Pur Chaman is a mountainous district

Districts of Afghanistan

The provinces of Afghanistan are divided into Wolaswalei or districts. The number of districts in Afghanistan has fluctuated over the years, with new districts created by splitting or merging parts of others. Prior to 1979, there were 325 districts. This was increased to 329 and, in 2004, a major...

 in Farah Province

Farah Province

Farah is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the southwest of the country. Its capital is Farah. Farah is a spacious and sparsely populated province that lies on the Iranian border...

, Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

. Its population is approximately 95% Tajik with a Pashtun

Pashtun people

Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...

 minority. The main village, also called Purchaman 33°8′29"N 63°51′41"E is situated at 1431 m altitude.

Religious role

Pur Chaman was the center of operations for the Naqshbandi

Naqshbandi

Naqshbandi is one of the major Sufi spiritual orders of Sufi Islam. It is considered to be a "Potent" order.The Naqshbandi order is over 1,300 years old, and is active today...

 Sufi leader (pir

Pir (Sufism)

Pir or Peer is a title for a Sufi master equally used in the nath tradition. They are also referred to as a Hazrat or Shaikh, which is Arabic for Old Man. The title is often translated into English as "saint" and could be interpreted as "Elder". In Sufism a Pir's role is to guide and instruct his...

) of the Aimaq ethnic group until the late 1970s, when the last pir, Baha'uddin Jan

Baha'uddin Jan

Baha'uddin Jan was the pir naqshbandi of the Aymāq people of Purchaman District, Farah. He, along with his two sons, was killed following the communist Saur Revolution at the end of the 1970s, by security forces from Kabul who were eliminating political and religious opposition to the new...

, was killed under the Taraki

Nur Muhammad Taraki

Nur Muhammad Taraki was an Afghan politician and statesman during the Cold War. Taraki was born near Kabul and educated at Kabul University, after which he started his political career as a journalist...

government.

Sources

• UNHCR District Profile, compiled September–October 2004, accessed 2006-06-06 (PDF).

External links

• Map of Pur Chaman (PDF)