Kapisa is the smallest of Afghanistan’s provinces, a compact cluster of valleys and foothills north-east of Kabul covering about 1,840 square kilometres. It is also one of the most densely settled, and it carries one of the oldest place-names in the region: Kapisa was an ancient kingdom whose capital stood at Begram, near the meeting of the Panjshir and Ghorband rivers. The modern provincial capital is Mahmud-e Raqi.
Landscape and valleys
The Panjshir river runs along the province’s south-western edge, where the land is flatter and rockier. Toward the north-east the ground climbs into the foothills of the Hindu Kush, which still hold some sizeable forests. Between the two lie a series of steep, well-populated valleys — Nijrab, Tagab, Alasay, Koh Band and the two districts of Kohistan — each with its own villages, canals and fields.
Water is the province’s wealth. Almost every farming household has access to irrigated land, and in summer the valley floors are green with grain fields and orchards beneath bare mountain slopes.
An ancient name
Kapisa appears early in written history. The Sanskrit grammarian Pāṇini mentions Kapiśī, a city of the Kapisa kingdom, and the region was renowned for a wine known as kāpiśāyana. Coins of the Indo-Greek king Eucratides name the city god of Kapisa, and under the Kushans, in the first centuries CE, the kingdom flourished. Excavations at Begram revealed a hoard of luxury goods gathered from India, China and the Roman world.
The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, who passed through in the 7th century, recorded the city as a former summer capital of King Kanishka and described Kapisa as a kingdom whose ruler held sway over ten neighbouring states. The Buddhist site of Shotorak is among the ancient monuments of the area. The modern province was formed in 1964, and its seat moved from Tagab to Mahmud-e Raqi around 1978.
People and livelihoods
Kapisa’s people include Tajiks, Pashtuns and Pashai, and its valleys also shelter small, distinctive communities such as the Parachi. Dari and Pashto are the main languages, while the Pashai speak their own language at home. Tajik villages predominate in Kohistan and around Mahmud-e Raqi, and Pashtun communities in Tagab.
Agriculture employs most households. Farmers grow wheat, maize and barley, together with cotton, sesame and tobacco, alongside fruit; saffron has been introduced more recently as a cash crop. Carpets, pottery and jewellery are among the local crafts, and weekly market days, called melas, are both trading occasions and lively social gatherings for the surrounding villages.