Kabul
کابلKabul and its valleys, a Persian-speaking city at the crossroads of Central and South Asia.
Kabul has been a strategic city for millennia, on the routes between the Iranian plateau, Central Asia and India. Babur, founder of the Mughal dynasty, loved it above his other cities and asked to be buried in the garden he laid out here, the Bagh-e Babur.
Dari, the Persian of Afghanistan, is the city's common language, and Kabul has long been a centre of Persian poetry and music.
In the Shahnameh
In the Shahnameh, Rudabeh, mother of Rostam, is a princess of Kabul, and her love for Zal is one of the epic's great romances.
Cities and towns
Kabulکابل
The capital in its ring of mountains
Jalalabadجلالآباد
A warm valley town on the road to the Khyber
Charikarچاریکار
Gateway to the Panjshir and the Salang
Landmarksبناها و نشانهها
Babur's Garden
باغ بابرThe terraced garden where Babur is buried
Kabul through time
Iranian historyThe Safavidsصفویان
The Safavids made Twelver Shia Islam Iran's state religion and rebuilt Isfahan as one of the most admired cities in the world.
- Babur dies in Agra
- Aga Khan Trust begins restoring the garden
Poets of Kabulشاعران
Khalilullah Khalili
خلیلالله خلیلیAfghanistan's foremost Persian poet of the 20th century: courtier, historian, diplomat and, at the end, an exile.
Siavash Kasraei
سیاوش کسراییPoet of Arash the Archer, who retold an ancient Iranian legend of sacrifice in the new verse of Nima.