Daykundi lies deep in Afghanistan’s central highlands, in the mountainous region known as the Hazarajat. It became a province in its own right on 28 March 2004, when the northern districts of Uruzgan were separated to form it, and its capital is the highland town of Nili. Around nine-tenths of the land is mountainous, and life follows the narrow strips of irrigated land that line its valleys.
Mountains and the Helmand
The Helmand River, together with its tributary the Khud, splits the province’s steep landscape. The Hazarajat as a whole is bounded on the south by the headwaters of the Helmand, and several of Afghanistan’s great rivers — the Helmand, Harirud and Kabul among them — flow out of these central mountains.
Rain is scarce and uncertain, so farmers rely heavily on irrigated land. Droughts, and in some years floods, avalanches and landslides, are recurring hazards that can damage fields and pastures. Its eight districts are Nili, Shahristan, Ishtarlay, Khedir, Kiti, Miramor, Sang-e Takht and Kajran.
A Hazara name and people
The name Daykundi comes from one of the old Hazara tribes. British boundary-commission officers in the 1880s recorded an oral tradition that the Hazaras were once divided into eight tribes, among them the Day Zangi and the Day Kundi, and placed the Day Kundi region on the western side of the Hazarajat. Over time such tribal names became names of places.
Today the great majority of Daykundi’s people are Hazaras, with smaller Sayyid, Pashtun and Baloch communities. They speak Dari, largely in its Hazaragi form, one of the eastern varieties of Persian. Settlements are mostly small hamlets, and the basic unit of community life across the Hazarajat is the manteqa, a local area made up of several neighbouring descent groups.
Almonds and the farming year
Daykundi is best known for its almonds, which are sold across Afghanistan and valued for their quality and taste; Shahristan, Nili and Miramor are the main growing districts. For many families, the almond harvest is the chief source of income.
Wheat is the staple crop of the Hazarajat. In the higher, colder valleys spring wheat is sown in April and harvested before winter, while autumn-sown wheat is more common further south. Farmers also grow maize, barley, fruit and nuts and keep sheep, goats and cattle. Fresh milk and dairy are eaten mainly in spring, between April and June; little is preserved, and dried qurut, a hard, salted curd, is almost the only dairy product sold in local markets.