Zamindawar

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Zamindawar is a historical district of Afghanistan, situated on the right bank of the Helmand River to the NW. of Kandahar bordering the road which leads from Kandahar to Herat via Farah.

Zamindawar was a district of hills, and of wide, well populated, and fertile valleys watered by important tributaries of the Helmand. The principal town was Musa Kala, which stands on the banks of a river of the same name, about 60 m, N. of Girishk.

The whole of this region was a well-known hotbed of fanaticism, the headquarters of the Achakzais, the most aggressive of all Durani tribes. It was from Zamindawar that much of the strength of the force which besieged Kandahar under Ayub Khan in 1880 was derived; and it was the Zamindawar contingent of tribesmen who so nearly defeated Sir Donald Stewart's force at the Battle of Ahmed Khel previously. The control of Zamindawar was regarded by the British forces as the key to the position for safeguarding the route between Herat and Kandahar during the Second Anglo-Afghan War.

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.