Afghanistan is one of those civilisations on earth that once stood a stand of time but currently are in the extreme case of anarchy and poverty, majorly due to how the western powers played their cards wrongly. This post shall explore the history of this devastating paradise through various maps sketched by Europeans and how the politics were gambled in these rough and rugged terrains.
Although Afghanistan as a sovereign state came much later into existence, the Afghans as a tribe existed for a longer period. But millennials before even the birth of Islam, the tribes of Yavana, Saka, Jaguda, Ramatha, Lampaka, Asvaka, Gandhara (stretched throughout the Hindu Kush mountain range) and Somagiri are found mentioned in the Indian mythology Ramayana, which denotes the territory of today's Afghanistan. During the Greek era, just before the time when Alexander the Great was on a spree defeating and conquering the First Persian Empire - the Achaemenid (Achæmenid) Empire - spread all throughout from today's Bulgarian coast to the River Indus, thus covering the Afghan country as well. At that time (6th-4th century BC) names such as Harauvatish (Arachosia), Zaranka (Drangiana), Seistan (Sakastan) and Kapisa would denote the Afghan territory. The Kabul River is mentioned as Kubha that also passed through the ancient Gandhara Kingdom that had important settlements such as Puskaravati (Pushkalavati or Shaikhen Dheri, Charsadda, Pakistan) and Kaspapuras or Paskapuras (Peshawar, in today's Pakistan). The towns of Ghazni and Kandahar are also mentioned as Gazaca and Arachotus respectively. Arachotus was also one of the settlements renamed by Alexander as part of his conquests, hence the name Alexandropolis or Alexandria Arachosia is also a synonym for the vicinity of modern-day Kandahar.
The River Sarasvati is core to Hindu culture and although an extinct river, it is also the name of the Hindu Goddess of knowledge, music and art. The course of the extinct river is disputed, however, there was once a tributary of archaic Setumanta River that was also known as Sarasvati. Together, the Setumanta and Sarasvati Rivers is what today we know as the Helmand River (or Helmund) that flows between the Sistan area of Iran-Afghanistan in the west and the Pakistani border of the Arghastan-Arghandab river basin in the east. The ancient Indo-Greeks also had their stretches throughout this country with neighbouring territories marked as Margiana (the territory around Merv, Turkmenistan), Bactria (in today's Tajikistan-Uzbekistan areas) and Sindhu (the Sindh or Indus River valley, Pakistan). The settlement of Drapsaka, the first town captured by Alexander after crossing the Anabasis (the Hindu Kush mountain range, northern Afghanistan-Pakistan) is said to be the modern-day Bala Hissar (outside Kabul city). The northwestern region of Afghanistan is denoted by a slightly bigger country (area-wise), known as Aria that finds its mention in both Indian and Greek history as well.
Another huge empire that spread along these areas was the House of Suren or the Indo-Parthians (19 AD-226 AD) that bordered the Kushanas in the Indian subcontinent, an empire that existed till the 4th century AD. The Kushanas also existed in Afghanistan under King Kanishka, who also finds its place in Indian history. And just before the Islamic conquest of ancient Persia, the Sassanid Empire stretched from Turkey to Afghanistan between 224 AD to 651 AD.
When the Arabs marched into Sistan in 650 AD, the Afghan kingdoms of Bamiyana and Jaguda were the two Buddhist kingdoms, that were either semi-independent or tributaries of the neighbouring Sindhu Kingdom, which is modern-day Sindh, Pakistan. Jaguda is also a synonym for Zabulistan that corresponds to the modern-day Afghan provinces of Zabul and Ghazni. Among the earliest Islamic kingdoms of Afghanistan, apart from Zabulistan and Bamiyan, there existed a Sijistan (former name for Sistan), Kabulistan and Rukhaj and it was around Zabulistan from were the Ghaznavids arrived that would later change the course of Indian history forever. With the Saffarids knocking at the backdoor, the Ghaznavids were one of the earliest Muslims to establish a regime in the territory of the Indian subcontinent at the beginning of the 7th century.
In the Sijistan (or Sistan) territory, the Arab governors carried out repeated aggressions against the local rulers on behalf of the Islamic Caliphate between the 8th to 10th centuries. The Arabic power reached throughout the Indian subcontinent passing via Afghanistan between 735 to 740 AD with their entry point at modern-day Herat. This, was the first step of Islam in Afghanistan, after which the country was hammered with numerous dynasties. This was followed by the existence of the following:
- Abbasids (750-1258)
- Tahirids (821-873)
- Samanids (819-999)
- Ghaznavids (977-1186)
- Ghurids (879-1215)
- Khwarazmians (1077-1231)
- The Ilkhanate (Il Khanate) wing of the Mongol Empire (1256-1335)
- Kartids (1244-1381)
- Timurids (1370-1507)
- Safavids (1501-1736)
- Mughals (1526-1858; the Afghan provinces of Kandahar and Kabul existed under the Mughals till 1709)
- Hotaks (1709-1738)
- Afsharids (1736-1796)
- Durranis (1747-1823; 1839-1842)

2 Comments
Awesome post. Very informative
ReplyDeleteWonderful post, Sagar. Very informative. Love your hand crafted maps.
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