Pashtun peoples

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 referred to as Afghans () or xbc, αβγανο () until the 1970s, when the term's meaning officially evolved into that of a demonym for all residents of Afghanistan, including those outside of the Pashtun ethnicity.

The group's native language is Pashto, an Iranian language in the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. Additionally, Dari Persian serves as the second language of Pashtuns in Afghanistan while those in the Indian subcontinent speak Urdu (see Hindustani language) as their second language.

Pashtuns are the 26th-largest ethnic group in the world, and the largest segmentary lineage society; there are an estimated 350–400 Pashtun tribes and clans with a variety of origin theories. The total population of the Pashtun people worldwide is estimated to be around 49 million, although this figure is disputed due to the lack of an official census in Afghanistan since 1979. They are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and the second-largest ethnic group in Pakistan, constituting around 48 percent of the total Afghan population and around 15.4 percent of the total Pakistani population. In India, significant and historical communities of the Pashtun diaspora exist in the northern region of Rohilkhand as well as in major Indian cities such as Delhi and Mumbai. A more recent Pashtun diaspora has formed in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf (primarily in the United Arab Emirates) as part of the larger Afghan and Pakistani diaspora in that region.

Prominent Pashtun figures include Abdul Ahad Momand, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Abdul Ghani Baradar, Abdur Rahman Khan, Ahmad Shah Durrani, Alauddin Khalji, Amanullah Khan, Ashraf Ghani, Ayub Khan, Bahlul Lodi, Dilip Kumar, Hamid Karzai, Hasan Akhund, Hibatullah Akhundzada, Imran Khan, Irrfan Khan, Khushal Khan, Madhubala, Malala Yousafzai, Manzoor Pashteen, Mirwais Hotak, Mohammed Daoud Khan, Mullah Omar, Pir Roshan, Rahman Baba, Salman Khan, Sirajuddin Haqqani, Shah Rukh Khan, Shahid Afridi, Sher Shah Suri, Zabiullah Mujahid, Zalmay Khalizad, and Zakir Hussain, among many others.

Geographic distribution

Traditional homeland

The majority of Pashtuns are found in the native Pashtun homeland, located south of the Hindu Kush which is in Afghanistan and west of the Indus River in Pakistan, principally around the Sulaiman Mountains. It is believed that the Pashtuns emerged from the region around Kandahar and the Sulaiman Mountains, roughly around the ancient region of Arachosia, and expanded from there between the 13th and 16th centuries to the adjoining areas of modern day Afghanistan and Pakistan. Starting in the 1880s, various Pashtun-dominated governments of Afghanistan have pursued policies, called Pashtunization, aimed towards settling more ethnic Pashtuns in non-Pashtun regions, particularly the northern region of Afghanistan. Metropolitan centres within Pashtun dominated areas include Kandahar, Quetta, Jalalabad, Mardan, Mingora and Peshawar.

Karachi is home to the largest community of Pashtuns outside of the native homeland (with estimates of around 7 million).

India

Pashtuns in India are often commonly referred to as ''Pathans'' (the Hindustani word for Pashtun) both by themselves and other ethnic groups of the subcontinent.

Historically, Pashtuns have settled in various cities of India before and during the British Raj in colonial India. These include Bombay (now called Mumbai), Delhi, Calcutta, Rohilkhand, Jaipur and Bangalore. The settlers are descended from both Pashtuns of present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan (British India before 1947). In some regions in India, they are sometimes referred to as ''Kabuliwala''.

In India significant Pashtun diaspora communities exist. While speakers of Pashto in the country only number 21,677 as of 2011, estimates of the ethnic or ancestral Pashtun population in India range from 3,200,000 to 11,482,000 to as high as double their population in Afghanistan (approximately 30 million).

The Rohilkhand region of Uttar Pradesh is named after the Rohilla community of Pashtun ancestry. They also live in the states of Maharashtra in central India and West Bengal in eastern India that each have a population of over a million with Pashtun ancestry; both Bombay and Calcutta were primary locations of Pashtun migrants from Afghanistan during the colonial era. There are also populations over 100,000 each in the cities of Jaipur in Rajasthan and Bangalore in Karnataka. Bombay (now called Mumbai) and Calcutta both have a Pashtun population of over 1 million, whilst Jaipur and Bangalore have an estimate of around 100,000. The Pashtuns in Bangalore include the khan siblings Feroz, Sanjay and Akbar Khan, whose father settled in Bangalore from Ghazni.

Today, the Pashtuns are a collection of diversely scattered communities present across the length and breadth of India, with the largest populations principally settled in the plains of northern and central India. Following the partition of India in 1947, many of them migrated to Pakistan. The majority of Indian Pashtuns are Urdu-speaking communities, who have assimilated into the local society over the course of generations. Pashtuns have influenced and contributed to various fields in India, particularly politics, the entertainment industry and sports.

Iran

Pashtuns are also found in smaller numbers in the eastern and northern parts of Iran. Records as early as the mid-1600s report Durrani Pashtuns living in the Khorasan Province of Safavid Iran. After the short reign of the Ghilji Pashtuns in Iran, Nader Shah defeated the last independent Ghilji ruler of Kandahar, Hussain Hotak. In order to secure Durrani control in southern Afghanistan, Nader Shah deported Hussain Hotak and large numbers of the Ghilji Pashtuns to the Mazandaran Province in northern Iran. The remnants of this once sizable exiled community, although assimilated, continue to claim Pashtun descent. During the early 18th century, in the course of a very few years, the number of Durrani Pashtuns in Iranian Khorasan, greatly increased. Later the region became part of the Durrani Empire itself. The second Durrani king of Afghanistan, Timur Shah Durrani was born in Mashhad. Contemporary to Durrani rule in the east, Azad Khan Afghan, an ethnic Ghilji Pashtun, formerly second in charge of Azerbaijan during Afsharid rule, gained power in the western regions of Iran and Azerbaijan for a short period. According to a sample survey in 1988, 75 percent of all Afghan refugees in the southern part of the Iranian Khorasan Province were Durrani Pashtuns.

In other regions

Indian and Pakistani Pashtuns have utilised the British/ Commonwealth links of their respective countries, and modern communities have been established starting around the 1960s mainly in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia but also in other commonwealth countries (and the United States). Some Pashtuns have also settled in the Middle East, such as in the Arabian Peninsula. For example, about 300,000 Pashtuns migrated to the Persian Gulf countries between 1976 and 1981, representing 35% of Pakistani immigrants.

Due to the multiple wars in Afghanistan since the late 1970s, various waves of refugees (Afghan Pashtuns, but also a sizeable number of Tajiks, Hazara, Uzbek, Turkmen and Afghan Sikhs) have left the country as asylum seekers.

There are 1.3 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan and 1 million in Iran. Others have claimed asylum in the United Kingdom, United States and European Union countries through Pakistan.

Tribes

A prominent institution of the Pashtun people is the intricate system of tribes. The Pashtuns remain a predominantly tribal people, but the trend of urbanisation has begun to alter Pashtun society as cities such as Kandahar, Peshawar, Quetta and Kabul have grown rapidly due to the influx of rural Pashtuns. Despite this, many people still identify themselves with various clans.

The tribal system has several levels of organisation: the tribe they are in is from four 'greater' tribal groups: the Sarbani, the Bettani, the Gharghashti, and the Karlani, the '' tabar'' (tribe), is then divided into kinship groups called ''khels'', which in turn is divided into smaller groups (''pllarina'' or ''plarganey''), each consisting of several extended families called ''kahols''.

History and origins

Excavations of prehistoric sites suggest that early humans were living in what is now Afghanistan at least 50,000 years ago. Since the 2nd millennium BC, cities in the region now inhabited by Pashtuns have seen invasions and migrations, including by Ancient Indian peoples, Ancient Iranian peoples, the Medes, Persians, and Ancient Macedonians in antiquity, Kushans, Hephthalites, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, and others. In recent times, people of the Western world have explored the area as well.

The early precursors to modern-day Pashtuns may have been old Iranian tribes that spread throughout the eastern Iranian plateau.

According to Yu. V. Gankovsky:

Gankovsky proposes Ephthalite origin for Pashtuns but others draw a different conclusion. Ghilji tribe has been connected to the Khalaj people. According to Abdul Hai Habibi, some oriental scholars hold that the second largest Pasthun tribe, the Ghiljis, are the descendants of a mixed race of Hephthalite and Pakhtas who have been living in Afghanistan since the Vedic Aryan period. But according to Sims-Williams, archaeological documents do not support the suggestion that the Khalaj were the Hephthalites' successors. According to Georg Morgenstierne, the Durrani tribe who were known as the "Abdali" before the formation of the Durrani Empire 1747, might be connected to with the Hephthalites; Aydogdy Kurbanov endorses this view who proposes that after the collapse of the Hephthalite confederacy, Hephthalite likely assimilated into different local populations.

The ethnogenesis of the Pashtun ethnic group is unclear but historians have come across references to various ancient peoples called '' Pakthas'' (''Pactyans'') between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC, who may be their early ancestors. However, there are many conflicting theories amongst historians and the Pashtuns themselves.

Mohan Lal states:
Willem Vogelsang states:

Pashtuns are tied to the history of modern Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India: following Muslim conquests from the 7th to 11th centuries, many Pashtun warriors invaded and conquered much of the northern parts of South Asia during the periods of the Suris and Durranis.

Linguistic origin

Pashto is generally classified as an Eastern Iranian language. It shares features with the Munji language, which is the closest existing language to the extinct Bactrian, but also shares features with the Sogdian language, as well as Khwarezmian, Shughni, Sanglechi, and Khotanese Saka. It is suggested by some that Pashto may have originated in the Badakhshan region and is connected to a Saka language akin to Khotanese. In fact major linguist Georg Morgenstierne has described Pashto as a Saka dialect and many others have observed the similarities between Pashto and other Saka languages as well, suggesting that the original Pashto speakers might have been a Saka group. Furthemore Pashto and Ossetian, another Scythian-descending language, share cognates in their vocabulary which other Eastern Iranian languages lack Cheung suggests a common isogloss between Pashto and Ossetian which he explains by an undocumented Saka dialect being spoken close to reconstructed Old Pashto which was likely spoken north of the Oxus at that time. Others however have suggested a much older Iranic ancestor given the affinity to Old Avestan.

Ancient historical references: Pashtun

There is mention of the tribe called Pakthās who were one of the tribes that fought against Sudas in the Dasarajna - ''the Battle of the Ten Kings'' - of the Rigveda (RV 7.18.7) dated between c. 1500 and 1200 BCE. The Pakthās are mentioned:

Heinrich Zimmer connects them with a tribe mentioned by Herodotus (''Pactyans''), and with Pashtuns in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Herodutus in 430 BCE mentions in the Histories:

These Pactyans lived on the eastern frontier of the Achaemenid Arachosia Satrapy as early as the 1st millennium BCE, present day Afghanistan. Herodotus also mentions a tribe of known as Aparytai (Ἀπαρύται) Thomas Holdich has linked them with the Pashtun tribe: ''Afridis'' as all these tribes have been placed in the Indus valley. Herodotus states:

Joseph Marquart made the connection of the Pashtuns with names such as the Parsiētai (Παρσιῆται), Parsioi (Πάρσιοι) that were cited by Ptolemy 150 CE. The text from Ptolemy:

Strabo, the Greek geographer, in the Geographica (written between 43 BC to 23 AD) makes mention of the Pasiani (Πασιανοί), this has been identified with Pashtuns given that Pashto is an Eastern-Iranian language and Pashtuns reside in the area once termed Ariana. Strabo states:

This is considered a different rendering of Ptolemy's Parsioi (Πάρσιοι).Johnny Cheung
reflecting on Ptolemy's ''Parsioi (Πάρσιοι)'' and Strabo's ''Pasiani'' (Πασιανοί) states: "Both forms show slight phonetic substitutions, viz. of υ for ι, and the loss of r in Pasianoi is due to perseveration from the preceding Asianoi. They are therefore the most likely candidates as the (linguistic) ancestors of modern day Pashtuns."

Middle historical references: Afghan

In the Middle Ages until the advent of modern Afghanistan in the 18th century and the division of Pashtun territory by the 1893 Durand Line, Pashtuns were often referred to as ethnic '' "Afghans"''.

The earliest mention of the name ''Afghan'' (''Abgân - αβγανο'') is by Shapur I of the Sasanian Empire during the 3rd century CE. In the 4th century the word "Afghans/Afghana" (αβγανανο) as a reference to the Pashtun people is mentioned in the Bactrian documents, they mention an Afghan chief named Bredag Watanan in connection with the Hephtalites and in the context of some stolen horses. Interestingly the documents mention the Afghans far in the north of Afghanistan around modern Kunduz, Baghlan and Samangan in historical Bactria

Other reference from the same documents :

The name Afghan is later recorded in the 6th century CE in the form of ''"Avagāṇa"'' ��वगाणby the Indian astronomer Varāha Mihira in his Brihat-samhita.

Xuanzang, a Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, visiting the Afghanistan region several times between 630 and 644 CE also speaks about them. In Shahnameh 1–110 and 1–116, it is written as ''Awgaan''. According to several scholars such as V. Minorsky, the name "Afghan" is documented several times in the 982 CE Hudud-al-Alam.

Hudud ul-'alam also speaks of a king in Ninhar ( Nangarhar), who had Muslim, ''Afghan'' and Hindu wives. Writing in the 11th century AD, Al-Biruni in his ''Tarikh al Hind'', In the western frontier mountains of India there live various tribes of the Afghans, and extend up to the neighbourhood of the Sindh Valley, It was reported that between 1039 and 1040 CE Mas'ud I of the Ghaznavid Empire sent his son to subdue a group of rebel Afghans near Ghazni. An army of Arabs, Afghans, Khiljis and others was assembled by Arslan Shah Ghaznavid in 1119 CE. Another army of Afghans and Khiljis was assembled by Bahram Shah Ghaznavid in 1153 CE. Muhammad of Ghor, ruler of the Ghorids, also had Afghans in his army along with others. A famous Moroccan travelling scholar, Ibn Battuta, visiting Afghanistan following the era of the Khalji dynasty in early 1300s gives his description of the Afghans.

Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah (Ferishta), writes about Afghans and their country called ''Afghanistan'' in the 16th century.

Anthropology and oral traditions

Pashto is classified under the Eastern Iranian sub-branch of the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. Those who speak a Southern dialect of Pashto refer to themselves as Pashtuns, while those who speak Northern Dialect call themselves Pukhtuns. These native people compose the core of ethnic Pashtuns who are found in southeastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan. The Pashtuns have oral and written accounts of their family tree. Lineage is considered very important.

Theory of Pashtun descent from Israelites

Some anthropologists lend credence to the oral traditions of the Pashtun tribes themselves. For example, according to the '' Encyclopaedia of Islam'', the theory of Pashtun descent from Israelites is traced to Nimat Allah al-Harawi, who compiled a history for ''Khan-e-Jehan Lodhi'' in the reign of Mughal Emperor Jehangir in the 17th century. The 13th century Tabaqat-i Nasiri discusses the settlement of immigrant Bani Israel at the end of the 8th century CE in the Ghor region of Afghanistan, settlement attested by Jewish inscriptions in Ghor. Historian André Wink suggests that the story "may contain a clue to the remarkable theory of the Jewish origin of some of the Afghan tribes which is persistently advocated in the Persian-Afghan chronicles." These references to Bani Israel agree with the commonly held view by Pashtuns that when the twelve tribes of Israel were dispersed, the tribe of Joseph, among other Hebrew tribes, settled in the Afghanistan region. This oral tradition is widespread among the Pashtun tribes. There have been many legends over the centuries of descent from the Ten Lost Tribes after groups converted to Christianity and Islam. Hence the tribal name Yusufzai in Pashto translates to the "son of Joseph". A similar story is told by many historians, including the 14th century Ibn Battuta and 16th century Ferishta. However, the similarity of names can also be traced to the presence of Arabic through Islam.

One conflicting issue in the belief that the Pashtuns descend from the Israelites is that the Ten Lost Tribes were exiled by the ruler of Assyria, while ''Maghzan-e-Afghani'' says they were permitted by the ruler to go east to Afghanistan. This inconsistency can be explained by the fact that Persia acquired the lands of the ancient Assyrian Empire when it conquered the Empire of the Medes and Chaldean Babylonia, which had conquered Assyria decades earlier. But no ancient author mentions such a transfer of Israelites further east, or no ancient extra-Biblical texts refer to the Ten Lost Tribes at all.

Some Afghan historians have maintained that Pashtuns are linked to the ancient Israelites. Mohan Lal quoted Mountstuart Elphinstone who wrote:

This theory has been criticised by not being substantiated by historical evidence. Dr. Zaman Stanizai criticises this theory:

According to genetic studies Pashtuns have a greater R1a1a*-M198 modal halogroup than Jews:

Other theories of descent

Some Pashtun tribes claim descent from Arabs, including some claiming to be Sayyids (descendants of Muhammad).Caroe, Olaf. 1984. ''The Pathans: 500 B.C.-A.D. 1957'' (Oxford in Asia Historical Reprints)." Oxford University Press. Some groups from Peshawar and Kandahar believe to be descended from Greeks who arrived with Alexander the Great. According to Firasat et al. 2007, only a small proportion of Pashtuns may descend from Greeks, but they also suggest that Greek ancestry may also have come from Greek slaves brought by Xerxes I. Some like the Ghilji also claim Turkish descent having settled in the Hindu Kush area and began to assimilate much of the culture and language of the Pashtun tribes already present there.
One historical account connects the Pashtuns to a possible Ancient Egyptian past but this lacks supporting evidence.

Henry Walter Bellew (1864) was of the view that the Pashtuns likely have mixed Greek and Rajput roots. Following Alexander's brief occupation, the successor state of the Seleucid Empire expanded influence on the Pashtuns until 305 BCE when they gave up dominating power to the Indian Maurya Empire as part of an alliance treaty.
Vogelsang (2002) suggests that a single origin of the Pashtuns is unlikely but rather they are a tribal confederation.

Modern era

Their modern past stretches back to the Delhi Sultanate, particularly the Hotak dynasty and the Durrani Empire. The Hotaks were Ghilji tribesmen who rebelled against the Safavids and seized control over much of Persia from 1722 to 1729. This was followed by the conquests of Ahmad Shah Durrani who was a former high-ranking military commander under Nader Shah. He created the last Afghan empire that covered most of what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Indian Punjab, as well as the Kohistan and Khorasan provinces of Iran. After the decline of the Durrani dynasty in the first half of the 19th century under Shuja Shah Durrani, the Barakzai dynasty took control of the empire. Specifically, the Mohamedzai subclan held Afghanistan's monarchy from around 1826 to the end of Zahir Shah's reign in 1973. Former President Hamid Karzai is from the Popalzai tribe of Kandahar.

The Pashtuns in Afghanistan resisted British designs upon their territory and kept the Russians at bay during the so-called "Great Game". By playing the two super powers against each other, Afghanistan remained an independent sovereign state and maintained some autonomy (see the Siege of Malakand). During the reign of Abdur Rahman Khan (1880–1901), Pashtun regions were politically divided by the Durand Line, and what is today western Pakistan fell within British India as a result of the border. In the 20th century, many politically active Pashtun leaders living under British rule of undivided India supported Indian independence, including Ashfaqulla Khan, Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai, Ajmal Khattak, Bacha Khan and his son Wali Khan (both members of the Khudai Khidmatgar), and were inspired by Mohandas Gandhi's non-violent method of resistance. Some Pashtuns also worked in the Muslim League to fight for an independent Pakistan, including Yusuf Khattak and Abdur Rab Nishtar