Afghan (ethnonym)


The ethnonym Afghan has been used in the past to denote a member of the Pashtuns, and sometimes that usage still persists. The name Afghanistan is a derivation from the ethnonym Afghan, originally in the loose meaning "land of the Pashtuns" and referred to the Pashtun tribal areas south of the Hindu Kush mountains.
The ethnonym Afghān may have originated from the name of the Aśvakan or Assakan, ancient inhabitants of the Kunar, Swat, and adjoining valleys in the Hindu Kush. In the 3rd century, the Sassanids mentioned an eastern tribe called Abgân, which is attested in its Persian form Afġān in the 10th century Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam. Through the nineteenth century, the term "Afghan" was used by various writers as a synonym for "Pashtun". However, since the Afghan Constitution of 1964, "Afghan" officially refers to every citizen of the state of Afghanistan, regardless which ethnic group the individual belongs to.

Etymology

The etymological view supported by numerous noted scholars is that the name Afghan evidently derives from Sanskrit Aśvakan, q.v. the Assakenoi of Arrian. This view was propounded by scholars like Christian Lassen, J. W. McCrindle, M. V. de Saint Martin, and É. Reclus, and has been supported by numerous modern scholars.
The Sanskrit word ashva, Avestan aspa, and Prakrit assa mean "horse", while ashvaka means "horseman", "horse people", "land of horses", as well as "horse breeders". Pre-Christian times knew the people of the Hindu Kush region as Ashvakan, which literally means "horsemen", "horse breeders", or "cavalrymen", since they raised a fine breed of horses and had a reputation for providing expert cavalrymen. The 5th-century-BCE Indian grammarian Pāṇini calls them Ashvakayana and Ashvayana. Mahabharata mentions them as Ashvaka. Classical writers, however, use the respective equivalents Aspasioi and Assakenoi etc. The Aspasioi/Assakenoi is stated to be another name for the ancient Iranian Kambojas of ancient texts because of their equestrian characteristics. Alexander Cunningham and a few other scholars identify these designations with the modern name Afghan.
The Indian epic Mahabharata speaks about Kambojas among the finest horsemen, and ancient Pali texts describe their lands as the land of horses. Kambojas spoke Avestan language and followed Zoroastrianism. Some scholars believe Zoroastrianism originated in land of Kambojas.
The names of the Aspasioi and the Aśvaka may be also preserved in that of the Esapzai tribe of Pashtuns, who are mostly based in northern and eastern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan and parts of eastern Afghanistan. McCrindle noted: "The name of the Aśvaka indicates that their country was renowned in primitive times, as it is at the present day, for its superior breed of horses. The fact that the Greeks translated their name into "Hippasioi" shows that they must have been aware of its etymological signification."
The earliest mention of the name Afghan is by Shapur I of the Sassanid Empire during the 3rd century CE, which is later recorded in the 6th century in the form of "Avagāṇa" by the Indian astronomer Varāha Mihira in his Brihat-samhita.
The Encyclopædia Iranica explains:
Hiven Tsiang, a Chinese Buddhist pilgrim visiting the Afghanistan area several times between 630 and 644 CE, speaks about the native tribes inhabiting the region. According to scholars such as V. Minorsky, W.K. Frazier Tyler and M.C. Gillet, the word Afghan has appeared in the 982 Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam, where a reference is made to a village.
Saul was probably located near Gardez, in the Paktia province of Afghanistan. Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam also speaks of a king in "Ninhar", who shows a public display of conversion to Islam, even though he has over 30 wives, which are described as Muslim, Afghan, and pagan or Hindu wives. Some of these names were used as geographical terms. For example, "Hindu" has been used historically as a geographical term to describe someone who was native from the general region known as Hindustan or the land of the Indus river.
Al-Utbi, the Ghaznavid chronicler, in his Tarikh-i Yamini records that many Afghans and Khiljis enlisted in the army of Sabuktigin after Jayapala was defeated. Al-Utbi further states that Afghans and Ghiljis made a part of Mahmud Ghaznavi's army and were sent on his expedition to Tocharistan, while on another occasion Mahmud Ghaznavi attacked and punished a group of opposing Afghans, as also corroborated by Abulfazl Beyhaqi. In the 11th century, Afghans are mentioned in Al-Biruni's Tarikh-ul Hind, which describes groups of rebellious Afghans in the tribal lands west of the Indus River in what is today Pakistan. It is recorded that Afghans were also enrolled in the Ghurid Kingdom. By the beginning of the Khilji dynasty in 1290, Afghans have been well known in northern India.
Ibn Battuta, a famous Moroccan traveler, visiting Afghanistan following the era of the Khilji dynasty in 1333 writes.
A 16th-century Muslim historian writing about the history of Muslim rule in the subcontinent states:
In the writings of the 17th-century Pashto poet Khushal Khattak, it states "Pull out your sword and slay any one, that says Pashtun and Afghan are not one! Arabs know this and so do Romans: Afghans are Pashtuns, Pashtuns are Afghans!"

Afghanistan

The last part of the name -stān is a Persian suffix for "place of", the Pashto translation of which is stogna prominent in many languages of Asia. The name Afghanistan is mentioned in writing by the 16th century Mughal rulers Babur and his descendants, referring to the territory between Khorasan, Kabulistan, and the Indus River, which was inhabited by tribes of Afghans.
The name "Afghanistan" is also mentioned many times in the writings of the 16th-century historian, Ferishta, and many others.
Regarding the modern state of Afghanistan, the Encyclopædia Of Islam explains:

Historical and obsolete suggestions

There are a number of other hypotheses suggested for the name historically, all of them obsolete.