Nuristan Province

This page is about the province in Afghanistan. Nuristan is also a proposed name of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan.

Nuristan (نورستان)
Province
Country	Afghanistan
Population	112,000 [1]
Governor	Eng. Hazrat Din Noor
Timezone	GMT+4:30
Main language	Pashto , Nuristani
Map of Afghanistan with Nuristan highlighted

Nuristān (Pashto:نورستان), also spelled Nurestān or Nooristan, is a region in Afghanistan embedded in the south of the Hindu Kush valleys. Its administrative center is Parun. It was formerly known as Kafiristan (land of the unbelievers) until the inhabitants were converted at swordpoint to Islam in 1896 which brought light (nur) to the area.^[2] Today it is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, formed in 1989 and officially established in 2001 from the northern parts of Laghman Province and Kunar Province. Before 2001 its capital was situated in Laghman province due to Mujahideen control over Nuristan province. The primary occupations are agriculture, animal husbandry, and day labor. Located on the southern slopes of the Hindu Kush mountains in the northeastern part of the country, Nuristan spans the basins of the Alingâr, Pech, Landai Sin, and Kunar rivers. Its administrative center is located in the Parun valley. It is bordered on the north by Badakhshan Province, on the south by Laghman and Kunar provinces, on the west by Panjshir Province, and on the east by Pakistan.

History

Until the 1890s, the region was known as Kafiristan (Persian for "Land of the non-believers") because of its inhabitants: the Nuristani, an ethnically distinctive people (numbering about 60,000) who practiced animism, polytheism and shamanism^[2].

Advent of Islam

The region was conquered by Emir Abdur Rahman Khan in 1895-96 and the Nuristani were then converted to Islam.

The region was renamed Nuristan, meaning Land of the Enlightened, a reflection of the "enlightening" of the pagan Nuristani by the "light-giving" of Islam.

Nuristan was once thought to have been a region through which Alexander the Great passed with a detachment of his army; thus the folk legend that the Nuristani people are direct descendants of Alexander (or "his generals"). In actuality the European appearance of the locals is due to much earlier Indo-European migration. people of these regions are actually direct descendants of ancient Iranian/Persian tribes who migrated away from the Indus River valley due to the drying up of the river, their Nordic and Aryan features are a result of not mixing with Arab, Mongol or Turk blood with almost identical DNA to north western Iranians who also have maintained their Aryan features

Abdul Wakil Khan Nuristani is one of the most prominent figures in Nuristan's history. He fought against the British army and drove them out of the eastern provinces of Afghanistan. His monument stands in Chahrahi Dehmazung in the capital Kabul, Afghanistan. He is buried on the same plateau where King Amanullah Khan is buried.

Nuristan was the scene of some of the heaviest guerrilla fighting during the 1979-89 invasion and occupation of Afghanistan by Soviet forces. For a period of time during this era, the eastern area of Nuristan was a semi-autonomous region called the Islamic Revolutionary State of Afghanistan, or Dawlat. It was a Wahhibist Islamic state run by anti-Soviet warlord Maulvi Afzal and was recognized by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The Dawlat dissolved under Taliban rule. ^[6]

A U.S. soldier conducts a patrol through the village of Kowtalay in the Nuristan province.

Nuristan is one of the poorest and most remote provinces of Afghanistan. As of Summer 2006, no NGO's operate in Nuristan because of a poor security situation and lack of infrastructure. Largely in response to a publicity campaign by Nuristan's first governor, Tamim Nuristani, roads are being built between Nangarej, Mandol and Chapa Dara to Titan Dara ^[7]. Nuristani also worked on a direct road route to Laghman province, in order to not be so dependent on the road through restive Kunar province to the rest of Afghanistan.

Since Nuristan is a highly ethnically homogeneous province, there are few incidents of inter-ethnic violence. However, there are instances of disputes between inhabitants, some of which continue for decades. Nuristan has suffered from its inaccessibility and lack of infrastructure. The government presence is under-developed, even compared to neighboring provinces. Nuristan's formal educational sector is weak, with few professional teachers. Due to its proximity to Pakistan, many of the inhabitants are actively involved in trade and commerce across the border.

Demographics

The population of around 300,000 people is 70% Nuristani and 30% Pashtun.^[8][9] 30% of the population speak Pashto and 55% speak the following Nuristani languages:^[10]

• Askunu language
• Kamkata-viri language
• Vasi-vari language
• Tregami language
• Kalasha-ala language

Pashayi language is spoken by 15% people.^[10]

The main Nuristani tribes in the province are Katta (38%), Kalasha (30%), Ashkori or Wamayee (12%), Kam (10%), Satra (5%), and Parsoon (4%).

Districts

Districts of Nuristan.

Politics

Jamaluddin Badar, on the left with glasses and a Pakul hat, is the current Governor of Nuristan

From 2005 Mohammad Tamim Nuristani was governor of Nuristan Province but was fired by Afghan president Hamid Karzai in July 2008. His replacement as governor, Hazrat Din Noor, was killed in a car crash on September 5, 2008.^[12] The current governor is Jamaluddin Badar.

Operation Enduring Freedom

A map from the Ministry of the Interior produced on August 5, 2009 showed the western region of Nuristan to be under “enemy control”.^[13] There have been numerous conflicts between the Taliban, at times in tandem with other militias, and coalition forces. On July 13, 2008 approximately 200 Taliban guerrillas attacked a NATO position just south of Nuristan, near the village of Wanat in the Waygal district, killing 9 coalition soldiers.^[14] In the following year, in early October, more than 350 Taliban fighters backed by members of the Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin and other militia groups fought US soldiers and Afghan police at Camp Keating in Nuristan. The base was nearly overrun; more than 100 Taliban fighters, eight US soldiers, and seven Afghan security officers were killed during the fighting.^{[15][16][17][18]} Four days after the battle, in early October 2009, U.S. forces withdrew from their four main bases in Nuristan, as part of a plan by General Stanley McChrystal to pull troops out of small outposts and relocate them closer to cities.^[19] The U.S. has pulled out from some areas in the past, but never from all four main bases.^[20] A month after the U.S. pullout the Taliban was governing openly in Nuristan.^[21]

Trivia

• Nuristan is the subject of the book A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by the British travel writer Eric Newby.
• Nuristan was the location of three of the missions in Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.
• Rudyard Kipling's short story The Man Who Would Be King and the film it inspired are set in pre-Islamic Nuristan (when Muslims called it Kafiristan, the Land of the Kafirs, or infidels).

External sources

Linguistics and ethnography of Nuristân and neighboring regions, collected and analyzed by Richard F. Strand

References

• Dupree, Nancy Hatch (1977): An Historical Guide to Afghanistan. 1st Edition: 1970. 2nd Edition. Revised and Enlarged. Afghan Tourist Organization. LINK
• Richard F. Strand. Richard Strand's Nuristan Site LINK. The most accurate and comprehensive source on Nuristan, by the world's leading scholar on the languages and ethnic groups of Nuristan.
• M. Klimburg. NURISTAN in Encyclopedia Iranica. LINK

See also

• Nuristani people
• Nuristani languages
• Ashvakas

Provinces of Afghanistan Badakhshan · Badghis · Baghlan · Balkh · Bamyan · Daykundi · Farah · Faryab · Ghazni · Ghor · Helmand · Herat · Jowzjan · Kabul · Kandahar · Kapisa · Khost · Kunar · Kunduz · Laghman · Logar · Nangarhar · Nimruz · Nuristan · Oruzgan · Paktia · Paktika · Panjshir · Parwan · Samangan · Sar-e Pol · Takhar · Wardak · Zabul