History of Pashtuns series

Arts & Culture History
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The entire thread has become taking individual personalities and their individual expoits and surrounding events. History is more than that.

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you missed my post

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Which one?

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post no. 60

First of all, the title Pathan. Pakhtun pseudo-historians claim that the word derives from bataan, which in Arabic denotes rudder and was given to the (fictitious) Qais Abdur Rashid when he converted to Islam. Be it known that the Pakhtuns never called themselves Pathans; that this was a Punjabi and central Indian mispronunciation of Pakhtana, the singular for Pakhtun. That having been decided, we can now reach back into history.

Herodotus (mid-5th century BCE) wrote in The Histories of a people called the Paktyike who lived northward of the ‘other Indians’. Only in our national state of delusion and denial can we reject the word as being a Grecian mispronunciation of Pakhtun in its classical form. The word comes down to us as the name for the Afghan provinces of Paktiya and Paktika, bordering on our Kurram and Waziristan areas.

The second fiction that Pakhtuns love to believe concerns the ancestor called Afghana who gave his name to a country. The word Afghan comes from the Sanskrit root of ashv meaning ‘horse’, which becomes asp in ancient Persian. The genetic term for these horsemen was Ashvaka in Sanskrit and Aspagan in Persian. Their country was where the usual mode of transportation was the horse, perhaps more so than in ancient India, thus the ancient land of the Paktyike became Aspaganistan in Persian. And thence to Afghanistan.

Now, there was one tribe that was perhaps more attached to the horse than anyone else; a tribe that took pride in its horsemanship and which was famous as horse dealers. They became Aspzai — Tribe (or son) of the Horse. Having conquered Bajaur and moving northwest, Alexander came up against the Aspasioi guarding their fort of Masaga. A hard battle was fought, the chief was slain and Alexander wedded his widow. She later bore him a son when Alexander was in Sindh but we do not know what became of this child.

Again, one has to be either tone-deaf or stupid to not see the connection between Aspzai, Aspasioi and Yusufzai. Aspasioi, incidentally, is the tribe most frequently mentioned by Alexander’s historians, which leads me to believe that this was at that time the major Pakhtun tribal classification in the region. That may mean that most other tribal names have simply split off from the main Aspzai.

The asp became Yusuf (pronounced Esop by Pakhtuns) only after conversion to Islam and the need to invent a Muslim sire. The Aspzai thus became Esopzai — Yusufzai for the educated classes.

From the geographer Strabo (1st century CE) we hear of two other startlingly long-lived names. He mentions Apratai and Shattagadai. His translator, John McCrindle, reminds us that Afridis, and indeed other Pakhtuns as well, have difficulty in pronouncing ‘f’ sounds, turning them forever into ‘p’. Apratai is, therefore, Strabo’s rendering of Afridi exact to a turn. As for Shattagadai, McCrindle says this is the southern pronunciation of Kattak where the ‘kh’ of the northern dialect becomes ‘sh’.

The email also noted that the tribes defeated in Bajaur and Swat were not Pakhtuns, but Buddhists. I have to live many more years to hear anything as foolish as this. Buddhism is a religion that was followed by all sorts of people in the subcontinent and beyond. It was not an ethnic group.

The Pakhtuns have lived in the submontane lands of Afghanistan and Pakistan for more than two and a half millenniums. They have classified themselves under at least three tribal names that were preserved by Greek writers of antiquity. However, like all other Muslims of the subcontinent, they too, and sadly, have invented fictitious histories for themselves. The most pernicious among this body of lies is the fiction of Arab/Jewish origin. The truth is that they are an Indo-Aryan people with a language that derives from Avestan.

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^^^ Wonderful, this is called histeriography.

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lets wait for marwati’s comments on this :chai:

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Good share, i had similar approach and i do not buy Fabricated stuff like batan, bani israel theory. A well researched study on origin of pashtuns, is done by Sir olaf careo in the initial chapters of his famous book “the pathans”.

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Afghanistan’s incursions into Bajaur (1960-61) | History of Pashtuns

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Madam, i have already mentioned that i am sharing tidbits of pashtun history (from here and there), not a single article or entire history in chronological order. But thanks for input, i would try to work on condensed article about history of pashtuns from earliest known periods to modren day, i would share it when i am done.

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Please tell something about what you believe as origin

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I have not reached to any conclusion but i am interested in any scientific and anthropological investigations about origin of pashtuns. The problem is Pashtuns have not recorded their history. We have some clues about them from greek or persian sources but nothing can be said definite about them. One thing is clear, they are east indo-iranian people and their langauge is derived from avestan , it seems layers of scathyians/sakas, bactarians, hepthalites, khalaj , turks etc were added to them in the course of history.

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Perhaps i wont be wrong in saying that Pashtun/Afghan tribes gained prominence on the pages of history during period of ghaznavids. Turkish sultans of ghazni relied heavily on surrounding pashtun/afghan tribes for their military camapaigns but they also led wars against non-muslim Afghan tribes of Ghor and koh e sulieman as well as against Afghan rulers of Multan who had embraced ismaeli faith. From alberuni we come to know that Afghans fought from both sides, in the war between jaipala and Mahmud ghaznavi. It is evident that a portion of Afghans were non-muslims of unknown religion and took side of jaipal in the war against muslim ghaznavi, who had support of muslim afghans. It was ghaznavi who allowed dilazak tribes of pashtuns to settle in peshawer, bajaur, malakand, swat and hazara. Dilazaks were first wave of pashtuns to colonize present day KPK, centuries later they would be defeated and expelled by yousafzais and allies from kabul.

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What happened to your request to change your name to ‘Lord of Jodi’ ? :cb:

Shouldn’t be such a big deal.

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Please extend this series by a timeline to make it educative

request you to detail about pre islamic Pakhtuns

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Would work on that. I am avoiding wikipedia and the source material is mostly books so collecting information about each article takes lot of time, so i am slow and selective. Once i cover enough material about each of timeline, then i would definately arrange articles in chronological order. In Most of these topics, non-pashtuns , and non-pakistanis would be least interested but due to high google rank, many people would stumble upon this thread from google search. Pashtuns are not taught their history at all in pakistan, so there is very little work on it on internet.

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The NOTORIOUS MADAD KHAN PATHAN IN SINDH

A series of battles ensued in which the Talpur Baloch defeated the Kalhoras and Abdul Nabi fell back on Taimur Shah, the king of Afghanistan. The scourge called Madad Khan pathan was dispatched at the head of a vast army to the aid of the Kalhora feudatory. The price to be paid to the Afghan was a portion of the Kalhora treasure.

Arriving in Sindh, madam khan pathan demanded his wages, but greed taking the better of him, Abdul Nabi advised the pathan to make good his expenses by looting the country. This the dastardly pathan did with his heart and soul and he brought down upon the country a bane the likes of which had never before been witnessed. Cities were plundered looted burnt and sacked, the living were put to the sword in vast numbers and the dead were left to rot and feed the vultures and the jackals. Seized by a frenzy Madad Khan tore across Sindh leaving in his wake smouldering ruins where opulent towns once stood. He withdrew from the country only when he received news of Abdullah Talpur Baloch’s preparations for battle.

This was in the year 1781. Such was the slaughter that a terrible famine accompanied by pestilence swept across Sindh and the country was to struggle for years to recover from the effects of the mad pathan’s visitation. Surely the great Shah Latif had envisioned just such an eventuality when he had said that the gravest danger to Sindh was from Kandahar.

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odysseuslahori.blogspot.com
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What a thoroughly unpleasant personality. He serves Father of Mughal Emperor Humayun babur as a soldier in India and then usurp his sons kingdom by deceit and then builds his own kingdom immorally by complete deceit .This eclipses whatever little good he may have done.

Sher Shah met Humayun in battle on the banks of the Ganges, near Benares, in Chausa. This was to become an entrenched battle in which both sides spent a lot of time digging themselves into positions. The major part of the Mughal army, the artillery, was now immobile, and Humayun decided to engage in some diplomacy using Muhammad Aziz as ambassador. Humayun agreed to allow Sher Shah to rule over Bengal and Bihar, but only as provinces granted to him by his Emperor, Humayun, falling short of outright sovereignty. The two rulers also struck a bargain in order to save face: Humayun’s troops would charge those of Sher Shah whose forces then retreat in feigned fear. Thus honour would, supposedly, be satisfied.

Once the Army of Humayun had made its charge and Sher Shah’s troops made their agreed-upon retreat, the Mughal troops relaxed their defensive preparations and returned to their entrenchments without posting a proper guard. Observing the Mughals’ vulnerability, Sher Shah reneged on his earlier agreement. That very night, his army approached the Mughal camp and finding the Mughal troops unprepared with a majority asleep, they advanced and killed most of them. The Emperor survived by swimming the Ganges using an air filled “water skin,” and quietly returned to Agra

sher shah Suri was a usurper not a king he deceived betrayed humayun

  [Humayun - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humayun)
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Lodhi was a Rajput Dynasty not Afghan

The Lodhi (or Lodha, Lodh) is a community of agriculturalists, found in India. There are many in Madhya Pradesh, to where they had emigrated from Uttar Pradesh.[SUP][1][/SUP] The Lodhi are categorised as an Other Backward Class, but they claim Rajput ties and prefer to be known as “Lodhi-Rajput”.[2

Lodhi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lodhi is a Hindu community in India. They are Kshatriya.

Origin and History

The word Lodham first originates in Rigveda (The oldest literature of Sanatan/ Hindu dharma), Mandal-3,Sukta-53, sloka-23 [2] [3], then the word again shows its presence in Manusmriti, Chapter VII- 54 [3] [4] and in Parashuram sahitya. In all the slokas depicted, the word Lodham is used for Shoorveer / warrior/ brave. Lodh were the first Kshatriyas of the earth.

When Parashuram killed The Chakravarti King Sahastrabahoo (A Lodham) the then left over leaders of Kshatriyas (Lodham) went to The Lord Mahesh. The Lord Mahesh saved them from Parashuram and ordered all the Khastriyas (Lodham) to choose farming instead of Kshatra (weapons). As The Lord Mahesh saved the Lodhams from the atrocities of Parashuram the then he is also worshiped as The Lodheswar Mahadev. Lodhi Rajput are Chandravanshi from the lunar deity Chandra.

The Sanskrit word Rajputra is found in ancient texts, including the Vedas, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharata. It was used by the ancient Sanskrit grammarian Pāṇini in the 4th century BCE. The word Kshatriya (“warrior”) was used for the Vedic community of warriors and rulers.

To differentiate royal warriors from other Kshatriyas the word Rajputra was used, which literally means “Son of King” Rajputra eventually was shortened to Rajput. Rajputs belong to one of three great patrilineages, which are Suryavanshi, Chandravanshi and Agnivanshi.

The names Lodhi, Lodh, Lodha are synonymous to Lodhi Rajput. Lodhi Rajput community is diversified in many parts of India. A part of community is very much prominent in North and central India, especially in Westen UP, Vidarbha and its area near Madhya Pradesh, Gujrat and Rajasthan.

They have 23 Rajgharanas (Thikans) in Indian subcontinent starting from the west

  • Teenkotla, in the Sialkot District of present-day Pakistan
  • Lodra in the Multan District of present-day Pakistan
  • Ludrava, Jaisalmair Rajasthan, India.
  • Amarpatan (National Highway No.7, 50 Km away from Maihar) MP, India.
  • Ramgarh, Mandla MP, India.
  • Gahora, Chitrakut MP, India.
  • Kerbana, Bateagarh, Damoh,MP, India.
  • Hindoriya (Hata, Damoh) MP, India.
  • Madanpur Mahroni, (Lalitpur) UP, India.
  • Mankhedi Seoni MP are just few of them.

Present

The community has diversified to a great extent, which has led it to form highly differentiated groups. .There are many groups with varied social and financial standings. They are Landlord, Jagirdar, Zamindar and occupied in agriculture and farming business. Although agriculture is major occupation, they are also having notable presence in politics, teaching, army, engineering and other areas.

Most Notables

Freedom Fighter

· Avanti Bai, a Lodhi queen of Ramgarh who opposed the British in 1857

· Gulab Singh Lodhi, freedom fighter, Unnao, Uttarpardesh

· Matadeen Lodha, freedom fighter

Politicians and Leaders

· Kalyan Singh, Ex. CM, Uttar Pradesh

· Dr. Chattarpal Singh, Ex. M.P. Rajya Sabha

· Swami Shakshi Maharaj, Ex. M.P. Rajya Sabha

· Hitesh Kumari Lodhi, Ex-Minister U.P

· Rajbir Singh, MLA, U.P

· Shri Ganga Prasad, Former Vice-Health Minister, U.P, MLA: 1957-1980

History of lodhi: History of lodhi

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before anyone start Praising Ghilzai Khilji or Hotaki Dynasty and taking credit for that Let me tell everyone here first that Ghilzi Hotaki dynasty was a Turkish Dynasty not Afghan so none should take credit for that Ghilzai Khilji Kharoti Hotak have turkish origin they are turkish not afghan and there are many sub tribes of khilji like sulemakhel and so on

"The Khilji dynasty was named after a village in Afghanistan. Some historians feel that they were Afghans, but Bharani and Wolse Haig have mentioned in their accounts that the rulers from this dynasty who came to India had temporarily settled in Afghanistan, but were originally Turks".

"The Khiljis were a Turkish tribe but having been long domiciled in Afghanistan, and adopted some Afghan habits and customs. They were treated as Afghans in Delhi Court".

The three sultans of the Khalji dynasty were noted for their faithlessness, their ferocity, and their penetration from Afghanistan into what is now India. Although the rulers were members of Turko-Afghan origin, the court was of multi-ethnical background, filled with ministers, vezirs, poets, writers, teachers etc. of Turkic, Indian, Persian, and Arab background. The term Khilji was their self-designation, (see also Ibn Batuta's and Ibn Khaldun's excessive quantity) meaning in Turkic languages "swordsman" or in Ottoman-Turkish "long arm" or "long fingers" and in Pashto language "thief".

Originated from upper Central Asia, they came in contact with the multi-ethnic population of Khorasan and thus with the native ruling class, the Ghaznavids and later Ghurids, who islamized them and taught them their culture, language and civilization. During the Ghaznavid period, the Khiljis were ruled for a short time by the Seljuqs, who expanded their Khorasanian empire until they were driven out by the alliance of Ghurids. Under the Ghurids, the Khiljis had still the slave-statue as before under the Ghaznavids and played a role in Ghurid's slave army, Bardagân-e Nezâmi, also called Ghilman.

Ikhtiar Uddin Muhammad bin Bakhtiar Khilji, one of the servants of Qutb-ud-din Aybak who was himself an ex-slave of the Ghurids and of Turkic background and an Indo-Ghurid Shah (king) and founder of the Delhi Sultanat, conquered Bihar and Bengal regions of India in the late 12th century. From this time, the Khiljis became servants and vassals of the Mamluk dynasty of Delhi. From 1266 to his death in 1290, the Sultan of Delhi was officially Ghiyas ud din Balban, another servant of Qutab-ud-din Aybak. Balban's immediate successors, however, were unable to manage either the administration or the factional conflicts between the old Turkic nobility and the new forces, led by the Khaljis. After a struggle between the two factions, Jalal ud din Firuz Khilji was established by a noble faction of Turkic, Persian, Arabic and Indian-Muslim aristocrates on the collapse of the last feeble Slave king, Kay-Qubadh. Their rise to power was aided by impatient outsiders, some of them Indian-born Muslims, who might expect to enhance their positions if the hold of the followers of Balban and the Forty (members of the royal Loya Jirga) were broken. Jalal-ud-din was already elderly, and for a time he was so unpopular, because his tribe was thought to be close to the nomadic Afghans, that he dared not to enter the capital. During his short reign (1290-96), some of Balban's officers revolted due to this assumption but Jalal-ud-din suppressed them, led an unsuccessful expedition against Ranthambhor, and defeated a substantial Mongol force on the banks of the Sind River in central India.

Ali Gurshap, his nephew and son-in-law was ordered by his father to lead an expedition with ca. 4000-7000 men into the Hindu Deccan where the conquered countries had refused obedience and to capture Ellichpur and it's treasure and possibly it was also his father's order to murder his uncle after his return in 1296. However, the prince is considered to be the greatest among the Khiljis, due to successfully repelling of two invasions from the Mongols.

With the title of Ala ud din Khilji, Ali Gurshap reigned for 20 years. He captured Ranthambhor (1301) and Chitor (1303), conquered Māndu (1305), and captured and annexed the wealthy Hindu kingdom of Devagiri. He also repelled Mongol raids. Ala-ud-din's lieutenant, Malik Kafur, a native Muslim Indian, was sent on a plundering expedition to the south in 1308, which led to the capture of Warangal, the overthrow of the Hoysala Dynasty south of the Krishna River, and the occupation of Madura in the extreme south. Malik Kafur returned to Delhi in 1311, laden with spoils. Thereafter, the empire felt into a deep political and family decadence. The sultan died in early 1316. Malik Kafur's attempted usurpation ended with his own death. The last Khalji, Qutb ud din Mubarak Shah, was murdered in 1320 by former Indian slave who was also chief minister and his friend, Khusraw Khan, who was in turn replaced by Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, the first ruler of the Turkic Tughluq dynasty. A remnant of the ruling house of the Khaljis ruled in Malwa from 1436 to 1530/31 until the Sultan of Gujarat cleansed their entire nobility.

To some extent then, the Khilji usurpation was a move toward the recognition of a shifting balance of power, attributable both to the developments outside the territory of the Delhi sultanate, in Central Asia and Iran, and to the changes that followed the establishment of Turkic rule in northern India.

In large measure, the dislocation in the regions beyond the northwest assured the establishment of an independent Delhi-Sultanate and its subsequent consolidation. The eastern steppe tribes' movements to the west not only ended the threat to Delhi from the rival Turks and Iranians in Ghazna and Ghur but also forced a number of the Central Asian Muslims to migrate to northern India, a land that came to be known as Hindustan. Almost all the high nobles, including the famous Forty in the 13th century, were of Central Asian origin (mostly Iranians and Turks). Many of them were slaves purchased from the Central Asian bazaars. The same phenomenon also led to the destabilization of the core of the Turkic Mamluks. With the Mongol plunder of Central Asia and eastern Iran (modern Afghanistan, Samarkand, Bukhara, Gorgon, Khwarezm, Merv, Peshawar, Swat, Quetta ... and borderlands), many more members of the political and religious elite of these regions were thrown into north India, where they were admitted into various levels of the military and administrative cadre by the early Delhi sultans.

*The position of the Khiljis within the Turkic society of India *
The Khilji Turks were not recognized by the older nobility as coming from a pure Turkic stock even in Singam and Kuselan (although they were ethnic Turks), since they were (unlike the Turks and their Turkic nobility who tried to intermerry only into Turkic families) assimilated into non-Turks, mostly by Muslims of Indian, Afghan (Pashtun) and Arab (bedouines) origine, who populated the entire North-West India and near locations which cause that they were in terms of customs and manners different from the Turks. Although they had played a conspicuous role in the success of the Turkic armies in India, they had always been looked down upon by the leading Turks, the dominant group during the Slave dynasty. This tension between the Khiljis and other Turks, kept in check by Balban, came to the surface in the succeeding reign, and ended in the displacement of the Ilbari Turks.Khilji tribe was mostly known for thier ferocious war capabilities and retaliation against any invader.

*Origin of the Khalji people *
It seems, that the larger Khilji tribe was once member of Hephthalites of central Asia who also conquered -invaded- India. Originally, the Khaljis were mainly dwelling in Turkestan, except in some cases or members of ancient Gökturks. In older scripts of Al-Biruni, Al-Khwarezmi, Masudi, in Juzjani's Hudud ul-'alam min al-mashriq ila al-maghrib and of Arab and Indian historians (Ibn Batuta, Ibn Khaldun or Vahara Mihira etc.) they are considered as one of the original (in the sense of real) members of the Hephtalite's confederation and of Turkic origin who are also found as nomads near Bactria, in Turfan (Turkestan) and east-ward of modern Ghazni in Afghanistan. Possibly, they have split themselves from these large area up and moved to Iran, Armenia, Iraq, Anatolia, Turkmenistan, Punjab) and modern Pakistan and Afghanistan, around the Sulaiman Mountains under the Ghaznavids (see also on Ghalzais). In Iran, they moved to Pars where they settled an isolated region which is called today as Khaljistan - Land of Khaljis. However, Persians of Iran use the term Khalji also to describe nomads of Turkic background in their country. Also in in the Kohistan destrict of Pakistan, there is a place called after the Khiljis. The Khilji people of Iran and Afghanistan, the Ghilzai (also called Khaldjish) fraction of the Pashtuns, the Khaldji people of Bengal and Sindh are considered as descendants of ancient and middle-age Khalji (sub-)tribes. However, modern Khalji people are not more comparable to the past Khalji tribes who were of pure Turkic stock. For example in the case of India, modern Khalji people became ethnic Indians and lost their east-Asian features and their Turkic identity. In Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq, they are either of hybrid origin or in the case of Turkmen Khalji tribe they kept Turks but became culturally Iranians and South Asian. Because of this fact, most of modern Khalji people and tribes have no more ties or any kind of an identity that trace them intentional to the Turks, except for the Khaljis of Iran and Afghanistan, who speak a Khalaj dialect of the Khalaj language group.

*Cultural achievements and religious propagation *
The main court language of Khiljis became Persian, followed by Arabic and their own native Turkoman language and some of north-Indian dialects. Even if it was not related with their nature as original nomads and had no ties with urbane cultures and civilizations, the Khilji of Delhi promoted Persian language to a high degree. Such a co-existence of different languages gave birth to the earliest and archaic version of Urdu. According to Ibn Batuta, the Khiljis encouraged conversion to Islam by making it a custom to have the convert presented to the Sultan who would place a robe on the convert and award him with bracelets of gold. During Ikhtiyar Uddin Bakhtiyar Khilji's control of the Bengal, Muslim missionaries in India achieved their greatest success, in terms of number of converts to Islam.

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whats the source of this long post?