Theories of Pashtun origin

Historically, there have been multiple claims and theories conceived that concern the origin of the Pashtun people, who are classified as an Iranic ethnic group native to Central and South Asia.[1][2]

It has always been generally acknowledged that their origins were obscure.[3][4] The early precursors to modern-day Pashtuns may have been old Iranian tribes that spread throughout the eastern Iranian plateau.[5][6] Modern scholars suggest that a common and singular origin between the Pashtun tribes is highly unlikely due to their existence as a tribal confederation, in fact there is no evidence whatsoever that all modern Pashtuns share the same ethnic origin.[7]

The most prominent theories of Pashtun origin are:

  1. Descent from the Pakthas, an ancient people referenced in Sanskrit and Greek sources who inhabited the northwestern outskirts of the Indian subcontinent, in what is today southeastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan.
  2. Descent from the Saka, a group of nomadic Iranic peoples who historically inhabited the Eurasian Steppe and the Tarim Basin.
  3. Descent from the Hephthalites (also known as the White Huns), a late-antiquity nomadic confederation in Central Asia.[2][8]
  4. Descent from Indian Rajput peoples with Greek admixture[9][10]
  5. The traditional legend of descent from the Ten Lost Tribes of the ancient Israelites through Saul, the first king of Israel.

Connection with ancient Vedic tribe Pakthas

Historians have come across several references to various ancient peoples called Pakthas (Pactyans) between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC,[11] who may be their early ancestors.

The Vedic people of the region were historically known as the Pakthas, and were identified by the Ancient Greeks as the Pactyans, and considered as ancestors of modern Pakthuns.

There is mention of the tribe called Pakthās who were one of the Vedic tribes that fought against Sudas in the Dasarajna the Battle of the Ten Kings (dāśarājñá), a battle alluded to in Mandala 7 of the Rigveda (RV 7.18.7).[12] dated between c. 1500 and 1200 BCE.[12] The Pakthās are mentioned:[13]

Together came the Pakthas (पक्था), the Bhalanas, the Alinas, the Sivas, the Visanins. Yet to the Trtsus came the Ārya's Comrade, through love of spoil and heroes' war, to lead them.

— Rigveda, Book 7, Hymn 18, Verse 7

Heinrich Zimmer connects them with a tribe mentioned by Herodotus (Pactyans) in 430 BCE in the Histories:[14][15][16]

Other Indians dwell near the town of Caspatyrus [Κασπάτυρος] and the Pactyic [Πακτυϊκή] country, north of the rest of India; these live like the Bactrians; they are of all Indians the most warlike, and it is they who are sent for the gold; for in these parts all is desolate because of the sand.

— Herodotus, The Histories, Book III, Chapter 102, Section 1

Heinrich Zimmer connects them with a tribe mentioned by Herodotus (Pactyans) in 430 BCE in the Histories:[17][18][19]

Other Indians dwell near the town of Caspatyrus[Κασπατύρῳ] and the Pactyic [Πακτυϊκῇ] country, north of the rest of India; these live like the Bactrians; they are of all Indians the most warlike, and it is they who are sent for the gold; for in these parts all is desolate because of the sand.

— Herodotus, The Histories, Book III, Chapter 102, Section 1

These Pactyans lived on the eastern frontier of the Achaemenid Arachosia Satrapy as early as the 1st millennium BCE.[20] Herodotus also mentions a tribe of known as Aparytai (Ἀπαρύται).[21] Thomas Holdich has linked them with the Afridi tribe:[22][23][24]

The Sattagydae, Gandarii, Dadicae, and Aparytae (Ἀπαρύται) paid together a hundred and seventy talents; this was the seventh province

— Herodotus, The Histories, Book III, Chapter 91, Section 4

Joseph Marquart made the connection of the Pashtuns with names such as the Parsiētai (Παρσιῆται), Parsioi (Πάρσιοι) that were cited by Ptolemy 150 CE:[25][26]

"The northern regions of the country are inhabited by the Bolitai, the western regions by the Aristophyloi below whom live the Parsioi (Πάρσιοι). The southern regions are inhabited by the Parsiētai (Παρσιῆται), the eastern regions by the Ambautai. The towns and villages lying in the country of the Paropanisadai are these: Parsiana Zarzaua/Barzaura Artoarta Baborana Kapisa niphanda"

— Ptolemy, 150 CE, 6.18.3-4

Strabo, the Greek geographer, in the Geographica (written between 43 BC to 23 AD) makes mention of the Scythian tribe Pasiani (Πασιανοί), which has also been identified with Pashtuns given that Pashto is an Eastern-Iranian language, much like the Scythian languages:[27][28][29][30][31]

"Most of the Scythians...each separate tribe has its peculiar name. All, or the greatest part of them, are nomades. The best known tribes are those who deprived the Greeks of Bactriana, the Asii, Pasiani, Tochari, and Sacarauli, who came from the country on the other side of the Iaxartes (Syr Darya)"

— Strabo, The Geography, Book XI, Chapter 8, Section 2

This is considered a different rendering of Ptolemy's Parsioi (Πάρσιοι).[30] Johnny Cheung,[32] reflecting on Ptolemy's Parsioi (Πάρσιοι) and Strabo's Pasiani (Πασιανοί) states: "Both forms show slight phonetic substitutions, viz. of υ for ι, and the loss of r in Pasianoi is due to perseveration from the preceding Asianoi. They are therefore the most likely candidates as the (linguistic) ancestors of modern day Pashtuns."[33]

Saka origin
Head of a Saka warrior

Pashto is generally classified as an Eastern Iranian language.[34][35][36] It shares features with the Munji language, which is the closest existing language to the extinct Bactrian,[37] but also shares features with the Sogdian language, as well as Khwarezmian, Shughni, Sanglechi, and Khotanese Saka.[38]

It is suggested by some that Pashto may have originated in the Badakhshan region and is connected to a Saka language akin to Khotanese.[39] In fact major linguist Georg Morgenstierne has described Pashto as a Saka dialect and many others have observed the similarities between Pashto and other Saka languages as well, suggesting that the original Pashto speakers might have been a Saka group.[40][41] Furthermore Pashto and Ossetian, another Scythian-descending language, share cognates in their vocabulary which other Eastern Iranian languages lack[42] Cheung suggests a common isogloss between Pashto and Ossetian which he explains by an undocumented Saka dialect being spoken close to reconstructed Old Pashto which was likely spoken north of the Oxus at that time.[43] Others however have suggested a much older Iranic ancestor given the affinity to Old Avestan.[44]

Hephthalite (White Hun) descent

Yu. V. Gankovsky, a Soviet historian proposes an Ephthalite origin for Pashtuns.[45][46][47]

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. ... Of the contribution of the Epthalites (White Huns) to the ethnogenesis of the Pashtuns we find evidence in the ethnonym of the largest of the Pashtun tribe unions, the Abdali (Durrani after 1747) associated with the ethnic name of the Epthalites — Abdal. The Siah-posh, the Kafirs (Nuristanis) of the Hindu Kush, called all Pashtuns by a general name of Abdal still at the beginning of the 19th century.

According to Georg Morgenstierne, the Durrani tribe who were known as the "Abdali" before the formation of the Durrani Empire 1747,[48] might be connected to with the Hephthalites;[49] Aydogdy Kurbanov endorses this view who proposes that after the collapse of the Hephthalite confederacy, Hephthalite likely assimilated into different local populations.[50]

Others draw different conclusions. Ghilji tribe has been connected to the Khalaj people.[51] Following al-Khwarizmi, Josef Markwart claimed the Khalaj to be remnants of the Hephthalite confederacy.[52] The Hephthalites may have been Indo-Iranian,[52] although the view that they were of Turkic Gaoju origin[53] "seems to be most prominent at present".[54] The Khalaj may originally have been Turkic-speaking and only federated with Iranian Pashto-speaking tribes in Medieval times.[55]

However, according to linguist Sims-Williams, archaeological documents do not support the suggestion that the Khalaj were the successors of the Hephthalites,[56] while according to historian V. Minorsky, the Khalaj were "perhaps only politically associated with the Hephthalites."[57]

Rajput theory

The British physician and authority on oriental languages, Henry Walter Bellew, accredited for writing the first Pushtu dictionary in colonial India, suggested that the Pashtuns (Pathans) are Rajput peoples with Greek admixture.[58][9][10] Bellew’s theory was that all Pashtun tribal names could be traced to Greek and Rajput names, which posits the further possibility of a great Greek mixing with the ancient border tribes of India.[58][59][60]

The renowned Arab historian Masudi wrote that “Qandhar” (Gandhara in modern-day Pakistan),[61] "is a country of Rajputs" and was a separate kingdom with a non-Muslim ruler.[62] Scholars and historians have mentioned that Masudi is not referring to the modern city of Kandahar, but rather the area of Gandhar(gandhara) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa[63] Some of the earlier Muslim writers spell Gandhara as Qandhar, so to avoid confusion other Muslim writers have found it necessary to distinguish Gandhara the area mentioned by Masudi from the city Kandahar by giving the former a composite name: “Qandhar al-Hind“.[64]

Bani Israel theory

Some anthropologists lend credence to the 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 Nimat Allah al-Harawi, who compiled a history for Khan-e-Jehan Lodhi in the reign of Mughal Emperor Jehangir in the 17th century.[65] The 13th century Tabaqat-i Nasiri discusses the settlement of immigrant Bani Israel at the end of the 8th century CE in the Ghor region of Afghanistan, settlement attested by Jewish inscriptions in Ghor. Historian André Wink suggests that the story "may contain a clue to the remarkable theory of the Jewish origin of some of the Afghan tribes which is persistently advocated in the Persian-Afghan chronicles."[66] These references to Bani Israel agree with the commonly held view by Pashtuns that when the twelve tribes of Israel were dispersed, the tribe of Joseph, among other Hebrew tribes, settled in the Afghanistan region.[67] This oral tradition is widespread among the Pashtun tribes. 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 many historians, including the 14th century Ibn Battuta and 16th century Ferishta.[68] However, the similarity of names can also be traced to the presence of Arabic through Islam.[69]

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.[70]

Some Afghan historians have maintained that Pashtuns are linked to the ancient Israelites. Mohan Lal quoted Mountstuart Elphinstone who wrote:

"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 (Muhammad) the Afghans of Ghore listened to the invitation of their Arabian brethren, the chief of whom was Khauled...if we consider the easy way with which all rude nations receive accounts favourable to their own antiquity, I fear we much class the descents of the Afghans from the Jews with that of the Romans and the British from the Trojans, and that of the Irish from the Milesians or Brahmins."[71]

— Mountstuart Elphinstone, 1841

This theory has been criticised by not being substantiated by historical evidence.[69] Dr. Zaman Stanizai criticises this theory:[69]

"The ‘mythified’ misconception that the Pashtuns are the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel is a fabrication popularized in 14th-century India. A claim that is full of logical inconsistencies and historical incongruities, and stands in stark contrast to the conclusive evidence of the Indo-Iranian origin of Pashtuns supported by the incontrovertible DNA sequencing that the genome analysis revealed scientifically."

— [69]

According to genetic studies Pashtuns have a greater R1a1a*-M198 modal halogroup than Jews:[72]

"Our study demonstrates genetic similarities between Pathans from Afghanistan and Pakistan, both of which are characterized by the predominance of haplogroup R1a1a*-M198 (>50%) and the sharing of the same modal haplotype...Although Greeks and Jews have been proposed as ancestors to Pathans, their genetic origin remains ambiguous...Overall, Ashkenazi Jews exhibit a frequency of 15.3% for haplogroup R1a1a-M198"

— "Afghanistan from a Y-chromosome perspective", European Journal of Human Genetics

Other theories of descent

Some Pashtun tribes claim descent from Arabs, including some claiming to be Sayyids (descendants of Muhammad).[73] Some groups from Peshawar and Kandahar believe to be descended from Greeks who arrived with Alexander the Great.[74] According to Firasat et al. 2007, only a small proportion of Pashtuns may descend from Greeks, but they also suggest that Greek ancestry may also have come from Greek slaves brought by Xerxes I.[75]

One historical account connects the Pashtuns to a possible Ancient Egyptian past but this lacks supporting evidence.[76]

Henry Walter Bellew (1864) was of the view that the Pashtuns likely have mixed Greek and Rajput roots.[77][78][79] Following Alexander's brief occupation, the successor state of the Seleucid Empire expanded influence on the Pashtuns until 305 BCE when they gave up dominating power to the Indian Maurya Empire as part of an alliance treaty.[80]

See also

References
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  2. Khalil, Hanif & Iqbal, Javed (2011). "An Analysis of the Different Theories About the Origin of the Pashtoons" (PDF). Balochistan Review. 24 (1): 45–54. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 February 2013.
  3. ... but to speak the truth, the origin of the Afghans [Pashtuns] is so obscure, that no one, even among the oldest and most clever of the tribe, can give satisfactory information on this point Lal, Mohan (1846). Life of the Amir Dost Mohammed Khan of Kabul. Vol. 1. Longman. p. 3. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  4. "Pashtun". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 15 March 2016. The origins of the Pashtun are unclear.
  5. "Old Iranian Online". University of Texas at Austin. Archived from the original on 24 September 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2007.
  6. "Pashtun | people". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 8 November 2020. ...though most scholars believe it more likely that they arose from an intermingling of ancient Aryans from the north or west with subsequent invaders.
  7. Vogelsang, Willem (2002). The Afghans. Oxford, England: Blackwell. p. 18. ISBN 0-631-19841-5.
  8. Behrooz, Maziar (ed.). "A Brief History of Afghanistan". San Francisco State University. Archived from the original on 14 March 2016.
  9. Sir Olaf Caroe (2003). "The Pathans – 550 BC - AD 1957". Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 4 March 2008. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  10. Swatis and Afridis, By T. H. Holdich, The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 29, No. 1/2 (1899), pp. 2-9 (retrieved 04 May 2007).
  11. Nath, Samir (2002). Dictionary of Vedanta. Sarup & Sons. p. 273. ISBN 81-7890-056-4.
  12. p. 2 "Some Aspects of Ancient Indian Culture" By D. R. Bhandarkar
  13. "Rig Veda: Rig-Veda, Book 7: HYMN XVIII. Indra". www.sacred-texts.com.
  14. "Herodotus, The Histories, Book 3, chapter 102, section 1". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
  15. Macdonell, A.A. and Keith, A.B. 1912. The Vedic Index of Names and Subjects.
  16. Map of the Median Empire, showing Pactyans territory in what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan, Link
  17. Macdonell, A.A. and Keith, A.B. 1912. The Vedic Index of Names and Subjects.
  18. Map of the Median Empire, showing Pactyans territory in what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan...Link
  19. "Herodotus, The Histories, Book 3, chapter 102, section 1". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  20. "The History of Herodotus Chapter 7, Written 440 B.C.E, Translated by George Rawlinson". Piney.com. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  21. "The History of Herodotus Book 3, Chapter 91, Verse 4; Written 440 B.C.E, Translated by G. C. Macaulay". sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  22. "Herodotus, The Histories, Book 3, chapter 91, section 4". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  23. Dani, Ahmad Hasan (2007). History of Pakistan: Pakistan through ages. Sang-e Meel Publications. p. 77. ISBN 978-969-35-2020-0.
  24. Holdich, Thomas (12 March 2019). The Gates of India, Being an Historical Narrative. Creative Media Partners, LLC. pp. 28, 31. ISBN 978-0-530-94119-6.
  25. Ptolemy; Humbach, Helmut; Ziegler, Susanne (1998). Geography, book 6 : Middle East, Central and North Asia, China. Part 1. Text and English/German translations (in Greek). Reichert. p. 224. ISBN 978-3-89500-061-4.
  26. Marquart, Joseph. Untersuchungen zur geschichte von Eran II (1905) (in German). p. 177.
  27. "Strabo, Geography, BOOK XI., CHAPTER VIII., section 2". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  28. Sagar, Krishna Chandra (1 January 1992). Foreign Influence on Ancient India. Northern Book Centre. p. 91. ISBN 9788172110284. According to Strabo (c. 54 B.C., A.D. 24), who refers to the authority of Apollodorus of Artemia [sic], the Greeks of Bactria became masters of Ariana, a vague term roughly indicating the eastern districts of the Persian empire, and of India.
  29. Sinor, Denis, ed. (1990). The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 117. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521243049. ISBN 978-0-521-24304-9. All contemporary historians, archeologists and linguists are agreed that since the Scythian and Sarmatian tribes were of the Iranian linguistic group...
  30. Humbach, Helmut; Faiss, Klaus (2012). Herodotus's Scythians and Ptolemy's Central Asia: Semasiological and Onomasiological Studies. Reichert Verlag. p. 21. ISBN 978-3-89500-887-0.
  31. Alikuzai, Hamid Wahed (October 2013). A Concise History of Afghanistan in 25 Volumes. Trafford Publishing. p. 142. ISBN 978-1-4907-1441-7.
  32. Cheung, Johnny. "Cheung2017-On the Origin of the Terms "Afghan" & "Pashtun" (Again) - Gnoli Memorial Volume.pdf": 39. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  33. Morano, Enrico; Provasi, Elio; Rossi, Adriano Valerio (2017). "On the Origin of Terms Afghan and Pashtun". Studia Philologica Iranica: Gherardo Gnoli Memorial Volume. Scienze e lettere. p. 39. ISBN 978-88-6687-115-6.
  34. "Encolypedia Iranica, AFGHANISTAN vi. Paṣ̌tō". (69) Paṣ̌tō undoubtedly belongs to the Northeastern Iranic branch. It shares with Munǰī the change of *δ > l, but this tendency extends also to Sogdian
  35. Comrie, Bernard (2009). The World's Major Languages. Pashto belongs to the North-Eastern group within the Iranian Languages
  36. Afghanistan volume 28. Historical Society of Afghanistan. 1975. Pashto originally belonged to the north - eastern branch of the Iranic languages
  37. Waghmar, Burzine; Frye, Richard N. (2001). "Bactrian History and Language: An Overview". Journal of the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute. 64: 40–48.
  38. "Encolypedia Iranica, AFGHANISTAN vi. Paṣ̌tō". It shares with Munǰī the change of *δ > l, but this tendency extends also to Sogdian. The Waṇ. dialect shares with Munǰī the change of -t- > -y-/0. If we want to assume that this agreement points to some special connection, and not to a secondary, parallel development, we should have to admit that one branch of pre-Paṣ̌tō had already, before the splitting off of Waṇ., retained some special connection with Munǰī, an assumption unsupported by any other facts. Apart from l <*δ the only agreement between Paṣ̌tō and Munǰī appears to be Pṣ̌t. zə; Munǰī zo/a "I." Note also Pṣ̌t. l but Munǰī x̌ < θ (Pṣ̌t. plan "wide," cal(w)or "four," but Munǰī paҳəy, čfūr, Yidḡa čšīr < *čəҳfūr). Paṣ̌tō has dr-, wr- < *θr-, *fr- like Khotanese Saka (see above 23). An isolated, but important, agreement with Sangl. is the remarkable change of *rs/z > Pṣ̌t. ҳt/ǧd; Sangl. ṣ̌t/ẓ̌d (obəҳta "juniper;" Sangl. wəṣ̌t; (w)ūǧd "long;" vəẓ̌dük) (see above 25). But we find similar development also in Shugh. ambaҳc, vūγ̌j. The most plausible explanation seems to be that *rs (with unvoiced r) became *ṣ̌s and, with differentiation *ṣ̌c, and *rz, through *ẓ̌z > ẓ̌j (from which Shugh. ҳc, γ̌j). Pṣ̌t. and Sangl. then shared a further differentiation into ṣ̌t, ẓ̌d ( > Pṣ̌t. ҳt, ğd).
  39. "Encolypedia Iranica, AFGHANISTAN vi. Paṣ̌tō". It is, however, possible that the original home of Paṣ̌tō may have been in Badaḵšān, somewhere between Munǰī and Sangl. and Shugh., with some contact with a Saka dialect akin to Khotanese.
  40. Indo-Iranica. Kolkata, India: Iran Society. 1946. pp. 173–174. ... and their language is most closely related to on the one hand with Saka on the other with Munji-Yidgha
  41. Bečka, Jiří (1969). A Study in Pashto Stress. Academia. p. 32. Pashto in its origin, is probably a Saka dialect.
  42. Cheung, Jonny (2007). Etymological Dictionary of the Iranian Verb. (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series).
  43. Cheung, Jonny (2007). Etymological dictionary of the Iranian verb. (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series).
  44. "Enyclopedia Iranica, AFGHANISTAN vi. Paṣ̌tō". But it seems that the Old Iranic ancestor dialect of Paṣ̌tō must have been close to that of the Gathas.
  45. Gankovsky, Yu. V. (1982). A History of Afghanistan. Progress Publishers. p. 382.
  46. Quddus, Syed Abdul (1987). The Pathans. Moscow: Ferozsons. p. 29. ISBN 9789690006813. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
  47. Kurbanov pp238-243
  48. Runion, Meredith L. (24 April 2017). The History of Afghanistan, 2nd Edition. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781610697781.
  49. Morgenstierne, Georg (1979). "The Linguistic Stratification of Afghanistan". Afghan Studies. 2: 23–33.
  50. Kurbano, Aydogdy. "THE HEPHTHALITES: ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ANALYSIS" (PDF). Department of History and Cultural Studies of the Free University, Berlin (PhD Thesis): 242. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022. The Hephthalites may also have participated in the origin of the Afghans. The Afghan tribe Abdal is one of the big tribes that has lived there for centuries. Renaming the Abdals to Durrani occurred in 1747, when descendants from the Sadozai branch Zirak of this tribe, Ahmad-khan Abdali, became the shah of Afghanistan. In 1747 the tribe changed its name to "Durrani" when Ahmad khan became the first king of Afghanistan and accepted the title "Dur-i-Duran" (the pearl of pearls, from Arabian: "durr" – pearl).
  51. Minorsky, V. "The Khalaj West of the Oxus". Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London. 10 (2): 417–437. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00087607. S2CID 162589866. Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. The fact is that the important Ghilzai tribe occupies now the region round Ghazni, where the Khalaj used to live and that historical data all point, to the transformation of the Turkish Khalaj into Afghan Ghilzai.
  52. "ḴALAJ i. TRIBE" - Encyclopaedia Iranica, December 15, 2010 (Pierre Oberling)
  53. de la Vaissière 2003, pp. 119–137.
  54. Rezakhani 2017, p. 135. "The suggestion that the Hephthalites were originally of Turkic origin and only later adopted Bactrian as their administrative, and possibly native, language (de la Vaissière 2007: 122) seems to be most prominent at present."
  55. "Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica".
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  60. Bellew, Henry Walter (1879). Afghanistan and the Afghans. S. Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington. p. 218. Of the several tribes reckoned as Pukhtun or Pathan several are evidently of Indian origin, judging from their names, such as the Khatrini (Khatri or Hindu military caste), Sheorani (Shiva sect of Hindus), Kakar (Gakar tribe of Indians in the north Panjab), Tori (Tuari tribe of Rajputs), &c. All these Pathan tribes are located on the Suleman and Khybar ranges from the Kabul river in the north to the Kaura or Vahou Pass in the south.
  61. https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/11229/1/Rehman_A_1976.pdf
  62. Quddus, Syed Abdul (1987). The Pathans. Ferozsons. p. 28. Grierson finds a form Paithan in use in the East Gangetic Valley to denote a Muslim Rajput. Bellew, one of the greatest authorities on Pathans, notes that several characteristics are common to both the Rajputs and the Afghans and suggests that Sarban, one of the ancestors of the Afghans, was a corruption of the word Suryabans (solar race) from which many Rajputs claim descent. The great Muslim historian Masudi writes that Qandhar was a separate kingdom with a non- Muslim ruler and states that it is a country of Rajputs. It would be pertinent to mention here that at the time of Masudi most of the Afghans were concentrated in Qandahar and adjacent areas and had not expanded to the north. Therefore, it is highly significant that Masudi should call Qandahar a Rajput country.
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