(People of Arya Zamin - مردم آریا زمین) Ghulam Mohammad Ghobar (غلام محمد غبار), was a politician, a prominent historian, journalist, and a poet from Afghanistan. uses the terms "Proper Khorasan" and "Improper Khorasan" in his book to distinguish between the usage of Khorasan. According to Ghulam Mohammad Ghobar, Afghanistan's current territories formed the major portion of Khorasan, as two of the four main capitals of Khorasan (Balkh, Merv, Nishapur and Herat) are now located in Afghanistan. Khorasan first established as a political entity by the Sassanids in the 3rd century AD, the borders of the region have varied considerably during its 1600-year history. Initially the Khorasan province of Sassanid empire included the cities of Nishapur, Herat, Faryab, Taloqan, Balkh, Bukhara, Badghis, Merv, Abiword, Gharjistan, Tus or Susia, Sarakhs and Gurgan. (Balkh, Herat, Nishapur and Merv), known as the Pearl of Khorasan. Khorasan in its proper sense comprised principally the province of Balkh, Herat and Taloqan (now in Afghanistan), Samarqand and Bukhara (now in Uzbekistan). Merv, Nisa and Abiword (now in southern Turkmenistan), and Mashhad, Nishapur and Sabzevar (now in northeastern Iran). Some believe that at certain times Khorasan covered a wider area, which included parts of Transoxiana, (Sogdiana- Tajikistan), Sistan, and extended to the boundaries of the Indian subcontinent. According to Ghulam Mohammad Ghobar, Afghanistan's current territories formed the major portion of Khorasan, as two of the four main capitals of Khorasan (Balkh, Merv, Nishapur and Herat) are now located in Afghanistan. Ghobar uses the terms "Proper Khorasan" and "Improper Khorasan" in his book to distinguish between the usage of Khorasan in its strict sense and its usage in a loose sense. According to him, Proper Khorasan contained regions lying between Balkh in the east, Merv in the north, Sistan in the south, Nishapur in the west and Herat, known as the Pearl of Khorasan, in the center. Improper Khorasan's boundaries extended to Kabulistan and Hazarajat in the east, Sistan and Baluchistan in the south, Transoxiana and Khwarezm in the north, and Damghan and Gorgan in the west. It is mentioned in the Memoirs of Babur that: The people of Hindustan call every country beyond their own Khorasan, in the same manner as the Arabs term all except Arabia, Ajem. On the road between Hindustan and Khorasan, there are two great marts: the one Kabul, the other Kandahar. Caravans, from Ferghana, Tūrkestan, Samarkand, Balkh, Bokhara, Hissar, and Badakhshan, all resort to Kābul; while those from Khorasan repair to Kandahar. This country lies between Hindustan and Khorasan. The kingdom of Khorasan which lasted for more than 1500 years, has nothing to do with Khorasan of Iran, and Khorasan was an independent country. According to Professor bakhtary. Dari Afghanistan`s Dari was the official religious and literary language of (Sassanian empire), Dari has contributed to the majority of Persian borrowings in other Asian languages, such as Urdu, Punjabi,Gujarati,etc.as it was the administrative, official, cultural language of the Mughal Empire and served as the lingua franca throughout the South Asian subcontinent for centuries. The Dari language has a rich and colorful tradition of proverbs that deeply reflect Afghan culture and relationships. The people of Tajikistan and Afghanistan have maintained a somewhat purer form of the Indo-Aryan language and call it Dari-e Tajiki in Tajikistan and Dari in Afghanistan. Today Dari is spoken primarily in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and parts of Uzbekistan. It was the language of the court of many of the Indian kings till the British banned its use, after occupying India in the 18 century. The Mogul kings of India had made Dari their court language. Engraved and filled with gold on walls of Delhi's Red Fort is the sentence "Agar Ferdows dar jahan ast hamin ast o hamin ast o hamin ast"; - 'If there is a paradise on earth it is here it is here it is here.' The Dari language spoken by the Zarathushties of Yazd and Kerman in Iran. In fact the Zarathushti Dari is not understood by Farsi speaking people and is a language that has no script and has not been written. Children learn it as a mother tongue and it has been preserved in this fashion for centuries. The Zarathushties of Kerman born after 1940's do not speak Dari, because their parents, who thought that by speaking Dari their children would develop a Farsi accent unique to Dari speakers and thus be recognized as Zarathushti in school and thus be harassed by the Muslims, did not teach them Dari. Fortunately the Zarathushties of Yazd have maintained a strong link with this language and every child learns and speaks this language.

• published: 23 Jan 2014
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