Name of Afghanistan


The name Afghānistān means "land of the Afghans," which originates from the ethnonym "Afghān". Historically, the name "Afghan" mainly designated the Pashtun people, the largest ethnic group of Afghanistan and second-largest in Pakistan. Originating from the name of the Aśvakan or Assakan, ancient inhabitants of the Hindu Kush region, the Persian form Afġān was first attested in the 10th-century geography book Hudud al-'Alam. The last part of the name, -stān, is a Persian suffix for "place".
In the early 19th century, Afghan politicians adopted the name Afghanistan for the entire Durrani Empire after its English translation had already appeared in various treaties with Qajarid Persia and British India. The first time the word Afghanistan was officially used was during signing of Treaty of Gandamak, after defeat of Afghan Emir Yaqoob Khan during Second Anglo-Afghan War.
In 1857, in his review of J.W. Kaye's The Afghan War, Friedrich Engels describes "Afghanistan" as:
Afghanistan was officially recognized as a sovereign state by the international community after the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919 was signed.

Afghanization

It is widely acknowledged that the terms "Pashtun" and Afghan are synonyms, a fact that is mentioned in the 17th-century poetry of Pashtun national poet Khushal Khan Khattak:
Pashtunization has been going on in the region since at least the 8th century. It is a process of a cultural or linguistic change in which something non-Pashtun becomes Pashtun.

Afghan dynasties

According to Ta'rikh-i Yamini, Afghans enrolled in Sabuktigin's Ghaznavid Empire in the 10th century as well as in the later Ghurid Kingdom. From the beginning of the Turko-Afghan Khalji dynasty in 1290, Afghans are becoming more recognized in history among the Delhi Sultanate of India. The later Lodi dynasty and Sur dynasty of Delhi were both made up of Afghans, whose rule stretched to as far as what is now Bangladesh in the east. Other Afghan dynasties emerged during the 18th century, namely the Hotak dynasty and the Durrani Empire which covered huge swathes of Central and South Asia.

Early references to Afghans

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. In Sanskrit, the word ashva means "horse", and 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 Sanskrit grammarian Pāṇini calls them Ashvakayana and Ashvayana.
The word Abgan is mentioned in the third century CE by the Sassanians and as Avagana in the 6th century CE by Indian astronomer Varahamihira. A people called the Afghans are mentioned several times in a 10th-century geography book, Hudud al-'alam, particularly where a reference is made to a village: "Saul, a pleasant village on a mountain. In it live Afghans."
Al-Biruni referred to them in the 11th century as various tribes living on the western frontier mountains of the Indus River. Ibn Battuta, a famous Moroccan scholar visiting the region in 1333, writes: "We travelled on to Kabul, formerly a vast town, the site of which is now occupied by a village inhabited by a tribe of Persians called Afghans. They hold mountains and defiles and possess considerable strength, and are mostly highwaymen. Their principle mountain is called Kuh Sulayman."

Afghanistan

The earliest mention of the term "Afghanistan" appears in the 13th century in Tarikh nama-i-Herat by Sayf ibn Muhammad ibn Yaqub al-Herawi, mentioning it as a country between Khorasan and Hind, paying tributes to the country of Shamsuddin.
Furthermore the name "Afghanistan" is mentioned in writing by the 16th century Mughal ruler Babur, referring to a territory south of Kabulistan.
The name "Afghanistan" is also mentioned many times in the writings of the 16th century historian, Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah, and many others.

Last Afghan empire

Regarding the modern sovereign state of Afghanistan, the Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Iranica, and others explain that the political history of Afghanistan begins in 1709 with the rise of the Hotaki dynasty, which was established by Mir Wais Hotak who is regarded as "Mirwais Neeka".
The Encyclopaedia of Islam states:
British India eventually became Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

Modern names

Modern terms for Afghan and Afghanistan in local and neighboring languages:
LanguageAfghanAfghanistan
Balochiافغانستان
Chinese阿富汗
Hindi-Urduअफ़ग़ानअफ़ग़ानिस्तान / افغانستان
KyrgyzОоганстан
Pashtoافغانافغانستان
Persianافغانافغانستان
Punjabiਅਫ਼ਗ਼ਾਨਿਸਤਾਨ / افغانستان
RussianАфганистанецАфганистан
TurkmenOwganystandaOwganystan
Uyghurئافغانىستان
UzbekAfgʻonAfgʻoniston
TajikАфғонистон