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Afghan (ethnonym)

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Afghanistan literally means the land of the Afghans, but the region has had a plethora of other names that have been applied to its general location in the past. Between the fall of the Taliban after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 Loya jirga, Afghanistan was referred to by the Government of the United States as the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan. Under its new constitution, the country is now officially named the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

The origins and history of the name Afghanistan remain unclear, but there are numerous views regarding the origin of name Afghan, most of them being purely speculative as can be seen below:

  • Makhzan-i-Afghni by Nematullah, written in 1612 CE, traces the Afghan or Pakhtun origin from Abraham down to one named King Talut or Saul. It states that Saul had a son Irmia (Jeremia), who had a son called Afghana. Upon the death of King Saul, Afghana was raised by David, and was later promoted to the chief command of the army during the reign of King Solomon. The progeny of this Afghana multiplied numerously, and came to be called Bani-Israel. In the sixth century BCE, Bakhtunnasar, or Nebuchadnezzar king of Babil, attacked Judah and exiled the progeny of Afghana to Ghor located in the center of what is now Afghanistan. In course of time, the exiled community came to be addressed as Afghan after the name of their ancestor, and the country got its name as Afghanistan. This traditional view has some critics who refer to insufficient historical records.
  • Another version of Pashtun legend places Afghana, the professed eponymous ancestor of the Afghans or Pushtuns, as a contemporary of Muslim, Prophet Mohammad. On hearing about the new faith of Islam, Qais from Aryana travelled to Medina to see the Muslim, Prophet Muhammad, and returned to Aryana as a Muslim. Qais Abdur Rashid purportedly had many sons, one of whom was Afghana. Afghana, in turn, had four sons who set out to the east to establish their separate lineages. The first son went to Swat, the second to Lahore and India, the third to Multan, and the last one to Quetta. This legend is one of many traditional tales amongst the Pashtuns regarding their disparate origins. Again, it was this legendary Afghana who is stated to have given the Pushtuns their current name. It is notable that the Afghan of this legend is separated from the Afghana of Solomon's times by at least 11 centuries.
  • Dr H.W. Bellew, in his book An Enquiry into the Ethnography of Afghanistan, believes that the name Afghan derives from the Latin term Alban, 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 highlanders or "mountaineers" of the eastern Iranian plateau.
  • Few people hold that the name derives from "Abagan" (i.e without God) which term the Persians are stated to have coined for the Pashtuns to describe them as Godless or non-believers. It is claimed that word Abagan is antonym of the word Bagan (believer in God) just as word apolitical is antonym of political in the English language.[citation needed]
  • There are also a few people who tend to link "Afghan" to an Uzbek word "Avagan" said to mean "original" [citation needed].
  • Still others believe that the name derives from Sanskrit upa-ganah, said to mean "allied tribes" [citation needed].
  • Another etymological view supported by numerous noted scholars is that the name Afghan evidently derives from Sanskrit Ashvaka or Ashvakan (q.v), the Assakenois of Arrian[1]. This view was propounded by scholars like Dr Christian Lassen, J. W. McCrindle [2] etc and has been supported by numerous modern scholars [3] [4]. In Sanskrit, word ashva (Iranian aspa, Prakrit assa) means "horse", and ashvaka (Prakrit assaka) means "horseman". Pre-Christian times knew the people of eastern Afghanistan as Ashvakas (horsemen), since they raised a fine breed of horses and had a reputation for providing expert cavalrymen. The fifth-century-BCE Indian grammarian Panini calls them Ashvakayana [5] and Ashvayana [6] respectively [7]. Classical writers use the respective equivalents Aspasios (or Aspasii, Hippasii) and Assakenois (or Assaceni/Assacani, Asscenus) etc. The Aspasios/Assakenois (Ashvakas = Cavalrymen) is stated to be another name for the Kambojas of Ancient texts because of their equestrian characteristics. In ancient Pali texts, the Kamboja land is described as the land of horses [8] [9] [10] [11]. The relics of the name Assakenoi are still seen in the Aspin of Chitral and the Yashkun of Gilgit, according to Dr J. W. McCrindle [12] [13].

Before being called 'Afghanistan', the region had gone through several name changes in its long history of around 5000 years. One of the most ancient names, according to historians and scholars, was Ariana - the Greek pronunciation of the ancient Avestan Aryanam Vaeja or the Sanskrit "Aryavarta", Land of the Aryans. Today this Old-Persian, and Avestan expression is preserved in the name Iran and it is noted in the name of the Afghan national airline, Ariana Airlines. The term 'Ariana Afghanistan' is still popular amongst Persian speakers in the country.

Many centuries later, Afghanistan was part of Greater Khorasan, and hence was recognized with the name Khorasan (along with regions centered around Merv and Neishabur), which in Pahlavi means "The Land of the Rising Sun" (خاور زمین in Persian). (Dehkhoda, p8457)

References

  1. ^ Arrian writes them Assakenois. Strabo also calls them Assakanois, but Curtius calls them Assacani.
  2. ^ "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)
  3. ^ This includes S. Martin, L. Bishop, Crooks, W. Crooke, J. C. Vidyalnar, Dr M. R. Singh, P. Smith, N. L. Dey, Henry Yule, A. C. Burnell, Dr J. L. Kamboj, S. Kirpal Singh and several others.
  4. ^ 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, A. C. Burnell).
  5. ^ Ashtadhyayi, Nadadi gana IV-1, 99
  6. ^ Ashtadhyayi Sutra IV-1, 110
  7. ^ History and Culture of Indian People, the Age of Imperial Unity, Vol II, p 45, Dr A. D. Pusalkar, Dr R. C. Majumdar, Dr Munshi etc; Panjab Past and Present, pp 9-10, Dr Buddha Parkash; See also: History of Porus, pp 12, 38; Ancient India, 2003, pp 260-61, Dr V. D. Mahajan; India as Known to Panini, pp 456-57, Dr V. S. Aggarwala; Preliminary Notes on the Excavation of the Necropolises found in Western Pakistan and The Tombs of the Asvakayana-Assakenoi, Antonini, Chiara Silvi & Tucci, Giuseppe, pp 13 to 28; 'Asvakayana-Assakenoi', East and West, NS,. 14 (Roma, t963), pp 27-28.
  8. ^ Kambojo assa.nam ayata.nam i.e Kamboja the birthplace of horse......(|| Samangalavilasini, Vol I, p 124||).
  9. ^ Aruppa-Niddesa of Visuddhimagga by Buddhaghosa describes the Kamboja land as the base of horses (10/28)
  10. ^ 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 ||
  11. ^ Political History of Ancient India, 1996, p 133 fn 6, pp 216-20, (Also Commentary p 576 fn 22), Dr H. C. Raychaudhury, Dr B. N. Mukerjee; Historie du bouddhisme Indien, p110, Dr E. Lammotte; Panjab Past and Present, pp 9-10, Dr Buddha Parkash. J. W. McCrindle says that the modern Afghanistan -- the Kaofu (Kambu) of Hiun Tsang was ancient Kamboja, and the name Afghan evidently derives from the Ashavakan, the Assakenoi of Arrian (Alexandra's Invasion of India, p 38; Megasthenes and Arrian, p 180, J. McCrindle); Ancient Kamboja, People and Country, 1981, pp 271-72, 278, Dr J. L. Kamboj; These Kamboj People, 1979, pp 119, 192, K. S. Dardi; Kambojas, Through the Ages, 2005, pp 129, 218-19, S Kirpal Singh; Sir Thomas H. Holdich, in the his classic book, (The Gates of India, p 102-03), writes that the Aspasians (Aspasios) represent the modern Kafirs. But the modern Kafirs, especially the Siah-Posh Kafirs (Kamoz/Camoje, Kamtoz) etc are considered to be modern representatives of the ancient Kambojas. Other noted scholars supporting this view are Dr Romilla Thapar, Dr R. C. Majumdar etc.
  12. ^ The Invasion Of India By Alexander The Great As Described By Arrian, Q. Curtius, Diodorus, Plutarch And Justin, Dr J. W. McCrindle.
  13. ^ Other scholars like Dr N. K. Shastri, Dr Buddha Parkash, Dr L. M. Joshi, Dr Fauja Singh, Dr J. L. Kamboj and many others also hold the same view.
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