Afghanistan cities in the first half of the XIX. century according to western travellers

Afghanistan has geopolitical importance between Central Asia, India, and the Middle East. Therefore, it has had political, socio-cultural, religious, and economical prescriptions throughout history. Due to the geographical conditions, the cities established as settlement areas have determined the fate of the states as the power centre of the country. Moreover, the cosmopolitan nature of the cities made it possible to create a colourful city culture. Afghanistan's cities came to the forefront as the center of socio-cultural life and trade in the first half of the nineteenth century. Colonial states also gave importance to the cities and trade routes. Travelogues are one of the most important sources of information about Afghanistan. In this study, it was attempted to put the impressions of Western travellers about Afghanistan cities and city elements in the first half of the nineteenth century comparatively. In the Afghanistan studies, political history was firstly taken into consideration. In this study, we tried to convey all historical information in the light of the information obtained from the travelogues. In the first half of the nineteenth century, Afghanistan became unstable due to internal conflicts. Western states which wanted to make use of this situation sent officers to analyze Afghanistan better and to provide intelligence. These officers often tried to put out information about Afghanistan by bringing their interests into the forefront. As a method, the information provided by travellers visiting Afghanistan was classified on the basis of cities and rural settlements in their travel routes. The classified travelogues included very important information about administration, urbanization, settlement and population structure, socio-cultural life, economic structure, and financial system in Afghanistan. The introduction part of the study provided information about the presentation and method of research, geography of Afghanistan, and a brief history of Afghanistan. In the first chapter, place and importance of travelogues in the history, travellers and travelogues used were criticized in a wide frame, and resources were introduced. In the next two chapters, elements such as administrative organization, military order, urbanization, settlement and population structure, socio-cultural life, economic structure and financial system in Afghanistan cities, and rural settlements were discussed. In the third chapter, the information about cities and towns which were big and important in the old history, was established in the regions where the geography of Afghanistan was convenient, and was partly less populated was processed. In the fourth chapter, important settlements in urban routes or rural areas were discussed. In the conclusion section, a general evaluation of all classified information was made.