Afghanistan a military history from alexander the great to the fall of the taliban

[marwat]

The Macedonians had proceeded toward Bactria when they
received word that Satibarzanes had killed Anaxippus and the javelin
men and had raised Areia in a revolt. Alexander took the elite units of
his army and sped back to Artacoana, covering seventy miles in two
days. Satibarzanes was shocked at the speed of his arrival and fled the
province for Bactria with whatever cavalry he could muster.
The rest of Alexander's army, under Craterus, surrounded thirteen
thousand Areians who had taken refuge on a "rocky outcrop" with
sheer cliffs on its west side and a somewhat lesser gradient on the east.
It was densely wooded and had a year-round spring at its summit. At
first, this natural fortress defied the Macedonians. But Alexander, as
Curtius said, "had a mind that constantly wrestled with problems. . . .
In a quandary as he was, chance provided him with a scheme when his
reasoning could not." The army had been cutting trees to pile up
against the steep cliffs, and during that hot August a strong west wind
had dried them into tinder. The ancient sources differ on whether the
trees accidentally caught fire or Alexander purposely had them piled
up and ignited, but the result was that the entire mountaintop was
swept by flames and the defenders perished.

Archaeologists have yet to identify the site of Artacoana, making
the identification of the imposing rock likewise a matter of speculation.
Donald Engels has argued that it is the famous Kalat-i-Nadiri,
the "Gibraltar of Persia," a traditional lifeboat for local people in the
face of foreign invasions, and in later centuries the only place to have
resisted a siege by Tamerlane. If his identification is correct, the rock
may well own the additional distinction of being the only fortress to
have resisted a siege by Alexander.

[marwat]

Marching southeast, Alexander paused to found a garrison city,
Alexandria-in-Areia, perhaps present-day Herat. After a further two
hundred miles due south the army rested at Phrada (modern Farah),
the capital of Drangiana. By the time he marched away, Alexander had
renamed the place Prophysia, Greek for "Anticipation," because it
was there that he discovered a conspiracy against his life.

[marwat]

From Prophysia, Alexander marched to the lower Helmand River
valley, where he encountered the people called the "Benefactors" (in
Greek, the Euergetae) for providing sustenance two centuries earlier to
the army of Cyrus the Great after it had emerged from the desert.
According to Arrian, Alexander found that these people "enjoyed a
form of government unlike that of the other barbarians in that part of
the world, but laid claim to justice equally with the best of the Greeks."
Alexander, who venerated Cyrus as his most illustrious predecessor, left
the Euergetae free to govern themselves and even offered them any
adjacent territory they wished, though "they did not ask for much."

[marwat]

In the first weeks of 329 B.C., the Macedonians marched into
Arachosia. The local satrap, Barsaentes, fled over the mountains to
India but the Indians sent him back, whereupon he was executed.
Alexander established another city, Alexandria-in-Arachosia, on or
near modern Kandahar. In ancient times, unlike today, the region
stretching from Farah to Lake Sistan and along the Helmand River
valley to Kandahar was fertile and well populated, despite the "wind
of 120 days" that roared in from the northwest every summer. The
army halted around Kandahar to await the end of winter and accumulate
food before proceeding north.

[marwat]

Parapamisidae indigenous tribal of suleman mountains

Ancient writers have vividly recorded the travails of Alexander's
army on the march from Kandahar to the Kabul valley. In Curtius's
account:

Alexander advanced with his army into the territoy of a tribe
scarcely known even to its neighbors since it had no trading
connections. They are called the Parapamisadae and are a
backward tribe, extremely uncivilized even for barbarians, the
harshness of the environment having hardened the character
of the people.. . . Their huts they build of brick from the foundations
up and, because the country is devoid of timber (even
the mountain range is bare), they employ the same brickwork
right to the top of their buildings. ... In fact, the snow cover
is so thick on the ground and so hardened with ice and almost
permanent frost that no trace is to be found even of birds or
any other animal of the wild. The overcast daylight, which
would be more accurately called a shadow of the sky, resembles
night and hangs so close to the earth that nearby objects
are barely visible.

The Macedonians were advancing on the verge of spring—late
March or early April—and the route between Kandahar and Kabul is
not usually so difficult at that time of year. It may be a rare case in
which Alexander experienced bad luck. Like Napoleon at Moscow, he
may have been deceived by an unseasonable string of warm days, then
punished by equally various storms. If Alexander had lingered near
Kandahar a few more weeks, his march north would have been far
easier. It's also apparent that, whether by accident or design, he veered
farther east than necessary to reach the Kabul valley with its established
settlements. At present, all we know is that the Macedonian
army was severely punished on the trek. Curtius continued:

Cut off in this area, which was so devoid of any trace of
human presence, the army faced every hardship it is possible
to bear: lack of provisions, cold, fatigue, despair. The numbing
cold of the snow, of which they had no experience, claimed
many lives; for many others it brought frostbite to the feet and
for a very large number snow-blindness. It was especially
deadly for men suffering from exhaustion. . . .

Anyone who managed to reach the huts of the barbarians
quickly recovered but the gloom was so dense that the location
of these buildings was only revealed by the smoke from them.
The inhabitants had never before seen a foreigner in their
lands, and the sudden sight of armed intruders almost frightened
them to death. . . . The king made the round of his troops
on foot, raising up some who were on the ground and using
his body to lend support to others when they had difficulty
keeping up. At one moment he was at the front, at another at
the center or rear of the column, multiplying for himself the
hardships of the march.

The identity of the primitive Parapamisidae is intriguing because
Arrian describes them as Indians, probably thinking of them as the
"mountain Indians" he described at Gaugamela. If Curtius is correct
about their utter isolation, the possibility also exists that they were
aborigines in the territory—today's Suleiman range, or White
Mountains—not yet acculturized by either the Iranians or Indians.

[marwat]

the cave of Prometheus in the Hindu Kush Mountains

The Greek author Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c.275-192 BCE) was one of the greatest scientists of his age, and became librarian in the Museum, the scientific institute of Alexandria. In one of his lost works, he discussed the stories about Alexander the Great, saying that his courtiers greatly exaggerated his achievements. As an example, he mentioned how Alexander's men identified a cave near Alexandria in the Caucasus with the cave in which the demi-god Prometheus had been kept imprisoned after he had given fire to humankind. Every day, the Greeks told, an eagle had come to devour Prometheus' liver. Eratosthenes did not believe that the Macedonians had seen this, and was angry that the historians of Alexander believed that the Macedonian king had really reached the mythological Mount Caucasus.

Arrian

Eratosthenes of Cyrene tells us that everything attributed by the Macedonians to the divine influence was grossly exaggerated in order to please Alexander. For instance, there is a cave in in the territory of the Parapamisidae; according to Eratosthenes, the Macedonians saw this cave and on the strength of some local legend (which they well may have invented) put it about that it was the cave where Prometheus was hung in chains when the eagle used to come to feed on his guts, and that Heracles came thither to kill the eagle and set Prometheus free; so that by means of this tale the Macedonians transferred Mount Caucasus from Pontus to the far east, fixing it in India in the country of the Parapamisidae, and gave the name Caucasus to what flatter Alexander by the inference that he had crossed Caucasus.
Strabo

Stories circulated for the purpose of exalting the fame (of eminent persons) are not received with equal favor by all; the object of the inventors was flattery rather than truth; they transferred, for example, the Caucasus to the mountains of India, and to the eastern sea, which approaches close to them, from the mountains situated above Colchis, and the Euxine Sea. These are the mountains to which the Greeks give the name of Caucasus, and are distant more than 30,000 stadia from India. Here they lay the scene of Prometheus and his chains, for these were the farthest places towards the east with which the people of those times were acquainted. The expeditions of Bacchus and of Hercules against the Indians indicate a mythological story of later date, for Hercules is said to have released Prometheus a thousand years after he ws first chained to the rock. It was more glorious too for Alexander to subjugate Asia as far as the mountains of India than to the recess only of the Euxine Sea and the Caucasus. The celebrity, and the name of the mountain, together with the persuasion that Jason and his companions had accomplished the most distant of all expeditions when they had arrived in the neighborhood of the Caucasus, and the tradition that Prometheus had been chained on Caucasus at the extremity of the earth, induced writers to suppose that they should gratify the king by transferring the name of the mountain to India.
Assessment

Arrian already believed that Eratosthenes had been a bit too skeptical, and modern scholarship has established that there was indeed a local myth that could well have inspired the Macedonians. In the first place, the name Mount Parapamisus is a rendering of Upari Sena, which is mentioned in the sacred book of the Persians, the Avesta, and interpreted as "peak over which the Sena can not fly" - the Sena is the same as the eagle Simurgh from Persian legend, and mentioned as the protector of the hero Rustam and his father Zal in Firdowsi's famous poem Shahname.

This was already known for some time, but it is interesting that the existence of the cave of the legendary eagle is also mentioned by a Chinese traveler named Xuan Zang (603-664). He was a Buddhist pilgrim, and in his account of his travels through Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, he tells that near Kapisa (his name for Alexander's city in the Parapamisus), he visited the cave where the bird, now named Suna, had conversed with a mountain that had attempted to be the largest in the world.

Alexander's visit to the rock of Prometheus became famous. Almost three centuries later, the Roman general Pompey the Great went sightseeing in the Caucasus and saw another rock.
Alexander and Prometheus - Livius


Mount Caucasus was name given to hindu kush mountain in afghanistan by Greek
Parapamisus is alexander city in bagram around kabul named after indiginiou people greek called Parapamisidae

[marwat]

In the foothills of the Hindu Kush, Alexander established another
city, Alexandria-in-the-Caucasus, perhaps on the site of the Persians's
Kapish Kanish near modern Bagram. One of history's great founders
of cities, he created at least twenty in his career (Plutarch credited him
with seventy) and Afghanistan received more than its share.
The
frequency of foundations increased with each stage of the march,
though many did not last long. In Afghanistan and its surrounding
regions, the preoccupation—almost a sport—among archaeologists of
identifying Alexandrias continues to this day.

[marwat]

The geographical features of Bactria are diverse and heterogeneous.
In one area plentiful trees and vines provide abundant
crops of succulent fruits. The rich soil here is irrigated by
numerous springs and the more fertile parts are sown with
wheat, which the rest the inhabitants leave as grazing land for
their animals. After that a large area of the country is engulfed
by desert sands, and this desolate and arid region supports no
human or vegetable life. . . . Where the soil is more fertile it
supports large populations of humans and horses; and thus the
Bactrian cavalry totalled 30,000

[KGODB]

Excellent book

[torkham]

Today I met this guy, and I said, "sta kum kom ta'alak laram", he replied "kakRano"!!!!!

[torkham]

Shahr kona, Shahr surkh, and that archeological site near Zheri, how do these fit in with common assertion Alexander as the founder of Kandahar? Alex lived what 2300 years ago.

[Loy Afghanistan]

Shahr kona, Shahr surkh, and that archeological site near Zheri, how do these fit in with common assertion Alexander as the founder of Kandahar? Alex lived what 2300 years ago.

Nimruz was named by Zarathustra 4000 years ago, he predicted when the sun would shined by upon half of the globe. He calculated that the sun needed to be at the province he named. I mean could you imagine what kind of calculations the pure ones ancestors had? I mean, I simply love who advanced they were. Think how a man could manage to do that almost 4000 years ago. Mashallah.

So all foreign parasites alexander, panjabis, mongols-turks, arabs, engrez, americunts have nothing on the pure noble race of Pashtun ancestors. I hope we can cleanse our region from filth and haramis that has blended in our soil and bloodline.

[Kakar-Wardak]

Not to piss on your parade, but Most Pashtuns I have seen Look Indian..you must start with yourself lol

Punjabi remember your father was a sikh or hindu, who later converted to Islam otherwise you would be reading guru grant or worshipping some monkey.

[Elite Pakhtun]

Love it...

[marwat]

It is ironic that the Greeks had marched with indestructible might
through Persia to India, but their more powerful Roman successors
were never able to do so. In broader historical terms it seems that
Alexander might have launched his pan-Hellenic crusade just in time.
Highly trained infantry and direct confrontational methods had
proven dominant in ancient times over the kings of Babylon and
Persepolis; but in following centuries the military edge was increasingly held by central Asian warriors, who began coming off the steppe in great numbers soon after Alexander's march.
They would eventually conquer not only the entire MiddleEast and India but ravage Europe. Of course, Afghanistan, as the first stop from central Asia to the accumulated wealth of sedentary civilization, was destined to take the first brunt of nearly all of these violent incursions.