Afghan (ethnonym) explained

The ethnonym Afghan (Dari Persian/Pashto: Persian: افغان) has been used historically to refer to the Pashtuns.^[1] Since the second half of the twentieth century, the term "Afghan" evolved into a demonym for all residents of Afghanistan, including those outside of the Pashtun ethnicity.^[2]

Mentions

The earliest mention of the name Afghan (Abgân) is by Shapur I of the Sassanid Empire during the 3rd century CE.^[3] In the 4th century, the word "Afghans/Afghana" (αβγανανο) was used in reference to a particular people as mentioned in the Bactrian documents.^{[4] [5]}

The name of the Aśvakan or Assakan has been preserved in that of the modern Pashtun, with the name Afghan being derived from Asvakan.^{[6] [7] [8] [9] [10]}

The term "Afghan" is later recorded in the 6th century CE in the form of "Avagāṇa" [अवगाण]^[11] by the Indian astronomer Varāha Mihira in his Brihat-samhita.^{[12] [13]}

The word Afghan also appeared in the 982 Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam, where a reference is made to the village of Saul, which was estimated to be located near Gardez, in the Paktia province of Afghanistan.

Hudud al-'Alam also speaks of a king in Ninhar (Nangarhar), who had Muslim, Afghan and Hindu wives.^[14]

In the 11th century, Afghans are mentioned in al-Biruni's Tarikh-ul Hind ("History of the Indus"), which describes groups of rebellious Afghans in the tribal lands west of the Indus River in what is now known as Pakistan.^[15]

Al-Utbi, the Ghaznavid chronicler. In

n his Tarikh-i Yamini records that many Afghans and Khiljis (possibly the modern Ghilji) living between Laghman and Peshawar enlisted in the army of Sabuktigin after Jayapala was defeated.Al-Utbi further states that Afghans and Ghiljis made up a part of Mahmud Ghaznavi's army and were sent on his expedition to Tokharistan, while on another occasion Mahmud Ghaznavi attacked and punished a group of opposing Afghans, as also corroborated by Abulfazl Beyhaqi.^[16] It is recorded that Afghans were also enrolled in the Ghurid Kingdom (1148–1215).^[17] By the beginning of the Khilji dynasty in 1290, Afghans have been well known in northern India.

Ibn Battuta, a famous Moroccan traveler, visiting Afghanistan following the era of the Khilji dynasty in 1333 writes.A 16th-century Muslim historian writing about the history of Muslim rule in the subcontinent states:

The coined term of Afghanistan came into place in 1855, officially recognized by the British during the reign of Dost Mohammad Khan.^[18]

Etymology

Some scholars suggest that the word "Afghan" is derived from the words awajan/apajan in Avestan and ava-Han/apa-Han in Sanskrit, which means "killing, striking, throwing and resisting, or defending." Under the Sasanians, and possibly the Parthian Empire, the word was used to refer to men of a certain Persian sect.

Another view is that the name Afghan evidently derives from the word Aśvakan which means "horsemen", "horse breeders", or "cavalrymen" (from aśva or aspa, the Sanskrit and Avestan words for "horse"), or the Assakenoi of Arrian, which was the name used for ancient inhabitants of the Hindu Kush.^{[19] [20]} This view was propounded by scholars like Christian Lassen,^[7] J. W. McCrindle,^[21] M. V. de Saint Martin,^[8] and É. Reclus,^{[9] [22] [23] [10] [24] [25]}

The Indian epic Mahabharata speaks about Kambojas among the finest horsemen,^[26] and ancient Pali texts describe their lands as the land of horses.^{[27] [28] [29]} Kambojas spoke Avestan language and followed Zoroastrianism.^{[30] [31]} Some scholars believe Zoroastrianism originated in the land of Kambojas.^[32]

Afghanistan

See main article: Name of Afghanistan. The last part of the name -stān is a Persian suffix for "place of". The Pashto translation of is prominent in many languages of Asia. The name Afghanistan is mentioned in writing by the 16th century Mughal ruler Babur and his descendants, referring to the territory between Khorasan, Kabulistan, and the Indus River, which was inhabited by tribes of Afghans.

The name "Afghanistan" is also mentioned in the writings of the 16th-century historian Ferishta:

Regarding the modern state of Afghanistan, the Encyclopædia of Islam explains:^[33]

Historical and obsolete suggestions

There are a number of other hypotheses suggested for the name historically, all of them obsolete.

• The "Maḫzan-e Afġān" by Nimat Allah al-Harawi, written in 1612 at the Mughal court, traces the name Afghan to an eponymous ancestor, an Afghana, identified as a grandson of Saul. Afghana was supposedly a son of Irmia (Jeremia), who was in turn a son of Saul (Talut). Afghana was orphaned at a young age, and brought up by David. When Solomon became king, Afghana was promoted as the commander-in-chief of the army. Neither Afghana nor Jeremia son of Saul figure in the Hebrew Bible. Some four centuries after Afghana, in the 6th century BCE, Bakhtunnasar, or Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babil, attacked the Kingdom of Judah and exiled the descendants of Afghana, some of whom went to the mountains of Ghor in present-day Afghanistan and some to the neighborhood of Mecca in Arabia. Until the time of Muhammad, the deported Children of Israel of the east continually increased in number in the countries around Ghor which included Kabul, Kandahar and Ghazni and made wars with the infidels around them. Khalid bin Walid is said to belong to the tribe of descendants of Afghana in the neighborhood of Mecca, although actually he was from the tribe of Quraysh. After conversion to Islam, Khalid invited his kinsmen, the Children of Israel of Ghor, to Islam. A deputation led by Qais proceeded to Medina to meet Muhammad and embraced Islam. Muhammad lavished blessings on them, and gave the name Abdur Rashid to Qais, who returned to Ghor successfully to propagate Islam. Qais had three sons, Sarban, Bettan and Ghourghusht, who are progenitors of the various Pashtun tribes.^[34]
• Samuel G. Benjamin (1887) derived the name Afghan from a term for 'wailing', which the Persians are said to have contemptuously used for their plaintive eastern neighbors.^[35]
• H. W. Bellew, in his 1891 An Inquiry into the Ethnography of Afghanistan, believes that the name Afghan comes from Alban which derives from the Latin term albus, meaning "white", or "mountain", as mountains are often white-capped with snow (cf. Alps); used by Armenians as Alvan or Alwan, which refers to mountaineers, and in the case of transliterated Armenian characters, would be pronounced as Aghvan or Aghwan. To the Persians, this would further be altered to Aoghan, Avghan, and Afghan as a reference to the eastern highlanders or "mountaineers".
• Michanovsky suggests the name Afghan derives from Sanskrit Avagana, which in turn derives from the ancient Sumerian word for Badakhshan - Ab-bar-Gan, or "high country".^{[36] [37]}
• Scholars such as Yu Gankovsky have attempted to link "Afghan" to an Uzbek word "Avagan" said to mean "original".^[38]

See also

• List of country name etymologies
• Name of Afghanistan

Further reading

• Biases and Controversies around the word "Afghan" – Nasimfekrat.com

Notes and References

1. Book: Huang, Guiyou . The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Asian American Literature [3 volumes] ]. 2008-12-30 . ABC-CLIO . 978-1-56720-736-1 . en . In Afghanistan, up until the 1970s, the common reference to Afghan meant Pashtun. Other groups were known as Farsiwan, meaning Persian-speakers. Tajiks (northeast region), Uzbeks (northern region), Turkmen (northern region), Kazak (northern region). or Hazara (central region). The term Afghan as an inclusive term for all ethnic groups was an effort begun by the "modernizing" King Amanullah (1909-1921), who went as far as printing the four different languages on the four corners of his money. Later this was continued by King Mohammad Zahir, who tried to unify the country under the banner of Afghan..
2. Book: Tyler, John A. . Afghanistan Graveyard of Empires: Why the Most Powerful Armies of Their Time Found Only Defeat or Shame in This Land Of Endless Wars . 2021-10-10 . Aries Consolidated LLC . 978-1-387-68356-7 . en . The largest ethnic group in Afghanistan is that of Pashtuns, who were historically known as the Afghans. The term Afghan is now intended to indicate people of other ethnic groups as well..
3. Book: Noelle-Karimi . Christine . Afghanistan -a country without a state? . Conrad J. Schetter . Reinhard Schlagintweit . IKO . 2002 . 3-88939-628-3 . University of Michigan, United States . 18 . The earliest mention of the name 'Afghan' (Abgan) is to be found in a Sasanid inscription from the 3rd century, and it appears in India in the form of 'Avagana'... . 2010-09-24.
4. Book: Balogh . Dániel . Hunnic Peoples in Central and South Asia: Sources for their Origin and History . 12 March 2020 . Barkhuis . 978-94-93194-01-4 . 144 . en . [To Ormuzd Bunukan, ... greetings and homage from ...), Pithe (sot ] ang (?) of Parpaz (under) [the glorious) yabghu of [ Heph ] thal, the chief ... of the Afghans.
5. Book: Sims-Williams . Nicholas . Bactrian documents from northern Afghanistan . 2000 . The Nour Foundation in association with Azimuth Editions and Oxford University Press . 1-874780-92-7 . Oxford.
6. "The name Afghan has evidently been derived from Asvakan, the Assakenoi of Arrian... " (Megasthenes and Arrian, p 180. See also: Alexander's Invasion of India, p 38; J.W. McCrindle).
7. Indische Alterthumskunde, Vol I, fn 6; also Vol II, p 129, et al.
8. Etude Sur la Geog Grecque & c, pp 39-47, M. V. de Saint Martin.
9. The Earth and Its Inhabitants, 1891, p 83, Élisée Reclus - Geography.
10. "Afghans are Assakani of the Greeks; this word being the Sanskrit Ashvaka meaning 'horsemen' " (Ref: Sva, 1915, p 113, Christopher Molesworth Birdwood).
11. Web site: Sanskritdictionary.com: Definition of avagāṇa . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20200507190602/http://sanskritdictionary.com/avag%C4%81%E1%B9%87a/20082/1 . 7 May 2020 . 2020-11-18 . sanskritdictionary.com.
12. Web site: 15 December 1983 . Afghan . 27 September 2010 . Ch. M. Kieffer . Encyclopædia Iranica Online Edition.
13. Book: Varāhamihira . Bṛhat Saṁhitā of Varāhamihira: with english translation, exhaustive notes and literary comments . Bhat . M. Ramakrishna . 1981 . Motilal Banarsidass . 978-81-208-0098-4 . 143 . en.
14. Book: Minorsky . V. V. . Hudud al-'Alam 'The Regions of the World' - A Persian Geography 372 A.H. (982 AD) . Bosworth . C. E. . 2015-01-31 . Gibb Memorial Trust . 978-1-909724-75-4 . 91 . en.
15. A Glossary Of The Tribes And Castes Of The Punjab And North-West Frontier Province Vol. 3 By H.A. Rose, Denzil Ibbetson Sir Published by Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 1997, Page 211,,
16. R. Khanam, Encyclopaedic ethnography of Middle-East and Central Asia: P-Z, Volume 3 - Page 18
17. Book: Houtsma . M. Th. . E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1936 . BRILL . 1993 . 90-04-09796-1 . 150–51 . 2010-08-23.
18. Book: Lee, Jonathan . Afghanistan: A History from 1260 to the Present . Reaktion Books . 2019 . 9781789140101 . 317 . English.
19. • "The name Afghan has evidently been derived from Asvakan, the Assakenoi of Arrian... " (Megasthenes and Arrian, p 180. See also: Alexander's Invasion of India, p 38; J.W. McCrindle).
    • "Even the name Afghan is Aryan being derived from Asvakayana, an important clan of the Asvakas or horsemen who must have derived this title from their handling of celebrated breeds of horses" (See: Imprints of Indian Thought and Culture Abroad, p 124, Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan).
    • cf: "Their name (Afghan) means "cavalier" being derived from the Sanskrit, Asva, or Asvaka, a horse, and shows that their country must have been noted in ancient times, as it is at the present day, for its superior breed of horses. Asvaka was an important tribe settled north to Kabul river, which offered a gallant resistance but ineffectual resistance to the arms of Alexander "(Ref: Scottish Geographical Magazine, 1999, p 275, Royal Scottish Geographical Society).
    • "Afghans are Assakani of the Greeks; this word being the Sanskrit Ashvaka meaning 'horsemen'" (Ref: Sva, 1915, p 113, Christopher Molesworth Birdwood).
    • Cf: "The name represents Sanskrit Asvaka in the sense of a cavalier, and this reappears scarcely modified in the Assakani or Assakeni of the historians of the expedition of Alexander" (Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological..by Henry Yule, AD Burnell).
20. Book: Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra . Ancient India . Motilal Banarsidass . 1977 . 978-8-12080-436-4 . Reprinted . 99 . Ramesh Chandra Majumdar . 1952.
21. "The name Afghan has evidently been derived from Asvakan, the Assakenoi of Arrian... " (Megasthenes and Arrian, p 180. See also: Alexander's Invasion of India, p 38; J. W. McCrindle).
22. "Even the name Afghan is Aryan being derived from Asvakayana, an important clan of the Asvakas or horsemen who must have derived this title from their handling of celebrated breeds of horses" (See: Imprints of Indian Thought and Culture abroad, p 124, Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan).
23. cf: "Their name (Afghan) means "cavalier" being derived from the Sanskrit, Asva, or Asvaka, a horse, and shows that their country must have been noted in ancient times, as it is at the present day, for its superior breed of horses. Asvaka was an important tribe settled north to Kabul river, which offered a gallant resistance but ineffectual resistance to the arms of Alexander "(Ref: Scottish Geographical Magazine, 1999, p 275, Royal Scottish Geographical Society).
24. Cf: "The name represents Sanskrit Asvaka in the sense of a cavalier, and this reappears scarcely modified in the Assakani or Assakeni of the historians of the expedition of Alexander" (Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological..by Henry Yule, AD Burnell).
25. See few more references on Asvaka = Afghan: The Numismatic Chronicle, 1893, p 100, Royal Numismatic Society (Great Britain); Awq, 1983, p 5, Giorgio Vercellin; Der Islam, 1960, p 58, Carl Heinrich Becker, Maymūn ibn al-Qāsim Tabarānī; Journal of Indian History: Golden Jubilee Volume, 1973, p 470, Trivandrum, India (City), University of Kerala. Dept. of History; Literary History of Ancient India in Relation to Its Racial and Linguistic Affiliations, 1970, p 17, Chandra Chakraberty; Stile der Portugiesischen lyrik im 20 jahrhundert, p 124, Winfried Kreutzen.; See: Works, 1865, p 164, Dr H. H. Wilson; The Earth and Its Inhabitants, 1891, p 83; Chants populaires des Afghans, 1880, p clxiv, James Darmesteter; Nouvelle geographie universelle v. 9, 1884, p.59, Elisée Reclus; Alexander the Great, 2004, p.318, Lewis Vance Cummings (Biography & Autobiography); Nouveau dictionnaire de géographie universelle contenant 1o La géographie physique ... 2o La .., 1879, Louis Rousselet, Louis Vivien de Saint-Martin; An Ethnic Interpretation of Pauranika Personages, 1971, p 34, Chandra Chakraberty; Revue internationale, 1803, p 803; Journal of Indian History: Golden Jubilee Volume, 1973, p 470, Trivandrum, India (City). University of Kerala. Dept. of History; Edinburgh University Publications, 1969, p 113, University of Edinburgh; Shi jie jian wen, 1930, p 68 by Shi jie zhi shi chu ban she. Cf also: Advanced History of Medieval India, 1983, p 31, Dr J. L. Mehta; Asian Relations, 1948, p 301, Asian Relations Organization ("Distributed in the United States by: Institute of Pacific Relations, New York."); Scottish Geographical Magazine, 1892, p 275, Royal Scottish Geographical Society - Geography; The geographical dictionary of ancient and mediaeval India, 1971, p 87, Nundo Lal Dey; Nag Sen of Milind Paṅhö, 1996, p 64, P. K. Kaul - Social Science; The Sultanate of Delhi, 1959, p 30, Ashirbadi Lal Srivastava; Journal of Indian History, 1965, p 354, University of Kerala Dept. of History, University of Allahabad Dept. of Modern Indian History, University of Travancore - India; Mémoires sur les contrées occidentales, 1858, p 313, fn 3, Stanislas Julien Xuanzang - Buddhism.
26. Journal of American Oriental society, 1889, p 257, American Oriental Society; Mahabharata 10.18.13.
27. Kambojo assa.nam ayata.nam i.e Kamboja the birthplace of horse......(|| Samangalavilasini, Vol I, p 124||).
28. Aruppa-Niddesa of Visuddhimagga by Buddhaghosa describes the Kamboja land as the base of horses (10/28)
29. In the Anushasnaparava section of Mahabharata, the Kambojas are specifically designated as Ashava.yuddha.kushalah (expert cavalrymen).

    tatha Yavana Kamboja Mathuram.abhitash cha ye |

    ete 'ashava.yuddha.kushalahdasinatyasi charminah. || 5 ||.

30. Jataka, Vol VI, pp 208, 210 (trans Fausboll); The Jataka, VI, p 110, (Trans. E. B. Cowell) + Videvati XIV.5-6 + Herodotus (I.140); Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1912, p 256, Dr Grierson; Das Volk Der Kamboja bei Yaska, First Series of Avesta, Pahlavi and Ancient Persian Studies in honour of the late Shams-ul-ulama Dastur Peshotanji Behramji Sanjana, Strassberg & Leipzig, 1904, pp 213 ff, Dr Ernst Kuhn
31. • Dr V. S. Agarwala writes: "As shown in the Jataka and Avestic literature, the Kamboja was the center of ancient Iranian civilization as is evidenced by the peculiar customs of the country " (Ref: The Kamboja Janapada, January 1964, Purana, Vol VI, No 1, p 229; Jataka edited by Fausboll, Vol VI, p 210.)
    • Dr Michael Witzel: "The Kambojas, located somewhere in east Afghanistan, spoke Iranian language and followed Zoroastrian habits of killing lower animals." (Early Eastern Iran and the Atharvaveda, Persica-9, 1980, fn 81, p 114; Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies, Vol. 7 (2001), issue 3 (May 25), Art. 9).
    • Dr D. C. Sircar: "The Kambojas were of Iranian extractions .. they were settled in Afghanistan region in Uttarapatha. Their numbers were occasionally swelled by new migrants from Iran, especially during age of Achaemenians." (Purana, Vol. V, No. 2, July 1963, p 256, Dr D. C. Sircar).
    • Willem Vogelsang: "The name Kamboja was commonly applied in Indian sources to the Iranian population of the borderlands i.e Afghanistan." (The Afghans (Peoples of Asia), 2001, p 127).
    • Dr R. Thapar: "The Kambojas were a tribe of the Iranians " (History of India, Vol. I, 1997, p 276).
    • E. Benveniste: "The Kambojas ... were known in Indian traditions as a foreign people, with peculiar customs, ... raised celebrated horses, spoke - as the Nirukata (II,2.8) tells us - a language with Iranian words in it ... and had, according to Buddhist Jataka (VI.206, 27-30), a certain religious practice - the killing of insects, moths, snakes and worms - which we may recognize as Mazdean from the passages in Mazdean books like the Videvati (XIV.5-6) as well as from the remark of Herodotus (I.140) about the Persian religion " (Journal Asiatique, CCXLVI 1958, I, pp 47-48, E. Benveniste).
32. Cf: "Zoroastrian religion had probably originated in Kamboja-land (Bacteria-Badakshan)....and the Kambojas spoke Avestan language" (Ref: Bharatiya Itihaas Ki Rup Rekha, p 229-231, Jaychandra Vidyalankar; Bhartrya Itihaas ki Mimansa, p 229-301, J. C. Vidyalankar; Ancient Kamboja, People and the Country, 1981, p 217, 221, J. L. Kamboj).
33. M. Longworth Dames, G. Morgenstierne, R. Ghirshman, "Afghānistān", in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Online Edition
34. Olaf Caroe, The Pathans: 550 BC - AD 1957, Link
35. Persia, p 142, Samuel G. Benjamin.
36. John Charles Griffiths, Afghanistan, pg 13
37. Gary W. Bowersox, Bonita E, Gemstones of Afghanistan, pg 27
38. Gankovsky, Yu. V., et al. "A History of Afghanistan." Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1982. 8vo. Cloth. 359 p. USD 22.50