The Qizilbash population of Kabul (Ludwig W. Adamec, 1985)

The Qizilbash population of Kabul

34-30 69-13 m. Kabul City is the capital of Kabul province and of the State of Afghanistan. The city has grown in size from an estimated population of some 140,000 at the time of Amir Sher Ali in 1876 to about 600,000 in the 1970’s, and ― with the influx of people from the provinces in the early 1980’s ― is estimated to have a population of about a million and a half. In the early 1980’s the city has been considerably developed with the construction of multistoried apartment buildings. Because of the fact that few western scholars have visited Afghanistan since 1980, it is difficult to have a clear picture of recent urban development in Kabul. (LWA)

The population of Kabul, according to the census taken by order of Amir Sher Ali in the year 1876, was stated at about 140,000. The official who superintended the census operations, Kazi Abdul Kadir, gave the following as the result:

Duranis	3,000	Saifis	4,000
Tajiks	12,000	Hindus	4,000
Ghilzais	2,000	Armenians*	100
Parachas	3,000	Jews*	50
Kizilbashis	6,500	Kabulis	103,050
Kashmiris	3,000
Total	140,700

*It is doubtful whether there are any now (1910) left in Kabul.

The last named division of the population is a race containing probably the elements of each wave of invaders that has passed over the capital since the Indo-Scythian period. Resembling the Tajiks a good deal, and being, like them, Sunni Muhammadans, they are yet classed apart. There are some 20,000 of those Kabulis par excellence to be found outside the town and its suburbs. Away from Kabul, they call themselves Tajiks, and are apparently tolerated in the villages by the latter as inferior and mongrel kinsmen. The Tajiks take their daughters in marriage, but seldom reciprocate in that matter. On the other hand, the Kizilbashis give their daughters in marriage to the Kabulis, who, in their turn, decline to reciprocate with any Shiah tribe. The Kabulis seldom rise to any position of eminence in the State. Some of them are officers in the army, but none have risen to high military rank, and they are chiefly to be found engaged in petty merchandise and as handicraftsmen. The blacksmiths, carpenters, and shoe-makers of the capital are generally Kabulis, but there are no great merchants among them. They furnish, however, from city and district nearly 2,000 soldiers, and are, taken as a whole, a useful, hard-working section of the community. (The other tribes composing the population are treated of in their own places.)

Ludwig W. Adamec — Historical and political gazetteer of Afghanistan. Volume [06] (1985)