Prehistory Excavations of prehistoric sites by archaeologists such as
Louis Dupree and others suggest that the region around Kandahar is one of the oldest known human settlements known so far. British excavations in the 1970s discovered that Kandahar existed as a large fortified city during the early 1st millennium BC; while this earliest period at Kandahar has not been precisely dated via
radiocarbon, ceramic comparisons with the latest period at the major
Bronze Age city of
Mundigak have suggested an approximate time-frame of 1000 to 750 BC.
Ancient history The main inhabitants of Arachosia were the
Pakhtas, an ancient Indo-Iranian tribe, who might have been among the ancestors of today's
Pashtuns. Mundigak served as the provincial capital of Arachosia and was ruled by the
Medes followed by the Achaemenids until the arrival of the Macedonians. The now called "
Old Kandahar" was founded in 330 BC by
Alexander the Great, near the site of the ancient city of Mundigak (established around 3000 BC era). Kandahar was named
Alexandria, a name given to some cities that Alexander founded during his conquests. Kandahar was a frequent target for conquest because of its strategic location in Asia, controlling the main trade route linking the
Indian subcontinent with the
Middle East and
Central Asia. The territory became part of the
Seleucid Empire after the death of Alexander. The city eventually became part of the
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (250 BC – 125 BC), and continued that way for two hundred years under the later
Indo-Greek Kingdom (180 BC – 10 AD). (
Greek and
Aramaic) by Emperor
Ashoka, from the
Chilzina Complex in Kandahar, 3rd century BC It is mentioned by
Strabo that a treaty of friendship was established eventually between the Greeks and the
Mauryas (Indians). While the
Diadochi were warring amongst themselves, the Mauryas were developing in the northern part of
Hindustan. The founder of the empire,
Chandragupta Maurya, confronted a Macedonian invasion force led by
Seleucus I in 305 BC and following a brief conflict, an agreement was reached as Seleucus ceded
Gandhara and Arachosia and areas south of
Bagram to the Mauryas. During the 120 years of the Mauryas in southern Afghanistan, Buddhism was introduced and eventually become one of the major religions alongside Zoroastrianism. Inscriptions made by Emperor
Ashoka, a fragment of
Edict 13 in Greek, as well as a full Edict, written in both Greek and Aramaic has been discovered in Kandahar. It is said to be written in excellent Classical Greek, using sophisticated philosophical terms. In this Edict, Ashoka the great used the word
Eusebeia ("
Piety") as the Greek translation for the ubiquitous "
Dharma" of his other Edicts written in
Prakrit.
Medieval history Muslim conquest In the 7th century AD,
Arab armies conquered the region but failed to convert the entire population to Islam. The leader of the expedition was
Abbad ibn Ziyad, who governed
Sijistan between 673 and 681. In AD 870,
Yaqub ibn Layth Saffari, a local ruler of the
Saffarid dynasty, made Islam the official religion of the area. During that time, the Kandahar region was between Persia and Hindustan and ruled by the
Zunbil dynasty, while others claim it was an Eastern Persian realm where the inhabitants practiced
Zurvanism.
Ghanavids The region fell to
Mahmud of Ghazni in the 11th century followed by
Muhammad of Ghor. Kandahar appears to have been renamed
Teginābād in the 10th–12th centuries, but the origin of the new name is unclear. During this period, nearby
Panjwayi served as the administrative center for the area. However, Kandahar was of much more strategic importance, to the extent that
Minhaj-i-Siraj attributes the downfall of the
Ghaznavids to the loss of Kandahar. The city's name was changed back to Kandahar by the 13th century, after
Ala ad-Din Husayn Jahansuz sacked
Lashkari Bazar, near
Bost. Again, the reason for the name change is not clear.
Mongols . Attributed to
Payag. Mughal, mid-17th century.
Padshahnama. Opaque watercolor on paper. The Knellington Collection, Courtesy Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Kandahar was besieged by a
Mongol army in 1221, although
Jalal al-Din Mangburni defeated them. In 1251, upon accession to the Mongol throne,
Möngke Khan granted Kandahar, along with other lands in Afghanistan, to
Shams ad-Din Mohammad Kart of the
Kart dynasty. However, the city is mentioned as being under
Chagatai control in 1260–61; Kandahar did not come under Kart control until 1281. Later, in 1318, a Chagatai prince raised an army from Kandahar against the
Ilkhanid governor of
Sistan. Kandahar was described by
Ibn Battuta in 1333 as a large and prosperous town three nights journey from
Ghazni.
Timur, founder of the
Timurid Empire, captured Kandahar in 1383 and later made his grandson
Pir Muhammad the governor of the region. The memory of the wars fought over Kandahar at this time is preserved in the epic poem
Qandahār-nāma ("The Campaign Against Qandahār"), a major work of
Saib Tabrizi which is a classic of Persian literature.
Formation of the current city next to the
Kandahar–Herat Highway Mirwais Hotak, chief of the
Ghilji tribe, revolted in 1709 by killing
Gurgin Khan, an ethnic
Georgian subject and governor of the Shia
Safavid Persians. After establishing the
Hotak dynasty in Kandahar, Mirwais and his Afghan army successfully defeated subsequent expeditions by
Kay Khusraw and Rustam Khán. It has been said that Mirwais resisted attempts by the Persian government who was seeking to convert the people of Kandahar from
Sunni to the Shia sect of Islam. He died of a natural death in November 1715 and was succeeded by his brother
Abdul Aziz, but after being suspected of giving Kandahar's sovereignty back to the Persians he was killed by his nephew
Mahmud Hotak. In 1722, Mahmud led an army of Afghans to the Safavid capital
Isfahan and proclaimed himself King of Persia. The
Hotak dynasty was eventually removed from power by a new Persian ruler,
Nader Shah. In 1738, Nader Shah invaded Afghanistan and destroyed the now
Old Kandahar, which was held by
Hussain Hotak and his
Ghilji tribes. In the meantime, Nader Shah freed
Ahmad Khan (later
Ahmad Shah Durrani) and his brother Zulfikar who were held prisoners by the Hotak ruler. Before leaving southern Afghanistan for Delhi in India, Nader Shah laid out the foundation for a new town to be built next to the destroyed ancient city, naming it "
Naderabad". His rule ended in June 1747 after being murdered by his Persian guards. , 1848. He sketched Kandahar in December 1841 from the rooftop of the former residence of the province's governor, Sirdar Meer Dil Khaun, who was brother to the Emir. Pictured on the left is the
Mausoleum of Ahmad Shah Durrani and on the right the Bala Hissar (fort) and citadel. depicting the 1747
coronation of
Ahmad Shah Durrani, who is regarded as the
founding father of Afghanistan (
Father of the Nation) Ahmad Shah Durrani, chief of the
Durrani tribe, gained control of Kandahar and made it the capital of his new
Afghan Empire in October 1747. Initially, Ahmad Shah had trouble finding land on which to build his city. His own tribe had no extensive lands and others who had, such as the Alikozai and Barakzai, refused to give up their lands. Only the Popalzai finally offered him his pick of their lands. The foundations for the city were laid in June 1761. Once begun, the city was built with grand proportions. It was laid out in the form of a regular rectangle with a circumference of three miles; walls 30 feet thick at the bottom and 15 feet at the top, rose 27 feet high to enclose it. Outside, the walls were ringed by a moat 24 feet wide. Six mammoth gateways pierced these walls: the Eid Gah Gate on the north, the Shikarpur Gate on the south; the Herat and Top Khana Gates on the west; and, the Bar Durrani and Kabul Gates on the east. At its peak, Ahmad Shah's empire included present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, the
Khorasan and
Kohistan provinces of Iran, along with
Punjab in India. In October 1772, Ahmad Shah retired and died from a natural cause. A new city was laid out by Ahmad Shah and is dominated by his mausoleum, which is adjacent to the
Mosque of the Cloak in the centre of the city. By 1776, his eldest son
Timur Shah had transferred Afghanistan's main capital, due to several conflicts with various Pashtun tribes, from Kandahar to Kabul, where the
Durrani legacy continued. The large defensive wall around the city was removed in the early 1930s by the order of King
Nader Khan, the father of King
Zahir Shah.
British-led Indian forces from neighboring
British India invaded the city in 1839, during the
First Anglo-Afghan War, but withdrew in 1842. In November 1855, Dost Mohammad Khan took control of Kandahar. The British-led Indian forces (under
LTG Stewart) returned in January of 1879 during the
Second Anglo-Afghan War. They emerged from
Chaman to confront the forces of
Ayub Khan, but were defeated at the
Battle of Maiwand in July 1880. They were again forced to withdraw several months later, despite winning the
Battle of Kandahar. Kandahar remained peaceful for the next 100 years, except during 1929 when loyalists of
Habibullah Kalakani placed the fortified city on lock-down and began oppressing its population. Nobody was allowed to enter or leave from within the city's tall defensive walls, and as a result of this many people suffered after running out of food supplies. This lasted until October 1929 when
Nadir Khan and his Afghan army came to eliminate Kalakani, known as the Tajik bandit from the village of
Kalakan in
Kabul Province. During the Kingdom of
Mohammad Zahir Shah, the city slowly began expanding by adding modern style streets and housing schemes. Although Kandahar remained less international than Kabul, with fewer foreigners in residence and thus no market for coffee, jam or other European products, a modest German community took root there in the 1930s. Engineers and factory managers, accompanied by their spouses, arrived to supervise wool-processing plants. Some American families began arriving to Kandahar in the 1950s. A Siemens electrical station powered these emerging industries, signaling a step toward the broader modernization taking shape across Afghanistan during this period. In the 1960s, during the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, the United States built the
Kandahar International Airport. The U.S. also completed several other major projects in Kandahar and in other parts of southern Afghanistan.
Soviet invasion and withdrawal During the 1980s
Soviet–Afghan War, Kandahar witnessed heavy fighting between the
Afghan mujahideen and the
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Soviet troops surrounded the city and subjected it to heavy air bombardment in which many civilians were killed. In January 1982 indiscriminate shelling and bombing by the Soviets killed hundreds. 300 civilians were killed during Soviet bombings in July 1984. It was under siege again in April 1986. The city's population was reduced from 200,000 before the war to no more than 25,000 residents in 1987. Most have fled to neighboring
Pakistan and
Iran. Kandahar underwent a complete sociopolitical collapse in the early 1990s, driven in part by the divide-and-rule tactics of the communist governor-general,
Nur ul-Haq Ulumi, who manipulated rival mujahideen factions against each other, and by the rampant greed within both the communist and mujahideen militias. After the Soviet withdrawal and the collapse of
Mohammad Najibullah's government in 1992, Kandahar fell to local mujahideen commander,
Gul Agha Sherzai. However Sherzai lacked authority against other local commanders which led to lawlessness in the city, During this time, banditry, rape, and murder became rampant in Kandahar, creating a demand for a more moral and unified alternative. This led to the rise of the
talibs (students), who eventually formed the Taliban movement. By the spring of 1994, the nucleus of the
Taliban emirate had begun to take shape, and that year, they launched operations to dismantle warlord militia checkpoints around the city. The talibs gained considerable popularity and legitimacy during this period by defeating these predatory warlords. About a month later, the Taliban began surrendering in mass numbers to a private militia that had been formed by
Gul Agha Sherzai and
Hamid Karzai. Kandahar once again fell into the hands of Sherzai, who had control over the area before the rise of the Taliban. He was transferred to
Nangarhar Province in 2003 and replaced by
Yousef Pashtun until
Asadullah Khalid took the post in 2005. In 2002, members of the United States armed forces took control of the Kandahar International Airport. Years later
NATO's
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) began training members of the new
Afghan National Security Forces and provided security for the city. The
military of Afghanistan, backed by ISAF, gradually expanded its authority and presence throughout most of the country. The
205th Corps of the
Afghan National Army was based at Kandahar and provided military assistance to the south of the country. The
Canadian Forces maintained their military command headquarters at Kandahar, heading the
Regional Command South of ISAF in Kandahar Province. The Taliban also had supporters inside the city reporting on events. ISAF gradually expanded the Afghan police force as part of a larger effort that also aimed to deliver services such as electricity and clean drinking water. The most significant battle between ISAF and the Taliban lasted throughout the summer of 2006, culminating in
Operation Medusa. The Taliban failed to defeat the Western troops in open warfare, which marked a turn in their tactics towards
IED emplacement. In June 2008, it was reported that over 1,000
inmates had escaped from
Sarposa prison. In Spring 2010, the province and the city of Kandahar became a target of American operations following
Operation Moshtarak in the neighbouring
Helmand Province. In March 2010, U.S. and NATO commanders released details of plans for the biggest offensive of the war against the Taliban insurgency. in the center of the city, across from
Khirka Sharif , next to
Khirka Sharif In May 2010, Kandahar International Airport became subject of a combined rocket and ground attack by insurgents, following similar attacks on Kabul and Bagram in the preceding weeks. Although this attack did not lead to many casualties on the side of ISAF, it did show that the militants were still capable of launching multiple, coordinated operations in Afghanistan. In June 2010, a
shura was held by then-Afghan President Hamid Karzai with tribal and religious leaders of the Kandahar region. The meeting highlighted the need for support of NATO-led forces in order to stabilize parts of the province. In July 2011
Ahmad Wali Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai, was killed by one of his close bodyguards. The next day the mullah of the famous
Red Mosque and a number of other people were killed by a Taliban suicide bomber who had hidden explosives inside his
turban. On 27 July 2011, the mayor of the city,
Ghulam Haider Hamidi, was assassinated by another Taliban militant who had hidden explosives in his turban. Two
deputy mayors had been killed in 2010, while many tribal elders and Islamic clerics have also been assassinated in the last several years. The overwhelming majority of the victims in the attacks were ordinary civilians. On 6 June 2012, at least 21 civilians were killed and 50 others injured when two Taliban suicide bombers on motorcycles blew themselves up in a market area near Kandahar International Airport. On
4 May 2020, a policewoman was assassinated in the centre of Kandahar, making her the fifth policewoman to be killed during the previous two months in Kandahar. No group claimed responsibility for the killing of the policewomen by the end of the day of the reported event. On or about 12 August 2021, the Taliban
recaptured Kandahar. After days of fighting the NATO-trained
Afghan National Army retreated from the city. It became the twelfth provincial capital to be retaken as part of the wider
2021 Taliban offensive. On 15 October 2021, four suicide bombers killed dozens at a
Shia mosque in the city. ==Geography==