The Nuristanis, formerly known as Kafiristanis, are an
ethnic group native to the
Nuristan Province of northeastern
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 bordere ...
and
Chitral District
Chitral District ( ur, ) was the largest district in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, covering an area of 14,850 km², before splitting into Upper Chitral District and Lower Chitral District in 2018. Part of the Malakand Div ...
of northwestern
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
. Their languages comprise the
Nuristani branch of
Indo-Iranian languages
The Indo-Iranian languages (also Indo-Iranic languages or Aryan languages) constitute the largest and southeasternmost extant branch of the Indo-European language family (with over 400 languages), predominantly spoken in the geographical subre ...
. The Nuristanis reside mainly in the northeast of
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 bordere ...
and northwest of
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
; between the
Pashtun
Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...
tribes of
Kunar,
Kalash in Pakistan's Chitral, and
Tajiks
Tajiks ( fa, تاجيک، تاجک, ''Tājīk, Tājek''; tg, Тоҷик) are a Persian-speaking Iranian ethnic group native to Central Asia, living primarily in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Tajiks are the largest ethnicity in Taj ...
of
Badakhshan
Badakhshan is a historical region comprising parts of modern-day north-eastern Afghanistan, eastern Tajikistan, and Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in China. Badakhshan Province is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Much of historic Ba ...
in the north.
In the mid-1890s, after the establishment of the
Durand Line
The Durand Line ( ps, د ډیورنډ کرښه; ur, ), forms the Pakistan–Afghanistan border, a international land border between Pakistan and Afghanistan in South Asia. The western end runs to the border with Iran and the eastern end to th ...
when Afghanistan reached an agreement on various frontier areas to the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
for period of time,
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 Line Ag ...
conducted a military campaign in Kafiristan and followed up his conquest with forced conversion of the Kafirs to Islam; the region thenceforth being known as ''Nuristan'', the "Land of Light". Before their conversion, the Nuristanis practiced a form of
ancient Hinduism
The historical Vedic religion (also known as Vedicism, Vedism or ancient Hinduism and subsequently Brahmanism (also spelled as Brahminism)), constituted the religious ideas and practices among some Indo-Aryan peoples of northwest Indian Subc ...
.
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 Nuristan region has been a prominent location for war scenes that have led to the death of many indigenous Nuristanis. Nuristan has also received abundance of settlers from the surrounding Afghan regions due to the borderline vacant location.
Pre-Islamic religion
![Kati Ancestor Statues - Brumotul, Bumboret Valley, Chitral (1929)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Kati_Ancestor_Statues_-_Brumotul%2C_Bumboret_Valley%2C_Chitral_%281929%29.jpg)
Noted linguist
Richard Strand
Richard F. Strand is a linguist and anthropological researcher who is best known for his research into Nuristani languages and other little-known languages of Afghanistan and neighboring areas of Pakistan.
He was trained at Cornell University. ...
, an authority on Hindu Kush languages, observed the following about pre-Islamic Nuristani religion:
"Before their conversion to Islâm the Nuristânis practiced a form of ancient Hinduism, infused with accretions developed locally".
They acknowledged a number of human-like deities who lived in the unseen Deity World (Kâmviri d'e lu; cf. Sanskrit deva lok'a-).
Certain deities were revered only in one community or tribe, but one was universally revered as the creator: the Hindu god
Yama
Yama (Devanagari: यम) or Yamarāja (यमराज), is a deity of death, dharma, the south direction, and the underworld who predominantly features in Hindu and Buddhist religion, belonging to an early stratum of Rigvedic Hindu deities. ...
Râja called imr'o in Kâmviri.
There is a creator god, appearing under various names, as lord of the nether world and of heaven:
Yama
Yama (Devanagari: यम) or Yamarāja (यमराज), is a deity of death, dharma, the south direction, and the underworld who predominantly features in Hindu and Buddhist religion, belonging to an early stratum of Rigvedic Hindu deities. ...
Rājan, or
Māra
Māra is the highest-ranking goddess in Latvian mythology, Mother Earth, a feminine counterpart to Dievs. She takes spirits after death. She may be thought as the alternate side of Dievs (like in Yin and Yang). Other Latvian goddesses, somet ...
('death', Nuristani),
or ''Dezau'' (ḍezáw) whose name is derived from Indo-European *dheig'h i.e. "to form" (Kati Nuristani dez "to create", CDIAL 14621); Dezauhe is also called by the
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
term
''Khodaii''. There are a number of other deities, semi-gods and spirits. The Kalash pantheon is thus one of the few living representatives of Indo-European religion.
They believed in many deities, whose names resembled those of
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
and old
Vedic
upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''.
The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...
sources. There was a supreme deity named Mara or
Imra
Imra ( Kamkata-vari: ''Imro'') was the chief creator deity of the Nuristani people before their conversion to Islam. Imra was believed to be the creator of the earth. With his breath, it was believed, he created the three other main deities of th ...
, plus a multitude of lesser gods and goddesses known locally as Mandi or
Moni
Moni or Mone ( Kamkata-vari: ''Mone''/''Mune''), also known as Mandi (from Prasun) was, after Imra, the second-most important god in the pre-Islamic pantheon of the Nuristani people. With his breath, Imra created Moni and Gish. Moni was believe ...
, Wushum or Shomde,
Gish
''Gish'' is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins, released in May 1991 through Caroline Records. Frontman Billy Corgan has variously described ''Gish'' as a "very spiritual album" and "an album about spir ...
or Giwish, Bagisht,
Indr, Züzum,
Disani Disani ( Kamkata-vari: ''Disaňi''), also known as Disni was a goddess of the Nuristani people before their conversion to Islam. To the people of Nuristan, she was depicted as living in the terrestrial world, appearing in the shape of a woman with ...
, Kshumai or Kime etc.
Each village and clan had its guardian deity, with
shamans
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...
advising those seeking help and priests officiating at religious services. The cult centered on the sacrifice of animals, mostly goats.
The area extending from modern Nuristan to Kashmir was known as "Peristan", a vast area containing a host of Nuristani 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 perilious according to reports of Chinese pilgrims
Fa-hsien
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, h ...
and
Sung Yun. The decline of Buddhism resulted in the region becoming heavily isolated. The Islamization of the nearby
Badakhshan
Badakhshan is a historical region comprising parts of modern-day north-eastern Afghanistan, eastern Tajikistan, and Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in China. Badakhshan Province is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Much of historic Ba ...
began in the 8th century and Peristan was completely surrounded by Muslim states in the 16th century. The
Kalash people
The Kalasha (Kalasha: کالؕاشؕا, romanised: ''Kaḷaṣa)'', or Kalash, are an Indo-Aryan indigenous people residing in the Chitral District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The Kalash population in Pakistan numbers only i ...
of lower
Chitral are the last surviving heirs of the area.
The region was called "Kafiristan" because while the surrounding populations were converted to
Islam, the people in this region retained their traditional religion, and were thus known as "Kafirs" to the Muslims. The Arabic word ''"Kufr"'' means disbelief and the related word ''"Kafir"'' means one who does not believe in Islam. Thus "Kafir" here is used to refer to their being non-Muslims; the province was therefore known as
Kafiristan
Kāfiristān, or Kāfirstān ( ps, کاپیرستان, prs, کافرستان), is a historical region that covered present-day Nuristan Province in Afghanistan and Chitral District of Pakistan. This historic region lies on, and mainly comprises ...
. The majority were converted to Islam during
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 Line Ag ...
's rule around 1895. The province is now known as Nuristan and the people as Nuristanis. However, among the rural population many old customs and beliefs like occasional production of wine have continued.
History
In the 4th century BC,
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 ...
encountered them and finally defeated them after they put up a stubborn and prolonged resistance, describing them as being distinct culturally and religiously from other peoples of the region.
Nuristanis were formerly classified into "Siah-Posh (''black-robed'') and "Safed-Posh (''white-robed'')/Lall-Posh (''Red-Robed'').
Timur
Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kü ...
fought with and was humbled by the Siah-Posh.
Babur advised not to tangle with them.
Genghis Khan passed by them.
In 1014,
Mahmud of Ghazni attacked them:
Timur's encounter with Katirs/Kators
The first reference to Siah-Posh Kafirs occurs in Timur's invasion of
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 bordere ...
in 1398 CE. Timur's autobiography (Tuzak-i-Timuri) amply attests that he had battled both with the Katirs as well as the Kam sections of the Siah-Posh (black-robed) Kafirs of the
Hindukush
The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and western Afghanistan, Quote: "The Hindu Kush mountains run along the Afghan border with the North-West Frontier Province ...
mountains.
Timur
Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kü ...
invaded
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 bordere ...
in March, 1398. On the basis of local complaints of ill-treatment and extortions filed by the
Muslims against the
Kafirs, Timur personally attacked the ''Kators'' of the Siah-Posh group located north-east 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. Acco ...
in eastern Afghanistan. The Kators left their
fort
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
''Najil'' and took refuge at the top of the hill. Timur razed the fort to ground, burnt their houses and surrounded the hill where the Kator had collected for shelter. The relic of the historic fort is said to still exist a little north to Najil in the form of a structure known as ''Timur Hissar'' (Timur's Fort). After a tough fight, some of the Kators were defeated and were instantly put to death while the others held out against heavy odds for three days. Timur offered them ''death'' or ''
Islam''. They chose the latter, but soon recanted and attacked the regiment of
Muslim soldiers during night. The latter being on guard, fought back, killed numerous Kators and took 150 as prisoners and put them to death afterwards.
Next day, Timur ordered his
troop
A troop is a military sub-subunit, originally a small formation of cavalry, subordinate to a squadron. In many armies a troop is the equivalent element to the infantry section or platoon. Exceptions are the US Cavalry and the King's Tr ...
s to advance on all four sides to ''kill all men, enslave the women and children and plunder or lay waste all their property''. In his
autobiography called ''Tuzak-i-Timuri'', Timur proudly boasts of the ''towers of the skulls of the Kators which he built on the mountain in the auspicious month of
Ramazan A.H. 800'' (1300 CE)
Timur's encounter with Kam Kafirs
Again, according to Timur's autobiography (''Tuzak-i-Timuri''), a military division of ten thousand Muslim soldiers was sent against the Siah-Posh (Kam) Kafirs under the command of General Aglan Khan to either slay these infidels or else to convert them into Islam. Tuzak-i-Timuri frankly admits that the regiment was badly routed by a small number of Siah-Posh Kafirs. The Muslim forces had to flee from the battle-field leaving their horses and armor. Another detachment had to be sent under Muhammad Azad which fought gallantly and recovered the horses and the armor lost by General Aglan and came back home, leaving the Siah-Posh alone.
It is notable that Timur does not boast of any killings or imprisonment of the Siah-Poshes as he does for the Katirs and numerous other communities of India proper. Also, he gives no further details of his conflict with the Siah-Poshes in his Tuzak-i-Timuri after this encounter, which clearly shows that the outcome of the fight against the Siah-Poshes was very costly and shameful for Timur.
Other references to these Kafirs are made in the fifteenth and later in sixteenth century during the
Mughal period
The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...
.
In 1839, the Kafirs sent a deputation to Sir William Macnaghten in Jalalabad claiming relationship with the fair skinned British troops who had invaded the country
Settlement in Chitral
At the time of the Afghan conquest of Kafiristan, a small number of Kom and Kati Kafirs fled east to
Chitral (modern Pakistan) where they were allowed to settle by the Mehtar. There they practised their faith for a few more decades, before finally converting to Islam as well. The final known non-converted Kafir was settled in a Chitrali village known as Urtsun. This Kafir's name was Chanlu, and he converted in 1938, several months after being interviewed about the cosmology of the Kati.
In Chitral, the Nuristanis are known either as Bashgalis (as most migrated from a valley of Nuristan called Bashgal in the Chitrali
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 ...
), or alternatively as Sheikhan (a generic term for recent converts to Islam). The exact population size of Nuristanis in Chitral is unknown, but members of the community estimate that they number at least 12 000.
All of them are speakers of the
Kamkata-vari language
Kamkata-vari (') is the largest Nuristani language. It contains the main dialects Kata-vari, Kamviri and Mumviri. Kata-vari and Kamviri are sometimes erroneously reckoned as two separate languages, but according to linguist Richard Strand they ...
, also known locally as
Sheikhani.
Pre-1895 Kafir society
Prior to 1895, the Kafirs of the
Hindu Kush
The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and western Afghanistan, Quote: "The Hindu Kush mountains run along the Afghan border with the North-West Frontier Province ...
were classified into two groups: the Siah-posh (black clad) and the Safed-posh (white clad) Kafirs, also known as the Lal-posh (red-clad), so-called because of the colour of the robes they wore. But the British investigator
George Scott Robertson
Sir George Scott Robertson, (22 October 1852 – 1 January 1916) was a British soldier, author, and administrator who was best known for his arduous journey to the remote and rugged region of Kafiristan in what is now northeastern Afghanistan an ...
who visited Kafiristan and studied the Kafirs for about two years (1889–1891) improved upon the old classification by recognising that the Safed-posh Kafirs were actually members of several separate clans, viz, the Waigulis, Presungulis or Viron, and the Ashkuns. The later three groups of the Kafirs used to be collectively known as Sped-Posh Kafirs.
The term Siah-posh Kafirs used to designate the dominant group of Hindu Kush Kafirs inhabiting the
Bashgal Valley The Landai Sin Valley, or the Bashgal Valley, is a geographical feature of Nuristan Province, eastern Afghanistan, formed by the Landai Sin River which empties into the Kunar River (also called the Chitral River) at Barikot, Kamdesh District in Nu ...
. The Siah-posh Kafirs have sometimes been confused with
Kalasha
A kalasha, also spelled kalash or kalasa, also called ghat or ghot ( sa, कलश , Telugu: కలశము Kannada: ಕಳಶ literally "pitcher, pot"), is a metal (brass, copper, silver or gold) pot with a large base and small mouth, large eno ...
people of the neighboring
Chitral region in
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
.
The Siah-Posh tribe was divided into Siah-posh Katirs or Kamtoz, Siah-posh
Mumans or Madugals, Siah-posh Kashtoz or Kashtan, Siah-posh Gourdesh or Istrat, and Siah-posh Kams or Kamoze. The Siah-posh Katirs were further divided into the Katirs, who occupied twelve villages of the lower Bashgul (Kam) country, the Kti or Katawar, who lived in two villages in the Kti Valley, the Kulam, and the Ramguli, the most numerous group, living in twenty four villages in the Ramgul Valley, in the westernmost part of Kafiristan on the
Afghan
Afghan may refer to:
*Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia
*Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity
** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...
frontier.
All Siah-posh groups of Kafirs were regarded as of common origin. They all had a common dress and customs and spoke closely-related dialects of
Kati. Nicholas Barrington et al. reported that the Waigulis and Presungulis referred to all Siah-posh Kafirs as Katirs.
While the Kamtoz of the lower Bashgul valley were the most numerous, the Kam of the upper Bashgul valley were the most intractable and fierce and dreaded for their military prowess.
Origin hypotheses
* Some earlier writers had speculated and propagated the myth that the Kafirs of the Hindu Kush may have descended from the army 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 ...
. The Pakistani Tourist Bureau still continues to propagate that the peoples in the mountains are descendants of soldiers from the army of Alexander but Greek descent of Kafirs has been discounted by
H. W. Bellew,
George Scott Robertson
Sir George Scott Robertson, (22 October 1852 – 1 January 1916) was a British soldier, author, and administrator who was best known for his arduous journey to the remote and rugged region of Kafiristan in what is now northeastern Afghanistan an ...
and many later scholars. However some other people do believe in their authenticity of this tale that some of the Kalash themselves claim as being descendants of Alexander's army. This list of people who propagate the Kalash's ancestry claim is true includes Sir George Scott Robertson, and
Eric S. Margolis.
* The Siah-Posh Kafirs themselves claim to have descended from certain Koresh (''Gurashi/Gorish or Goraish'') a name linked to Koresh
tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...
of
Arabs
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
but this is merely a fashionable fiction. H. W. Bellew relates name Gurish/Gorish or Koresh of the Kafirs accounts to Kurush and writes that Koresh or Kurush is the
nation
A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective Identity (social science), identity of a group of people unde ...
al designation of the Kafir tribes of Kafiristan, north of Laghman. Bellew further speculates that Koresh (or Kurush) may have been the family name of the
Cyrus
Cyrus ( Persian: کوروش) is a male given name. It is the given name of a number of Persian kings. Most notably it refers to Cyrus the Great ( BC). Cyrus is also the name of Cyrus I of Anshan ( BC), King of Persia and the grandfather of Cyrus ...
, king of
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
who was born in the
Cabul country. Keruch, according to Bellew is the name of a Rajput clan which may have been adopted into the Rajput nation though of different race and descent. Thus, Bellew seem to relate Siah-Posh Kafirs to the
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
ians.
*
George Scott Robertson
Sir George Scott Robertson, (22 October 1852 – 1 January 1916) was a British soldier, author, and administrator who was best known for his arduous journey to the remote and rugged region of Kafiristan in what is now northeastern Afghanistan an ...
also rejects Greek origin of the Kafirs. According to him, the present dominant clans of
Kafirstan viz. the Katirs (Kamtoz), the Kams (Kamoz) and the Wais are mainly descended from the ancient
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n population of eastern
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 bordere ...
who refused to embrace
Islam in tenth century, and fled for refuge from victorious Muslims to the hilly
fastnesses of
Kafirstan. There they probably found other races already settled, whom they vanquished, drove away, or enslaved, or with whom they amalgamated.
* According to Donald Wilber and other recent writers,
anthropological
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
data suggests that the Kafirs are not the tenth century migrants to Kafirstan but are a remnant of original population of the area which according to some was
Dravidian but according to the others
Indo-Aryan. They appear to be ''a mixture'' of an extremely ancient element related to oldest known population of central
Himalaya
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
s (''the Presuns''), the element with resemblance to the
Kurds and a type with
Nordic and
Dinaric traits (''the Siah-Posh/Wai groups'') which goes back to the ancient prototype of these races preserved in the midst of
Indo-Aryan ascendancy.
Soviet–Afghan War (1979-1989)
General
Issa Nuristani was second in command following the King during the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Before his assassination, General Issa called the Nuristani people in a "
Jihad" against the Soviet Army. Led by the
Koms tribe, the Nuristani were the first citizens of
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 bordere ...
to revolt against the
communist takeover in 1978. They played an important role in the conquering of some provinces, including
Kunar,
Nangarhar,
Badakhshan
Badakhshan is a historical region comprising parts of modern-day north-eastern Afghanistan, eastern Tajikistan, and Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in China. Badakhshan Province is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Much of historic Ba ...
, and
Panshir. Thereafter, Nuristan remained a scene of some of the bloodiest guerrilla fighting with the Soviet forces from 1979 through 1989. Following the withdrawal of the Soviet troops in 1989, the Mawlavy Ghulam Rabani was declared as governor of the Kunar Province. The Nuristanis inspired others to fight and contributed to the demise of the Afghan Communist regime in 1992.
Genetics
In a 2012 research on
Y-chromosomes
The Y chromosome is one of two sex chromosomes (allosomes) in therian mammals, including humans, and many other animals. The other is the X chromosome. Y is normally the sex-determining chromosome in many species, since it is the presence or abse ...
of five Nuristani samples, three were found to belong to the Haplogroup
R1a, and one each in
R2a and
J2a.
Tribes
![AfghanistanNurestan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/AfghanistanNurestan.png)
Most Nuristanis are from the Kata Family and Janaderi Branch. However, there are other Nuristani tribes as well, some of the Kata of Janaderi people live in Ozhor (now
Karimabad), Gobor, Buburat, Ayun, Broze and
Mastuj
Mastuj (Urdu: مستوج) is a city located in Upper Chitral District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
History
Mastuj history dates back to the 1700s; later, the British founded this region and created Matsuj Fort to reside here.
Demographics
Kho ...
. There is a very popular rock associated with this tribe located in Karimabad (Juwara) called ''kata bont'' (Kata is the name of the tribe; ''bont'' meaning "stone" in the
Chitrali 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 we ...
).
The Nuristani do not have a formal tribal structure as the
Pashtuns
Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically r ...
do, however they do designate themselves by the names of the local regions they are from.
[
In total, there are 35 such designations: five from the north–south valleys and 30 from the east–west valley.
Some of these tribes include:
* Askunu
* Dungulio
* Gramsana
* Jench
* ]Kalasha
A kalasha, also spelled kalash or kalasa, also called ghat or ghot ( sa, कलश , Telugu: కలశము Kannada: ಕಳಶ literally "pitcher, pot"), is a metal (brass, copper, silver or gold) pot with a large base and small mouth, large eno ...
* Kata
* Kom
Kom or KOM may refer to:
Ethnic groups
* Kom people (Afghanistan), a Nuristani tribe in Afghanistan and Pakistan
* Kom people (Cameroon), an ethnic group of northwest Cameroon
* Kom people (India) a subgroup of the Kuki in north-eastern India
* ...
* Kshto
* Mumo
The Mumo (also known as Muman, previously also called Madugal kaffirs) are a Nuristani tribe in Afghanistan living primarily in the Bashgal Valley, centered in the village of Bagalgrom.''My heartrendingly tragic story''. By Muhammad Abdullah Kh ...
* Sanu
* Tregami
* Vasi
See also
* 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 descendants ...
* Burusho people
The Burusho, or Brusho, also known as the Botraj, are an ethnolinguistic group indigenous to the Yasin, Hunza, Nagar, and other valleys of Gilgit–Baltistan in northern Pakistan, as well as in Jammu and Kashmir, India. Their language, Burus ...
* Gurjar
Gurjar or Gujjar (also transliterated as ''Gujar, Gurjara and Gujjer'') is an ethnic nomadic, agricultural and pastoral community, spread mainly in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, divided internally into various clan groups. They were tra ...
* Dogan (deity)
* Kata-vari dialect
Kata-vari is a dialect of the Kamkata-vari language spoken by the Kata in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The most used alternative names are ''Kati'', ''Kativiri'' or ''Bashgali''.
It is spoken by approximately 40,000 people (mostly in Afgha ...
References
Bibliography
* The Kafirs of the Hindukush, 1896, by George Scott Robertson, Arthur David McCormick, (Oxford in Asia Historical Reprints) - Online
online, 8 copies at Internet Archive
* Afghanistan: its people, its society, its culture (Survey of world cultures), 1962, by Donald Newton Wilber.
* Tribes of the Hindu Kush (Calcutta, 1880) by John Biddulph;
* Kafiristan (Lahore, 1881), Gottlieb William Leitner;
* Aus dem westlichen Himalaya (Leipzig, 1884), K.E. von Ujfalvy;
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* An account of the Kingdom of Caubul and its dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India, (comprising a view of the Afghaun nation, and a history of the ... Entdeckungsgeschichte und Geographie Asiens), 1969 Edition, by Mountstuart Elphinstone;
* Proceedings (1869, 1879, 1881, 1884...)... by Royal Geographical Society (Great Britain), Norton Shaw, Francis Galton, William Spottiswoode..;
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* Vishnu Purana, H. H. Wilson;
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* Publications, 1904, Published by Oriental Translation Fund (Editors T. W. Rhys Davis, S. W. Bushel, London Royal Asiatic Society);
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* Kāṭhakasaṅkalanam: Saṃskr̥tagranthebhyaḥ saṅgr̥hītāni Kāṭhakabrāhmaṇa, Kāṭhakaśrautasūtra, 1981, Surya Kanta
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* Bhārata-kaumudī; Studies in Indology in Honour of Dr. Radha Kumud Mookerji, 1945, Radhakumud Mookerji - India).
External links
Nuristani Tribal Tree – US Naval Postgraduate School
Note: this source has been evaluated as "totally unreliable" by the leading scholarly authorities on Nuristan.
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*
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* Richard Strand's Nuristân Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuristanis
Indo-European peoples
Modern Indo-European peoples
Hindu Kush
Chitral District
Ethnic groups in Afghanistan