As reflected in the map, Afghanistan’s citizens hail from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds. The country’s official languages are Dari (Southern Farsi) and Pashto, but there are more than 30 other languages spoken within the country. Of Afghanistan’s major ethnic groups, the largest (at 42 percent of the population) and most historically powerful is the Pashtun from the southern part of the country. Interim President Hamid Karzai is a Pashtun. The second largest ethnic group (at 27 percent of the population) is the Tajik, who made up the majority of Northern Alliance fighters participating in the defeat of the Taliban in 2001. The Shia Muslim Hazara, who came from Mongolia in the 13th century B.C.E., and the Uzbek, tie for the title of Afghanistan’s third largest ethnic group (at 9 percent of the population each). The formerly nomadic Uzbek group from the far north has, in recent history, come under the protection of the powerful warlord General Dostum. Dostum initially sided with the communists in the 1980s before switching allegiances in the early ’90s. Other groups such as the Aimak, Turkmen, and Baloch form much smaller communities throughout the mountainous country.