Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is within the jurisdiction of Kabul District and has an estimated population of 5,333,284 people. Located in the eastern half of the country, forming part of the Kabul Province, the city is administratively divided into five zones and 22 municipal districts. The native population of Kabul primarily speaks Persian, locally referred to as Persian Dari, using regional Dari dialects with a distinctive Kabuli accent. Kabul has long been Afghanistan's political, cultural and economic center. Rapid urbanization has made it the country's primate city. It is located high in a narrow valley in the Hindu Kush mountain range, and is bounded by the Kabul River. At an altitude of 1,791 m (5,876 ft) above sea level, it is one of the highest capital cities in the world. The center of the city contains its oldest neighborhoods, including the areas of Bala Hisar, Deh Afghanan and Murad Khani.
Kabul is believed to be over 3,500 years old. It was mentioned at the time of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Located at a crossroads in Asia—roughly halfway between Istanbul, in the west and Hanoi, in the east—the city is situated in a strategic location along the trade routes of Central Asia and South Asia. As a key destination on the ancient Silk Road, it is traditionally seen as the meeting point between Tartary, Hindustan and Persia. Over the centuries Kabul was claimed by various empires, including the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Greco-Bactrian, Mauryan, Kushan, Samanid, Ghaznavid, Ghorid, Khwarazmian, Timurid and others.
In the 16th century, rulers of the Mughal Empire used Kabul as their summer capital, during which time it prospered and increased in significance. It briefly came under the control of the Afsharids following Nader Shah's invasion of India, until finally becoming part of the Durrani Empire in 1747. Kabul became the capital of Afghanistan in 1776 during the reign of Timur Shah Durrani. In the 19th century the city was briefly occupied by British forces during the First and Second Anglo-Afghan wars.
Kabul is known for its historical gardens and palaces such as Arg, Bagh-e Babur, Bagh-e Bala, Chihil Sutun, Darul Aman, Tajbeg, and many more. In the second half of the 20th century, the city became a stop on the hippie trail undertaken by many Europeans and gained the nickname "Paris of Central Asia". This period of tranquility ended in 1978 with the Saur Revolution and the subsequent Soviet military intervention in 1979, which sparked a 10-year Soviet–Afghan War. The 1990s were marked by a civil war between splinter factions of the disbanded Afghan mujahideen, which destroyed much of the city. In 1996, Kabul was captured by the Taliban. The city fell to coalition forces during a United States-led invasion in 2001, and was recaptured by the Taliban in 2021 following the United States' withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Kabul has been known by different names throughout its history. Its meaning is unknown, but it is believed to originate before the early Muslim conquests, when the city lay on trade routes between India and the Hellenistic world. In Sanskrit, it was known as Kubha, whereas Greek authors of classical antiquity referred to it as Kophen, Kophes or Koa. The Chinese traveler Xuanzang (fl. 7th century) recorded the city as Gāofù (Chinese: 高附). The name "Kabul" was first applied to the Kabul River before being applied to the area situated between the Hindu Kush and Khyber pass (present-day Pakistan). This area was also known as Kabulistan. Alexander Cunningham noted in the 19th century that Kaofu, as recorded by the Chinese was in all likelihood the name of "one of the five Yuchi or Tukhari tribes". Cunningham added that this tribe gave its name to the city after it was occupied by them in the 2nd century BC. This "supposition seems likely" as the Afghan historian Mir Ghulam Mohammad Ghobar (1898–1978) wrote that in the Avesta (sacred book of Zoroastrianism), Kabul was known as Vaekereta, whereas the Greeks of antiquity referred to it as Ortospana ("High Place"), which corresponds to the Sanskrit word Urddhastana, which was applied to Kabul. The Greek geographer Ptolemy recorded Kabul as Καβουρα (Kabura).
According to legend, a lake existed in Kabul, in the middle of which the so-called "Island of Happiness" was located, where a joyous family of musicians resided. According to this same legend, the island became accessible by the order of a king through the construction of a bridge (i.e. "pul" in Persian) made out of straw (i.e. "kah" in Persian). According to this legend the name Kabul was thus formed as a result of these two words combined, i.e. kah + pul. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names argues that the "suggestion that the name is derived from the Arabic root qbl 'meeting' or 'receiving' is unlikely".
It remains unknown when the name "Kabul" was first applied to the city. It "came into prominence" following the destruction of Kapisa and other cities in what is present-day Afghanistan by Genghis Khan (c. 1162–1227) in the thirteenth century. The centrality of the city within the region, as well as its cultural importance as a nexus of ethnic groups in the region, caused Kabul to become known as the Paris of Central Asia in the late 20th century.
The origin of Kabul, who built it and when, is largely unknown. The Rigveda, composed between 2000 and 1500 BC and one of the four canonical texts of Hinduism, and the Avesta, the primary canon of texts of Zoroastrianism, refer to the Kabul River and to a settlement called Kubha.
The Kabul Valley was part of the Median Empire (c. 678–549). In 549 BC, the Median Empire was annexed by Cyrus the Great and Kabul became part the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550–330). During that period, Kabul became a center of learning for Zoroastrianism, followed by Buddhism and Hinduism. An inscription on Darius the Great's tombstone lists Kabul as one of the 29 countries of the Achaemenid Empire.
It is mentioned as Kophes or Kophene in some classical Greek writings. When Alexander the Great annexed the Achaemenid Empire, the Kabul Valley came under his control. After his death, his empire was seized by his general Seleucus, becoming part of the Seleucid Empire. In 305 BC, the Seleucid Empire ceded satrapies of Gandhara, including Kabul Valley, Arachosia and Gedrosia to the neighbouring Maurya Empire after a brief conflict.
During the Mauryan period, trade flourished due to the use of uniform weights and measures. Irrigation facilities for public use were developed, resulting in an increased crop harvest. People were also employed as artisans, jewelers, and carpenters.
The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom took control of Kabul from the Mauryans in the early 2nd century BC, then lost the city to their successors in the Indo-Greek Kingdom around the mid-2nd century BC. Buddhism was patronized by these rulers, and the majority of the region's population was adherent of the religion. Indo-Scythians expelled the Indo-Greeks by the mid 1st century BC, but lost the city to the Kushan Empire in the first century AD.
The Chinese Buddhist monk Hsuan Tsang refers to the city as Kaofu in the 7th century AD, which is the appellation of one of the five tribes of the Yuezhi who had migrated from across the Hindu Kush into the Kabul Valley around the beginning of the Common Era. It was conquered by Kushan Emperor Kujula Kadphises in about 45 AD, and remained Kushan territory until at least the 3rd century. The Kushans were Indo-European-speaking peoples related to the Yuezhi and based in Bactria.
Around 230, the Kushans were defeated by the Sasanian Empire and replaced by vassals known as the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom. During this period, the city was referred to as "Kapul" in Pahlavi scripts.
Kapol in New Persian means "Royal Bridge", which is due to the main bridge on the Kabul that connected the east and west of the city. In 420, the Kushano-Sasanians were driven out of Kabul Valley by the Xionites known as the Kidarites, who were then replaced in the 460s by the Hephthalites. It became part of the surviving Kingdom of Kapisa, also known as Kabul-Shahan. According to Táríkhu-l Hind by al-Biruni, Kabul was governed by princes of Turkic lineage. It was briefly held by the Tibetan Empire between 801 and 815.