Pashtun people

Pashtuns
پښتون Paṣ̌tun

Ibrahim Lodi · Sher Shah Suri · Rahman Baba Khushal · Mirwais Hotak · Ahmad Shah Durrani Ayub Khan · Abdur Rahman Khan · Amanullah Bacha Khan · Abdul Ahad Mohmand · Karzai
Total population
ca. 42 million [1]
Regions with significant populations
Pakistan 28 million (2005) [2][3]  Afghanistan 12 million (2009) [4]  UAE 315,524 (2008) [5]  Iran 110,000 (2010) [6]  United Kingdom 100,000 (2009) [7]  Canada 26,000 (2006) [8]  India 11,086 (2001) [9]  United States 7,710 (2000) [10]  Malaysia and  Singapore 5,100 (2008) [11]
Languages
Pashto Urdu and Dari (Persian) also spoken widely as second languages
Religion
Islam Hanafi (Sunni) with a very tiny Shia community

Pashtuns (Pashto: پښتون Paṣ̌tun, Pax̌tun, also rendered as Pushtuns, Pakhtuns, Pukhtuns), also called Pathans (in Urdu: پٹھان and Hindi: पठान Paṭhān)^[12] or (ethnic) Afghans (in Persian: افغان; see also origin and history of the term),^[13][14][15] are an Eastern Iranian ethno-linguistic group with populations primarily in Afghanistan and western Pakistan, which includes Pakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Balochistan. The Pashtuns are typically characterized by their usage of the Pashto language and practice of Pashtunwali, a traditional set of rules and ethics guiding individual and communal conduct.^[16]

Pashtun society consists of many tribes and clans which were not politically united^[17] until the rise of the Hotaki dynasty followed by the Durrani Empire in the early-18th century.^[18] Pashtuns played a vital role during the Great Game from the 19th century to the 20th century as they were caught between the imperialist designs of the British and Russian empires. For over 300 years, they reigned as the dominant ethnic group in Afghanistan with nearly every ruler being a Pashtun. More recently, the Pashtuns gained worldwide attention during the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan and with the rise and fall of the Taliban, since they are the main ethnic contingent in the movement. Pashtuns are also an important community in Pakistan, where they have attained the presidency, high positions in the military, and are the second-largest ethnic group.^[19]

The Pashtuns are the world's largest (patriarchal) segmentary lineage ethnic group.^[20] The total population of the group is estimated to be around 42 million^[1], but an accurate count remains elusive due to the lack of an official census in Afghanistan since 1979.^[21] There are an estimated 60 major Pashtun tribes and more than 400 sub-clans.^[22]

Demographics

Predominant Pashtun area marked in blue with lines.

The vast majority of Pashtuns are found in an area stretching from southeastern Afghanistan to northwestern Pakistan. Additional Pashtun communities are found in the Gilgit-Baltistan territory, the Mianwali and Attock districts of Punjab province in Pakistan, as well as in the Khorasan province of Iran. There is also a sizeable community in India, which is of largely putative ancestry.^[9][23] Smaller Pashtun communities are located in the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, Europe and the Americas, particularly in North America.

Important metropolitan centers of Pashtun culture include Kandahar, Quetta, Peshawar, Jalalabad and Swat. Kabul, Ghazni, and Kunduz are home to sizable Pashtun minority populations. With around 7 million by some estimates, the city of Karachi in Pakistan has one of the largest Pashtun populations in the world.^[24][25] In addition, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, and Lahore also have sizable Pashtun populations.

Pashtuns comprise roughly 15.42% of Pakistan's population, or 25.6 million people.^[2] In Afghanistan, they make up an estimated 42% of the population, according to the CIA World Factbook.^[18] The exact numbers remain uncertain, particularly in Afghanistan, and are affected by approximately 1.7 million Afghan refugees that remain in Pakistan,^[26] a majority of which are Pashtuns. Another 937,600 Afghans live in Iran, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).^[27] A cumulative population assessment suggests a total of around 42 million across the region.^[1][28]

History and origins

Part of a series on Pashtuns Etymology · Pashtunwali Language · Culture · Art Tribes · Diaspora Kingdoms (Lodi · Suri Hotaki · Durrani) Afghanistan · Pakistan Pashtunistan · Pakhtunkhwa Pashtunization

The history of the Pashtun people is ancient, and much of it is not fully researched. Since the 2nd millennium BC, cities in the region now inhabited by Pashtuns have seen invasions and migrations, including by early Aryan tribes,^[29][30] the Median and Persian empires of antiquity, Greeks, Mauryas, Kushans, Hephthalites, Sassanids, Arab Muslims and successive Muslim kingdoms, Mongols, and possibly others. In recent age, people of the Western world have explored the area but the Pashtun region has never been conquered by any group.

There are many conflicting theories about the origin of Pashtuns, some modern and others archaic, both among historians and the Pashtuns themselves. According to most historians and experts, the true origin of the Pashtuns is unknown.^[31]

...the origin of the Afghans is so obscure, that no one, even among the oldest and most clever of the tribe, can give satisfactory information on this point.^[32]

—Mohan Lal, 1846

Looking for the origin of Pashtuns and the Afghans is something like exploring the source of the Amazon. Is there one specific beginning? And are the Pashtuns originally identical with the Afghans? Although the Pashtuns nowadays constitute a clear ethnic group with their own language and culture, there is no evidence whatsoever that all modern Pashtuns share the same ethnic origin. In fact it is highly unlikely.^[33]

—Willem Vogelsang, 2002

Ancient references

The Arachosia Satrapy and the Pactyan people during the Achaemenid Empire in 500 B.C.

A variety of ancient groups with eponyms similar to either Pashtun or Pukhtun have been hypothesized as possible ancestors of modern Pashtuns. The Greek historian Herodotus mentioned a people called Pactyans, living in the Achaemenid's Arachosia Satrapy as early as the 1st millennium BC,^[34] but their connection to Pashtuns remains unclear. A year after defeating Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela, Alexander the Great arrived to the Afghan tribal area and in a letter to his mother he described the Pakhtuns as lion-like brave people.

I am involved in the land of a 'Leonine' (lion-like) and brave people, where every foot of the ground is like a wall of steel, confronting my soldier. You have brought only one son into the world, but everyone in this land can be called an Alexander.^[35]

—Alexander the Great, 330 B.C.

The Rig-Veda mentions a tribe called the Pakthas^[36] (in the region of Pakhat) inhabiting eastern Afghanistan and some academics have proposed a connection with modern Pashtuns, but this too remains speculative.^[37] Ahmad Hasan Dani, a popular Pakistani historian from Islamabad, believed that Gandhara was part of an ancient Pashtun kingdom.^[38] In the Middle Ages until the advent of the modern state of Afghanistan in 1747 and the division of Pashtun territory by the 1893 Durand Line border, Pashtuns were often referred to as ethnic Afghans. It was used to refer to a common legendary ancestor known as Afghana.^[39] Hiven Tsiang, a Chinese pilgrim, visiting the Afghanistan area in 629 AD speaks about Afghan tribes in Zhob.^[40] According to several scholars such as V. Minorsky, W.K. Frazier Tyler and M.C. Gillet,^[41] the name "Afghan" is documented in the 982 AD Hudud-al-Alam, where a reference is made to an Afghan village.^[33]

Saul, a pleasant village on a mountain. In it live Afghans.

—Un-named author, 982

The village of Saul was probably located near Gardez, Afghanistan.^[33] Hudud ul-'alam also speaks of a king in "Ninhar" (Nangarhar), who had Muslim, Afghan, and Hindu wives. Al-Biruni, in the 11th century Ta'rikh al-Hind, referred to the Afghans as various tribes living in the mountain areas west of India,^[33] which would be the Sulaiman Mountains between Ancient India and Persia.^[42] In this geographic location the Afghans would most likely have been in some contact with Indians and the Persians.^[43] The name "Afghan" is again documented following the era of the Khilji dynasty when a famous Moroccan traveller, Ibn Battuta, visiting Kabul in 1333 writes:

We travelled on to Kabul, formerly a vast town, the site of which is now occupied by a tribe of Persians called Afghans.^[44]

—Ibn Battuta, 1304–1369

Kelaut-I-Ghiljie, a small village-town in Afghanistan.

One historical account connects the ethnic Afghans or Pashtuns to a possible Ancient Egyptian past but this also lacks supporting evidence.

I have read in the Mutla-ul-Anwar, a work written by a respectable author, and which I procured at Burhanpur, a town of Khandesh in the Deccan, that the Afghans are Copts of the race of the Pharaohs; and that when the prophet Moses got the better of that infidel who was overwhelmed in the Red Sea, many of the Copts became converts to the Jewish faith; but others, stubborn and self-willed, refusing to embrace the true faith, leaving their country, came to India, and eventually settled in the Sulimany mountains, where they bore the name of Afghans.^[14]

—Firishta, 1560-1620

On the contrary, although this too is unsubstantiated, Afghan historians have maintained that Pashtuns are linked to the ancient Israelites.

The Afghan historians proceed to relate that the children of Israel, both in Ghore and in Arabia, preserved their knowledge of the unity of God and the purity of their religious belief, and that on the appearance of the last and greatest of the prophets (Mohammed) the Afghans of Ghore listened to the invitation of their Arabian brethren, the chief of whom was Khauled (or Caled), son of Waleed, so famous for his conquest of Syria, and marched to the aid of the true faith, under the command of Kyse, afterwards surnamed Abdoolresheed.^[45]

—Mohan Lal, 1846

Oral traditions

Amir Sher Ali Khan with Prince Abdullah Jan and the Afghan Sardars in 1869.

Some anthropologists lend credence to the mythical 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 Maghzan-e-Afghani who compiled a history for Khan-e-Jehan Lodhi in the reign of Mughal Emperor Jehangir in the 17th century.

Another book that corresponds with Pashtun historical records, Taaqati-Nasiri, states that in the 7th century BC a people called the Bani Israel settled in the Ghor region of Afghanistan and migrated later to the southeast areas. These references to Bani Israel agree with the commonly held view by Pashtuns that when the twelve tribes of Israel were dispersed (see Israel and Judah and Ten Lost Tribes), the tribe of Joseph, among other Hebrew tribes, settled in the region.^[46] This oral tradition is widespread among the Pashtuns. 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 the 16th century Persian historian, Ferishta.^[14]

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.

Other Pashtun tribes claim descent from Arabs, including some even claiming to be descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (referred to as sayeds).^[47] Some groups from Peshawar and Kandahar claim to be descended from Ancient Greeks that arrived with Alexander the Great.^[48]

Anthropology

Caucasian race includes Pashtun (Afghan), seen on the right bottom row.

Racially, Pashtun people are classified as Caucasians: from Mediterranean race^[49] with Nordic mixture. Their Pashto language is classified under the Eastern Iranian sub-branch of the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages. As a result, Pashtuns are often referred to as a group of the Iranian peoples,^[50] possibly as partial descendants of the Bactrians and Scythians.^[51]

Early precursors to the Pashtuns were Old Iranian tribes that spread throughout the eastern Iranian plateau.^[52][53] According to academic Yu. V. Gankovsky, the Pashtuns began as a "union of largely East-Iranian tribes which became the initial ethnic stratum of the Pashtun ethnogenesis, dates from the middle of the first millennium CE and is connected with the dissolution of the Epthalite (White Huns) confederacy."^[54] Gankovsky proposes Kushan-o-Ephthalite origin for Pashtuns.^[54]

Those who speak a dialect of Pashto in the Kandahar region refer to themselves as Pashtuns, while those who speak a Peshawari dialect call themselves Pukhtuns. These native people compose the core of ethnic Pashtuns who are found in southeastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Like other Iranian peoples, some Pashtuns have mixed with neighboring groups or new migrants that settled in their region, including invaders. The new settlers eventually adopted the Pashtun way of life, like the Ghaznavids, Khiljis, and others.

Genetics

Research into human DNA is as a new way to explore historical movements of populations by studying their genetic make-up. Some recent genetic genealogy studies indicate that Pashtuns are mainly related to Iranian peoples. There is also evidence of a small Greek contribution to the Pashtun gene pool that will likely require further testing in order to ascertain its pervasiveness.^[55] The theory of Pashtun descent from Israelites is currently being studied by Navras Aafreedi and Shahnaz Ali of India.^[56][57]

"Pathans, or Pashtuns, are the only people in the world whose probable descent from the lost tribes of Israel finds mention in a number of texts from the 10th century to the present day, written by Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars alike, both religious as well as secularists."^[58]

—Navras Aafreedi, academic at the University of Lucknow and member of the Afridis

Israel is planning to fund this rare genetic study to determine whether there is a link between the lost tribes of Israel and the Pashtuns.

"Of all the groups, there is more convincing evidence about the Pashtuns than anybody else, but the Pashtuns are the ones who would reject Israel most ferociously. That is the sweet irony."^[58]

—Shalva Weil, anthropologist and senior researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Modern era

Zahir Shah became the last King of Afghanistan, reigning from 1933 to 1973.

Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan and head of the Karzai administration since December 2001.

The Pashtuns are intimately tied to the history of modern Afghanistan and Pakistan. Following Muslim Arab and Turkic conquests from the 7th to 11th centuries, Pashtun ghazis (warriors for the faith) invaded and conquered much of northern India during the Khilji dynasty (1290–1321), Lodhi dynasty (1451–1526) and Suri dynasty (1540–1556). The Pashtuns' modern past stretches back to the Hotaki dynasty (1709–1738) and later the Durrani Empire (1747–1826).^[59] The Hotakis were Ghilzai tribesmen, who defeated the Safavid dynasty of Persia and seized control over much of the Persian Empire from 1722 to 1738. This was followed by the conquests of Ahmad Shah Durrani who was a former high-ranking military commander under Nader Shah of Persia. He founded the Afghan Empire that covered most of what is today Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Indian Punjab, and Khorasan province of Iran.^[60] After the fall of the Durrani Empire in 1826, the Barakzai dynasty took control of Afghanistan. Specifically, the Mohamedzai subclan ruled Afghanistan from 1826 to the end of Mohammed Zahir Shah's reign in 1973. This legacy continues into modern times as Afghanistan is run by President Hamid Karzai, who 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 empires against each other, Afghanistan remained an independent state and maintained some autonomy (see the Siege of Malakand). But during the reign of Abdur Rahman Khan (1880–1901), Pashtun regions were divided by the Durand Line, and what is today western Pakistan was ceded to British India in 1893.^[61] In the 20th century, many politically-active Pashtun leaders living under British rule in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of colonial India supported Indian independence, including Khan Wali Khan and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (both members of the Khudai Khidmatgar, popularly referred to as the Surkh posh or "the Red shirts"), and were inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent method of resistance.^[62][63] Later, in the 1970s, Khan Wali Khan pressed for more autonomy for Pashtuns in Pakistan. Many Pashtuns also worked in the Muslim League to fight for an independent Pakistan, including Abdur Rab Nishtar (a close associate of Muhammad Ali Jinnah) and Yusuf Khattak, among others.^[64][65]

Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations.^[66]

Pashtuns in Afghanistan attained complete independence from British intervention during the reign of King Amanullah Khan, following the Third Anglo-Afghan War. The monarchy ended when Sardar Daoud Khan seized control of Afghanistan in 1973. This opened the door to Soviet intervention and culminated in the Communist Saur Revolution in 1978. Starting in the late 1970s, many Pashtuns joined the Mujahideen opposition against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In the late 1990s, Pashtuns became known for being the primary ethnic group that comprised the Taliban, which was a religious government based on Islamic sharia law.^[67] The Taliban government was ousted in late 2001 during the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and replaced with the current Karzai administration, which is dominated by Pashtun ministers.^[68]

Pashtuns have played an important role in the regions of South and Central Asia, including the Middle East. The Afghan royal family, which was represented by king Zahir Shah, is of ethnic Pashtun origin. Other prominent Pashtuns include the 17th-century warrior poet Khushal Khan Khattak, "Iron" Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, and in modern times Afghan Astronaut Abdul Ahad Mohmand and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad among many others. In Pakistan, ethnic Pashtuns, notably Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan and Ghulam Ishaq Khan, attained the Presidency. A number of Pakistani Pashtuns also held high government posts, such as Army Chief Gul Hassan Khan, Abdul Waheed Kakar, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao, and etc. Similarly, one of India's former presidents, Dr. Zakir Hussain, was a Pashtun of the Afridi tribe who came from an upper middle class Pashtun family settled in Farrukhabad.^{[69][70][71][72][73]} Mohammad Yunus, India's former ambassador to Algeria and advisor to Indira Gandhi, is an ethnic Pashtun related to the legendary Bacha Khan.^{[74][75][76][77]}

Although an Eastern Iranian ethno-lingusitic group now, original Pashtuns may have undergone a language shift, possibly speaking another Indo-european branch such as the language classes of Tocharian (which satisfies the Kushan ancestry in Granovsky's Kushan-o-Hephthalite theory, and the Kushan presence of the region) or even a language that wasn't indo-european at all, possibly related to the language isolate Burushaski spoken by the Burushos. Pashtuns are only classed as an Iranian people linguistically, being related to Ossetic, that evolved from a Scythian language but many of their oral traditions rarely reference any ancient Indo-Iranians instead refferencing Israelites, Sayeds, Ancient Greeks or having no folktale about their origins. Many Pashtuns also don't celebrate nor are even fond of Nowruz, a common holiday among Iranian people, it was once banned by the Taliban, dismissing it as a "Mere Pagan Holiday". The possibility of a non-indo-european language would prove the indigenous status among Pashtuns, possibly being more indigenous than the supposed Aryan Invasion and would have been related to Burushaski as there is evidence. The current Indo-Iranian branch Pashto language would been adopted by Pashtuns from Rigvedic tribes similarly to how they adopted Islam from the caliphate without ever being conquered. As Pastun regions weren't conquered, they would have expanded their areas of inhabitant. Many travellers in history who decided to enter Pashtun regions ultimately became absorbed.

Pashtuns defined

Among historians, anthropologists, and the Pashtuns themselves, there is some debate as to who exactly is a Pashtun. The most prominent views are:

• Pashtuns are predominantly an Eastern Iranian people, speakers of the Pashto language, and live in a contiguous geographic location across Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the generally accepted academic view.^[78]
• Pashtuns are Muslims, follow Pashtunwali and meet other criteria.^[79]
• In accordance with the legend of Qais Abdur Rashid, the figure traditionally regarded as their progenitor, Pashtuns are those whose related patrilineal descent may be traced back to legendary times.

These three definitions may be described as the ethno-linguistic definition, the religious-cultural definition, and the patrilineal definition, respectively.

Ethnic definition

The ethno-linguistic definition is the most prominent and accepted view as to who is and is not a Pashtun.^[80] Generally, this most common view holds that Pashtuns are defined within the parameters of having mainly eastern Iranian ethnic origins, sharing a common language, culture and history, living in relatively close geographic proximity to each other, and acknowledging each other as kinsmen. Thus, tribes that speak disparate yet mutually intelligible dialects of Pashto acknowledge each other as ethnic Pashtuns and even subscribe to certain dialects as "proper", such as the Pukhtu spoken by the Yousafzai and the Pashto spoken by the Durrani in Kandahar.^[81] These criteria tend to be used by most Pashtuns in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Cultural definition

Bollywood superstar, Shahrukh Khan, is a non-Pashto-speaking Indian of Afghan (Pashtun) descent.^[82]

The religious and cultural definition is more stringent that requires Pashtuns to be Muslim but also adhere to Pashtunwali codes.^[83] This is the most prevalent view among orthodox and conservative tribesmen who refuse to recognize any non-Muslim as a Pashtun, even if they themselves claim to be of Hebrew ancestry as some tribes do. Pashtun intellectuals and academics, however, tend to be more flexible and sometimes define who is Pashtun based on other criteria. Pashtun society is not homogenous by religion: Majority of them are Sunni Muslims, while there is at least one Shia tribe (Turi) in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. Pakistani Jews and Afghan Jews, once numbering in the thousands, have largely relocated to Israel and the United States.^[84]

Ancestral definition

The patrilineal definition is based on an important orthodox law of Pashtunwali which mainly requires that only those who have a Pashtun father are Pashtun. This law has maintained the tradition of exclusively patriarchal tribal lineage. This definition places less emphasis on what language one speaks, such as Pashto, Persian, Urdu or English. For example, the Pathans in India have lost both the language and presumably many of the ways of their putative ancestors, but trace their fathers' ethnic heritage to the Pashtun tribes. One example is Bollywood superstar, Shahrukh Khan, who is a non-Pashto-speaking Indian of Afghan (Pashtun) descent.^[82]

Putative ancestry

There are various communities who claim Pashtun or Afghan descent but are largely found among other groups in South and Central Asia who generally do not speak the Pashto language. These communities are often considered overlapping groups or are simply assigned to the ethno-linguistic group that corresponds to their geographic location and mother tongue. They include various non-Pashtun Afghans who often speak Persian rather than Pashto.

Ayub Khan, President of Pakistan from 1958 to 1969, was a non-Pashto-speaker from the Tareen tribe of Abbottabad.

Many claimants of Pashtun heritage in South Asia have mixed with local Muslim populations and refer to themselves (and to Pashto-speaking Pashtuns) as "Pathans", the Hindi-Urdu variant of Pashtun.^[85][86] These populations are usually partial Pashtun, to varying degrees, and often trace their Pashtun ancestry putatively through a paternal lineage.

Some Pashtuns have adopted local languages such as Hindko and Seraiki. These languages are often found in areas such as Abbottabad, Peshawar, Mardan, Attock, Multan and Dera Ismail Khan. After migration or establishing contacts in these areas, Pashtuns began adding new languages to their existing Pashto.^[87] This group of people are bilingual in Hindko and Pashto. They are a large minority in major cities such as Peshawar, Kohat, Mardan, and Dera Ismail Khan, including in the mixed districts of Haripur, Abbottabad and Attock.

Some Indians claim descent from Pashtun soldiers who settled in India by marrying local women during the Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent.^[23] No specific population figures exist, as claimants of Pashtun descent are spread throughout the country. Notably, the Rohilla Pashtuns, after their defeat by the British, are known to have settled in parts of North India and intermarried with local ethnic groups. They are believed to have been bilingual in Pashto and Urdu until the mid-19th century. Some Urdu-speaking Muslims claiming descent from Pashtuns moved to Pakistan after independence in 1947.

In East Pakistan (modern day Bangladesh), an unknown number of Pashtun descendants live among Bengalis. Most to all have intermarried with features of fair-skinned and tall stature points them out among the local Bengali population. Historical structures built by the Pasthun descendants can still be found in Bangladesh. The Mosque of Musa Khan still remains intact in Bangladesh. Musa Khan, a Pashtun, is a descendant of the great Suleiman Khan, who was born in the Suleiman Mountains but moved to Bengal.

Also, the repression of Rohilla Pashtuns by the British in the late-19th century caused thousands to flee to the Dutch colony of Guyana and Suriname in South America.^[88]

During the mid-19th century, around the time when the British were accepting peasants from across India as indentured servants to work in the Caribbean, South Africa and Fiji, some Pashtuns from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, were sent to places as far as Trinidad, Surinam and Guyana (see above) and Fiji, to work with other Indians (Hindu and Muslim) on the sugarcane fields and perform manual labor. During this period, many immigrants from India stayed on in these places and formed unique communities of their own where ethnic distinctions were often blurred, save for religious ones. Most of the Pashtun migrants ended up mixing in with the other South Asian Muslim nationalities to form a common Indian Muslim community in tandem with the larger Indian community, losing their distinctive heritage. Their descendants mostly speak Urdu or English and are no longer conversant in Pashto.

Culture

Pashtun culture is mostly based on Pashtunwali and the use or understanding of the Pashto language. Pre-Islamic traditions, dating back to Alexander's defeat of the Persian Empire in 330 BC, possibly survived in the form of traditional dances, while literary styles and music reflect influence from the Persian tradition and regional musical instruments fused with localized variants and interpretation. Pashtun culture is a unique blend of native customs with some influences from South and Western Asia.

Language and mass media

Khushal Khan Khattak, Pashto poet-warrior of the 17th century

Mahmud Tarzi became the pioneer of Afghan journalism

The Pashtuns speak Pashto, an Indo-European language. It belongs to the Iranian sub-group of the Indo-Iranian branch.^[89] It can be further delineated within Eastern Iranian and Southeastern Iranian. Pashto is written in the Perso-Arabic script and is divided into two main dialects, the northern "Pukhtu" and the southern "Pashto".

Pashto has ancient origins and bears similarities to extinct languages such as Avestan and Bactrian.^[90] Its closest modern relatives include Pamir languages, such as Shughni and Wakhi, and Ossetic. Pashto has an ancient legacy of borrowing vocabulary from neighboring languages including Persian and Vedic Sanskrit. Invaders have left vestiges as well as Pashto has borrowed words from Ancient Greek, Arabic and Turkic, sometimes due to invasions. Modern borrowings come primarily from English.^[91]

Fluency in Pashto is often the main determinant of group acceptance as to who is considered a Pashtun. Afghan nationalism (Pashtun nationalism) emerged following the rise of Pashto poetry that linked language and ethnic identity. This started with the work of Khushal Khan Khattak and continued with Nazo Tokhi (Nazo Anna) and others in the early 18th century, including Khattak's grandson Afzal Khan (author of Tarikh-e Morassa, a history of the Pashtun people).^[91] Pashto has national status in Afghanistan and regional status in Pakistan. In addition to their mother-tongue, many Pashtuns are fluent in Urdu, Dari (Persian), and English.

Throughout their history, poets, prophets, kings and warriors have been among the most revered members of Pashtun society. But for much of that history literature has not played a major role, because Persian was the literary lingua franca for neighboring peoples and was generally relied on for writing. Early written records of Pashto began to appear by the 16th century. The earliest describes Sheikh Mali's conquest of Swat.^[92] Some Pashtun scholars believe that the earliest Pashto work dates back to Amir Kror Suri in the eighth century, and they use the writings found in Pata Khazana as proof. However, this is not accepted by some historians on the bases of not enough evidence.

The advent of Pashto poetry and the revered works of Khushal Khan Khattak, Rahman Baba, and Nazo Anaa in the 17th century helped transition Pashto to the modern period.^[93] Pashto literature gained significant prominence in the 20th century, with poetry by Ameer Hamza Shinwari who developed Pashto Ghazals.^[94] In 1919, during the expanding of mass media, Mahmud Tarzi published Seraj-al-Akhbar, which became the first Pashto newspaper in Afghanistan. Another notable Pashto poet of the 20th century was Khan Abdul Ghani Khan of Pakistan, son of Ghaffar Khan.

Pashto media outlets also play a major role in everyday life. Several Pashto TV channels are available in the Pashtun regions. The leading one is AVT Khyber, which is helping to promote the Pashtun culture with their daily programs. Viewers are informed about the day to day issues and amused with their entertaining shows, such as the show with Amanullah Kaker which is based on educating Pashtuns by using messages in Pashto poetry.^[95] International news sources that provide Pashto programs include BBC and Voice of America.

Recently, Pashto literature has received increased patronage, but many Pashtuns continue to rely on oral tradition due to relatively low literacy rates. Pashtun males continue to meet at chai khanas (cafés), to listen and relate various oral tales of valor and history. Despite the general male dominance of Pashto oral story-telling, Pashtun society is also marked by some matriarchal tendencies.^[96] Folktales involving reverence for Pashtun mothers and matriarchs are common and are passed down from parent to child, as is most Pashtun heritage, through a rich oral tradition that has survived the ravages of time.

Pashtunwali and tribalism

The term "Pakhto" or "Pashto" from which the Pashtuns derive their name is not merely the name of their language, but is synonymous with a pre-Islamic honor code/religion formally known as Pashtunwali (or Pakhtunwali). Pashtunwali governs and regulates nearly all aspects of Pashtun life ranging from tribal affairs to individual "honor" (nang) and behavior.

Afghan provincial governors at Jalalabad in 2009, discussing security and the reconstruction of Afghanistan. From left to right: Jamaluddin Badar of Nuristan, Lutfullah Mashal of Laghman, Gul Agha Sherzai of Nangarhar, and Fazlullah Wahidi of Kunar Province.

Numerous intricate tenets of Pashtunwali influence Pashtun social behavior. One of the better known tenets is Melmastia, hospitality and asylum to all guests seeking help. Perceived injustice calls for Badal, swift revenge. A popular Pashtun saying, "Revenge is a dish best served cold", was borrowed by the British and popularized in the West.^[97] Men are expected to protect Zan, Zar, Zameen, which translates to women, treasure, and land. Some aspects promote peaceful co-existence, such as Nanawati, the humble admission of guilt for a wrong committed, which should result in automatic forgiveness from the wronged party. Other aspects of Pashtunwali have attracted widespread criticism, particularly with respect to its influence on women's rights and so-called "honour killings".^[98] These and other basic precepts of Pashtunwali continue to be followed by many Pashtuns, especially in rural areas.

A prominent institution of the Pashtun people is the intricate system of tribes. The Pashtuns remain a predominantly tribal people, but the worldwide trend of urbanization has begun to alter Pashtun society as cities such as Peshawar and Quetta have grown rapidly due to the influx of rural Pashtuns and Afghan refugees.^[99] Despite this trend of urbanization, many people still identify themselves with various clans.

The tribal system has several levels of organization: the tribe, tabar, is divided into kinship groups called khels, in turn divided into smaller groups (pllarina or plarganey), each consisting of several extended families called kahols.^[100] Pashtun tribes are divided into four 'greater' tribal groups: Sarbans, Batians, Ghurghusht and Karlans.

Another prominent Pashtun institution is the Jirga or 'Senate' of elected elder men. Most decisions in tribal life are made by members of the Jirga, which is the main institution of authority that the largely egalitarian Pashtuns willingly acknowledge as a viable governing body.^[101]

Pashtun celebrations and special events are also often national holidays in Pakistan and Afghanistan. A common Turko-Iranian New Year called Nouruz is often observed by Pashtuns.^[102] Most prominent are Muslim holidays including Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr. Muslim holidays tend to be the most widely observed and commercial activity can come to a halt as large extended families gather in what is often both a religious duty and a festive celebration.

Religion

Tribal and religious leaders gather following a shura held in Kandahar by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The overwhelming majority of Pashtuns follow Sunni Islam, belonging to the Hanafi school of thought. A smaller Shi'a community exist in the northeastern section of Paktia province of Afghanistan and in neighboring Kurram Agency of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. The Shia Pashtuns belong to the Turi tribe while the Bangash tribe is approximately 50% Shia and the rest Sunni, who live mainly in Kohat and the Orakzai Agency of Pakistan.

Studies conducted among the Ghilzai reveal strong links between tribal affiliation and membership in the larger ummah (Islamic community). Afghan historians believe that Pashtuns are descendants of Qais Abdur Rashid, who is purported to have been an early convert to Islam and thus bequeathed the faith to the early Pashtun population.^{[14][45][103]} The legend says that after Qais heard of the new religion of Islam, he traveled to meet Muhammad in Medina and returned to Afghanistan as a Muslim. He purportedly had four children: Sarban, Batan, Ghourghusht and Karlan. It is believed that some Pashtuns may have been Zoroastrians, Hindus, Jews or Shamanists before Islam was introduced to them in the 7th century. A number of them may even have practiced Buddhism. However, these theories remain without conclusive evidence.

A legacy of Sufi activity may be found in some Pashtun regions, as evident in song and dance. Many Pashtuns are prominent Ulema, Islamic scholars, such as Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan who has helped translate the Noble Quran, Sahih Al-Bukhari and many other books to the English language.^[104]

Lastly, little information is available on non-Muslim Pashtuns as there is limited data regarding irreligious groups and minorities, especially since many of the Hindu and Sikh Pashtuns migrated from Pakhtunkhwa after the partition of India and later, after the rise of the Taliban.^[105][106] There is, however, an affirmed community of Sikh Pashtuns residing in Peshawar, Parachinar, and in the Orakzai Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan.^[107] In addition, the legendary Kapoor family, despite being Hindu, claims to be Pathan as well.^{[108][109][110][111][112]}

Performing arts

Pashtun performers remain avid participants in various physical forms of expression including dance, sword fighting, and other physical feats. Perhaps the most common form of artistic expression can be seen in the various forms of Pashtun dances.

Khattak Dance

One of the most prominent dances is Attan, which has ancient roots possibly Greek. A rigorous exercise, Attan is performed as musicians play various native instruments including the dhol (drums), tablas (percussions), rubab (a bowed string instrument), and toola (wooden flute). With a rapid circular motion, dancers perform until no one is left dancing, similar to Sufi whirling dervishes. Numerous other dances are affiliated with various tribes notably from Pakistan including the Khattak Wal Atanrh (eponymously named after the Khattak tribe), Mahsood Wal Atanrh (which, in modern times, involves the juggling of loaded rifles), and Waziro Atanrh among others. A sub-type of the Khattak Wal Atanrh known as the Braghoni involves the use of up to three swords and requires great skill. Young women and girls often entertain at weddings with the Tumbal (tambourine).

Traditional Pashtun music has ties to Klasik (traditional Afghan music heavily inspired by Hindustani classical music), Iranian musical traditions, and other various forms found in South Asia. Popular forms include the ghazal (sung poetry) and Sufi qawwali music. Themes revolve around love and religious introspection. Modern Pashto music is centered around the city of Peshawar due to the wars in Afghanistan, and tends to combine indigenous techniques and instruments with Iranian-inspired Persian music and Indian Filmi music prominent in Bollywood. Some well known Pashto singers include Nashenas, Sardar Ali Takkar, Naghma, Rahim Shah, Farhad Darya, Nazia Iqbal, and a number of others.

Other modern Pashtun media include an established Pashto-language film and television industry that is based in Pakistan. Producers based in Lahore have created Pashto-language films since the 1970s. Pashto films were once popular, but have declined both commercially and critically in recent years. Past films such as Yusuf Khan Sherbano dealt with serious subject matter, traditional stories, and legends. Pashtun lifestyle and issues have been raised by Western and Pashtun expatriate film-makers in recent years. One such film is In This World by British film-maker Michael Winterbottom,^[113] which chronicles the struggles of two Afghan youths who leave their refugee camps in Pakistan and try to move to the United Kingdom in search of a better life. Another is the British mini-series Traffik, re-made as the American film Traffic, which featured a Pashtun man (played by Jamal Shah) struggling to survive in a world with few opportunities outside the drug trade.^[114] Numerous actors of Pashtun descent work in India's Bollywood film industry, including Shahrukh Khan, Feroz Khan, Kader Khan, and others.

Sports

Shahid Afridi, Pakistan national cricket team

Traditional sports include naiza bazi, which involves horsemen who compete in spear throwing.^[115] Polo is also an ancient traditional sport in the region and is popular among many tribesmen such as the Yousafzai. Like other Afghans, Pashtuns also engage in Buzkashi and wrestling (Pehlwani), which is often part of larger sporting events.^[116] Cricket is largely a legacy of British rule in Pakistan and India, and many Pashtuns have become prominent participants, such as Shahid Afridi, Imran Khan and Irfan Pathan.^[117] The Afghanistan national cricket team is dominated by Pashtun players.

Football is the other most popular sport among the Pashtuns. The current captain of Pakistan national football team, Muhammad Essa, is an ethnic Pashtun from the Baluchistan province. Another top player from the same area was Abdul Wahid Durrani, who scored 15 international goals in 13 games and became the captain of the team. The Afghanistan national football team includes a number of Pashtun players. Other sports in which Pashtuns participate include bodybuilding, martial arts, boxing, and field hockey. In recent decades Hayatullah Khan Durrani, Pride of Performance caving legend from Quetta, has been promoting mountaineering, rock climbing and caving in Pakistan.

Snooker and billiards are played by young Pashtun men, especially in the major cities of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Several prominent international recognized snooker players are from the Pashtun area, including Saleh Mohammed.

Children's games include a form of marbles called buzul-bazi, which is played with the knucklebones of sheep. Although traditionally less involved in sports than boys, young Pashtun girls often play volleyball and basketball, especially in urban areas. A favourite game of the Pashtuns in southwestern Pakistan is yanda, especially in Pishin, Pakistan.

Women

In Pashtun society there are three levels of women’s leadership and legislative authority: the national level, the village level, and the family level. The national level includes women such as Nazo Tokhi (Nazo Anaa) and Zarghona Anaa. Nazo Anaa was a prominent 17th century Pashto poet and an educated Pashtun woman who eventually became the "Mother of Afghan Nationalism" after gaining authority through her poetry and upholding of the Pashtunwali code. She used the Pashtunwali law to unite the Pashtun tribes against their Persian enemies. Her cause was picked up in the early 18th century by Zarghona Anaa, the mother of Ahmad Shah Durrani.^[118]

Queen Soraya Tarzi in 1928

The lives of Pashtun women vary from those who reside in conservative rural areas, such as the tribal belt, to those found in relatively freer urban centers.^[119] At the village level, the female village leader is called "qaryadar". Her duties may include witnessing women’s ceremonies, mobilizing women to practice religious festivals, preparing the female dead for burial, and performing services for deceased women. She also arranges marriages for her own family and arbitrates conflicts for men and women.^[118] Though many Pashtun women remain tribal and illiterate, others have become educated and gainfully employed.^[119]

The ravages of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the Afghan wars, leading to the rise and fall of the Taliban, caused considerable hardship among Pashtun women, as many of their rights were curtailed by a rigid and inaccurate interpretation of Islamic law. The difficult lives of Afghan female refugees gained considerable notoriety with the iconic image of the so-called "Afghan Girl" (Sharbat Gula) depicted on the June 1985 cover of National Geographic magazine.^[120] The male-dominated code of Pashtunwali often constrains women and forces them into designated traditional roles that separate the genders.^[121] The pace of change and reform for women has been slow due to the wars in Afghanistan and the isolation and instability of tribal life in Pakistan.

Modern social reform for Pashtun women began in the early 20th century. During the 1920s, Queen Soraya Tarzi of Afghanistan was a feminist leader whose advocacy of social reforms for women was so radical that it led to the fall of her and her husband King Amanullah's dynasty.^[122][123] Civil rights remained an important issue during the tumultuous Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, as feminist leader Meena Keshwar Kamal campaigned for women's rights and founded the Revolutionary Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) in the 1980s.^[124]

Today, Pashtun women vary from the traditional housewives who live in seclusion to urban workers, some of whom seek or have attained parity with men.^[119] But due to numerous social hurdles, the literacy rate remains considerably lower for Pashtun females than for males.^[125][126] Abuse against women is widespread and increasingly being challenged by women's rights organizations which find themselves struggling with conservative religious groups as well as government officials in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. According to researcher Benedicte Grima's book Performance of Emotion Among Paxtun Women, "a powerful ethic of forbearance severely limits the ability of traditional Pashtun women to mitigate the suffering they acknowledge in their lives."^[127]

Pashtun women often have their legal rights curtailed in favor of their husbands or male relatives. For example, though women are officially allowed to vote in Afghanistan and Pakistan, many have been kept away from ballot boxes by males.^[128] Traditionally, Pashtun women have few inheritance rights and are often charged with taking care of large extended families of their spouses.^[129] Another tradition that persists is swara, the giving of a female relative to someone in order to rectify a dispute. It was declared illegal in Pakistan in 2000 but continues in tribal regions.^[130]

Zeenat Karzai, wife of Hamid Karzai, representing the women of Afghanistan at a meeting in 2005, is sitting on the right next to the former First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush.

Despite obstacles, many Pashtun women have begun a process of slow change. A rich oral tradition and resurgence of poetry has inspired many Pashtun women seeking to learn to read and write.^[96] Further challenging the status quo, Vida Samadzai was selected as Miss Afghanistan in 2003, a feat that was received with a mixture of support from those who back the individual rights of women and those who view such displays as anti-traditionalist and un-Islamic. Some Pashtun women have attained high political office in Pakistan. In Afghanistan, following recent elections, the proportion of female political representatives is one of the highest in the world.^[131] A number of Pashtun women are found as TV hosts, journalists, actors and singers on several TV outlets, especially at AVT Khyber.^[95] A Pashtun woman, Khatol Mohammadzai, recently became a paratrooper in the Afghan National Army, another one became a fighter pilot in the Pakistan Air Force.^[132]

Substantial work remains for Pashtun women to gain equal rights with men, who remain disproportionately dominant in most aspects of Pashtun society. Human rights organizations continue to struggle for greater women's rights, such as the Afghan Women's Network and the Aurat Foundation in Pakistan which aims to protect women from domestic violence.^[133][134] Due to recent reforms in the higher education commission (HEC) of Pakistan, a number of competent Pashtun female scholars have been able to win Masters and PhD scholarships. Most of them have proceeded to USA, UK and other developed countries with support from their families.

See also

• Pashtun diaspora
• Notable ethnic Pathans
• Pashtunistan
• Pakhtunkhwa
• Pakthas
• Theory of Pashtun descent from Israelites
• Theory of Pashtun descent from Rajputs
• Nimat Allah al-Harawi Author of Tarikh-i-Khan Jahani Makhzan-i-Afghani (The History of the Afghans)

Notes and references

• Note: population statistics for Pashtuns (including those without a notation) in foreign countries were derived from various census counts, the UN, the CIA World Factbook and Ethnologue.

Further reading

External links

• Tribe, Clan, & Ethnic Genealogies (Pashtun), Naval Postgraduate School
• Pashtuns

Pashtun nationalism Key figures Ibrahim Lodi · Sher Shah Suri · Pir Roshan · Pir Baba · Khushal Khan Khattak · Mir Wais Hotak · Ahmad Shah Durrani · Akbar Khan · Dost Mohammad Khan · Malalai  · Abdur Rahman Khan · Mullah Powindah · Faqir of Ipi · Amanullah Khan · Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan · Mohammed Daoud Khan · Abdul Wali Khan Culture Pashtunwali · Pashtun tribes · Loya Jirga · Khattak Dance  · Attan · Mahsud Dance · Adam Khan and Durkhanai · Yusuf Khan and Sherbano Poets Rahman Baba · Khushal Khan Khattak · Ameer Hamza Shinwari · Ajmal Khattak · Kabir Stori · Abdul Ghani Khan Topics and controversies Durand Line · Khudai Khidmatgar · Pashtunistan · Kalabagh Dam · Taliban · Names of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Battles and conflicts First Battle of Panipat · Third Battle of Panipat · First Anglo-Afghan War · Battle of Nowshera · Battle of Jamrud (1837) · Siege of Malakand · Second Anglo-Afghan War · Battle of Maiwand  · Tirah Campaign · Third Anglo-Afghan War  · Soviet war in Afghanistan  · War in Afghanistan (2001–present)  · War in North-West Pakistan