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69-543: Kafiristan took its name from the enduring kafir (non-Muslim) Nuristani inhabitants who once followed a distinct form of ancient Hinduism mixed with locally developed accretions; they were thus known to the surrounding predominantly Sunni Muslim population as Kafirs , meaning "disbelievers" or "infidels". They are closely related to the Kalash people , an independent people with a distinctive culture, language and religion. The area extending from modern Nooristan to Kashmir

138-513: A dahri . One type of kafir is a mushrik (مشرك), another group of religious wrongdoer mentioned frequently in the Quran and other Islamic works . Several concepts of vice are seen to revolve around the concept of kufr in the Quran. Historically, while Islamic scholars agreed that a mushrik was a kafir , they sometimes disagreed on the propriety of applying the term to Muslims who committed

207-406: A kafir is known as takfir , a practice that has been condemned but also employed in theological and political polemics over the centuries. A dhimmi or mu'ahid is a historical term for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state with legal protection. Dhimmis were exempt from certain duties specifically assigned to Muslims if they paid the jizya poll tax, but otherwise equal under

276-578: A Muslim commits a punishable offense if they say to a Jew or a Christian: "Thou unbeliever". Charles Adams and A. Kevin Reinhart also write that "later thinkers" in Islam distinguished between ahl al-kitab and the polytheists/ mushrikīn . Historically, People of the Book permanently residing under Islamic rule were entitled to a special status known as dhimmī , while those visiting Muslim lands received

345-413: A different status known as musta'min . The mushrikun are those who believe in shirk 'association', which refers to accepting other gods and divinities alongside God . The term is often translated as polytheist . The Quran distinguishes between mushrikun and People of the Book, reserving the former term for idol worshipers, although some classical commentators considered Christian doctrine to be

414-541: A form of shirk. Shirk is held to be the worst form of disbelief and it is identified in the Quran as the only sin that God will not pardon ( 4:48 , 4:116 ). Accusations of shirk have been common in religious polemics within Islam. Thus, in the early Islamic debates on free will and theodicy , Sunni theologians charged their Mutazila adversaries with shirk , accusing them of attributing to man creative powers comparable to those of God in both originating and executing actions. Mu'tazila theologians, in turn, charged

483-544: A grave sin or the People of the Book . The Quran distinguishes between mushrikūn and People of the Book, reserving the former term for idol worshippers, although some classical commentators considered the Christian doctrine to be a form of shirk . In modern times, kafir is sometimes applied to self-professed Muslims, particularly by members of Islamist movements . The act of declaring another self-professed Muslim

552-403: A long period. Earlier, it was surrounded by Buddhist states and societies which temporarily extended literacy and state rule to the region. The journey to the region was perilous according to reports of Chinese pilgrims Faxian and Song Yun . The decline of Buddhism resulted in the region becoming heavily isolated. The Islamization of the nearby Badakhshan began in the 8th century and Peristan

621-543: A paraphrase of the tafsir by Ibn Kathir , there are eight kinds of Al-Kufr al-Akbar (major unbelief), some are the same as those described by Al-Hilali ( Kufr-al-I'rad , Kufr-an-Nifaaq ) and some different. In Islam, jahiliyyah ('ignorance') refers to the time of Arabia before Islam . When the Islamic empire expanded, the word kafir was broadly used as a descriptive term for all pagans and anyone else who disbelieved in Islam. Historically,

690-466: A person refusing to accept Islam as his faith; it is commonly translated into English as a "non-believer". However, the influence from district names in Kafiristan of Katwar or Kator and the ethnic name Kati has also been suggested. Kafiristan was inhabited by people who followed a form of Paganism before their conversion to Islam in 1895–1896. Ancient Kapiśa janapada , located south-east of

759-478: A receipt of payment, either in the form of a piece of paper or parchment or as a seal humiliatingly placed upon their neck, and was thereafter compelled to carry this receipt wherever they went within the realms of Islam. Failure to produce an up-to-date jizya receipt on the request of a Muslim could result in death or forced conversion to Islam of the dhimmī in question. Various types of unbelief recognized by legal scholars include: Muslim belief/doctrine

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828-437: A variety of cereals, many kinds of fruits, and a scented root called yu-kin , probably of the grass khus, or vetiver . The people used woollen and fur clothes; also gold, silver and copper coins. Objects of merchandise from all parts were found here. The area extending from modern Nooristan to Kashmir was known as "Peristan", a vast area containing a host of "Kafir" cultures and Indo-European languages that became Islamized over

897-568: Is an Arabic term in Islam which refers to a person who disbelieves the God in Islam , denies his authority, rejects the tenets of Islam, or simply is not a Muslim —one who does not believe in the guidance of Muhammad , the Islamic prophet . Kafir is often translated as ' infidel ', ' pagan ', 'rejector', ' denier ', 'disbeliever', 'unbeliever', 'nonbeliever', and 'non-Muslim'. The term

966-640: Is often summarized in " the Six Articles of Faith ", (the first five are mentioned together in the 2:285 ). According to the Salafi scholar Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din al-Hilali , " kufr is basically disbelief in any of the articles of faith." He also lists several different types of major disbelief, (disbelief so severe it excludes those who practice it completely from the fold of Islam): Minor disbelief or Kufran-Ni'mah indicates "ungratefulness of God's Blessings or Favours". According to another source,

1035-408: Is the active participle of the verb كَفَرَ , kafara , from root ك-ف-ر K-F-R . As a pre-Islamic term it described farmers burying seeds in the ground. One of its applications in the Quran has also the same meaning as farmer. Since farmers cover the seeds with soil while planting, the word kāfir implies a person who hides or covers. Ideologically, it implies a person who hides or covers

1104-542: Is the third of three"), among other verses, has been traditionally understood in Islam as rejection of the Christian doctrine on the Trinity , though modern scholarship has suggested alternative interpretations. Other Quranic verses strongly deny the deity of Jesus Christ , son of Mary and reproach the people who treat Jesus as equal with God as disbelievers who will have strayed from the path of God which would result in

1173-438: Is unjust), which makes him a kafir . The most fundamental sense of kufr in the Quran is 'ingratitude', the willful refusal to acknowledge or appreciate the benefits that God bestows on humankind, including clear signs and revealed scriptures. According to the E. J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936, Volume 4 , the term first applied in the Quran to unbelieving Meccans, who endeavoured "to refute and revile

1242-416: Is used directly 134 times in Quran, its verbal noun kufr is used 37 times, and the verbal cognates of kafir are used about 250 times. By extension of the basic meaning of the root, 'to cover', the term is used in the Quran in the senses of ignore/fail to acknowledge and to spurn/be ungrateful. The meaning of 'disbelief', which has come to be regarded as primary, retains all of these connotations in

1311-418: Is used in different ways in the Quran , with the most fundamental sense being ungrateful toward God. Kufr means 'disbelief', 'unbelief', 'non-belief', 'to be thankless', 'to be faithless', or 'ingratitude'. The opposite term of kufr ('disbelief') is iman ('faith'), and the opposite of kafir ('disbeliever') is mu'min ('believer'). A person who denies the existence of a creator might be called

1380-503: The Mu'tazila believed that there was a status between believer and unbeliever called "rejected" or fasiq . The Kharijites ' view that the self-proclaimed Muslim who had sinned and "failed to repent had ipso facto excluded himself from the community, and was hence a kafir " (a practice known as takfir ) was considered so extreme by the Sunni majority that they in turn declared

1449-608: The Cafars ") by two different but similar names. The word is also used in reference to the coast of Africa as "land of Cafraria". The 16th century explorer Leo Africanus described the Cafri as " negroes ", and he also stated that they constituted one of five principal population groups in Africa. He identified their geographical heartland as being located in a remote region of southern Africa, an area which he designated as Cafraria . By

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1518-695: The Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire (before the political decline of Islam). In their memoirs on Muslim invasions, enslavement and plunder of this period, many Muslim historians in South Asia used the term kafir for Hindus , Buddhists , Sikhs and Jains . Raziuddin Aquil states that "non-Muslims were often condemned as kafirs , in medieval Indian Islamic literature, including court chronicles, Sufi texts and literary compositions" and fatwas were issued that justified persecution of

1587-518: The Durand Line . The territory between Afghanistan and British India was demarcated between 1894 and 1896 . Part of the frontier lying between Nawa Kotal in the outskirts of Mohmand country and Bashgal Valley on the outskirts of Kafiristan was demarcated by 1895 in an agreement reached on 9 April 1895. Emir Abdur Rahman Khan wanted to force every community and tribal confederation to accept his single interpretation of Islam due to it being

1656-489: The Hindukush , included and is related to Kafiristan. The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang who visited Kapisa in 644 AD calls it Kai-pi-shi(h) (迦畢試; standard Chinese : Jiābìshì < Middle Chinese ZS : * kɨɑ-piɪt̚-ɕɨ ). Xuanzang describes Kai-pi-shi as a flourishing kingdom ruled by a Buddhist kshatriya king holding sway over ten neighbouring states, including Lampaka , Nagarahara , Gandhara and Bannu . Until

1725-781: The Kharijites to be kuffar , following the hadith that declared, "If a Muslim charges a fellow Muslim with kufr , he is himself a kafir if the accusation should prove untrue". Nevertheless, in Islamic theological polemics kafir was "a frequent term for the Muslim protagonist" holding the opposite view, according to Brill's Islamic Encyclopedia . Present-day Muslims who make interpretations that differ from what others believe are declared kafirs ; fatwas (edicts by Islamic religious leaders) are issued ordering Muslims to kill them, and some such people have been killed also. Another group that are "distinguished from

1794-635: The Kunar Valley while returning from Yarkand. In 1883, William Watts McNair , a British surveyor on leave, explored the area disguised as a hakim. He reported on the journey later that year to the Royal Geographical Society . George Scott Robertson , medical officer during the Second Anglo-Afghan War and later British political officer in the princely state of Chitral , was given permission to explore

1863-706: The Mahdist War , the Mahdist State used the term kuffar against Ottoman Turks, and the Turks themselves used the term kuffar towards Persians during the Ottoman-Safavid wars . In modern Muslim popular imagination, the dajjal ( Antichrist -like figure) will have k-f-r written on his forehead. However, there was extensive religious violence in India between Muslims and non-Muslims during

1932-592: The Republic of Afghanistan government recognized the de facto autonomy of Nuristan and created a new province of that name from districts of Kunar Province and Laghman Province . Kafir Political Militant [REDACTED] Islam portal Kafir ( Arabic : كَافِر , romanized :  kāfir ; plural: كَافِرُون kāfirūn , كُفَّار kuffār , or كَفَرَة kafara ; feminine: كَافِرَة kāfira ; feminine plural: كَافِرَات kāfirāt or كَوَافِر kawāfir )

2001-485: The 15th century, Muslims in Africa were using the word kaffir in reference to the non-Muslim African natives. Many of those kufari were enslaved and sold to European and Asian merchants by their Muslim captors, most of the merchants were from Portugal , which had established trading outposts along the coast of West Africa by that time. These European traders adopted the Arabic word and its derivatives. Some of

2070-423: The 18th century, followers of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab , known as Wahhabis , believed kufr or shirk was found in the Muslim community itself, especially in "the practice of popular religion": [S]hirk took many forms: the attribution to prophets, saints, astrologers, and soothsayers of knowledge of the unseen world, which only God possesses and can grant; the attribution of power to any being except God, including

2139-466: The 9th century AD, Kapiśi remained the second capital of the Shahi dynasty of Kabul . Kapiśa was known for goats and their skin. Xuanzang talks of Shen breed of horses from Kapiśa ( Kai-pi-shi ). There is also a reference to Chinese emperor Taizong being presented with an excellent breed of horses in 637 AD by an envoy from Chi-pin (Kapisa). Further evidence from Xuanzang shows that Kai-pi-shi produced

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2208-674: The Black Kafirs. Only this group in the five valleys of Birir , Bumburet, Rumbur, Jineret and Urtsun escaped conversion, because they were located east of the Durand Line in the princely state of Chitral . However, by the 1940s the southern valleys of Urtsun and Jingeret had been converted. After a decline in population caused by forced conversion in the 1970s, this region of Kafiristan in Pakistan, known as Kalasha Desh, has recently shown an increase in its population. In early 1991,

2277-541: The Church. On the other hand, modern scholarship has suggested alternative interpretations of verse Q. 5:73 . Cyril Glasse criticizes the use of kafirun (plural of kafir ) to describe Christians as "loose usage". According to the Encyclopedia of Islam , in traditional Islamic jurisprudence , ahl al-kitab are "usually regarded more leniently than other kuffar [plural of kafir ]" and "in theory"

2346-579: The Kabul Museum were badly damaged under the Taliban but have since been restored. A few hundred Kati Kafirs , known as the "Red Kafirs" of the Bashgal Valley, fled across the border into Chitral but, uprooted from their homeland, they converted by the 1930s. They settled near the frontier in the valleys of Rumbur , Bumburet and Urtsun , which were then inhabited by the Kalash tribe or

2415-580: The Last Day and do good, will have their reward with their Lord and they will not fear, nor grieve." 2:62 Charles Adams writes that the Quran reproaches the People of the Book with kufr for rejecting Muhammad's message when they should have been the first to accept it as possessors of earlier revelations, and singles out Christians for disregarding the evidence of God's unity. The Quranic verse 5:73 ("Certainly they disbelieve [ kafara ] who say: God

2484-615: The Muslims. Ibn Hajar is of opinion that none of the Muhammad's parents who were non-prophets were kafirs (disbelievers) and all the hadiths on this subject (although some hadiths seem to contradict it) mean that. Ibn Hajar says about Muhammad saying his ab is in the Hell, that the ab in the hadith refers to the paternal uncle and that Arabs widely use ab to refer to 'amm (paternal uncle). Most Sunni scholars hold

2553-463: The Prophet". A waiting attitude towards the kafir was recommended at first for Muslims; later, Muslims were ordered to keep apart from unbelievers and defend themselves against their attacks and even take the offensive. Most passages in the Quran referring to unbelievers in general talk about their fate on the day of judgement and destination in hell . According to scholar Marilyn Waldman, as

2622-417: The Quran "progresses" (as the reader goes from the verses revealed first to later ones), the meaning behind the term kafir does not change but "progresses", i.e. "accumulates meaning over time". As the Islamic prophet Muhammad 's views of his opponents change, his use of kafir "undergoes a development". Kafir moves from being one description of Muhammad's opponents to the primary one. Later in

2691-467: The Quran, kafir becomes more and more connected with shirk . Finally, towards the end of the Quran , kafir begins to also signify the group of people to be fought by the mu'minīn ('believers'). Khaled Abou El Fadl argues that Quran 2:62 supports religious pluralism, implying that some non-Muslims are not kafirs: "Those who believe, Jews, Christians, Sabians --whoever believes in God and

2760-501: The Quranic usage. In the Quranic discourse, the term typifies all things that are unacceptable and offensive to God. Whereby it is not necessary to deny the existence of God, but it suffices to deviate from his will as seen in a dialogue between God and Iblis , the latter called a kafir . According to Al-Damiri (1341–1405) it is neither denying God, nor the act of disobedience alone, but Iblis' attitude (claiming that God's command

2829-576: The Sunnis with shirk because under their doctrine a voluntary human act results from an "association" between God, who creates the act, and the individual who appropriates it by carrying it out. In classical jurisprudence, Islamic religious tolerance applied only to the People of the Book, while mushrikun, based on the Sword Verse , faced a choice between conversion to Islam and fight to the death, which may be substituted by enslavement. In practice,

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2898-576: The army of Ghazni marched appears to have been the same as that now called Kafirstan, where the inhabitants were and still are, idolaters and are named the Siah-Posh , or black-vested, by the Muslims of later times. In Nardain there was a temple, which the army of Ghazni destroyed; and brought from thence a stone covered with certain inscriptions, which were according to the Hindus, of great antiquity. The first European recorded as having visited Kafiristan

2967-460: The attitude toward unbelievers in Islam was determined more by socio-political conditions than by religious doctrine. A tolerance toward unbelievers "impossible to imagine in contemporary Christendom" prevailed even to the time of the Crusades , particularly with respect to the People of the Book. However, due to animosity towards Franks , the term kafir developed into a term of abuse. During

3036-702: The country of the Kafirs in 1890–91. He was the last outsider to visit the area and observe these people's polytheistic culture before their conversion to Islam . Robertson's 1896 account was entitled The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush . Though some sub-groups such as the Kom paid tribute to Chitral, the majority of Kafiristan was left on the Afghan side of the frontier in 1893, when large areas of tribal lands between Afghanistan and British India were divided into zones of control by

3105-925: The country under a centralised Afghan government. He had similarly subjugated the Hazara people in 1892–93. In 1896 Abdur Rahman Khan, who had thus conquered the region for Islam, renamed the people the Nuristani ("Enlightened Ones" in Persian ) and the land as Nuristan ("Land of the Enlightened"). Kafiristan was full of steep and wooded valleys. It was famous for its precise wood carving, especially of cedar-wood pillars, carved doors, furniture (including " horn chairs ") and statuary. Some of these pillars survive, as they were reused in mosques, but temples, shrines, and centers of local cults, with their wooden effigies and multitudes of ancestor figures were torched and burnt to

3174-406: The decline of Buddhism heavily isolated the region. It was surrounded by Muslim states in the 16th century. Kafiristan or Kafirstan is normally taken to mean "land [ -stan ] of the kafirs " in the Persian language , where the name کافر kafir is derived from the Arabic كافر kāfir , literally meaning a person who refuses to accept a principle of any nature and figuratively as

3243-520: The designation of People of the Book and the dhimmī status was extended even to non-monotheistic religions of conquered peoples, such as Hinduism. Following destruction of major Hindu temples during the Muslim conquests in South Asia , Hindus and Muslims on the subcontinent came to share a number of popular religious practices and beliefs, such as veneration of Sufi saints and worship at Sufi dargahs , although Hindus may worship at Hindu shrines also. In

3312-452: The different rulings of the schools of Islamic jurisprudence , might be required to convert to Islam, pay the jizya , exiled, or subject to the death penalty . In 2019, Nahdlatul Ulama , the world's largest independent Islamic organization, issued a proclamation urging Muslims to refrain from using the word kafir to refer to non-Muslims because the term is both offensive and perceived as "theologically violent". The word kāfir

3381-424: The different rulings of the four madhhab , might be required to accept Islam, pay the jizya, be exiled, or be killed under the Islamic death penalty. Some historians believe that forced conversion was rare in Islamic history, and most conversions to Islam were voluntary. Muslim rulers were often more interested in conquest than conversion. Upon payment of the tax ( jizya ), the dhimmī would receive

3450-566: The earliest records of European usage of the word can be found in The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation (1589) by Richard Hakluyt . In volume 4, Hakluyt writes: "calling them Cafars and Gawars , which is, infidels or disbelievers". Volume 9 refers to the slaves (slaves called Cafari ) and inhabitants of Ethiopia ("and they use to go in small shippes, and trade with

3519-477: The east through Asmar . A small column also came from south-west through Laghman . The Kafirs were resettled in Laghman while the region was settled by veteran soldiers and other Afghans. The Kafirs were converted and some also converted to avoid the jizya . A few years after Robertson's visit, in 1895–96, Abdur Rahman Khan invaded and converted the Kafirs to Islam as a symbolic climax to his campaigns to bring

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3588-472: The entrance of hellfire . While the Quran does not recognize the attribute of Jesus as the Son of God or God himself, it respects Jesus as a prophet and messenger of God sent to children of Israel. Some Muslim thinkers such as Mohamed Talbi have viewed the most extreme Quranic presentations of the dogmas of the Trinity and divinity of Jesus ( 5:19 , 5:75 , 5:119 ) as non-Christian formulas that were rejected by

3657-637: The ground. Only a small fraction brought back to Kabul as spoils of this Islamic victory over infidels. These consisted of various wooden effigies of ancestral heroes and pre-Islamic commemorative chairs. Of the more than thirty wooden figures brought to Kabul in 1896 or shortly thereafter, fourteen went to the Kabul Museum and four to the Musée Guimet and the Musée de l'Homme located in Paris . Those in

3726-408: The largest independent Islamic organization in the world, issued a proclamation urging Muslims to refrain from using the word kafir to refer to non-Muslims, as the term is both offensive and perceived to be "theologically violent". According to Islamic sources, none of forefathers of Muhammad were kafirs . According to Ibn Hajar, the Quran clearly declares that Ahl al-Fatrah were among

3795-632: The late 19th century, the word was in use in English-language newspapers and books. One of the Union-Castle Line ships operating off the South African coast was named SS Kafir . In the early 20th century, in his book The Essential Kafir , Dudley Kidd writes that the word kafir had come to be used for all dark-skinned South African tribes. Thus, in many parts of South Africa, kafir became synonymous with

3864-417: The laws of property, contract, and obligation according to some scholars, whereas others state religious minorities subjected to the status of dhimmis (such as Hindus , Christians , Jews , Samaritans , Gnostics , Mandeans , and Zoroastrians ) were inferior to the status of Muslims in Islamic states. Jews and Christians were required to pay the jizya and kharaj taxes, while others, depending on

3933-408: The mass of kafirun " are the murtad , or apostate ex-Muslims, who are considered renegades and traitors. Their traditional punishment is death, even, according to some scholars, if they recant their abandonment of Islam. Dhimmī are non-Muslims living under the protection of an Islamic state . Dhimmī are exempt from certain duties assigned specifically to Muslims if they paid

4002-762: The non-Muslims. Relations between Jews and Muslims in the Arab world and use of the word kafir were equally as complex, and over the last century, issues regarding kafir have arisen over the conflict in Israel and Palestine . Calling the Jews of Israel, "the usurping kafir ", Yasser Arafat turned on the Muslim resistance and "allegedly set a precedent for preventing Muslims from mobilizing against 'aggressor disbelievers' in other Muslim lands, and enabled 'the cowardly, alien kafir ' to achieve new levels of intervention in Muslim affairs." In 2019, Nahdlatul Ulama ,

4071-400: The only uniting factor. After the subjugation of Hazaras , Kafiristan was the last remaining autonomous part. Abdur Rahman Khan's forces invaded Kafiristan in the winter of 1895–96 and captured it in 40 days according to his autobiography. Columns invaded it from the west through Panjshir to Kullum, the strongest fort of the region. The columns from the north came through Badakhshan and from

4140-440: The poll tax ( jizya ) but were otherwise equal under the laws of property, contract, and obligation according to some scholars, whereas others state that religious minorities subjected to the status of Dhimmī (such as Jews , Samaritans , Gnostics , Mandeans , and Zoroastrians ) were inferior to the status of Muslims in Islamic states. Jews and Christians were required to pay the jizyah while pagans, depending on

4209-515: The power of intercession; reverence given in any way to any created thing, even to the tomb of the Prophet; such superstitious customs as belief in omens and in auspicious and inauspicious days; and swearing by the names of the Prophet, ʿAlī, the Shīʿī imams, or the saints. Thus the Wahhābīs acted even to destroy the cemetery where many of the Prophet's most notable companions were buried, on the grounds that it

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4278-412: The truth. Arabic poets personify the darkness of night as kāfir , perhaps as a survival of pre-Islamic Arabian religious or mythological usage . The noun for 'disbelief', 'blasphemy', 'impiety' rather than the person who disbelieves, is kufr . The distinction between those who believe in Islam and those who do not is an essential one in the Quran . Kafir , and its plural kuffaar ,

4347-527: The view that the parents of Muhammad are saved and inhabitants of Heaven . Shia Muslim scholars likewise consider Muhammad's parents to be in Paradise. In contrast, the Salafi website IslamQA.info , founded by the Saudi Arabian Salafi scholar Muhammad Al-Munajjid , argues that Islamic tradition teaches that Muhammad's parents were kuffār ('disbelievers') who are in Hell. By

4416-615: The word "native". Currently in South Africa , however, the word kaffir is regarded as a racial slur, applied pejoratively or offensively to blacks. The song "Kafir" by the American technical death metal band Nile on its sixth album Those Whom the Gods Detest uses the violent attitudes that Muslim extremists have towards kafirs as subject matter. Ferishta Too Many Requests If you report this error to

4485-510: Was a center of idolatry. While ibn Abd al-Wahhab and the Wahhābīs were "the best-known premodern" revivalist and "sectarian movement" of that era, other revivalists included Shah Ismail Dehlvi and Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi , leaders of the Mujāhidīn movement on the North-West frontier of India in the early 19th century. Whether a Muslim could commit a sin great enough to become a kafir

4554-483: Was disputed by jurists in the early centuries of Islam. The most tolerant view (that of the Murji'ah ) was that even those who had committed a major sin ( kabira ) were still believers and "their fate was left to God". The most strict view (that of Kharidji Ibadis, descended from the Kharijites ) was that every Muslim who dies having not repented of their sins was considered a kafir . In between these two positions,

4623-399: Was known as "Peristan", a vast area containing a host of "Kafir" cultures and Indo-European languages that became Islamized over a long period of time, which eventually led them to become Muslim on the orders of Emir Abdur Rahman Khan who conquered the territory in 1895–96. The region was earlier surrounded by Buddhist states that temporarily brought literacy and state rule to the mountains;

4692-448: Was surrounded by Muslim states in the 16th century. The Kalash people of lower Chitral are the last surviving heirs of the area. Another crusade against idolatry was at length resolved on; and Mahmud led the seventh one against Nardain, the then boundary of India, or the eastern part of the Hindu Kush; separating, as Ferishta says, the countries of Hindustan and Turkistan and remarkable for its excellent fruit. The country into which

4761-685: Was the Portuguese Jesuit missionary Bento de Góis , SJ . By his account, he visited a city named "Capherstam" in 1602, during the course of a journey from Lahore to China . American adventurer Colonel Alexander Gardner claimed to have visited Kafiristan twice, in 1826 and 1828. On the first occasion, Dost Mohammad , the amir of Kabul , killed members of Gardner's delegation in Afghanistan and forced him to flee from Kabul to Yarkand through west Kafiristan. On his second visit, Gardner briefly sojourned in northern Kafiristan and

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