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Stan?
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Can anyone tell me what the stan in countries such as Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and so on? Thanks.
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'Stan' means 'land'. So, Afghanistan = Land of the Afghans, Baluchistan = Land of the Baluchis and so on. 'Pakistan' is an exception, though the 'stan' part still means 'land'. This name was created by Choudhary Rehmat Ali, a Muslim intellectual, as long ago as 1933. He used the initial letters of the regions that finally went to make up the country at its foundation in the late 1940s. It could, in theory, have been called 'Kapistan', 'Apkistan' etc. As luck would have it, however, Pakistan meant 'Land of the Pure', so that is the combination that he chose.
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