Ethnic groups of Pre-Islamic afghanistan

Anawrahta

Banned
What were the ethnic groups of Pre-islamic afghanistan. I can't find good info on this subject though luckily I found an excellent map.

Who were the inhabitants of zabulistan, Kapisi, Ningrahara, Bamiyan, Vrijisthana, etc...?
Were they Iranian or Indo-Aryan? Or something else?
Was Ghazna indian or iranian? How about bamiyana and vrijisthana? Ghor?


Zabul_map_7-10th-century.png
 
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Anawrahta

Banned
This question has been bothering me for a couple of years and I would really appreciate any well-though answer :)
 
MSPaint map assembled mostly from memory, I'm sure other posters can go into more detail or correct my mistakes. If I have time later I'll look into the matter a bit more.

What I know for sure is that the Baloch don't begin migrating in until the 900s and 1000s-- they only decided to leave Central Iran after getting their (already marginal) pastureland intruded on by the incoming Turks. Come to think of it, other Afghan populations may have a similar origin.

upload_2019-5-3_13-10-36.png
 
Nuristani before Had been called Kafirstani. Until 1896 proto-Hindu religion until conquered by the Emirate.

Kafirstani are pretty obvious a post-Islamic name, Kafir (Arabic: unbeliever), stan (Indonesia-Iranian: land), so it simply mean land of the unbeliever(s).
 
Native groups, by that time would have been Eastern Iranian peoples, Persians, Nuristanis, Dardic people, Sakas and some Hindu Indic peoples, mostly of the ruling class. Sogdians would have existed as well, seeing the proximity and seeing that today's large Tajik minority.

Kushans(Probably Eastern Iranian?) also had a good presence, as it seems.

Before the Kushans and the Sakas, Greeks had a good presence.

Gandharvas are also said to have lived in this region but they probably were assimilated, either by India or other peoples that lived there.

I don't know if there would have been some Turkic peoples but there were a few migrations from the Steppe regions in the North, as it seems.
 
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Kafirstani are pretty obvious a post-Islamic name, Kafir (Arabic: unbeliever), stan (Indonesia-Iranian: land), so it simply mean land of the unbeliever(s).
They certainly had their own name. They are related to the Kalash people of Pakistan. Famous for resisting Mongols, Brita, Afghan Emirate and Soviet rule.
 

Anawrahta

Banned
Thanks for the replies!
Ive read on wikipedia that the people of kabulistan/Kapisa were the ancestors of the kafiristanis, and kafiristani was a peculiar corruption of the demonym Kapiśi.
I have no idea about the Zunbils. Their demonym was actually Jaguda and not zabulistab. So the were closely affiliated with India, but anything else absolutely no clue.
Ghurids were eastern iranian and practiced Mahayana Buddhism at one point
The north and west were iranian.
I have no idea,
 
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Abdali are probably descended from Hephthalites(White Huns).

The source of Pashtun language is interesting. Kushans(Tocharian and Turkic too?), Hephthalites(Tocharian and Turkic too?), Sogdians and Sakas all spoke Eastern Iranian languages like the Pashtuns. Which exactly gave rise to Pashto, is actually quite interesting.

The thing is, except Greeks, Persians and Mauryas, all the people who entered this region were in the form of Confederations. So, to trace out where Pashto came from is difficult.
 
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