The Pathans 550 B.C.- A.D. 1947 by Olaf Caroe

The Pathans 550 B.C.- A.D. 1947 is a magisterial work of anthropology and history by Olaf Caroe (1892-1981) who served as the colonial administrator of North West Frontier Province shortly before India's independence and Partition in 1947. Having served in the Frontier for about three decades, Caroe had immense knowledge of these lands and the people who inhabited them.


* According to legend, the Afghans traced their ancestry to one Malik Afghana, a Jew who lived in the Levant. This Malik Afghana supposedly migrated to Afghanistan in 550 BC. So they were among "the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel". During the time of the Prophet, the leader of the Afghans, Qais Abdul Rashid travelled to Arabia where he embraced Islam and returned to convert his people. However, Caroe is dismissive of these legends as chronicles of history.

* The Pathan tongue, Pashto is an Indo-Iranian language, halfway, Caroe says, between Persian and Scythian.

* Though Pashto is an Indo-Aryan language, the Afghans, the people who speak it are, like the Rajputs, Jats and Gujjars of India, largely descended from the Huns or Hepthalites who migrated during the 5th and 6th centuries AD.

* The largest Afghan tribe, the Ghiljis are of mixed Turkish and Pathan descent while the second largest tribe, the Durranis have descended from the Hun migrations. The Durranis were earlier known as Abdalis (Ahmad Shah Abdali??). The word Abdali is derived from Hapthali, the local word for Hepthalites or Huns.

* The Pashtuns are divided into two main factions. Sometimes a whole tribe belonged to a particular faction but more often, factional allegiances cut across tribal affinities. The two factions are Gar and Samil. Caroe feels that these factional groupings are indicative of the religious affinities of its members before their conversion to Islam. Caroe derives Gar from the word Gabr, a pejorative term used to refer to Zoroastrians in Iran. Samil, Caroe postulates, might have been derived from Sramana implying that members of this faction were once Buddhists.

[Posted on Facebook, 13 September 2021]

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