Ghowr Province
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Ghowr province (sometimes spelled Ghor) is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the west of the country. Its capital is Chaghcharan.
Ghowr which was a part of Persia for many centuries was one of the regions which participated in the Persian Cultural Revival after the Arab invasion of Persia. The name Ghowr is a dialectal version of the Middle-Persian word gar meaning mountain.
Ghowr was also the centre of the Ghurid dinasty in the 12th and 13th century. The remains of their capital Firuzkuh, including UNESCO World Heritage site the Minaret of Jam, are located in the province.
On June 17, 2004, hundreds of troops of Abdul Salaam Khan, whom had rejected the Afghan government's plan to disarm regional militias, attacked Chaghcharan and took over the city in an afternoon-long siege. Eighteen people were killed or wounded in the fighting and province governor Mohammed Ibrahim fled. Three days later the Afghan government announced that it would not retake Chaghcharan. However, Khan and Ibrahim began negotiations soon after, but reached no agreements. Khan's troops left Chaghcharan on June 23, a day ahead of the arrival of a Afghan National Army battalion, led by Lieutenant-General Aminullah Paktiyanai, arrived with the support of about twenty U.S. soldiers.
19th century American adventurer Josiah Harlan claimed the title Prince of Ghor for himself and his descendants in perpetuity, in exchange for military aid during local factional fighting.
Template:Footer Provinces of Afghanistan
et:Ghowri provints fa:استان غور ja:ゴール州 no:Ghowr (provins) pt:Ghor sv:Ghor