How trade developed in Kabul after 16th century
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The arrival of Amir ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān proved to be a turning point in the Afghan capital’s history. The spatial layout changed with the selection of a new site for a new citadel/palace (arg); modes of production were reorganized, with the construction of a complex of industrial workshops; and unique architecture developed, combining Central Asian, British-Indian and European styles. The decision to build the new Arg on the left bank of the river to the north of the town placed the city’s future firmly on the left bank. The royal palace—called Kōti—was built inside a vast compound, surrounded by a mud wall and a moat, along with its harem (ḥaramsarāy), two durbar halls (salām-ḵāna-ye ʿāmm and salām-ḵāna-ye ḵāṣṣ), various buildings to house the Treasury, the princes’ offices and those of the administration, and numerous outbuildings and barracks, with a large park occupying the rest of the land (Gray, pp. 34-40; Martin, pp. 51-52). Also on the left bank, further upstream at Bāḡ-e ʿĀlamganj, the Workshops (māšin-ḵāna), the first of their kind, were to produce a vast range of manufactured goods. Equipped for the first time with steam-powered machines, an entire industry producing military equipment, textiles and domestic items was soon to become “the most remarkable spectacle of modern Kabul” (Curzon, col. c).
Amir ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān, who had a taste for architecture, also endeavored to adorn the capital and its surroundings with civilian and religious buildings, starting with a collection of palaces and royal residences: Bāḡ-e Bālā, Bāḡ-e Čarmgar, Bostān Sarāy, Gerdān Sarāy, Golestān Sarāy, Kōti Londoni, Mehmān-ḵāna, Šahrārā, etc. would remain familiar names long after some of them had disappeared (Schinasi). Close to the Arg and inspired by the Central Asian style the Amir had seen in Samarqand, Naḡāra-ḵāna, also known as Gonbad-e Kōtwāli, was a monumental covered passage (Markowski, p. 38) that served as a city gate and led to Bāzār-e Arg, an avenue that ran to the river and the town. As for Masjed-e Jāmeʿ-e ʿIdgāh, Kabul’s largest mosque, built on the outskirts of the city, it borrowed from Mughal architecture (Fayż Moḥammad, pp. 993-94).
Answer:
Kabul, Persian Kāabol, Kabul province and Afghanistan's capital town. The town is the country's biggest urban centre and its political and economic hub, forming one of several Kabul province constituencies.
Kabul was a small town until the sixteenth century when Babur (1483-1530), the first of the Great Mughals, became its capital. His successors later chose to stay there for the winter months.
Kabul became the capital of the Afghan Empire in 1776. The British occupied the town in the early 19th century but were forced to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan after creating foreign relations.