Editing Hazarajat

{{Short description|Region in the central highlands of Afghanistan}}
{{Distinguish|text=[[Hazara region]] in Pakistan}}
{{Coord|34.8167|67.8167|region:|display=title}}
{{Infobox
| bodyclass        = geography
| above            = 
| image            = [[File:Hazarajat-map.png]]
| caption          = Hazaristan region shown within Afghanistan
| label1           = Area
| data1            = Approx: {{convert|80,000|sqmi|km2|0|abbr=on}}
| label2           = Population
| data2            = circa 8,000,000
| label3           = Density
| data3            = {{convert|50|/km2|abbr=on}}
| label4           = Provinces within Hazaristan
| data4            = [[Bamyan Province|Bamyan]], [[Daikundi Province|Daikundi]] and large parts of [[Ghor Province|Ghor]], [[Ghazni Province|Ghazni]], [[Uruzgan Province|Uruzgan]], [[Parwan Province|Parwan]], [[Maidan Wardak Province|Maidan Wardak]], and more.<ref name=NPS>{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.edu/programs/ccs/Bamyan.html |title=Bamyan Province |access-date=2012-12-05 |date=2011-11-15 |publisher=[[Naval Postgraduate School]]}}</ref>
| label5           = Ethnicity
| data5            = [[Hazaras]]
| label6           = Languages spoken
| data6            = [[Dari]] and [[Hazaragi]] (eastern dialects of [[Persian language|Persian]])
| data7            =
| label7           = Flag
}}
{{Hazara people}}
'''Hazarajat''' ({{langx|fa|هزاره‌جات|Hazārajāt}}), also known as '''Hazaristan'''<ref>{{Citation |last=Dames |first=M. Longworth |title=Hazāristān |date=2012-04-24 |url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-1/hazara-SIM_2782 |work=Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936) |access-date=2023-09-14 |publisher=Brill |language=en}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=1ppw7-NEsEsC&dq=%22hazaristan%22+hazarajat&pg=PA156 ''DISAPPEARING PEOPLES?: INDIGENOUS GROUPS AND ETHNIC MINORITIES IN SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA''], p.156 ("Some Hazara prefer to call the area Hazaristan, using the more modern [[-stan|"istan"]] ending.")</ref> ({{langx|fa|هزارستان|Hazāristān}}) is a mostly mountainous region in the [[central Afghan highlands|central highlands]] of [[Afghanistan]], among the [[Kuh-e Baba]] mountains in the western extremities of the [[Hindu Kush]]. It is the homeland of the [[Hazara people]], who make up the majority of its population. Hazarajat denotes an ethnic and religious zone.<ref name="Iranica">{{cite web |url= http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hazara-i |title= HAZĀRA i. Historical geography of Hazārajāt |publisher= Encyclopedia Iranica |access-date= September 15, 2011 |first= Arash|last= Khazeni}}</ref>
[[File:Ecoregion PA1004.png|thumb|233x233px|The approximate area of Hazarajat is marked in [[purple]]]]
Hazarajat is primarily made up of the provinces of [[Bamyan Province|Bamyan]], [[Daikundi Province|Daikundi]] and large parts of [[Ghor Province|Ghor]], [[Ghazni Province|Ghazni]], [[Uruzgan Province|Uruzgan]], [[Parwan Province|Parwan]], [[Maidan Wardak Province|Maidan Wardak]], and more. The most populous towns in Hazarajat are [[Bamyan]], [[Yakawlang]] (Bamyan), [[Nili, Daikundi|Nili]] (Daikundi), [[Lal wa Sarjangal]] (Ghor), [[Sang-e-Masha]] (Ghazni), [[Gizab]] (Daikundi) and [[Behsud, Maidan Wardak|Behsud]] (Maidan Wardak). The [[Kabul River|Kabul]], [[Arghandab River|Arghandab]], [[Helmand River|Helmand]], [[Farah River|Farah]], [[Hari (Afghanistan)|Hari]], [[Murghab River|Murghab]], [[Balkh River|Balkh]], and [[Kunduz River|Kunduz]] rivers originate from Hazarajat.

==Etymology and usage==
The Hazara people<ref>{{cite book |last=Bellew |first=H.W. |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.463843 |title=The Races of Afghanistan: Being a Brief Account of the Principal Nations Inhabiting that Country |publisher=Thacker, Spink & Co |year=1880 |location=Calcutta |page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.463843/page/n113 114]}}</ref> and surrounding peoples use the names "Hazarajat" or "Hazaristan" to identify the historic Hazara lands. "Hazarajat" is a [[Compound (linguistics)|compound]] of "Hazara" and the Persian suffix "jat",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mousavi |first1=S. A. |author-link1=Sayed Askar Mousavi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXl0DwAAQBAJ |title=The Hazaras of Afghanistan: an historical, sultural, economic and political study |publisher=Routledge |year=1998 |isbn=9781136800160 |location=Abingdon |publication-date=2018 |chapter=1: Who are the Hazaras? |quote=Hazarajat is a composite name made up of ''Hazara'' and the Farsi-Arabic plural suffix, ''jat'' [...]. |access-date=26 January 2020}}</ref> which is used to make words associated with land in the south, central and west Asia<ref>{{cite book |last=Mousavi |first=S.A. |title=The Hazaras of Afghanistan: An Historical, Cultural, Economic and Political Study |publisher=Curzon Press |year=1998 |isbn=0-7007-0630-5 |location=Richmond, Surrey UK |page=34}}</ref>{{request quotation|date=January 2020}} and "Hazaristan" is a compound of "Hazara" and the Persian suffix {{lang|fa|ـستان}} ''[[-stan]]'' means "land" or "place of".<ref>{{Citation |last=Dames |first=M. Longworth |title=Hazāristān |date=2012-04-24 |url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-1/hazara-SIM_2782 |work=Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936) |access-date=2023-09-14 |publisher=Brill |language=en}}</ref>

== Geography ==
Until the 1880s, the Hazarajat was completely autonomous and the central government of Kabul had not yet succeeded in governing the region.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mousavi |first=Sayed Askar |url= |title=The Hazaras of Afghanistan: An Historical, Cultural, Economic and Political Study |publisher=Curzon Press |year=1998 |isbn=0-7007-0630-5 |location= |page=65 |language=en}}</ref>

===Topography===
[[File:AH-64 Apache in Daykundi-2012.jpg|thumb|200px|An [[AH-64 Apache]] helicopter shoots [[Flare (countermeasure)|flares]] over a valley to support members of the [[ANA Commando Brigade|8th Commando Kandak]] and coalition special operations forces during a firefight in [[Kajran district]], [[Daykundi Province]]]]
[[File:Bamyan collage.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Bamyan Province]]]]
The Hazarajat lies in the [[central Afghan highlands]], among the [[Koh-e Baba]] mountains and the western extremities of the [[Hindu Kush]]. Its boundaries have historically been inexact and shifting. Its physical limitations, however, are roughly marked by the [[Bamyan Province|Bā-miān]] Basin to the north, the headwaters of the [[Helmand River]] to the south, [[Firuzkuh]] to the west, and the [[Unai Pass]] to the east. The regional terrain is mountainous and extends to the Safid Kuh and the Siāh Kuh mountains, where the highest peaks reach between {{convert|15,000|feet}} and {{convert|17,000|feet}}. Both sides of the Kuh-e Bābā range contain a succession of valleys. The north face of the range descends steeply, merging into low foothills and small semi-arid plains, while the south face stretches towards the Helmand Valley and the mountainous district of [[Markazi Bihsud District|Behsud]].<ref name="Iranica"/><ref name="Central Afghanistan 1955, pp. 313">[[Wilfred Thesiger]] "The Hazaras of Central Afghanistan", The Geographical Journal 71/3, 1955, pp. 313.</ref>

Northwestern Hazarajat encompasses the district of [[Ghor]], long known for its mountain fortresses. The 10th-century geographer [[Estakhri]] wrote that mountainous Ghor was "the only region surrounded by Islamic territories and yet inhabited by infidels".<ref>W. Barthold, ''An Historical Geography of Iran'', Princeton, 1984, p. 51.</ref> The long resistance of the inhabitants of Ghor to the adoption of [[Islam]] indicates the region's inaccessibility; according to some travelers, the entire region is comparable to a fortress raised in the upper Central Asian highlands: from every approach, tall and steep mountains have to be traversed to reach the area. The language of the inhabitants of Ghor differed so much from that of the people of the plains that communication between the two required interpreters.<ref>W. Barthold, ''An Historical Geography of Iran'', Princeton, 1984, p. 52.</ref>

The northeastern part of the Hazarajat is the site of ancient [[Bamyan]], a center of [[Buddhism]] and a key [[caravanserai]] on the [[Silk Road]]. The town stands at a height of {{convert|7,500|feet}}, surrounded by the Hindu Kush to the north and Koh-i Baba to the south.<ref name="Iranica"/> The Hazarajat was considered{{when|date=March 2022}} part of the larger geographic region of [[Greater Khurasan|Khurasan]] ([[Kushan Empire|Kushan]]), the porous boundaries of which encompassed the vast region between the [[Caspian Sea]] and the [[Oxus River]], thus including much of present-day Northern Iran and Afghanistan.<ref name="Iranica"/>

===Climate===
Hazarajat is mountainous,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=XfgLAAAAYAAJ&q=author:+%22Minorsky%22 Anonymous, Ḥodud al-ʿālam, tr. Minorsky, London, 1937; reprinted, 1982, p. 105].</ref> and a series of mountain passes extend along its eastern edge. One of them, the [[Salang Pass]], is blocked by snow six months out of the year.  Another, the [[Shibar Pass]], at a lower elevation, is blocked by snow only two months out of the year.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=l5JiewAACAAJ&q=geographie+de+l%E2%80%99Afghanistan Johannes Humlum, ''La geographie de l'Afghanistan'', Copenhagen, 1959, p. 64] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230520203632/https://books.google.com/books?id=l5JiewAACAAJ&q=geographie+de+l%E2%80%99Afghanistan |date=2023-05-20 }}.</ref> [[Bamyan]] is the colder part of the region, with severe winters.<ref>Ebn Ḥawqal, Ke-tāb ṣurat al-arż, trs. J. H. Kramers and G. Wiet as Configuration de la terre, II, Paris, 1964, p. 227.</ref>

[[File:Cold Country.jpg|thumb|Winters in central Afghanistan can be brutally cold with temperatures as low as {{convert|-20|C|1}}]]

Hazarajat is the source of the rivers that run through [[Kabul River|Kabul]], [[Arghandab River|Arghandab]], [[Helmand River|Helmand]], [[Hari (Afghanistan)|Hari]], [[Murghab River|Murghab]], [[Balkh River|Balkh]], and [[Kunduz River|Kunduz]]; during the spring and summer months it has some of the greenest pastures in Afghanistan.<ref>[[Ḥamd-Allah Mostawfi]], Nozhat al-qolub, tr. Guy Le Strange, London 1919, p. 212</ref> [[Band-e Amir|Natural lakes]], green valleys and caves are found in Bamyan.<ref>
[https://books.google.com/books?id=w1eaQgAACAAJ&q=the+hazaras+of+afghanistan S. A. Mousavi, ''The Hazaras of Afghanistan'', London, 1998, p. 71].
</ref>

== History ==
[[File:Man with cap probably Scythian, Bamiyan 3-4th century.jpg|left|150px|thumb|Statue of a bearded man with cap, probably [[Scythian]], 3–4th century AD]]
{{History of Afghanistan}}
The area was ruled successively by the [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenids]], [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucids]], [[Maurya Empire|Maurya]]s, [[Kushan Empire|Kushans]], and [[Hephthalite Empire|Hephthalites]] before the [[Saffarid dynasty|Saffarids]] Islamized it and made it part of their empire. It was taken over by the [[Samanids]], followed by the [[Ghaznavids]] and [[Ghurid dynasty|Ghurids]] before falling to the [[Delhi Sultanate]]. In the 13th century, it was invaded by [[Genghis Khan]] and his [[Mongol Empire|Mongol]] army. In the following decades, the [[Qarlughids]] emerged to create a local dynasty that offered a few decades of self-rule. Later, the area became part of the [[Timurid dynasty]], the [[Mughal Empire]] and the [[Durrani Empire]].
The subjugation of the Hazarajat, particularly the mountain fortresses of Bamyan, proved difficult for the invaders at their conquest of the region. "adopted the language of the vanquished".<ref>W. Barthold, An Historical Geography of Iran, Princeton, 1984, p. 82</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/caravanjourneysw00ferrrich <!-- quote=, Caravan Journeys and Wanderings in Persia, Afghanistan, Turkestan, and Beloochistan. --> J. P. Ferrier, Caravan Journeys and Wanderings in Persia, Afghanistan, Turkestan, and Beloochistan, London, 1856, p. 221]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l5JiewAACAAJ&q=geographie+de+l%E2%80%99Afghanistan |title=Johannes Humlum, La geographie de l’Afghanistan, Copenhagen, 1959, p. 87 |access-date=2023-03-15 |archive-date=2023-05-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230520203632/https://books.google.com/books?id=l5JiewAACAAJ&q=geographie+de+l%E2%80%99Afghanistan |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===19th century===
In the 18th and 19th centuries, a sense of "Afghan-ness" developed among the [[Hazaras]] and the [[Pashtuns]] began to coalesce.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=d7x7QgAACAAJ&q=Hazara+Integration+into+the+Afghan+Nation Robert L. Canfield, Hazara Integration into the Afghan Nation, New York, 1973, p. 3]</ref> It has been suggested that in the 19th century there was an emerging awareness of ethnic and religious differences among the population of [[Kabul]]. This brought about divisions along "confessional lines" that became reflected in new "spatial boundaries".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=iqkiRvaDThgC&q=State+and+Tribe+in+Nineteenth-Century+Afghanistan Christine Noelle, State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan, Richmond, 1997, p. 22]</ref> During the reign of [[Dost Mohammad Khan]], [[Mir Yazdanbakhsh]], a diligent chief of the [[Behsud (Hazara tribe)|Behsud]] Hazaras, consolidated many of the districts they controlled. Mir Yazdanbakhsh collected revenues and safeguarded caravans traveling on the [[Hajigak Pass|Hajigak]] route through Bamyan to Kabul through [[Sheikh Ali District|Sheikh Ali]] and [[Behsud, Maidan Wardak|Behsud]] areas. The consolidation of the Hazarajat thus increasingly made the region and its inhabitants a threat to the [[Durrani Empire|Durrani state]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=og5uAAAAMAAJ&q=Narrative+of+Various+Journeys+in+Balochistan,+Afghanistan,+and+the+Punjab C. Masson, Narrative of Various Journeys in Baloochistan, Afghanistan, and the Punjab. London, 1842, II, p. 296]</ref>
[[File:Group of Hazara Chiefs (616x510).jpg|thumb|250px|[[Behsud (Hazara tribe)|Behsudi]] Hazara chieftains in 1879]]

Until the late 19th century, the Hazarajat remained somewhat independent and only the authority of local chieftains was obeyed.<ref>W. Barthold, An Historical Geography of Iran, Princeton, 1984, pp. 82–83</ref> Joseph Pierre Ferrier, a French author who supposedly traveled through the region in the mid-19th century, described the inhabitants settled in the mountains near the rivers [[Balkh Province|Balkh]] and [[Kholm, Afghanistan|Kholm]] "The Hazara population is very less but ungovernable, and has no occupation but pillage; they will pillage and pillage only, and plunder from camp to camp".<ref>[https://archive.org/details/caravanjourneysw00ferrrich <!-- quote=, Caravan Journeys and Wanderings in Persia, Afghanistan, Turkestan, and Beloochistan. --> J. P. Ferrier, Caravan Journeys and Wanderings in Persia, Afghanistan, Turkestan, and Beloochistan, London, 1856, pp. 219–20]</ref>  Subsequent British travelers doubted whether Ferrier had ever actually left [[Herat]] to venture into Afghanistan's central mountains and have suggested that his accounts of the region were based on hearsay, especially since very few people entered the Hazarajat; [[Kochi people|Pashtun nomads]] (Kuchi people) would not take their flocks to graze there, and few caravans would pass through.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=xy0oSwAACAAJ&q=Preliminary+Notes+on+Haz%C4%81ra+Culture Klaus Ferdinand, Preliminary Notes on Hazāra Culture, Copenhagen, 1959,p. 18]</ref>

Afghanistan's [[Kuchi people]], who are unsettled nomads who migrate between the [[Amu Darya]] and the [[Indus River]], temporarily stayed in Hazarajat during some seasons, where they overran Hazara farmlands and pastures.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=w1eaQgAACAAJ&q=the+hazaras+of+afghanistan S. A. Mousavi, The Hazaras of Afghanistan, London, 1998, p. 95]</ref> Increasingly during summers, these nomads would camp in large numbers in the Hazarajat highlands.

The travels of Captains P. J. Maitland and M. G. Talbot from [[Herat]], through [[Obe, Afghanistan|Obeh]] and [[Bamyan]], to [[Balkh]], during the autumn and winter of 1885, explored the Hazarajat proper. Maitland and Talbot found the entire length of the road between Herat and Bamyan difficult to traverse.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=acqfAAAAMAAJ&q=Captain+Maitland%E2%80%99s+and+Captain+Talbot%E2%80%99s+Journeys+in+Afghanistan Anonymous, "Captain Maitland's and Captain Talbot's Journeys in Afghanistan", Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 9, 1887 p. 103]</ref> As a result of the expedition, parts of the Hazarajat were ''surveyed on one-eighth inch scale'' and thus made to fit into the mapped order of modern nation-states.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ecZWcAAACAAJ&q=Imagined+Communities |title=Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, London, 1991 &#91;1983&#93;, pp. 170–78 |access-date=2023-03-15 |archive-date=2023-09-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230901084104/https://books.google.com/books?id=ecZWcAAACAAJ&q=Imagined+Communities |url-status=dead }}</ref> More thought and attention was put into demarcating the definite borders of modern nations than ever before, which entailed great difficulties in frontier regions such as the Hazarajat.

During the Second [[Anglo-Afghan War]], [[Thomas Holdich|Colonel T. H. Holdich]] of the [[British India|Indian]] Survey Department referred to the Hazarajat as "great unknown highlands".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=RbiPAkZra4EC&q=The+Indian+Borderland T. H. Holdich, The Indian Borderland, 1880–1900, London, 1901, p. 41]</ref> And for the next few years, neither the Survey nor the Indian Intelligence Department succeeded in obtaining any trustworthy information on the routes between Herat and [[Kabul]] through the Hazarajat.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=rtmlQwAACAAJ A. C. Yate, Travels] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230901084108/https://books.google.com/books?id=rtmlQwAACAAJ |date=2023-09-01 }} with the [[Afghan Boundary Commission]], Edinburgh, 1887 pp. 147–48</ref>
[[File:Map_to_Illustrate_the_Military_Geography_of_Afghanistan_Part_IV_Kabul_Province.png|thumb|Map of Kabul Province in 1893, illustrating the boundaries of different Hazara tribes]]
Various members of the [[Afghan Boundary Commission]] were able to gather the information that brought the geography of remote regions such as the Hazarajat further under state surveillance. In November 1884, the Commission crossed over the [[Koh-e Baba]] mountains by the Chashma Sabz Pass. General [[Peter Lumsden]] and Major C. E. Yate, who surveyed the tracts between [[Herat]] and the [[Oxus]], visited the [[Qala i Naw, Afghanistan|Qala-e Naw]] Hazaras in the [[Selseleh-ye Safīd Kūh|Paropamisus]] mountain range, to the east of the [[Jamshidi (tribe)|Jamshidis]] of [[Kushk District|Kushk]]. Noting surviving evidence of terraced cultivation in times past, both described the northern Hazaras as semi-nomadic with large flocks of sheep and black cattle. They possessed an "inexhaustible supply of grass, the hills around being covered knee-deep with a luxuriant crop of pure rye".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r4_dQwAACAAJ |title=C. E. Yate, Northern Afghanistan, Edinburgh, 1888, p. 9 |access-date=2016-10-02 |archive-date=2023-09-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230901084109/https://books.google.com/books?id=r4_dQwAACAAJ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Yate noted clusters of kebetkas, or the summer dwellings of the Qala-e Naw Hazaras on the hillsides and described "flocks and herds grazing in all directions".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r4_dQwAACAAJ |title=C. E. Yate, Northern Afghanistan, Edinburgh, 1888, pp. 7–8 |access-date=2016-10-02 |archive-date=2023-09-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230901084109/https://books.google.com/books?id=r4_dQwAACAAJ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=7uqfAAAAMAAJ&q=Countries+and+Tribes+bordering+on+the+Koh Peter Lumsden, "Countries and Tribes bordering on the Koh-e Baba Range", Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 7, 1885, pp. 562–63]</ref>

The geographical reach of the authority of the Afghan state was extended into the Hazarajat during the reign of [[Abdur Rahman Khan]]. Caught between the strategic interests of foreign powers and disappointed by the demarcation of the [[Durand Line]] in southern Afghanistan, which cut into Pashtun territory, he set out to bring the northern peripheries of the country more firmly under his control. This policy had disastrous consequences for the Hazarajat, whose inhabitants were singled out by Abdur Rahman Khan's regime as particularly troublesome: "The Hazara people had been for centuries past the terror of the rulers of Kabul".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Gh8PAAAAYAAJ&q=The+Life+of+Abdur+Rahman,+Amir+of+Afghanistan+volume+2 Mir Munshi, ed., The Life of Abdur Rahman, Amir of Afghanistan, II, London, 1900, p. 276]</ref>

===20th and 21st century===
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In the 1920s the ancient [[Shibar Pass]] road which leads through Bamyan and east to the [[Panjshir Valley]] was paved for lorries, and it remained the busiest road across the [[Hindu Kush]] until the building of the [[Salang tunnel]] in 1964 and the opening of a winter route. The Hazarajat became increasingly depopulated as Hazaras migrated to cities and to surrounding countries, where they became laborers and undertook the hardest and lowest-paid work.<ref name="Iranica"/>

In 1979, there were reportedly one and a half million Hazaras in the Hazarajat and Kabul, although a reliable census has never been taken in Afghanistan.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/fragmentationofa00rubi <!-- quote=The Fragmentation of Afghanistan. --> Barnett Rubin, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan, New Haven, 2002, p. 26]</ref> As the Afghan state weakened, uprisings broke out in the Hazarajat, freeing the region from state rule by the summer of 1979 for the first time since the death of [[Abdur Rahman Khan]] some Hazara resistance groups were formed in [[Iran]], including [[Al-Nasr (Afghanistan)|Nasr]] and Sipah-i Pasdaran, with some being "committed to the idea of a separate Hazara national identity".<ref>[https://archive.org/details/fragmentationofa00rubi <!-- quote=The Fragmentation of Afghanistan. --> Barnett Rubin, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan, New Haven, 2002. pp. 186, 191, 223]</ref> During the war with the [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan]], most of the Hazarajat was unoccupied and free of Soviet or state presence. The region became ruled once again by local leaders, or mirs, and a new stratum of young radical Shiʿi commanders. Economic conditions are reported to have improved in the Hazarajat during the war, when [[Pashtuns|Pashtun]] ''Kuchis'' stopped grazing their flocks in Hazara pastures and fields.<ref name="books.google.com">[https://archive.org/details/fragmentationofa00rubi <!-- quote=The Fragmentation of Afghanistan. --> Barnett Rubin, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan, New Haven, 2002, p. 246]</ref>
The group ruling Hazarajat was the [[Revolutionary Council of Islamic Unity of Afghanistan]] or ''Shura-e Ettefaq'', led by [[Sayyid Ali Beheshti]]. The region's geographic nature and un-strategic location meant that the government and Soviets ignored it as they fought rebels elsewhere. This effectively allowed the Shura-i Ettefaq administration to rule over the region and give autonomy to the Hazaras. Their politically opposing groups were mostly educated, secular and left-wing.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ibrahimi |first1=Niamatullah |title=THE FAILURE OF A CLERICAL PROTO-STATE: HAZARAJAT, 1979 - 1984 |publisher=Crisis States Research Centre |date=September 2006|citeseerx=10.1.1.604.3516 }}</ref><ref name="Nation 2016">''Nation, Ethnicity and the Conflict in Afghanistan: Political Islam and the rise of ethno-politics 1992–1996'' by Raghav Sharma, 2016.</ref> Between 1982 and 1984, an internal civil war caused the Shura to be overthrown by the ''Sazman-i Nasr'' and ''Sepah-i Pasdaran'' groups. However inter-factional rivalry continued thereafter. Most of the Hazara groups united in 1987 and 1989 and formed the [[Hizb-e-Wahdat]].<ref name="Nation 2016"/>

During the rule of the [[Taliban]], once again, ethnic and sectarian violence struck Hazarajat. In 1997, a revolt broke out among Hazara people in [[Mazar-e Sharif]] when they refused to be disarmed by the Taliban; 600 Taliban were killed in subsequent fighting.<ref>Ahmed Rashid, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, London and New Haven, 2000, p. 58</ref> In retaliation, the genocidal policies of Amir [[Abdur Rahman Khan]]'s era were adopted by the Taliban. In 1998, six thousand Hazaras were killed in the north; the intention was ethnic cleansing of Hazara.<ref>Ahmed Rashid, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, London and New Haven, 2000, pp. 67–74</ref> At that stage, Hazarajat does not exist as an official region; the area comprises the administrative provinces of Bamyan, [[Ghor Province|Ghor]], [[Maidan Wardak Province|Maidan Wardak]], Ghazni, Oruzgan, [[Guzgan|Juzjan]], and Samangan.<ref name="books.google.com"/> In March 2001, two giant Buddhist statues, [[Buddhas of Bamiyan]], were also destroyed even though there was a lot of condemnation.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/mar/03/afghanistan.lukeharding |title=Taliban blow apart 2,000 years of Buddhist history |website=The Guardian |date=3 March 2001 }}</ref>

== Demographics ==

===Ethnic groups===
{{Further|Ethnic groups in Afghanistan|Hazaras}}

The [[Hazaras]] constitute the majority of the Hazarajat population.

===Language===
{{Further|Dari|Hazaragi|Languages of Afghanistan}}
[[Dari]] and [[Hazaragi]], dialects of the [[Persian language]], are the official languages in Hazarajat.

==Health==
{{Further|Health in Afghanistan}}
[[Leprosy]] has been reported in the Hazarajat region of Afghanistan. The vast majority (80%) of the leprosy victims are Hazara.<ref>Dr. Mohammad Salim Rasooli. [http://www.ilep.org.uk/fileadmin/uploads/Country_Pages/Afghanistan/Afghanistan.pdf Leprosy Situation in Afghanistan in 2001–2006] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725081441/http://www.ilep.org.uk/fileadmin/uploads/Country_Pages/Afghanistan/Afghanistan.pdf |date=2011-07-25 }}. Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) National Leprosy Control Program. 7–9 July 2008.</ref>

A 1989 report noted that common diseases in the Hazarajat included [[gastrointestinal]] infections, [[typhoid]], [[whooping cough]], [[measles]], [[leprosy]], [[tuberculosis]], [[rheumatoid arthritis]], and [[malaria]].<ref name="Poladi1989">{{cite book|first=Hassan|last=Poladi|title=The Hazāras|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1f8MAAAAIAAJ|access-date=7 March 2011|date=February 1989|publisher=Mughal Pub. Co.|isbn=978-0-929824-00-0}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Flag of Hazaristan]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Commons category-inline}}

{{Hazara nationalism}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Hazarajat| ]]
[[Category:Hazara history]]
[[Category:Regions of Afghanistan]]
[[Category:Cultural regions]]