A thread on the Afghan (Pashtun) expansion from the Sulaiman mountain ranges. The general pattern followed by Pashtuns when they descended and colonised regions around the Sulaiman mountains is counter-clockwise.
That is, they first colonised the flat sandy regions of Ar-Rukkhaj or the Classical Arachosia (Kandahar-Helmand regions) to their west. Later the Kabul valley towards the north and then finally the Peshawar valley in the east were colonised, in that particular order.
It is generally believed they filled vacuum that had been created by the demise of the Turko-Mongol tribes in the fifteenth century and the virtual withdrawal of Timurid control from the borderlands.
The first mountain (pākkh) that was colonised by the Pashtun (Afghan) nation.
Source: A Dictionary of the Pukhshto Language by Henry Walter Bellew.
Source: A Dictionary of the Pukhshto Language by Henry Walter Bellew.
The close relationship of Abdalis (Durranis) of Southern Afghanistan and the Yusufzais of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa indicates their common origin (Yusufzais are originally from Kandahar, which is currently dominated by Durranis).
Nevertheless, these migrations of Pashtun people continues to this day, at the cost of Tajiks of Northern Afghanistan and Hazaras of Central Afghanistan.
The author has stressed on the fact that Kabul has never been a Pashtun majority town, indirectly indicating current Tajiks who have assimilated the Parachis (another Iranic group) to be the older inhabitants.
Whatever the reasons behind these migrations, the arrival and subsequent rise to power of large groups of Pashtuns in the vast plains of South and East Afghanistan brought about important political and social changes.
The influence of the urban centres and their mainly Tajik (Persian-speaking) population had to give way to the countryside and its new Pashtun settlers.
Moreover, the Pashtuns themselves, deriving from the poor and secluded valleys of the borderlands, suddenly found themselves in the wide and relatively productive plains south and east of the Afghan mountains.
If the advent of the Pashtuns brought about great changes to the local population, it also caused great changes in the living conditions of the Pashtuns themselves.
In short, these migrations were a net positive to the Pashtuns, yet they spelled disaster for the urbanite and sedentary Tajiks.
The kinsmen of the Abdalis are the Spin(White) Tarins and Tor(Black) Tarins and the tribal Sheranis (who guard the Sulaiman mountains and still reside there) further indicates the possibility that the Abdalis/Durranis,
and perhaps all Pashtuns, originate in the same area, close to the Sulayman mountains in modern Pakistan.
Further proof of this theory lies in the etymology of the progenitor of the Afghan(Pashtun) tribes. The legendary Qais Abdur Rashid.
Further proof of this theory lies in the etymology of the progenitor of the Afghan(Pashtun) tribes. The legendary Qais Abdur Rashid.
The Sulaiman mountains are called Da Kasi Ghar (the mountains of Qais) and are called Kāsh by the Ormuri people of Kānīgūram(کانيګورم) in South Waziristan.
Source: The Afghans by Willem Vogelsang
Source: The Afghans by Willem Vogelsang
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