Badakhshan District () was an administrative subdivision of the Emirate of Afghanistan, located in the northeastern part of the country, existing in its distinct form between 1890 and 1905.
History Since the Afghan conquest of the Khanate of Kunduz and the subjugation of the Mirdom of Badakhshan in 1859, these regions had been gradually integrated into Turkestan Province.Christine Noelle. State and tribe in nineteenth-century Afghanistan: the reign of Amir Dost Muhammad Khan (1826-1863). Routledge, 1997. pp. 101 In 1890, the regions of Qataghan (an alternative designation for Kunduz) and Badakhshan were separated from Turkestan and merged into a single District of Badakhshan, placed under the administration of the Northern Bureau in Kabul.Fayz Muḥammad Katib. Siraj al-tawarikh. Vol. III. Afghanistan Digital Library. http://afghanistandl.nyu.edu/books/adl0009/index.htmlThe Statesman's Year-Book 1890, p. 301–302.
In 1892, Wakhan was incorporated into the district as a dependency.The Statesman's Year-Book 1892, p. 313–314. In 1895, the trans-Oxus portions of the outlying dependencies of Shughnan, Roshan, and Darwaz were ceded to Russia in exchange for the cis-Oxus portion of Darwaz, thereby finalising the northern boundary of the district along the Ab-i-Panja. The eastern boundary was simultaneously demarcated by the Pamir Boundary Commission of 1895, drawing the frontier with the Russian and Chinese empires along the Wakhan Corridor.Ludwig W. Adamec. Historical and Political Gazetteer of Afghanistan, Vol. 1: Badakhshan Province and Northeastern Afghanistan. Graz: Akad. Druck- und Verl.-Anst., 1972, p. 26.
By 1905, the district had been resubordinated to Afghan Turkestan, though it continued to function as a distinct "great political division" within that province under its own governor. The region retained this subordinate status until the broader administrative reorganisation under King Amanullah Khan, when the Regulation on the Territorial Divisions of Afghanistan of 1300 Solar Hijri (1921/22) reconstituted the territory as the separate Qataghan-Badakhshan Province, comprising two large governorates — Qataghan and Badakhshan.Niẓāmnāmah-ʼi taqsīmāt-i mulkīyah-ʼi Afghānistān
Population The population of the district was ethnically diverse, varying considerably by region. Badakhshan proper was inhabited predominantly by Tajiks, alongside a Turkic minority. Kataghan was settled almost entirely by Uzbeks. The plains of Ghori and Baghlan had seen significant Ghilzai immigration since the reign of Sher Ali Khan, a process encouraged by the Afghan government, which sought to consolidate administrative control over these strategically located districts on the main route to Badakhshan and Turkestan. As of 1914, the Pashto-speaking population of the province was estimated at 2,300 families. Doshi was inhabited by Afghans and Hazaras, while Andarab and Khinjan were home to Tajik and Hazara communities in roughly equal numbers.
Subdivisions In 1893, the subdivisions of the district of Badakhshan were described as followed:The Military Geography of Afghanistan – Part 1 – Badakhshan
Districts Kataghan/Kunduz Andarab Khinjan Doshi Ghori Baghlan Narin Khost Farkhar Rustak Shiva Ragh Zebak Ishkasham Gharan Faisabad Shighnan Roshan Wakhan
See also Qataghan and Badakhshan Province
References