British envoy in Kabul, were the chief stipulations. Not long after this settlement the British resident at Kabul, Sir Louis P. Gavagnari, and the other members of the mission were treacherously attacked and slain by the Afghans, and troops had again to be sent into the country. Kabul was again occupied, and Kandahar and Ghazni were also relieved; while Yakoob Khan was sent to imprisonment in India.
In 1880 Abdur-Rahman, a grandson of Dost Mohammed, was recognized by Britain as ameer of the country. He was on friendly terms with the British during his reign, which ended with his death in 1901, his son Habibullah being his successor. Encroachments by the Russians on territory claimed by Afghanistan almost brought about a rupture between Britain and Russia in 1885, and led to the delimitation of the frontier of Afghanistan on the side next Russia,
In 1926 a royal kingdom was established in Afghanistan, this was overthrown in 1973 and a republic was declared. There followed a period of unrest until in 1979 a left-wing coup occurred. Civil war ensued and the Soviet Union invaded at the invitation of the government. The American government and its allies sponsored and armed a Islamic fundamentalist
opposition - the Mujaheddin - and in 1989 the Soviets withdrew and in in 1992 the Mujaheddin gained power, installing a very fundamentalist Islamic government known as the Taliban. The Taliban were then overthrown by an American-led invasion in 2002 following the Taliban's support for those responsible for the attack on the World Trade Center in New York and a coalition of tribal warlords was put in power. Since then civil unrest has once again continued, as it always has in Afghanistan. Research Afghanistan
The Republic of Turkmenistan is a republic in Asia. The religion is SunniMuslim. The language is Turkmen, Russian and Uzbek. The country is occupied by the descendants of Turkmen tribes who resisted Russian invasions from 1877 until 1900, and in 1925 the country became a constituent of the USSR before becoming independent in 1991. Research Turkmenistan
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
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