Royal Horse Artillery fleeing from Afghan attack at the Battle of Maiwand

Maiwand is a village in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

within the

Maywand District Maiwand District is situated in the western part of the Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. It borders Helmand Province to the west, Ghorak District to the north, Khakrez District to the northeast, Zhari District to the east, and Panjwayi District to ...

of Kandahar Province. It is located 50 miles northwest of

Kandahar Kandahar is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city, after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118 in 2015. It is the capital of Kandahar Pro ...

, on the main Kandahar–

Lashkargah Lashkargāh (; ), historically called Bost or Boost (), is a city in southwestern Afghanistan and the capital of Helmand Province. It is located in Lashkargah District, where the Arghandab River merges into the Helmand River. The city has a po ...

road. The area is irrigated by the

Helmand and Arghandab Valley Authority The Helmand and Arghandab Valley Authority (HAVA) based in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan, originally named the Helmand Valley Authority (HVA) until its expansion in 1965,

.(pdf) The Helmand Valley Project in Afghanistan: A.I.D. Evaluation Special Study No. 18
C Clapp-Wicek & E Baldwin, U.S. Agency for International Development, published December 1983 Maiwand is the birthplace of the 13th-century

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

saint

Lal Shahbaz Qalandar Sayyid Shah Hussain Jafari al-Marwandi , (1177 - 19 February 1274) popularly known as Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (), was a Sufi saint and poet who is revered in South Asia. In Taqaiyah, his maternal grandfather changed his name to Usman al-Marwandi o ...

. The village is notable for the

Battle of Maiwand The Battle of Maiwand (Dari: نبرد میوند, Pashto: د ميوند جگړه), fought on 27 July 1880, was one of the principal battles of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Under the leadership of Ayub Khan, the Afghan forces defeated a much sma ...

, which took place on July 27, 1880, during the

Second Anglo-Afghan War The Second Anglo-Afghan War (Dari: جنگ دوم افغان و انگلیس, ) was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the latter was ruled by Sher Ali Khan of the Barakzai dy ...

Ayub Khan Mohammad Ayub Khan (14 May 1907 – 19 April 1974) was a Pakistani military dictator who served as the second president of Pakistan from 1958 until his resignation on 1969. He was the first native commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Army, se ...

together with

Malalai Anaa Malalai of Maiwand ( ), also known as Malala (), or Malalai Anna (, meaning ''Malalai the "Grandmother"'') is a national folk hero of Afghanistan who rallied Afghan fighters during the Battle of Maiwand which was part of the Second Anglo-Afghan ...

defeated a British brigade under General Burrows. The British commemorated the battle with the ''

Maiwand Lion The ''Maiwand Lion'' is a sculpture and war memorial in the Forbury Gardens, a public park in the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire. The statue was named after the Battle of Maiwand and was unveiled in December 1886 to commemo ...

'' sculpture at

Forbury Gardens Forbury Gardens is a public park in the town of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. The park is on the site of the outer court of Reading Abbey, which was in front of the Abbey Church. The site was formerly known as the Forbury, and one o ...

in England.

References

Populated places in Kandahar Province {{Kandahar-geo-stub