Abdur Rahman Khan in the context of "Durand Line"

The Wakhan Corridor (Dari: دالان واخان, romanized: Dālān-i Wāxān; Pashto: واخان دهلېز, romanized: Wāxān dahlez) is a narrow strip of territory in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. This corridor stretches eastward, connecting Afghanistan to Xinjiang, China. It also separates the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan in the north from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan regions in Pakistan in the south. This high mountain valley, which rises to a maximum altitude of 4,923 m (16,152 ft), serves as the source of both the Panj and Pamir rivers, which converge to form the larger Amu Darya River. For countless centuries, a vital trade route has traversed this valley, facilitating the movement of travelers to and from East, South, and Central Asia.

The corridor was formed after an 1893 out of British territory from now Pakistan after an agreement between Mortimer Durand of the British Raj and Emir Abdur Rahman Khan of Afghanistan, so that the Russian dominion, now Tajikistan would not touch British dominion, now Pakistan. This agreement also created the Durand Line which today forms the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was last conquered by the Durrani Empire in 1763. At the time it was carved out, the narrow strip acted as a buffer zone between the Russian Empire and the British Empire (specifically the regions of Russian Turkestan, now in Tajikistan, and the northern part of the British Raj, now in Pakistan). Its eastern end bordered China's Xinjiang region, then claimed by the Qing dynasty.

Afghan Turkestan is a region in northern Afghanistan, on the border with the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. In the 19th century, there was a province in Afghanistan named Turkestan with Mazar-e Sharif as provincial capital. The province incorporated the territories of the present-day provinces of Balkh, Kunduz, Jowzjan, Sar-e Pol, and Faryab. In 1890, Qataghan-Badakhshan Province was separated from Turkestan Province. It was later abolished by Abdur Rahman.

The whole territory of Afghan Turkestan, from the junction of the Kokcha river with the Amu Darya on the north-east to the province of Herat on the south-west, was some 800 kilometres (500 mi) in length, with an average width from the Russian frontier to the Hindu Kush of 183 km (114 mi). It thus comprised about 147,000 km (57,000 sq mi) or roughly two-ninths of the former Kingdom of Afghanistan.

The Nuristanis are an Indo-Iranian ethnic group native to the Nuristan Province (formerly Kafiristan) of northeastern Afghanistan and Chitral District of northwestern Pakistan. Their languages comprise the Nuristani branch of Indo-Iranian languages.

In the mid-1890s, after the establishment of the Durand Line when Afghanistan and the British Indian Empire reached an agreement regarding the Indo-Afghan border as the region of Kafiristan became part of the Great Game and for a period of time, Emir Abdur Rahman Khan conducted a military campaign to secure the eastern regions and followed up his conquest by imposition of Islam; the region thenceforth being known as Nuristan, the "Land of Light". Before their conversion, the Nuristanis practised an Indo-Iranian (Vedic- or Hindu-like) religion. Non-Muslim religious practices endure in Nuristan today to some degree as folk customs. In their native rural areas, they are often farmers, herders, and dairymen.

The Afghan Boundary Commission (or Joint Anglo-Russian Boundary Commission) was a joint effort by the United Kingdom and the Russian Empire to determine the northern border of Afghanistan. The Boundary Commission traveled and documented the northern border area during 1884, 1885, and 1886.

The commission was accompanied by Kazi Saad-ud-Din as the representative of the Amir of Afghanistan, but the Afghans did not have a real say in the matter. Tensions between Britain, Russia and Afghanistan grew in 1885, especially in the aftermath of the Panjdeh incident, in which several hundred Afghans were killed by a Russian army, witnessed by several members of the commission. From March until September, it seemed likely that this would lead to war between Russia and Britain, with the Commission at the epicentre (Britain controlled Afghanistan's foreign affairs following the Treaty of Gandamak). However, war was eventually averted.

The 1964 Constitution of Afghanistan was the supreme law of the Kingdom of Afghanistan from 1964 to 1973. It was annulled following a coup d'état, though parts of the constitution were restored by future governments from 2002 to 2004 and from 2021 to 2022. It was drafted by a committee of foreign-educated Afghans, including Sardar Abdul Hakim Ziai and Sardar Abdul Rahim Ziai, appointed for the task by the then-king of Afghanistan, Mohammad Zahir Shah. The primary goals of the Constitution were to prepare the government and the people for gradual democratization and socioeconomic modernization. It also acknowledged freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and freedom of speech. A Loya jirga (grand council of notables) had debated, modified and approved its innovations, which included a bill of rights for all Afghans, explicitly including women. After public review, the constitution was put into effect in October 1964.

Although Afghanistan became a sovereign nation in 1747 under the rule of Ahmad Shah Durrani, the earliest Afghan constitution was written during the reign of Emir Abdur Rahman Khan in the 1890s followed by a 1923 version. The 1964 Constitution transformed Afghanistan into a modern democracy.

The Islamic National Army of Afghanistan (Pashto: د افغانستان اسلامي ملي اردو Də Afġānistān Islāmi Mili Urdu, Dari: اردو ملی اسلامی افغانستان Urdu-yi Milī-yi Islāmī-yi Afğānistān), also referred to as the Islamic Emirate Army, and simply as the Afghan Army, is the land force branch of the Afghan Armed Forces. The roots of an army in Afghanistan can be traced back to the early 18th century when the Hotak dynasty was established in Kandahar followed by Ahmad Shah Durrani's rise to power. It was reorganized in 1880 during Emir Abdur Rahman Khan's reign. Afghanistan remained neutral during the First and Second World Wars. From the 1960s to the early 1990s, the Afghan Army was equipped by the Soviet Union.

After the resignation of President Mohammad Najibullah in 1992, the army effectively dissolved. In 1996 the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban regime) took power, creating their own army, which lasted until the United States invasion of Afghanistan in October–November 2001.