Editing Kabul (section)

==Toponymy and etymology==
Kabul was known by different names throughout its history.<ref name="OxfordModern">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Kakar|first=M. Hassan|editor-last=Stearns|editor-first=Peter N.|title=Kabul|year=2008|encyclopedia=Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-517632-2|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195176322.001.0001/acref-9780195176322-e-840?rskey=6DESxq&result=6|access-date=13 February 2021|archive-date=3 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503085215/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195176322.001.0001/acref-9780195176322-e-840?rskey=6DESxq&result=6|url-status=live}}</ref> Its meaning is unknown, but it is believed to originate in pre-Islamic times when the city lay on trade routes between  [[India]] and the [[Hellenic world]].<ref name="OxfordPlaceNames">{{cite encyclopedia|editor-last=Everett-Heath|editor-first=John|title=Kabul|year=2020|encyclopedia=Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names|edition=6|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-190563-6|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191905636.001.0001/acref-9780191905636-e-3372?rskey=wE0hco&result=1|access-date=13 February 2021|archive-date=3 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503085109/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191905636.001.0001/acref-9780191905636-e-3372?rskey=wE0hco&result=1|url-status=live}}</ref> In [[Sanskrit]], it was known as ''Kubha'', whereas Greek authors of [[classical antiquity]] referred to it as ''Kophen'', ''Kophes'' or ''Koa''.<ref name="OxfordModern" /> The Chinese traveler [[Xuanzang]] (fl. 7th century CE) recorded the city as ''Koafu'' (高附).<ref name="OxfordModern" /> The name "Kabul" was first applied to the [[Kabul River]] before being applied to the area situated between the [[Hindu Kush|Hindu-Kush]] and [[Sindh]] (present-day [[Pakistan]]).<ref name="OxfordModern" /><ref name="OxfordPlaceNames" /> This area was also known as [[Kabulistan]].<ref name="OxfordModern" /> [[Alexander Cunningham]] (died 1893) 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".<ref name="OxfordModern" /> Cunningam added that this tribe gave its name to the city after it was occupied by them in the 2nd century BCE.<ref name="OxfordModern" /> This "supposition seems likely" as the Afghan historian [[Ghulam Muhammad Ghobar|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.<ref name="OxfordModern" /> The Greek geographer [[Ptolemy]] (died {{circa|170 CE}}) recorded Kabul as Καβουρα (''Kabura'').<ref name="OxfordModern" />

According to a legend, one could find a lake in Kabul, in the middle of which the so-called "Island of Happiness" could be found, where a joyous family of musicians lived.<ref name="OxfordModern" /> 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).<ref name="OxfordModern" /> According to this legend the name Kabul was thus formed as a result of these two words combined, i.e. ''kah'' + ''pul''.<ref name="OxfordModern" /> The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names'' argues that the "suggestion that the name is derived from the [[Arabic language|Arabic]] root ''qbl'' 'meeting' or 'receiving' is unlikely".<ref name="OxfordPlaceNames" />

It remains unknown when the name "Kabul" was first applied to the city.<ref name="OxfordModern" /> It "came into prominence" following the destruction of [[Kapisi|Kapisa]] and other cities in what is present-day Afghanistan by [[Genghis Khan]] (c. 1162–1227) in the thirteenth century.<ref name="OxfordModern" /> 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.