Communities of various religious and ethnic backgrounds have lived in the land of what is now Afghanistan. Before the Islamic conquest, the south of the Hindu Kush was ruled by the Zunbil and Kabul Shahi rulers. When the Chinese travellers (Faxian, Song Yun, Xuanzang, Wang-hiuon-tso, Huan-Tchao, and Wou-Kong) visited Afghanistan between 399 and 751 AD, they mentioned that Hinduism and Buddhism were practiced in different areas between the Amu Darya (Oxus River) in the north and the Indus River in the south.[1] The land was ruled by the Kushans followed by the Hephthalites during these visits. It is reported that the Hephthalites were fervent followers of the Hindu god Surya.
The invading Muslim Arabs introduced Islam to a Zunbil king of Zamindawar (Helmand Province) in 653-4 AD. They took the same message to Kabul before returning to their already Islamized city of Zaranj in the west. It is unknown how many accepted the new religion, but the Shahi rulers remained non-Muslim until they lost Kabul in 870 AD to the Saffarid Muslims of Zaranj. Later, the Samanids from Bukhara in the north extended their Islamic influence into the area. It is reported that Muslims and non-Muslims still lived side by side in Kabul before the arrival of Ghaznavids from Ghazni.
The first mention of a Hindu in Afghanistan appears in the 982 AD Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam, where it speaks of a king in "Ninhar" (Nangarhar), who shows a public display of conversion to Islam, even though he had over 30 wives, which are described as "Muslim, Afghan, and Hindu" wives.[2] These names were often used as geographical terms by the Arabs. For example, Hindu (or Hindustani) has been historically used as a geographical term to describe someone who was native to the region known as India, and Afghan as someone who was native to a region called Bactria.
| Location | Artifacts found | Other information | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hindu temple at Khair Khaneh in Kabul. | Marble statues of Surya, the Hindu god of sun.[3] | ||
| Gardez | Statues of Durga Mahishasuramardini. | They show Hindu Goddess Durga, the consort of Shiva, slaying buffalo demon Mahishasura. | |
| Hindu Temple at Chaghan Saray in the Kunar Valley in eastern Afghanistan. | Temple complex | ||
| Tapa Skandar 31 km north of Kabul. | Remains of settlement dating to the second half of the first millennium AD. Marble statue of Shiva and his wife Parvati. | ||
| Tapa Sadr near Ghazni. | Statue of the Parinivana Buddha (Buddha lying down at the end of his cycle of rebirths). | 8th century AD | |
| Gardez | Śāradā script engraved on a marble statue of an elephant deity Ganesh brought by the Hindu Shahis who occupied the Kabul Valley. | 8th century AD | |
| Nava Vihara Balkh | |||
| Airtam Near Termez | A stone slab with a Bactrian inscription and a carved image of Shiva.[4] | ||
| Tepe Sardar, Ghazni | Large Buddhist monastery complex[5] | The main Stupa is surrounded by many miniature stupas and shrines, ornamented with clay bas reliefs. There were several colossal statues of the Buddha, included one seated and of the Buddha in Nirvana. In one shrine which is in the Hindu style a clay sculpture of Durga slaying a buffalo-demon was found. | |
| Homay Qala in Ghazni | Buddhist Cave Complex at Homay Qalay.[6] | ||
| Tepe Sardar Ghazni | Durga clay - 10th Century.[7] | 10th Century AD. Durga was popularised during the Shahi period as several images of this deity are found in Afghanistan.[8] | |
| Various | Coins of the Shahi rulers of Panjab and Afghanistan have been found.[9] | 650-1000 AD[10] These coins were issued from at least eight mint towns, which suggests a wider range for their circulation | |
| Buddhas of Bamiyan Bamyan Province Hazarajat region | Believed to be built in 507 AD, the larger in 554 AD. Destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban. | ||
| Khair Khana Kabul | Hindu Temple, two marble statues of Shiva | ||
| Basawal | Basawal is the site of a Buddhist cave temple complex in eastern Afghanistan. The caves, 150 in all, are partly hewn out in two rows and arranged in seven groups, which presumably correspond to the seven monastic institutions of Buddhist times.[11] | ||
| Buddhist cave complex at Homay Qala[12] |
| Dynasty | Period | Domain | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hindu Shahis | Closing years of the 10th and the early 11th century. Jayapala was defeated by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni.[13] in 1013 Kabul's last Shahi ruler [14] | Gandhara (eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan) was overrun by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. (Kabul valley) | |
| Zunbils | The Zunbils were finally deposed by Ya'qub Saffari in 870 AD, founder of the Saffarid dynasty in Zaranj.[15] [16] | Zabulistan (southern Afghanistan). |
See main article: Islamic conquest of Afghanistan. The region around Herat Province became Islamized in 642 AD, during the end of Muslim conquest of Persia. In 653-4 AD, General Abdur Rahman bin Samara arrived from Zaranj to the Zunbil capital Zamindawar with an army of around 6,000 Arab Muslims. The General "broke off a hand of the idol and plucked out the rubies which were its eyes to persuade the Marzbān of Sīstān of the god's worthlessness."[17] He explained to the worshippers of the solar deity, "My intention was to show you that this idol can do neither any harm nor good."[18] The people of southern Afghanistan began accepting Islam from this date onward. The Arabs then proceeded to Ghazni and Kabul to convert or conquer the Buddhist Shahi rulers. However, most historians claim that the rulers of Ghazni and Kabul remained non-Muslim. There is no information on the number of converts, although the Arabs unsuccessfully continued their missions of invading the land to spread Islam for the next 200 or so years. It was in 870 AD when Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar finally conquered Afghanistan by establishing Muslim governors throughout the provinces.
By the 11th century, when the Ghaznavids were in power, the entire population of Afghanistan was practicing Islam, except the Kafiristan region (Nuristan Province) which became Muslim in the late 1800s.