ABSTRACT
The Republic of Tajikistan, established in 1929 on the territory of the former Autonomous Republic of the same name, partially corre sponds to the eastern part of the old Emirate of Bukhara; the Emirate also included parts of Turkestan and Badakhshan which are today in Afghanistan (Becker 1968). It was barely 100 years ago, in 1895, that the borders were firmly established between the Emirate, which had become a Russian protectorate, and the Afghanistan of Abdur Rahman, which was under the supervision of British India. The populations of the north-east of Afghanistan and the south of Tajikistan can therefore be considered as one large group which has evolved differently on either side of the border because of different ethnic policies and socio-economic development.
