Misplaced Pages

#552447

38-611: This region was headquarters to the Durrani Pashtun tribe of the Alizai . The region is also home to Nurzai , Barakzai and Alakozai tribes, as well as other Durrani tribes and Kuchis . It was from Zamindawar that much of the strength of the force which besieged Kandahar under Mohammad Ayub Khan in 1880 was derived; and it was the Zamindawar contingent of tribesmen who so nearly defeated Sir Donald Stewart 's force at

76-523: A castle celebrated for its strength, accessible only by one road. In it there are Musulmáns , and it has a town, in which are infidels from Hind . Predominantly Indian but possessing Persian and Central Asian features was also the God Zun from which the Zunbils derived their name . Marqart maintained that Zunbil or Zhunbil is the correct form and Ratbil a corruption, and it was he who connected

114-791: A base for an aggressive expansion eastward and westward. They first invaded the areas south of the Hindu Kush , and then overthrew the Tahirid dynasty , annexing Khorasan in 873. By the time of Ya'qub's death, he had conquered the Kabul Valley , Sindh , Tocharistan , Makran ( Balochistan ), Kerman , Fars , Khorasan, and nearly reached Baghdad but then suffered a defeat by the Abbasids . The Saffarid dynasty did not last long after Ya'qub's death. His brother and successor, Amr bin Laith ,

152-777: A civil war erupted between Tahir and the pretender al-Laith b. 'Ali in Sistan. In the next years, the governor of Fars, Sebük-eri defected to the Abbasids. In 912, the Samanids finally expelled the Saffarids from Sistan. Sistan passed briefly to Abbasid control, but became independent again under the Saffarid Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Muhammad ; but now the dynasty was a minor power isolated in Sistan. In 1002, Mahmud of Ghazni invaded Sistan, dethroned Khalaf I and finally ended

190-665: A coppersmith of eastern Iranian origins, who moved to the city of Zaranj. He left work to become an Ayyar and eventually got the power to act as an independent ruler. From his capital Zaranj he moved east into al-Rukhkhadj ( Arachosia ), Zamindawar and ultimately Kabul , vanquishing the Zunbils and the Hindu Shahis by 865. He then invaded Bamyan , Balkh , Badghis , and Ghor . In the name of Islam , he conquered these territories which were predominantly ruled by Buddhist tribal chiefs . He took vast amounts of plunder and slaves from this campaign. The Tahirid city of Herat

228-473: A small section of the Spin clan of Tareens living east of Quetta speaks the unique Wanetsi (Tareeno) dialect of Pashto, which is considered by some linguists to be distinctive enough to be classified as its own language. According to linguist Prods Oktor Skjaervo : "The Pashto area split into two dialect groups at a pre-literary period, represented today on the one hand by all the dialects of modern Pashto and on

266-431: Is considered one of the most prestigious varieties of Pashto. This dialect retains archaic retroflex sibilants [ʂ] and [ʐ] , which have merged into other phonemes in other dialects. Southern Pashto also preserves the affricates [t͡s] and [d͡z] , which have merged into [s] and [z] in some dialects. The Tareen (Tarin) tribe is historically closely related to Durranis. Although most Tareens speak Southern Pashto,

304-733: Is now regarded as the founder of the modern state of Afghanistan. Within a few years, he extended his control from Khorasan in the west to Kashmir and North India in the east, and from the Amu Darya in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south. In 1823, Emir Dost Mohammad Khan , who belonged to the Barakzai tribe of Durranis, founded the Barakzai dynasty centered at Kabul . Thereafter, his descendants ruled in direct succession until 1929 when King Amanullah Khan , under whom Afghanistan gained independence over its foreign policy from

342-806: The Battle of Ahmed Khel previously. The control of Zamindawar was regarded by the British -Indian forces as the key to the position for safeguarding the route between Herat and Kandahar during the Second Anglo-Afghan War . Zunbils ruled Zamindawar before Islamization of the area. The title Zunbil can be traced back to the Middle-Persian original Zūn-dātbar, "Zun the Justice-giver". The geographical name Zamindawar would also reflect this, from Middle-Persian Zamin-i dātbar (Land of

380-658: The British Raj , was forced to abdicate and his cousin Mohammed Nadir Shah was later elected king. The Barakzai dynasty ruled present-day Afghanistan until 1973 when Mohammed Zahir Shah , the last Barakzai king, was overthrown in a bloodless coup by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan . The coup ended the Barakzai kingdom and established the Republic of Afghanistan (1973—1978) . Contemporarily,

418-578: The Durrani Empire based in Kandahar , he adopted the epithet Shāh Durr-i-Durrān , "King, Pearl of Pearls," and changed the name of his Tareen Abdali tribe to "Durrani" after himself. According to linguist Georg Morgenstierne , the tribal name Abdālī may have "something to do with" the Hephthalite. This hypothesis was endorsed by historian Aydogdy Kurbanov , who indicated that after

SECTION 10

#1732779930553

456-644: The ethnogenesis of Durrani Pashtuns: "The Pashtuns began as a union of largely East Iranian tribes ... dating from the middle of the first millennium CE, and ... connected ... [to] dissolution of the Hephthalite confederacy... Of the contribution of the Hephthalites to the ethnogenesis of the Pashtuns, we find evidence in the ethnonym of the largest of the Pashtun tribe unions, the Abdali ... associated with

494-482: The tradition of Israelite descent among Pashtuns, which shows that the tradition was already popular among 16th-century Pashtuns. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Abdali were primarily pastoralists , not known for agricultural activities, but some of them were engaged in overland trade. Abdali and Tareen (a Pashtun tribe related to Abdalis) chieftains were patronized by both Safavid and Mughal appointed governors, and asked to patrol travel routes to ensure

532-576: The Abbasids, whose army was able to turn them back only within a few days' march from Baghdad. From silver mines in the Panjshir Valley , the Saffarids were able to mint silver coins. These incursions, however, forced the Abbasid caliphate to recognize Ya'qub as governor of Sistan, Fars and Kerman , and Saffarids were even offered key posts in Baghdad. Despite Ya'qub's military successes, he

570-557: The Arab army "broke of a hand of the idol and plucked out the rubies which were its eyes in order to persuade the Marzbān of Sīstān of the god's worthlessness." The Kabul Shahi ruled north of the Zunbil territory, which included Kabulistan and Gandahara . The Arabs reached Kabul with the message of Islam but were not able to rule for long. The Kabul Shahis decided to build a giant wall around

608-460: The Hepthalites were basically Indo-European, politically and culturally the realms of Zabul and Kabul were considered as a part of Al-Hind on the eve of Muslim conquest. The Chachnama for example contains numerous references to Zabul under the corrupt form of ‘Ramal’ or ‘Ranmal’ showing close contacts and marriage relationships between the rulers and subordinate chiefs of Sind and Kashmir and

646-579: The Justice-giver). According to author André Wink, In southern and eastern Afghanistan, the regions of Zamindawar (Zamin I Datbar or land of the justice giver, the classical Archosia) and Zabulistan or Zabul (Jabala, Kapisha , Kia pi shi) and Kabul, the Arabs were effectively opposed for more than two centuries, from 643 to 870 AD, by the indigenous rulers the Zunbils and the related Kabul-Shahs of

684-600: The King of Zabul in the seventh century. The relationships between these Indian rulers on the north-western frontier appear to have been in constant flux but it seems a safe conclusion that the King of Kashmir had established a claim of suzerainty over Zabul—as he had over other Indian Kings. 32°28′02″N 65°16′28″E  /  32.4672°N 65.2745°E  / 32.4672; 65.2745 Durrani The Durrānī ( Pashto : دراني , pronounced [durɑˈni] ), formerly known as Abdālī ( ابدالي ), are one of

722-690: The Saffarid dynasty was part of the Iranian Intermezzo . The dynasty's founder was Ya'qub bin Laith as-Saffar , who was born in 840 in a small town called Karnin (Qarnin), which was located east of Zaranj and west of Bost, in what is now Afghanistan . A native of Sistan and a local ayyār , Ya'qub worked as a coppersmith ( ṣaffār ) before becoming a warlord . He seized control of the Sistan region and began conquering most of Iran and Afghanistan, as well as parts of Pakistan , Tajikistan and Uzbekistan . The Saffarids used their capital Zaranj as

760-817: The Saffarid dynasty. The Saffarids patronized the Persian language in the form of court poetry and established Persianate culture. Under their rule, the eastern Islamic world witnessed the emergence of prominent Persian poets such as Fayrouz Mashriqi, Abu Salik al-Jirjani, and Muhammad ibn Wasif , who was a court poet. In the later 9th century, the Saffarids gave impetus to a renaissance of New Persian literature and culture. Following Ya'qub's conquest of Herat, some poets chose to celebrate his victory in Arabic, whereupon Ya'qub requested his secretary, Muhammad bin Wasif al-Sistani, to compose those verses in Persian. The religion of

798-741: The Saffarid's founder, Ya'qub, has been a topic of debate. Most of the primary sources were written during or after the fall of the Samanid dynasty and view the Saffarids through Samanid eyes. These primary sources depict Ya'qub either as a religious rascal or a volunteer Sunni warrior - a mutatawwi . The Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk , obsessed with the integrity of the Seljuk Empire, depicts Ya'qub as an Ismaili convert. According to C.E. Bosworth , early Saffarid emirs did not appear to have significant religious beliefs. Since Kharijism prospered in Sistan longer than anywhere else in eastern Iran, it

SECTION 20

#1732779930553

836-469: The city to prevent more Arab invasions, this wall is still visible today. Willem Vogelsang in his 2002 book writes: "During the eighth and ninth centuries AD the eastern parts of modern Afghanistan were still in the hands of non-Muslim rulers. The Muslims tended to regard them as Indians, although many of the local rulers were apparently of Hunnic or Turkic descent. Yet, the Muslims were right in so far as

874-470: The collapse of the Hephthalite confederacy, they likely assimilated into different local populations and that the Abdali may be one of the tribes of Hephthalite origin. 19th-century British Indian explorers, Charles Masson and Henry W. Bellew , also suggested that there was a direct relationship between Abdalis and Hephthalites. Joseph T. Arlinghaus referred to a Syriac chronicle from c. 555 CE, which mentions Khulas , Abdel , and Ephthalite as three of

912-596: The dynasty which became known as the Buddhist-Shahi. With Makran and Baluchistan and much of Sindh this area can be reckoned to belong to the cultural and political frontier zone between India and Persia . It is clear however that in the seventh to the ninth centuries the Zunbils and their kinsmen the Kabulshahs ruled over a predominantly Indian rather than a Persian realm. The Arab geographers, in effect commonly speak of that king of "Al Hind" ...(who) bore

950-627: The ethnic name of the Hephthalites... The Siah-posh , the Kafirs ... of the Hindu Kush , [still] called all Pashtuns ... Abdal ... at the beginning of the 19th century." Abdur Rashīd (meaning "Servant of the Guide to the Right Path" or "Servant of God" in Arabic ). Abdur Rashid returned to Ghor and introduced Islam there. The book stated that Abdur Rashid's great-grandson, Tareen, had three sons: "One

988-632: The former Afghan president Hamid Karzai (2001–2014), like Ahmad Shah Durrani, also belongs to the Popalzai clan of Durranis. The current leader of the Taliban - Hibatullah Akhundzada is a member of Nurzai Panjpai . Although many are bilingual in Dari Persian , the Durrani of southern Afghanistan speak Southern Pashto , also known as "Kandahari Pashto", the "soft" dialect of Pashto . It

1026-475: The largest tribes of Pashtuns . Their traditional homeland is in southern Afghanistan ( Loy Kandahar region), straddling into Toba Achakzai in Balochistan , Pakistan , but they are also settled in other parts of Afghanistan and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa . Ahmad Shah Durrani , who is considered the founder of the modern state of Afghanistan, belonged to the Abdali tribe. In 1747 after establishing

1064-564: The nomadic tribes from the "lands of the Huns ." Arlinghaus linked the "Khulas" and the "Abdel" to the Khalaj (modern Ghilji ) and the Abdali (modern Durrani), respectively, arguing that the relationship between the Hephthalite, the Khalaj, and the Abdali may date back as far as the sixth century. Yu. V. Gankovsky, a Soviet historian on Afghanistan, also asserted that the Hephthalite contributed to

1102-580: The non Muslim population of Eastern Afghanistan was, culturally linked to the Indian sub-continent . Most of them were either Hindus or Buddhists." In 870 AD the Saffarids from Zaranj conquered most of Afghanistan, establishing Muslim governors throughout the land. It is reported that Muslims and non-Muslims still lived side by side before the arrival of the Ghaznavids in the 10th century. Kábul has

1140-476: The other by Wanetsi and by archaic remains in other southeast dialects." Saffarid dynasty The Saffarid dynasty ( Persian : صفاریان , romanized :  safāryān ) was a Persianate dynasty of eastern Iranian origin that ruled over parts of Persia , Greater Khorasan , and eastern Makran from 861 to 1002. One of the first indigenous Persian dynasties to emerge after the Islamic conquest ,

1178-409: The safety of merchant caravans passing through Kandahar, which was a province located on a strategic trade corridor linking Hindustan , Iran , and Turkestan . In 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani established the Durrani Empire with its capital at Kandahar . He adopted the title Shāh Durr-i-Durrān , "King, Pearl of Pearls," and changed the name of his tribe "Abdali" to "Durrani" after himself. Ahmad Shah

Zamindawar - Misplaced Pages Continue

1216-474: The title of Zunbil. South of the Hindu Kush was ruled by the Zunbils , offspring of the southern- Hephthalite . The north was controlled by the Kabul Shahis . The Zunbil and Kabul Shahis were connected by culture with the neighboring Indian subcontinent . The Zunbil kings worshipped a sun god by the name of Zun from which they derived their name. For example, André Wink writes that "the cult of Zun

1254-476: The title with the God Zun or Zhun whose temple lay in Zamindawar before the arrival of Islam , set on a sacred mountain and still existing in the later ninth century when the Saffarid dynasty's Yaqub and Amr b Layth conquered the area as far as Kabul. With Kabul Ghazana and Bust as the key points between the commerce between India and Persia, Zamindawar had become an important pilgrimage center. If

1292-589: Was black in complexion, and he was named Tōr (meaning "black" in Pashto); the other was white in complexion, and he was named Spīn (meaning "white" in Pashto); his third son was named Abdāl (or Awdāl )." The first two sons were the progenitors of modern Tareens , who are closely related to Durranis and are divided into two clans (Tor Tareen and Spin Tareen), while the third son was the progenitor of modern Durranis. The 1595 Mughal account Ain-i-Akbari also mentioned

1330-542: Was captured in 870, and Ya'qub's campaign in the Badghis region led to the capture of Kharidjites which later formed the Djash al-Shurat contingent in his army. Ya'qub then turned his focus to the west and began attacks on Khorasan, Khuzestan , Kerman (Southeastern Iran) and Fars (southwestern Iran). The Saffarids then seized Khuzestan (southwestern Iran) and parts of southern Iraq, and in 876 came close to overthrowing

1368-521: Was defeated at the Battle of Balkh against Ismail Samani in 900. Amr bin Laith was forced to surrender most of his territories to the new rulers. The Saffarids were confined to their heartland of Sistan, and with time, their role was reduced to that of vassals of the Samanids and their successors. The dynasty began with Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar (Ya'qub, son of Layth, the Coppersmith),

1406-429: Was not an empire builder since he had no concept of a centralized government. In 901, Amr Saffari was defeated at the battle of Balkh by the Samanids , and they lost Khorasan to them. The Saffarids were reduced to the provinces of Fars, Kerman and Sistan. Under Tahir ibn Muhammad ibn Amr (901–908), the dynasty fought the Abbasids for the possession of Fars to maintain its control over the province. However, in 908,

1444-578: Was primarily Hindu , not Buddhist or Zoroastrian." In 643 AD the non-Muslim Zunbils assembled a large army and attempted to invade Persia , which had just been Islamized , but were defeated by the Muslims. About ten years later, in 653-4 AD, Abdur Rahman bin Samara along with 6,000 Arab Muslims penetrated the Zunbil territory and made their way to the shrine of Zun in Zamindawar, which was believed to be located about three miles south of Musa Qala in today's Helmand Province of Afghanistan. The General of

#552447