Table of Contents

  • ĀFARĪN LĀHŪRĪ

    Z. Ahmad and W. Kirmani

    Punjabi Persian poet (b. ca. 1070/1660, d. 1154/1741).

  • ĀFARĪN-NĀMA

    J. Matīnī

    a poem in the motaqāreb meter by the 4th/10th century poet Abū Šakūr Balḵī.

  • AFḠĀNĪ, JAMĀL-AL-DĪN

    N. R. Keddie

    (1838 or 39-97), ideologist and political activist of the late 19th century Muslim world, whose influence has continued strong in many Muslim countries. Iran, Egypt, and Afghanistan are the countries of his greatest influence; his combination of reformed Islam and anti-imperialism continues to have widespread appeal.

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  • AFGHAN

    Ch. M. Kieffer

    (afḡān), in current political usage, any citizen of Afghanistan, whatever his ethnic, tribal, or religious affiliation. According to the 1977 constitution of the Republic of Afghanistan (1973-78), all Afghans are equal in rights and obligations before the law.

  • AFGHANI

    ʿA. Ḥabībī

    (afḡānī), the unit of currency in modern Afghanistan. 

  • AFGHANISTAN

    Multiple Authors

    (Islamic Republic of Afghanistan), landlocked country located in Central Asia and bordered by Iran to the west, Pakistan to the south and east, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to the north, and China to the far northeast.

  • AFGHANISTAN i. Geography

    J. F. Shroder, Jr.

    Afghanistan has an extreme continental, arid climate which is characterized by desert, steppe, and highland temperature and precipitation regimes.

  • AFGHANISTAN ii. Flora

    M. Šafīq Yūnos

    Climate studies have shown the importance of precipitation and altitude as conditioning factors for the diversity of Afghanistan’s flora.

  • AFGHANISTAN iii. Fauna

    K. Habibi

    Thirty-two species of bats have been identified in Afghanistan. Their preferred habitat is in warmer sections of the country, where they may be found in abandoned ruins and caves of the Sīstān basin and the steppes. To the east, common bats (Myotis and Pipistrellus) have been observed in Lāgmān and the Kabul river valley.

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  • AFGHANISTAN iv. Ethnography

    L. Dupree

    In their ethnolinguistic and physical variety the people of Afghanistan are as diverse as their country is in topography. Except in rural areas off the main lines of communications, few peoples maintain racial homogeneity.

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