Afghan (Pashto: ) is an ethnonym historically used to refer to Pashtuns. Since the second half of the twentieth century, the term has evolved into a demonym for all residents of Afghanistan, including those outside the Pashtun ethnicity.
Mentions The earliest mention of the name Afghan (Abgân) is by Shapur I of the Sassanid Empire in the 3rd century CE. In the 4th century, the word "Afghans/Afghana" (αβγανανο) was used to refer to a particular people, as mentioned in the Bactrian documents. Brihat-samhita, a 6th-century CE Indian encyclopedia, refers to a people called "Avagāṇa" [अवगाण], which is presumed by some to be an earlier iteration of "Afghan."
The word appeared again in the 982 CE Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam, referring to the residents of the village of Saul, which is estimated to have been located near Gardez, Afghanistan. The text also refers to a kind in Ninhar (Nangarhar) who had Muslim, Afghan, and Hindu wives.
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.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, ,
Al-Utbi, the Ghaznavid chronicler, in 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 part of Mahmud Ghaznavi's army and were sent on his expedition to Tokharistan; on another occasion, Mahmud Ghaznavi attacked and punished a group of opposing Afghans, as also corroborated by Abulfazl Beyhaqi.R. Khanam, Encyclopaedic ethnography of Middle-East and Central Asia: P-Z, Volume 3 - Page 18 It is recorded that Afghans were also enrolled in the Ghurid Kingdom (1148–1215). By the beginning of the Khilji dynasty in 1290, Afghans were well known in northern India.
Ibn Battuta, a famous Moroccan traveler, visiting Kabul following the era of the Khilji dynasty in 1333, wrote that the city had become occupied by Afghans, who "possess considerable strength" and were "mostly highwaymen".
A 16th-century Muslim historian, writing about the history of Muslim rule in the subcontinent, states:
The term "Afghanistan" came into use in 1855 and was officially recognized by the British during the reign of Dost Mohammad Khan.
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 mean "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. The word may also be an evolution of the name of the Aśvakan people, who lived in what is now modern-day Afghanistan."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).
19th- and 20th-century scholars have suggested that the name Afghan was derived from the word Aśvakan, meaning "horsemen" (from aśva or aspa, the Sanskrit and Avestan words for "horse"), or the Assakenoi of Arrian, the name used for ancient inhabitants of the Hindu Kush.* "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). However, more recent scholarship has noted linguistic inconsistencies that call the theory into question.Johnny Cheung (2017), "On the Origin of the Terms "Afghan" & "Pashtun" (Again)", in Enrico Morano, Elio Provasi & Adriano V. Rossi, editors, Rome, Italy: Scienze e Lettere, →ISBN, pages 35
Afghanistan
The last part of the name -stān is a Persian suffix meaning "place of". The Pashto word is found in several languages across 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 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:M. Longworth Dames, G. Morgenstierne, R. Ghirshman, "Afghānistān", in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Online Edition
Historical and obsolete suggestions There are a number of other hypotheses historically suggested for the name, all of them now considered 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, 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 appointed commander-in-chief of the army. Neither Afghana nor Jeremia, son of Saul, appears in the Hebrew Bible. Some four centuries after Afghana, in the 6th century BCE, Bakhtunnasar (Nebuchadnezzar), the king of Babylon, 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 others to the vicinity 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 fought wars with surrounding groups. Khalid bin Walid is said to belong to the tribe of descendants of Afghana in the vicinity of Mecca, although he was actually from the tribe of Quraysh. After converting 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 bestowed blessings on them and gave the name Abdur Rashid to Qais, who returned to Ghor to propagate Islam. Qais had three sons, Sarban, Bettan, and Ghourghusht, who are considered progenitors of various Pashtun tribes.Olaf Caroe, The Pathans: 550 BC - AD 1957, Link Samuel G. Benjamin (1887) derived the name Afghan from a term for 'wailing', which the Persians are said to have used contemptuously for their plaintive eastern neighbors.Persia, p 142, Samuel G. Benjamin. 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 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, meaning "high country".John Charles Griffiths, Afghanistan, pg 13Gary W. Bowersox, Bonita E, Gemstones of Afghanistan, pg 27 Scholars such as Yu Gankovsky have attempted to link "Afghan" to an Uzbek word "Avagan", said to mean "original".Gankovsky, Yu. V., et al. "A History of Afghanistan." Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1982. 8vo. Cloth. 359 p. USD 22.50
See also List of country name etymologies Name of Afghanistan Pashtuns
References
Further reading Biases and Controversies around the word "Afghan" – Nasimfekrat.com
lv:Afganistānas nosaukums sq:Afganët