Kāfiristān, or Kāfirstān ( ps, کاپیرستان, prs, کافرستان), is a
historical region
Historical regions (or historical areas) are geographical regions which at some point in time had a cultural, ethnic, linguistic or political basis, regardless of latterday borders. They are used as delimitations for studying and analysing soci ...
that covered present-day
Nuristan Province
Nuristan, also spelled as Nurestan or Nooristan ( Dari: ; Kamkata-vari: ), is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. It is divided into seven districts and is Afghanistan's least populous province, ...
in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...
and
Chitral District of
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
. This historic region lies on, and mainly comprises, the basins of the rivers
Alingar,
Pech (Kamah),
Landai Sin and
Kunar, and the intervening mountain ranges. It is bounded by the main range of the
Hindu Kush on the north, Pakistan's Chitral District to the east, the
Kunar Valley in the south and the
Alishang River in the west.
Kafiristan took its name from the enduring
kafir
Kafir ( ar, كافر '; plural ', ' or '; feminine '; feminine plural ' or ') is an Arabic and Islamic term which, in the Islamic tradition, refers to a person who disbelieves in God as per Islam, or denies his authority, or reject ...
(non-Muslim)
Nuristani inhabitants who once followed a distinct form of
ancient Hinduism mixed with locally developed accretions; they were thus known to the surrounding predominantly
Sunni Muslim
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
population as
Kafir
Kafir ( ar, كافر '; plural ', ' or '; feminine '; feminine plural ' or ') is an Arabic and Islamic term which, in the Islamic tradition, refers to a person who disbelieves in God as per Islam, or denies his authority, or reject ...
s, meaning "disbelievers" or "infidels".
They are closely related to the
Kalash people, a fiercely independent people with a distinctive culture, language and religion.
The area extending from modern Nooristan to Kashmir was known as "
Peristan", a vast area containing a host of "Kafir" cultures and Indo-European languages that became Islamized over a long period of time, which eventually led them to become Muslim on the orders of
Emir
Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cer ...
Abdur Rahman Khan
Abdur Rahman Khan GCSI (Pashto/ Dari: ) (between 1840 and 1844 – 1 October 1901) was Emir of Afghanistan from 1880 to his death in 1901. He is known for uniting the country after years of internal fighting and negotiation of the Durand Lin ...
who conquered the territory in 1895–96. The region was earlier surrounded by Buddhist states that temporarily brought literacy and state rule to the mountains; the decline of Buddhism heavily isolated the region. It was surrounded by Muslim states in the 16th century.
Etymology
''Kafiristan'' or ''Kafirstan'' is normally taken to mean "land
'-stan''">-stan.html" ;"title="'-stan">'-stan''of the
kafir
Kafir ( ar, كافر '; plural ', ' or '; feminine '; feminine plural ' or ') is an Arabic and Islamic term which, in the Islamic tradition, refers to a person who disbelieves in God as per Islam, or denies his authority, or reject ...
s" in the Persian language, where the name ' is derived from the Arabic ', literally meaning a person who refuses to accept a principle of any nature and figuratively as a person refusing to accept Islam as his faith; it is commonly translated into English as a "non-believer". However, the influence from district names in Kafiristan of Katwar or Kator and the ethnic name
Kati has also been suggested.
Kafiristan was inhabited by people who followed a form of Paganism before their conversion to
Islam in 1895–1896.
History of Kafiristan
Ancient history
Ancient
Kapiśa ''
janapada'', located south-east of the
Hindukush, included and is related to Kafiristan. The
Chinese pilgrim
A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journey (often on foot) to some place of special significance to the adherent of ...
Xuanzang
Xuanzang (, ; 602–664), born Chen Hui / Chen Yi (), also known as Hiuen Tsang, was a 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making contributions to Chinese Buddhism, the travelogue of ...
who visited Kapisa in 644 AD calls it ''Kai-pi-shi(h)'' (迦畢試;
standard Chinese
Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standa ...
: ''Jiābìshì'' <
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the ''Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
ZS: *''kɨɑ-piɪt̚-ɕɨ
H''). Xuanzang describes ''Kai-pi-shi'' as a flourishing kingdom ruled by a
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
''
kshatriya'' king holding sway over ten neighbouring states, including
Lampaka
Laghman ( Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. It has a population of about 502,148, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. Laghman hosts a large number of historical landmarks, ...
,
Nagarahara,
Gandhara
Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Val ...
and
Bannu
Bannu ( ps, بنو, translit=banū ; ur, , translit=bannū̃, ) is a city located on the Kurram River in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is the capital of Bannu Division. Bannu's residents are primarily members of the Banuchi ...
. Until the 9th century AD, Kapiśi remained the second capital of the
Shahi dynasty of
Kabul
Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Ac ...
. Kapiśa was known for goats and their skin.
Xuanzang
Xuanzang (, ; 602–664), born Chen Hui / Chen Yi (), also known as Hiuen Tsang, was a 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making contributions to Chinese Buddhism, the travelogue of ...
talks of ''Shen'' breed of horses from Kapiśa (''Kai-pi-shi''). There is also a reference to Chinese
emperor Taizong being presented with an excellent breed of horses in 637 AD by an envoy from Chi-pin (Kapisa). Further evidence from Xuanzang shows that Kai-pi-shi produced a variety of cereals, many kinds of fruits, and a scented root called ''yu-kin'', probably of the grass
khus, or vetiver. The people used woollen and fur clothes; also gold, silver and copper coins. Objects of merchandise from all parts were found here.
Medieval history
The area extending from modern Nooristan to Kashmir was known as "Peristan", a vast area containing a host of "Kafir" cultures and Indo-European languages that became Islamized over a long period. Earlier, it was surrounded by
Buddhist states and societies which temporarily extended literacy and state rule to the region. The journey to the region was perilous according to reports of Chinese pilgrims
Faxian
Faxian (法顯 ; 337 CE – c. 422 CE), also referred to as Fa-Hien, Fa-hsien and Sehi, was a Chinese Buddhist monk and translator who traveled by foot from China to India to acquire Buddhist texts. Starting his arduous journey about age 60, ...
and
Song Yun. The decline of Buddhism resulted in the region becoming heavily isolated. The Islamization of the nearby
Badakhshan began in the 8th century and Peristan was surrounded by Muslim states in the 16th century. The
Kalash people of lower
Chitral are the last surviving heirs of the area.
Ghaznavids era
Early modern and later history
The first European recorded as having visited Kafiristan was the
Portuguese Jesuit missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
Bento de Góis,
SJ. By his account, he visited a city named "Capherstam" in 1602, during the course of a journey from
Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest ...
to
China.
American adventurer Colonel
Alexander Gardner claimed to have visited Kafiristan twice, in 1826 and 1828.
On the first occasion,
Dost Mohammad, the
amir
Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or ce ...
of
Kabul
Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Ac ...
, killed members of Gardner's delegation in Afghanistan and forced him to flee from Kabul to
Yarkand
Yarkant County,, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also Shache County,, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also transliterated from Uyghur as Yakan County, is a county in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomou ...
through west Kafiristan.
On his second visit, Gardner briefly sojourned in northern Kafiristan and the
Kunar Valley while returning from Yarkand.
In 1883,
William Watts McNair, a British surveyor on leave, explored the area disguised as a hakim. He reported on the journey later that year to the
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
.
George Scott Robertson,
medical officer during the
Second Anglo-Afghan War and later British political officer in the
princely state
A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, subject to ...
of
Chitral, was given permission to explore the country of the Kafirs in 1890–91. He was the last outsider to visit the area and observe these people's polytheistic culture before their conversion to
Islam. Robertson's 1896 account was entitled ''The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush''. Though some sub-groups such as the
Kom paid tribute to Chitral, the majority of Kafiristan was left on the Afghan side of the frontier in 1893, when large areas of tribal lands between Afghanistan and British India were divided into zones of control by the
Durand Line.
The territory between Afghanistan and
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
was
demarcated between 1894 and 1896. Part of the frontier lying between Nawa Kotal in the outskirts of
Mohmand country and
Bashgal Valley on the outskirts of Kafiristan was demarcated by 1895 in an agreement reached on 9 April 1895.
Emir
Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cer ...
Abdur Rahman Khan
Abdur Rahman Khan GCSI (Pashto/ Dari: ) (between 1840 and 1844 – 1 October 1901) was Emir of Afghanistan from 1880 to his death in 1901. He is known for uniting the country after years of internal fighting and negotiation of the Durand Lin ...
wanted to force every community and tribal confederation to accept his single interpretation of Islam due to it being the only uniting factor. After the subjugation of
Hazaras, Kafiristan was the last remaining autonomous part.
Abdur Rahman Khan's forces invaded Kafiristan in the winter of 1895–96 and captured it in 40 days according to his autobiography. Columns invaded it from the west through Panjshir to Kullum, the strongest fort of the region. The columns from the north came through
Badakhshan and from the east through
Asmar. A small column also came from south-west through
Laghman. The Kafirs were resettled in Laghman while the region was settled by veteran soldiers and other Afghans.
The Kafirs were converted and some also converted to avoid the ''
jizya
Jizya ( ar, جِزْيَة / ) is a per capita yearly taxation historically levied in the form of financial charge on dhimmis, that is, permanent non-Muslim subjects of a state governed by Islamic law. The jizya tax has been understood in Isla ...
''.
[
A few years after Robertson's visit, in 1895–96, Abdur Rahman Khan invaded and converted the Kafirs to Islam as a symbolic climax to his campaigns to bring the country under a centralised Afghan government. He had similarly subjugated the Hazara people in 1892–93. In 1896 Abdur Rahman Khan, who had thus conquered the region for Islam, renamed the people the Nuristani ("Enlightened Ones" in Persian) and the land as Nuristan ("Land of the Enlightened").
Kafiristan was full of steep and wooded valleys. It was famous for its precise wood carving, especially of cedar-wood pillars, carved doors, furniture (including " horn chairs") and statuary. Some of these pillars survive, as they were reused in mosques, but temples, shrines, and centers of local cults, with their wooden effigies and multitudes of ancestor figures were torched and burnt to the ground. Only a small fraction brought back to Kabul as spoils of this Islamic victory over infidels. These consisted of various wooden effigies of ancestral heroes and pre-Islamic commemorative chairs. Of the more than thirty wooden figures brought to Kabul in 1896 or shortly thereafter, fourteen went to the Kabul Museum and four to the Musée Guimet and the Musée de l'Homme located in ]Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
.
Those in the Kabul Museum were badly damaged under the Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pas ...
but have since been restored.
A few hundred Kati Kafirs, known as the "Red Kafirs" of the Bashgal Valley, fled across the border into Chitral but, uprooted from their homeland, they converted by the 1930s. They settled near the frontier in the valleys of Rumbur, Bumburet and Urtsun, which were then inhabited by the Kalash tribe or the Black Kafirs. Only this group in the five valleys of Birir
Birir ( Kalash Language: Biriu ur, وادی بریر) is one of the three Kalash Valleys in Chitral District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is ...
, Bumburet, Rumbur, Jineret and Urtsun escaped conversion, because they were located east of the Durand Line in the princely state
A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, subject to ...
of Chitral. However, by the 1940s the southern valleys of Urtsun and Jingeret had been converted. After a decline in population caused by forced conversion in the 1970s, this region of Kafiristan in Pakistan, known as Kalasha Desh, has recently shown an increase in its population.
In early 1991, the Republic of Afghanistan government recognized the ''de facto'' autonomy of Nuristan and created a new province of that name from districts of Kunar Province and Laghman Province
Laghman ( Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. It has a population of about 502,148, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. Laghman hosts a large number of historical landmarks, ...
.
Appearances in culture
* Kafiristan is the setting of most of Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much o ...
's famous 1888 novella " The Man Who Would Be King". It was adapted into the 1975 film of the same name.
* English travel writer
The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs.
One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern pe ...
Eric Newby's 1958 '' A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush'' describes the adventures of himself and Hugh Carless
Hugh Michael Carless CMG (22 April 1925 – 20 December 2011) was a British diplomat, philanthropist and explorer who served in Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service from 1950 to 1985. He is best known for the exploration of Nuristan and the Panjshi ...
in Nuristan and their attempt at the then-unprecedented feat of scaling the Mir Samir
Mir Samir, also called Mir Simir, is a mountain in the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan. The first unsuccessful attempt to climb it was in 1959 despite a local tradition that it was unclimbable. The English traveller Eric Newby and the diplomat Hugh Ca ...
mountain.
* German author Herbert Kranz
Herbert Karl Ludwig Kranz, pseudonym Peter Pflug (born 4 October 1891 in Nordhausen; died 30 August 1973 in Braunschweig) was a German writer.
Biography
After graduating from the Städtisches Reform-Realgymnasium in Berlin-Wilmersdorf in 1910, ...
chose Kafiristan as the setting of his 1953 adventure novel ''In den Klauen des Ungenannten: Abenteuer in den Schluchten des Hindukusch''.
*'' The Journey to Kafiristan'' is a German film by Donatello Dubini
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), better known as Donatello ( ), was a Florentine sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Florence, he studied classical sculpture and used this to develop a complete Renaissance ...
and Fosco Dubini recounting an overland journey by Annemarie Schwarzenbach
Annemarie Minna Renée Schwarzenbach (23 May 1908 – 15 November 1942) was a Switzerland, Swiss writer, journalist and photographer. Her bisexual mother brought her up in a masculine style, and her androgynous image suited the Bohemianism, bohe ...
and Ella Maillart
Ella Maillart (or Ella K. Maillart; 20 February 1903, Geneva – 27 March 1997, Chandolin) was a Swiss adventurer, travel writer and photographer, as well as a sportswoman.
Early life
Ella Maillart was the second child, born to a wealthy fur ...
from Geneva to Kabul.
* Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel '' The Name of th ...
mentions Kafiristan (as "Kefiristan") in " How to Travel with a Salmon", where a bellboy spoke a dialect that was last heard in Kafiristan at the time of Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
.
*Nile
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...
, an American death metal band, wrote the song "Kafir" for their album '' Those Whom the Gods Detest'' which was inspired by Kafirstan.
*Kafiristan is the setting of the Madeleine Brent novel ''Stormswift''
*Was cited in Season 5 Episode 4 of the hit show Hot in Cleveland as the destination where Victoria's husband, Emmett, is hiding away.
See also
* Nuristan Province
Nuristan, also spelled as Nurestan or Nooristan ( Dari: ; Kamkata-vari: ), is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. It is divided into seven districts and is Afghanistan's least populous province, ...
* Chiliss Chiliss were an ancient people from the Indus Valley in the Hindu Kush, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Chiliss were, according to their tradition, originally from Boneyr.
References
Hindu Kush
Social groups of Pakistan
Ancient history of Af ...
, an ancient people
* Kalash people
* Chitral Kalasha language
* Kho people
The Kho (, khw, ) or Chitrali people, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group native to the Chitral and Ghizer Districts of Gilgit-Baltistan. They speak an Indo-Aryan language called Khowar.
History
The Kho people are likely descendan ...
* Khowar language
Khowar () or Chitrali, is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken in Chitral and surrounding areas in Pakistan.
Khowar is the lingua franca of Chitral, and it is also spoken in the Gupis-Yasin and Ghizer districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, as ...
* Nuristanis
* Nuristani languages
* Pashayi people
Pashayi or Pashai ( Pashayi: پشهای) are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group living primarily in eastern Afghanistan. They are mainly concentrated in the northern parts of Laghman and Nangarhar, also parts of Kunar, Kapisa, Parwan, Nur ...
* Pashayi languages
* Shina people
* Shina language
Shina ( ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Shina people. In Pakistan, Shina is the major language in Gilgit-Baltistan spoken by an estimated 1,146,000 people living mainly in Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan.{{Cite book , last1=Saxena , ...
References
* Greg, Mortenson. ''Stones into Schools''. Penguin Books, 2009; p. 259
External links
*
Map of Kafiristan
1881. Contributors Royal Geographical Society (Great Britain)
{{Nuristan Province
Historical regions
Kalasha Valleys
History of Nuristan Province
Geography of South Asia
Hindu Kush
History of Pakistan
Historical regions of Afghanistan
Historical regions of Pakistan
Former provinces of Afghanistan
Buddhism in Afghanistan
Landforms of Nuristan Province
sv:Nuristan