Ishkashim ( prs, اشکاشم; ps, اشکاشم; also transliterated ''Eshkashem'' or ''Ashkāsham'') is a

border town A border town is a town or city close to the boundary between two countries, states, or regions. Usually the term implies that the nearness to the border is one of the things the place is most famous for. With close proximities to a different cou ...

Badakhshan Province Badakhshan Province (Persian/ Uzbek: , ''Badaxšān'') is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan in the north and the Pakistani regions of Lower ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. With a population of around 12,120 people, the town serves as the capital of

Ishkashim District Ishkashim District ( ps, ولسوالی اشکاشم; prs, ولسوالی اشکاشکم) is one of the 28 districts of Badakhshan Province in eastern Afghanistan. The border town of Ishkashim (also: Eshkashem, Ashkāsham; ps, اشکاشم ...

. Another town by the same name is located on the other side of the

Panj River The Panj (russian: Пяндж; fa, رودخانه پنج) (; tg, Панҷ, پنج), traditionally known as the Ochus River and also known as ''Pyandzh'' (derived from its Russian name "Пяндж"), is a tributary of the Amu Darya. The river ...

in the Gorno-Badakhshan region of

Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...

, although that town is normally transliterated Ishkoshim following Tajik practice. A bridge linking the two towns was reconstructed in 2006. Ishkashim lies in a fertile valley at an elevation of meters.Population of Ashkāsham, Afghanistan
There are roughly 20 settlements in the valley, but, considering the cultivation in the valley is contiguous, it could also be considered one single, larger settlement. The valley has only one harvest per year. Wheat and barley are cultivated. Poplar and chinar trees grow as well, but there is little firewood. Ishkashim is connected by road with Fayzabad in the northwest, through the town of Baharak. It is also connected to the towns of Zebak in the southwest and Khandud in the northeast. The valley lies in an important strategic area, as it commands the only route between Fayzabad,

Shighnan Shighnan, also Shignan, Shugnan, Shughnan, and Khughnan ( tg, Шигнон, fa, شغنان, Pashto: ), is an historic region whose name today may also refer to a town and a district in Badakhshan Province in the mountainous northeast of Afghani ...

, and

Wakhan Wakhan, or "the Wakhan" (also spelt Vakhan; Persian and ps, واخان, ''Vâxân'' and ''Wāxān'' respectively; tg, Вахон, ''Vaxon''), is a rugged, mountainous part of the Pamir, Hindu Kush and Karakoram regions of Afghanistan. Wakha ...

accessible during the winter. It has a number of small shops, hotels, guest houses,

schools A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compulsor ...

and government buildings, including a base for the

Afghan Border Police The Afghan Border Force (ABF) was responsible for security of Afghanistan's border area with neighboring countries extending up to into the interior and formed part of the Afghan National Army. In December 2017, most of the Afghan Border Police ...

History

Ishkashim and Wakhan became an Islamic region during the

Samanid Empire The Samanid Empire ( fa, سامانیان, Sāmāniyān) also known as the Samanian Empire, Samanid dynasty, Samanid amirate, or simply as the Samanids) was a Persianate Sunni Muslim empire, of Iranian dehqan origin. The empire was centred in ...

. It fell to the Ghaznavids followed by the

Ghurids The Ghurid dynasty (also spelled Ghorids; fa, دودمان غوریان, translit=Dudmân-e Ğurīyân; self-designation: , ''Šansabānī'') was a Persianate dynasty and a clan of presumably eastern Iranian Tajik origin, which ruled from the ...

and others. It officially became part of the modern state of Afghanistan after rulers of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...

of China signed a treaty with Ahmad Shah Durrani, the founder of the last Afghan Empire. It was reshaped during the rule of

Abdur Rahman Khan Abdur Rahman Khan GCSI (Pashto/Dari: ) (between 1840 and 1844 – 1 October 1901) was Emir of Afghanistan from 1880 to his death in 1901. He is known for uniting the country after years of internal fighting and negotiation of the Durand Line Ag ...

in the late 19th century after he agreed on the

Durand Line The Durand Line ( ps, د ډیورنډ کرښه; ur, ), forms the Pakistan–Afghanistan border, a international land border between Pakistan and Afghanistan in South Asia. The western end runs to the border with Iran and the eastern end to th ...

with

Mortimer Durand Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, (14 February 1850 – 8 June 1924) was a British Anglo-Indian diplomat and member of the Indian Civil Service. Background Born at Sehore, Bhopal, India, he was the son of Sir Henry Marion Durand, the Resident of ...

. Afghanistan as a whole became a

buffer state A buffer state is a country geographically lying between two rival or potentially hostile great powers. Its existence can sometimes be thought to prevent conflict between them. A buffer state is sometimes a mutually agreed upon area lying between ...

between what was then the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

and

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. It is currently patrolled by forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which took over responsibility from the previous

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

-trained Afghan National Security Forces.

Climate

The climate is generally cold, but much warmer than that of neighboring areas, such as

Wakhan District Wakhan District is one of the 28 districts of Badakhshan Province in eastern Afghanistan. The district has a border with neighboring Tajikistan in the north, Xinjiang in China to the east, and Pakistan to the south (specifically Gilgit-Baltista ...

. Ishkashim has a subarctic climate (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''Dsc'') with brief, pleasant summers and cold, snowy winters. The average annual temperature in Ishkashim is . About of precipitation falls annually.

Demographics

Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...

is the official language in Ishkashim, Afghanistan. The people in the area are mostly

Tajiks Tajiks ( fa, تاجيک، تاجک, ''Tājīk, Tājek''; tg, Тоҷик) are a Persian-speaking Iranian ethnic group native to Central Asia, living primarily in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Tajiks are the largest ethnicity in Taj ...

and

Uzbeks The Uzbeks ( uz, , , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the wider Central Asian region, being among the largest Turkic ethnic group in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakh and Karakalpak mino ...

. Historically, there have also been many followers of Nizari Isma'ilism in the area, who are called Ishkashimis. Some of whom may speak the Ishkashimi language in addition to Dari.

References

External links

* *
Satellite map at Maplandia.com
* Populated places in Ishkashim District Afghanistan–Tajikistan border crossings {{Badakhshan-geo-stub

History

Climate

Demographics

See also

References

External links