Farkhar District is a district in Takhar Province of Afghanistan. It is located southeast of Taloqan. The Khanabad River flows inside this valley. Around 99% of the people in Farkhar speak Dari. Farkhar has about 50,000 people and 75 villages.
Etymology
The name Farkhār is generally believed to be
(and possibly also
)
βṛγʾr, the equivalent of the
Sanskrit word
vihara (a Buddhist monastery), which it renders in translations of Buddhist texts.
[ Buddhism in Islamic times Encyclopaedia Iranica.][Émile Benveniste, Études sogdiennes (Wiesbaden 1979), pp. 22–23 (cited in Anna Akasoy, Charles S. F. Burnett, Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim (eds.) Islam and Tibet: Interactions Along the Musk Routes p. 68).] Another view is that it is not etymologically connected with
vihāra but is a Persian word, originally
*paru-khuvāthra "full of happiness".
[V. F. Minorsky, V. V. Barthol'd, C. E. Bosworth (1982), Hudud al-'Alam 'The Regions of the World' - A Persian Geography 372 A.H ..., p. 263, citing Benveniste, Bull. Soc. Ling, 1928, xxi, 7–8.]
Although Buddhism was eventually replaced by Islam in northern Afghanistan around the 8th century,[ Buddhism i. In Pre-Islamic Times/ Encyclopaedia Iranica.] as late as the 11th century the scholar al-Biruni wrote of Buddhists: "their monuments, the bahārs of their idols and their farkhārs, are visible on the borders of Khorasan adjacent to India".[Quoted in Anna Akasoy, Charles S. F. Burnett, Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim (eds.) Islam and Tibet: Interactions Along the Musk Routes p. 68.]
Geography and climate
Farkhar has an area of , comparatively equivalent to the area of South Andaman Island.
The district has no major roadways. The
Farkhar River is the main river of Farkhar, with other tributaries flowing into it.
Farkhar is surrounded by Kalafgan District to the north, Kishim District to the northeast, Tagab District to the east, Warsaj District to the south, Namak Ab District to the west, and Taluqan District to the northeast. Kishim is located in Badakhshan Province, with all other districts in Takhar Province.
Climate
Fakhar has a humid continental climate (Köppen
Dsb).
Demographics
Farkhar has a population of 52,117, with a sex ratio of 26 males for every 25 females. Ethnic
Tajiks are the majority.
The median age is 15.8 and about 42% of the population is working. About 18% of the unemployed are seeking work. There are about 8,000 households in the district, with an average size of 6.5 people.
Villages
The villages of this district include and are not limited to: Shaktan, Shingan, Nahr Ab, Dasht e Robat, Abi Dara, Kurani, Pire Farkhar, Shori, Dehak, Jangle Gaza, Dasht e Konj, Chashma e Garmuk, Shahre Farkhar, Kundal, Mazre Shikh, Khanaqa, Khurmab, Ardishan, Kashan, Sare Kham, Singan, Pyani, Dahne Zure, Khafdara, Sang e Atash, Khawaki, Farhangurd, Khusdeh, Darbaho, Huti, Warook, Ghashob, Yookh, Lujdeh and Mashtan.
In Persian poetry
In Persian poetry, the phrase بت فرخار bot-e Farxār "buddha of a temple" or "idol from Farkhar" became proverbial for a beautiful person. One of the earliest poets to use it was
Manuchehri, an 11th-century poet at the court of Mas'ud I of Ghazni, who wrote:
[Manuchehri, "A description of spring, in praise of Khwaje Ali ibn Mohammad". (Ganjur).]
- هنگام بهارست و جهان چون بت فرخار
- hengām-e bahār ast o jahān čun bot-e farxār
- "It is springtime and the world is like a buddha of Farkhar"
In another example the poet Khwaju Kermani (or Khaju) (d. 1352), praising a handsome Turk, writes:[See further Domenico Ingenito (2018): "Hafez’s "Shirāzi Turk": A Geopoetical Approach" (also [6]), Iranian Studies, p. 17.]
- شیراز ترکستان شده کان بت ز فرخار آمده
- Šīrāz Torkestān šode k'ān bot ze Farxār āmade
- "Shiraz has become Afghan Turkestan since that "buddha" came from Farkhar"
See also
Further reading
-
Grötzbach, Erwin F. (1999). Farḵār. Encyclopaedia Iranica online.
External links
