Editing Kabul (section)

===Timurid and Mughal era===
{{Further|Timurid Empire|Mughal Empire}}
[[File:Humayun (left) with his father Babur (right), painted circa 1640 (Late Shah Jahan Album).jpg|thumb|left|[[Humayun]] with his father [[Babur]], emperors of the [[Mughal Empire]]]]
[[File:Horsemen assembled outside the city walls at Kabul, Afghanis Wellcome V0050453.jpg|thumb|Old painting showing the [[Bala Hissar, Kabul|Great Wall]] of Kabul]]In the 14th century, Kabul became a major trading centre under the kingdom of [[Timur]] (''Tamerlane''). In 1504, the city fell to [[Babur]] from the north and made into his headquarters, which became one of the principal cities of his later [[Mughal Empire]]. In 1525, Babur described [[Kabulistan]] in [[baburnama|his memoirs]] by writing that:

{{blockquote|There are many differing tribes in the [[Kabulistan|Kābul country]]; in its dales and plains are Turks and clansmen and [[Arab|'Arabs]]; and in its town and in many villages, [[Sart|Sārts]]; out in the districts and also in villages are the [[Pashai people|Pashāi]], [[Parachi|Parājī]], [[Tajiks|Tājik]], [[Ormur|Bīrkī]] and [[Afghan (name)|Afghān]] tribes. In the western mountains are the [[Hazara people|Hazāra]] and [[Qara'unas|Nikdīrī]] tribes, some of whom speak the [[Moghol language|Mughūlī]] tongue. In the north-eastern mountains are the places of the [[Kafiristan|Kāfirs]], such as [[Katawar|Kitūr and Gibrik]]. To the south are the places of the [[Pashtunistan|Afghān tribes]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44608/44608-h/44608-h.htm|title=Description of Kābul|access-date=June 21, 2021|author=[[Babur|Zahir ud-Din Mohammad Babur]]|work=[[Baburnama|Memoirs of Babur]]|publisher=Packard Humanities Institute|year=1525|archive-date=June 30, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200630231822/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44608/44608-h/44608-h.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

[[Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat]], a poet from [[Hindustan]] who visited at the time wrote: ''"Dine and drink in Kabul: it is mountain, desert, city, river and all else."'' It was from here that Babur began his 1526 conquest of Hindustan, which was ruled by the [[Pashtun people|Afghan]] [[Lodi dynasty]] and began east of the [[Indus River]] in what is present-day [[Pakistan]]. [[Babur]] loved Kabul due to the fact that he lived in it for 20 years and the people were loyal to him, including the weather that he was used to. His wish to be buried in Kabul was finally granted. The inscription on his [[Gardens of Babur|tomb]] contains the famous Persian [[couplet]], which states:

اگرفردوس روی زمین است همین است و همین است و همین است

Transliteration:

Agar fardus rui zameen ast, hameen ast, o hameen ast, o hameen ast.

(If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, and it is this, and it is this!)<ref>{{Cite book|title=War Against the Taliban: Why It All Went Wrong in Afghanistan|last1=Gall|first1=Sandy|year=2012|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4088-0905-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/waragainsttaliba0000gall/page/165 165]|url=https://archive.org/details/waragainsttaliba0000gall|url-access=registration|access-date=30 September 2013}}</ref>

Kabul remained in Mughal control for the next 200 years.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|last=Schinasi|first=May|title=Kabul iii. History From the 16th Century to the Accession of Moḥammad Ẓāher Shah|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kabul-iii-history|access-date=29 June 2021|website=Encyclopaedia Iranica|language=en-US|archive-date=29 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629170713/https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kabul-iii-history|url-status=live}}</ref> Though Mughal power became centred within the [[Indian subcontinent]], Kabul retained importance as a frontier city for the empire; [[Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak|Abul Fazl]], Emperor [[Akbar]]'s chronicler, described it as one of the two gates to Hindustan (the other being [[Kandahar]]).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Samrin|first=Farah|title=The City of Kabul Under the Mughals|date=2005|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44145943|journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress|volume=66|page=1307|jstor=44145943|issn=2249-1937|access-date=29 June 2021|archive-date=29 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629170711/https://www.jstor.org/stable/44145943|url-status=live}}</ref> As part of administrative reforms under Akbar, the city was made capital of the eponymous Mughal province, [[Kabul Subah]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Roy|first=Kaushik|date=January 2015|title=Mughal Empire and Warfare in Afghanistan: 1500–1810|url=https://academic.oup.com/book/4199/chapter-abstract/146011616?redirectedFrom=fulltext|access-date=2023-06-20|website=academic.oup.com|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198099109.003.0001|isbn=978-0-19-809910-9|archive-date=20 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230620230909/https://academic.oup.com/book/4199/chapter-abstract/146011616?redirectedFrom=fulltext|url-status=live}}</ref> Under Mughal governance, Kabul became a prosperous urban centre, endowed with bazaars such as the non-extant [[Char Chatta Bazaar|Char Chatta]].<ref name=":0" /> For the first time in its history, Kabul served as a mint centre, producing gold and silver Mughal coins up to the reign of [[Alamgir II]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Bosworth|first=Clifford Edmund|title=Historic cities of the Islamic world|date=2008|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-15388-2|page=257|oclc=231801473}}</ref> It acted as a military base for [[Shah Jahan]]'s [[Mughal–Safavid war (1649–53)|campaigns]] in [[Balkh]] and [[Badakhshan]]. Kabul was also a recreational retreat for the Mughals, who hunted here and constructed several gardens. Most of the Mughals' architectural contributions to the city (such as gardens, fortifications, and mosques) have not survived.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Foltz|first=Richard|date=1996|title=The Mughal Occupation of Balkh 1646–1647|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26195477|journal=Journal of Islamic Studies|volume=7|issue=1|page=52|doi=10.1093/jis/7.1.49|jstor=26195477|issn=0955-2340|access-date=29 June 2021|archive-date=29 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629170710/https://www.jstor.org/stable/26195477|url-status=live}}</ref> During this time, the population was about 60,000.<ref name="undermughal" />

Under later [[Mughal Emperors]], Kabul became neglected.<ref name=":0" /> The empire lost the city when it was captured in 1738 by [[Nader Shah]], who was en route to [[Nader Shah's invasion of India|invade the Indian subcontinent]].<ref name=":1" />