Qalat,[2] sometimes spelled as Kalat (Dari: قلات; Pashto: قلات), and historically referred to as Qalāti Khaljī or Qalat-i Ghilzai,[3] is a city in southern Afghanistan that serves as the capital of Zabul Province.[4] It is linked by Highway 1 with Kandahar to the southwest and Ghazni to the northeast. The city had 5,462 dwellings in 2014,[5] with an estimated population of approximately 49,158 people.[1] Qalat is divided by at least 4 police districts (nahias) with land area of 4,820 hectares.[1]
Barren land is the dominant land use classification 59% of total land.[1] While built-up land use only accounts for 19% of total land use, within that classification there is a large proportion of institutional land (33%).[1] Qalat also has two distinct industrial areas in Districts 2 and 3.
The Qalat Airport is located a couple of miles to north of the city.[6] Next to the airport is the former Provincial Reconstruction Team Zabul, which was built by the United States. On 13 August 2021, the Taliban officially took control of Qalat, becoming the seventeenth provincial capital to be captured as part of the wider 2021 Taliban offensive.[7]
A political mission came through the city April 16, 1857, en route to Kandahar to broker a new treaty of friendship between the British government at Peshawar and the Amir of Kabul.[12] The party was greeted by a group sent out by the heir-apparent to welcome them and check on the party's supplies. Two companies of infantry were formed so the British could inspect the troops. Afterwards, a shura was held.
Sher Ali Khan captured the city on January 22, 1867. In the battle, he lost a son, Mahmud Ali, killed in single combat by his uncle. His uncle was subsequently killed.[13]
21st century
American soldier walking with local children during a survey of a street drainage project in 2011Bibi Khala School
In an effort to bring economic development to the area, Zabul province's first airstrip was built just outside the city in 2006.[14] It is a dirt runway. The first flight brought in supplies for Provincial Reconstruction Team Zabul and other organizations trying to rebuild the area. Three years later, a girls school was built to attempt to improve education in the area.[15] An initial school supply and prayer mat donation was made, and regular book drops and school supply donations were made until the PRT left in 2013.[16] Clean water programs around the city improved the availability of clean water sources.[17] In 2009, efforts were completed to improve the water system at the old Qalat City Hospital to bring clean drinking water to patients there.[18]
Not all the reconstruction efforts were successful, however. In 2006, construction began on a new economic district for the city. Meant to be an area of commerce and development, ten million dollars and three years later, most of the buildings are unoccupied, unusable either due to lack of the skills to maintain the buildings or due to a lack of need for the building.[19] The governor of Zabul refused to move into the new house, citing the lack of security.
Anne Smedinghoff, a 25-year-old American diplomat, was killed by a suicide car inside the city in the spring of 2013.[20][21][22]
^Ashirbadi Lal Srivastava (1966). The History of India, 1000 A.D.-1707 A.D. (Second ed.). Shiva Lal Agarwala. p. 98. OCLC575452554:"His ancestors, after having migrated from Turkistan, had lived for over 200 years in the Helmand valley and Lamghan, parts of Afghanistan called Garmasir or the hot region, and had adopted Afghan manners and customs. They were, therefore, wrongly looked upon as Afghans by the Turkish nobles in India as they had intermarried with local Afghans and adopted their customs and manners. They were looked down as non Turks by Turks."{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
^Abraham Eraly (2015). The Age of Wrath: A History of the Delhi Sultanate. Penguin Books. p. 126. ISBN978-93-5118-658-8:"The prejudice of Turks was however misplaced in this case, for Khaljis were actually ethnic Turks. But they had settled in Afghanistan long before the Turkish rule was established there, and had over the centuries adopted Afghan customs and practices, intermarried with the local people, and were therefore looked down on as non-Turks by pure-bred Turks."{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
^Radhey Shyam Chaurasia (2002). History of medieval India: from 1000 A.D. to 1707 A.D. Atlantic. p. 28. ISBN81-269-0123-3:"The Khaljis were a Turkish tribe but having been long domiciled in Afghanistan, had adopted some Afghan habits and customs. They were treated as Afghans in Delhi Court. They were regarded as barbarians. The Turkish nobles had opposed the ascent of Jalal-ud-din to the throne of Delhi."{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
^Bellew, Henry Walter (1862). Journal of a Political Mission to Afghanistan in 1857, Under Major Lumsden. Smith, Elder and Co.
^Our Punjab Frontier: Being a Concise Account of the Various Tribes by which the North West Frontier of British India is Inhabited. Calcutta, India: Wyman Bros. Publishers. 1868. p. 26.
