Ghandahar
Kandahar, Kandehar, Kandihar, Gandhara
قندهار
Today's Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan; Ghandahar takes its name from the root Ghand meaning sugar in Persian, similar the city of Samarghand.
Previously, the city was the provincial capital of Arachosia, a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire. The main inhabitants of Arachosia were the ancestors of today's Pashtuns. After the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, the Gojastak Alexander renamed it to Alexandria as part of a systematic assimilation of a conquered nation.
Ghandahar has always been a target for conquest because of its strategic location. It later became part of the Indian Mauryan Empire.
Ghandahar maintained its culture long after the Islamic conquest in the 7th century AD, until joining the federation of the Saffarid dynasty opposing the Caliph in Baghdad. In the 11th century, it was part of the Ghaznavi dynasty but Ghandahar also had to endure invasions of Teimur and Chengiz Khan.
In the 17th century, Ghandahar was part of the Safavid Persia and remained so despite several intrusions and regained its Iranian glory during Afshar, Zand and Qajar dynasties but after the British occupation in 1839, it was separated from the mainland and intentionally been kept backwards and oppressed.
Ghandahar also witnessed an invasion by the Red Army followed by a mutation of extremism called Taliban which paved the way an American invasion in 2001.
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