Afghanistan in the Process of Shrinking!
Afghanistan was an ancient country with a long history, vast and spacious, which has expreinced many ups and downs in the course of history and has survived deadly dangers. Parts of this country had experienced various names such as Ariana, Bakhtar, Khorasan and Afghanistan in ancient, medieval and modern times.
Ariana, which is an ancient name, included areas of Iran, Pakistan, some areas of Central Asia and Afghanistan. Ariana included the provinces of present-day Khorasan, Prada, Farah, Herat, Karmania, Kerman, Bactria, Balkh, Margiana, Mero, Hyrkania, Gorgan, Darangiana, Sistan, Gedrozia, Makran or Baluchistan, Kandahar, and the Paropamisos mountains. It included all parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, northern India, eastern and southern Iran, Tajikistan, parts of Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The name of Ariana was applied to this kingdom from the Vista era, (thousand years BC) until the fifth century AD during one thousand and five hundred years. (Ghabar 1368, No. 9)
Bactria ( Bakhtaria): It is the name of an ancient and vast land that covered wide areas. Bakhtar shared a border with the land of Sogd and Amu Darya from the North, with China from the East, and with the Hindu Kush mountain range from the South. Its capital was Bactrian city in Greek it is called “Βάκτρα” Bactra or Zaria Sepa, which today is called Balkh. The territory of Bakhtar was located in the North of present-day Afghanistan, which was annexed to the Achaemenid Empire as a result of Cyrus’ campaign. (Farhang 1367, No 3)
Khorasan: Was the name of a political territory in different regions with acquisitions and expansions in the course of regional developments, which at some point in time, starts from Dahestan, Gorgan, Mazandaran, Damghan, Bastam and Dasht Kavir Lut in the West and extends to China and Northeast India in the East. It reaches from the South to the North of Iran’s Kerman and Sistan, Ghazni (Zabulistan) and Afghanistan’s Kabulistan, and from the north to the Amu Darya of Jihun and beyond it to Sogd and Khwarazm. Khorasan was the name of Heshai from the North and West of Afghanistan in the 7th century AD, which seems to have become famous during the Sassanid era from the 5th century onwards. (Habibi 1367, 140)
In ancient times, Khorasan sometimes included four parts and each part was known by the name of its ruler. Each of these four parts is called a quarter. These areas included these four main quarters were as follows:
Neishabuor Quarter: with the center of the city of Neishabur, included Qahestan, Tabsin, Herat, Foshanj, Badghis, Tus and Taheran. A large amount of these areas are located in present-day Iran.
Marv Quarter: Centered in the ancient city of Merv, it included Sarkhs, Nesa, Khwarezm, Taleghan, Amol Jihun, etc., most of these areas are in the current country of Turkmenistan.
Faryab Quarter: includes Jawzjan, Upper Takharistan, Khost, Andarb, Bamyan, Baghlan to Badakhshan.
The Trans-Nahar Quarter: included Bukhara, Shash (Tashkend), Sogd, Fergana and Samarkand. (Habibi 1367, 144)
The Un-Successful Plan to Partition Afghanistan
