Ahmad Zaher
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Ahmad Zaher
Ahmad Zahir (Pashto/Dari: ; 14 June 1946 – 14 June 1979) was an Afghan singer, songwriter and composer. Dubbed the "Elvis of Afghanistan", he is widely considered the all-time greatest singer of Afghanistan. The majority of his songs were in Dari followed by Pashto, with a few in Russian, Hindi and English. Zahir recorded at least 14 studio albums before his abrupt death on his 33rd birthday in 1979. His music blended folk music, Persian literature, Indian classical music and Western pop and rock styles. Among Afghans, he is considered an icon of Afghan music and is widely regarded as the country's greatest musician of all time, posthumously reclaiming immortal fame due to his contributions and influence on music in Afghanistan. He has also become an icon of peacetime pre-war Afghanistan. Early years Ahmad Zahir was born on 14 June 1946 (Jauza 24, 1325 of the Jalali calendar) in Kabul, Afghanistan, His father is Pashtun from Laghman Province and his mother is Tajik. His fa ...
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Kabul
Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A 2025 estimate puts the city's population at 7.175 million. In contemporary times, Kabul has served as Afghanistan's political, cultural and economical center. Rapid urbanisation has made it the country's primate city and one of the largest cities in the world. The modern-day city of Kabul is located high in a narrow valley in the Hindu Kush mountain range, and is bounded by the Kabul River. At an elevation of , it is one of the List of capital cities by elevation, highest capital cities in the world. The center of the city contains its old neighborhoods, including the areas of Khashti Bridge, Khabgah, Kahforoshi, Saraji, Chandavel, Shorbazar, Deh-Afghanan and Ghaderdiwane. Kabul is said to be over 3,500 years old, and was mentioned at the ...
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Dari
Dari (; endonym: ), Dari Persian (, , or , ), or Eastern Persian is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the Afghan government's official term for the Persian language;Lazard, G.DarÄ« â€“ The New Persian Literary Language", in ''Encyclopædia Iranica'', Online Edition 2006. it is known as Afghan Persian or Eastern Persian in many Western sources. The decision to rename the local variety of Persian in 1964 was more political than linguistic to support an Afghan state narrative. Dari Persian is most closely related to Tajiki Persian as spoken in Tajikistan and the two share many phonological and lexical similarities. Apart from a few basics of vocabulary, there is little difference between formal written Persian of Afghanistan and Iran; the languages are mutually intelligible. Dari is the official language for approximately 30.6 million people in Afghanistan and it serves as the common language for inter-ethnic communication in the country. ...
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Ministry Of Public Health (Afghanistan)
Ministry of Public Health of Afghanistan (, ) is the ministry of the government of Afghanistan which deals with matters concerning the health of Afghanistan's population. the acting minister of Health was Dr. Wahid Majrooh until Taliban Takeover of Kabul. The Ministry of Public Health provides an annual report to inform the public of advancements in Afghanistan's health sector. The ministry Following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan the Ministry of Health, along with the World Health Organization and other technical partners and donors reconstructed the health sector. At the time, at least 70% of the Afghan population was dependent on health services provided by the international community. Almost six million Afghans had no or very little access to medical care. In addition, 50 of the country's 330 districts had no health facilities whatsoever. The goal of the ministry is to develop the health sector to improve the health of the people of Afghanistan, especially women and ch ...
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Tajiks
Tajiks (; ; also spelled ''Tadzhiks'' or ''Tadjiks'') is the name of various Persian-speaking Eastern Iranian groups of people native to Central Asia, living primarily in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Even though the term ''Tajik'' does not refer to a cohesive cross-national ethnic group,Nourzhanov, K., & Bleuer, C. (2013). Forging Tajik Identity: Ethnic Origins, National–Territorial Delimitation and Nationalism. In Tajikistan: A Political and Social History (pp. 27–50). ANU Press. Link/ref> Tajiks are the largest ethnicity in Tajikistan, and the second-largest in both Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. They speak variations of Persian, a west Iranian language. In Tajikistan, since the 1939 Soviet census, its small Pamiri and Yaghnobi ethnic groups are included as Tajiks. In China, the term is used to refer to its Pamiri ethnic groups, the Tajiks of Xinjiang, who speak the Eastern Iranian Pamiri languages. In Afghanistan, the Pamiris are considered a separate ethn ...
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Laghman Province
Laghman (Persian language, Persian/Pashto: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. It has a population of about 502,148, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. Laghman hosts a large number of historical landmarks, minarets, monuments, and other cultural relics that are manifestation of its old history and culture. The city of Mihtarlam serves as the capital of the province. In some historical texts the name is written as "Lamghan" or as "Lamghanat". In 2021, the Taliban gained control of the province during the 2021 Taliban offensive. Etymology Laghman or Lamghan is originally named after Lamech (father of Noah), Lamech (Mether Lam Baba), the father of Noah. History Located currently at the Kabul Museum are Aramaic inscriptions that were found in Laghman which indicated an ancient trade route from India to Palmyra. Aramaic was the bureaucratic script language of the Achaemenids whose influence had extended toward Lag ...
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Pashtuns
Pashtuns (, , ; ;), also known as Pakhtuns, or Pathans, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group primarily residing in southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They were historically also referred to as Afghan (ethnonym), Afghans until 1964 after the term's meaning had become a demonym for all citizens of Afghanistan regardless of their ethnic groups in Afghanistan, ethnic group. The Pashtuns speak the Pashto, Pashto language, which belongs to the Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian branch of the Iranian languages, Iranian language family. Additionally, Dari serves as the second language of Pashtuns in Afghanistan, while those in Pakistan speak Urdu and English. In India, the majority of those of Pashtun descent have lost the ability to speak Pashto and instead speak Hindi and other regional languages. There are an estimated 350–400 Pashtun tribes, Pashtun tribes and clans with a Theories of Pashtun origin, variety of origin theories. In 2021 ...
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Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and WGN-TV, WGN television received their call letters. It is the most-read daily newspaper in the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region, and the List of newspapers in the United States, sixth-largest newspaper by print circulation in the United States. In the 1850s, under Joseph Medill, the ''Chicago Tribune'' became closely associated with the Illinois politician Abraham Lincoln, and the then new Republican Party (United States), Republican Party's progressive wing. In the 20th century, under Medill's grandson 'Colonel' Robert R. McCormick, its reputation was that of a crusading newspaper with an outlook that promoted Conservatism in the United States, American conservatism and opposed the New Deal. Its reporting and commenta ...
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Afghanistan Conflict (1978-present)
The Afghan conflict (; ) is a term that refers to the series of events that have kept Afghanistan in a near-continuous state of armed conflict since the 1970s. Early instability followed the collapse of the Kingdom of Afghanistan in the largely non-violent 1973 coup d'état, which deposed Afghan monarch Mohammad Zahir Shah , ending his 40-year-long reign. With the concurrent establishment of the Republic of Afghanistan, headed by Mohammad Daoud Khan, the country's relatively peaceful and stable period in modern history came to an end. However, all-out fighting did not erupt until after 1978, when the Saur Revolution violently overthrew Khan's government and established the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Subsequent unrest over the radical reforms that were being pushed by the then-ruling People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) led to unprecedented violence, prompting a large-scale pro-PDPA military intervention by the Soviet Union in 1979. In the ensuing Soviet†...
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Music Of Afghanistan
The music of Afghanistan comprises many varieties of classical music, folk music, and modern popular music. Afghanistan has a rich musical heritage and features a mix of Persian melodies, Indian compositional principles, and sounds from ethnic groups such as the Pashtuns, Tajiks and Hazaras. Instruments used range from Indian tablas to long-necked lutes. Afghanistan's classical music is closely related to Hindustani classical music while sourcing much of its lyrics directly from classical Persian poetry such as Mawlana Balkhi (Rumi) and the Iranian tradition indigenous to central Asia. Lyrics throughout most of Afghanistan are typically in Dari (Persian) and Pashto. The multi-ethnic city of Kabul has long been the regional cultural capital, but outsiders have tended to focus on the city of Herat, which is home to traditions more closely related to Iranian music than in the rest of the country.Doubleday, pg. 4 Under the rule of the Taliban, both from 1996 to 2001 and again ...
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Indian Classical Music
Indian classical music is the art music, classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It is generally described using terms like ''Shastriya Sangeet'' and ''Marg Sangeet''. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as ''Hindustani classical music, Hindustani'' and the South Indian expression known as ''Carnatic classical music, Carnatic''. These traditions were not distinct until about the 15th century. During the period of Mughal Empire, Mughal rule of the Indian subcontinent, the traditions separated and evolved into distinct forms. Hindustani music emphasizes improvisation and exploration of all aspects of a raga, while Carnatic performances tend to be short composition-based. However, the two systems continue to have more common features than differences. Another unique classical music tradition from the eastern part of India is ''Odissi music'', which has evolved over the last two thousand years. The roots of the classical music of India are found ...
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Persian Literature
Persian literature comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources have been within Greater Iran including present-day Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Caucasus, and Turkey, regions of Central Asia (such as Tajikistan), South Asia and the Balkans where the Persian language has historically been either the native or official language. For example, Rumi, one of the best-loved Persian poets, born in Balkh (in modern-day Afghanistan) or Wakhsh (in modern-day Tajikistan), wrote in Persian and lived in Konya (in modern-day Turkey), at that time the capital of the Seljuks in Anatolia. The Ghaznavids conquered large territories in Central and South Asia and adopted Persian as their court language. There is thus Persian literature from Iran, Mesopotamia, Azerbaijan, the wider Caucasus, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Tajikistan and other parts of Cent ...
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Hindi
Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government of India, alongside English language, English, and is the ''lingua franca'' of North India. Hindi is considered a Sanskritisation (linguistics), Sanskritised Register (sociolinguistics), register of Hindustani. Hindustani itself developed from Old Hindi and was spoken in Delhi and neighbouring areas. It incorporated a significant number of Persian language, Persian loanwords. Hindi is an Languages with official status in India, official language in twelve states (Bihar, Gujarat , Mizoram , Maharashtra ,Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand), and six Union territory, union territories (Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Delhi, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Di ...
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