Gardēz is an ancient settlement, located between the Indian subcontinent and the Iranian plateau. Unfortunately, its history is only very poorly documented.
Archaeological discoveries, including Indo-Greek, Sassanid, Hephthalite, and Turki-Shāhī coins, as well as several Hindu statues from the 7th century give a small insight into the rich history of Gardēz.
According to the medieval Tārīkh-e Sīstān, the city was founded by the Kharijite warlord Hamza bin Abdullāh Shārī, although scholars agree that this is probably only a reference to the Islamic conquest of the city. In any case, Gardēz became a center of Kharijite belief for more than a century under the local dynasty of the Aflahids in the distant eastern parts of the Abbasid caliphate.. In 870, the city was conquered by the Saffarid ruler Yaqub bin Layt. In 975, the Ghaznavids took over the city, while the converted Aflahids entered the Ghaznavid nobility. In 1162, the city fell to the Sultāns of Ghōr.
Renowned for its multi-storied houses - as mentioned by the Central Asian conqueror Babur- the city was part of the Mughal Empire in the 16th century. However, nothing is known of the town during the subsequent centuries and no building remains.
During the Anglo-Afghan wars, Gardēz was handed over to the newly created country Afghanistan and was part of the "buffer-state" between British India and Tsarist Russia.
Today, Gardēz is the administrative center of a district of the Paktiā province, which covers 650 km² and had a total population of 44,000 inhabitants in 1979, but was almost totally depopulated during the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
In 1960 the German government had their biggest rural development project with a budget of 2.5 million Deutsch Marks for the development of Paktiā ("Paktiā Development Authority", see above). The project was unsuccessful as the communist regime came to power in the 1979. The commuists lost control of most of Paktiā during the 80s as the country plunged in to war with only Gardēz remaining in government control.
Today Paktiā remains one of the most stable provinces in the southeast compared to Khost and Paktikā.
The city of Gardēz is also a major fuel wood market for Kabul. Many of its natural forests are being cut down to provide fuel wood especially during winter. Gardēz is also the regional center for the southeastern Afghanistan that includes Paktikā, Khost and Ghaznī provinces.
Gardēz is a region embedded in tribal traditions and customary law.
During the 1970s, Gardēz experienced an economic boom as a result of the German-funded "Paktiā Development Authority", established in 1965, and of the asphalting of the road to Kabul. Social services included three schools for boys, one school for girls, a hospital, one teacher training institute, the Madrasaye Roshānī, two hotels, forty mosques and two Hindu temples. Most of these buildings were destroyed during the civil war in the 1980s.
After the fall of the Taliban, the first PRT (provincial reconstruction team) in Afghanistan was established in Paktiā near Gardēz, headed by the US army. |
