Editing Pashtuns (section)

=== Anthropology and oral traditions ===
====Theory of Pashtun descent from Israelites====
{{Main|Theory of Pashtun descent from Israelites}}

Some [[anthropologist]]s lend credence to the [[oral tradition]]s of the Pashtun tribes themselves. For example, according to the ''[[Encyclopaedia of Islam]]'', the theory of Pashtun descent from Israelites is traced to [[Nimat Allah al-Harawi]], who compiled a history for ''[[Khan Jahan Lodi|Khan-e-Jehan Lodhi]]'' in the reign of [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] Emperor [[Jehangir]] in the 17th century.<ref name="Houtsma-150">{{Cite book|title=E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936|last1=Houtsma|first1=Martijn Theodoor|volume=2|year=1987|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-08265-4|page=150|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GEl6N2tQeawC&pg=PA150|access-date=24 September 2010}}</ref> The 13th century [[Tabaqat-i Nasiri]] discusses the settlement of immigrant Bani Israel at the end of the 8th century CE in the [[Ghor Province|Ghor region]] of Afghanistan, settlement attested by Jewish inscriptions in Ghor. Historian André Wink suggests that the story "may contain a clue to the remarkable theory of the Jewish origin of some of the Afghan tribes which is persistently advocated in the Persian-Afghan chronicles."<ref name="Wink">{{cite book|last1=Wink|first1=Andre|title=Al-Hind: the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam, 7th–11th Centuries Vol 1|date=2002|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-0391041738|pages=95–96|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2m7_R5P2oAC&q=%22Tabaqat-i+Nasiri%22+israel&pg=PA95|access-date=6 November 2016}}</ref> These references to Bani Israel agree with the commonly held view by Pashtuns that when the twelve tribes of Israel were dispersed, the [[tribe of Joseph]], among other Hebrew tribes, settled in the Afghanistan region.<ref name="Jewish-library">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Afghanistan.html|title=The Virtual Jewish History Tour, Afghanistan|first=Alden|last=Oreck|encyclopedia=[[Jewish Virtual Library]]|access-date=10 January 2007}}</ref> This oral tradition is widespread among the Pashtun tribes. There have been many legends over the centuries of descent from the [[Ten Lost Tribes]] after groups converted to Christianity and Islam. Hence the tribal name [[Yusufzai]] in Pashto translates to the "son of Joseph". A similar story is told by many historians, including the 14th century [[Ibn Battuta]] and 16th century [[Firishta|Ferishta]].<ref name="Ferishta" /> However, the similarity of names can also be traced to the presence of Arabic through Islam.<ref name="Stanizai2020">{{citation|mode=cs1|last1=Stanizai|first1=Zaman|title=Are Pashtuns the Lost Tribe of Israel?|date=9 October 2020|doi=10.33774/coe-2020-vntk7-v4|s2cid=234658271}}</ref>

This theory of Pashtuns Jewish origin has been largely denied and is said that Its biblical claims are anecdotal, its historical documentation is inconsistent, its geographic claims are incoherent, and its linguistic assertions are implausible.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cambridge.org/engage/api-gateway/coe/assets/orp/resource/item/5f7f53929aea2200186f7d9f/original/are-pashtuns-the-lost-tribe-of-israel.pdf|title=Are Pashtuns the Lost Tribes of Israel?}}</ref>

One conflicting issue in the belief that the Pashtuns descend from the [[Israelites]] is that the Ten Lost Tribes were exiled by the ruler of [[Assyria]], while ''[[Maghzan-e-Afghani]]'' says they were permitted by the ruler to go east to Afghanistan. This inconsistency can be explained by the fact that Persia acquired the lands of the ancient Assyrian Empire when it conquered the Empire of the Medes and Chaldean [[Babylonia]], which had conquered Assyria decades earlier. But no ancient author mentions such a transfer of Israelites further east, or no ancient extra-Biblical texts refer to the Ten Lost Tribes at all.<ref>{{cite news|title=Pashtun clue to lost tribes of Israel|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/17/israel-lost-tribes-pashtun|newspaper=The Observer|date=17 January 2010|last1=McCarthy|first1=Rory}}</ref>

Some Afghan historians have maintained that Pashtuns are [[Theory of Pashtun descent from the Israelites|linked to the ancient Israelites]]. [[Mohan Lal (Zutshi)|Mohan Lal]] quoted [[Mountstuart Elphinstone]] who wrote:

{{Blockquote|"The Afghan historians proceed to relate that the children of Israel, both in [[Ghor]]e and in Arabia, preserved their knowledge of the unity of [[Allah|God]] and the purity of their religious belief, and that on the appearance of the last and greatest of the prophets ([[Muhammad]]) the Afghans of Ghore listened to the invitation of their Arabian brethren, the chief of whom was [[Khalid ibn al-Walid|Khauled]]...if we consider the easy way with which all rude nations receive accounts favourable to their own antiquity, I fear we much class the descents of the Afghans from the Jews with that of the Romans and the British from the Trojans, and that of the Irish from the Milesians or Brahmins."<ref name="Lal">Life of the Amir Dost Mohammed Khan; of Kabul, Volume 1. By Mohan Lal (1846), pg.5</ref>|Mountstuart Elphinstone|1841|source=}}

This theory has been criticized for not being substantiated by historical evidence.<ref name="Stanizai2020" /> Zaman Stanizai criticizes this theory:<ref name="Stanizai2020" />

{{Blockquote|"The 'mythified' misconception that the Pashtuns are the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel is a fabrication popularized in 14th-century India. A claim that is full of logical inconsistencies and historical incongruities, and stands in stark contrast to the conclusive evidence of the Indo-Iranian origin of Pashtuns supported by the incontrovertible DNA sequencing that the genome analysis revealed scientifically."|<ref name=Stanizai2020/>}}

According to genetic studies Pashtuns have a greater [[Haplogroup R1a|R1a1a*-M198]] modal halogroup than Jews:<ref name="pmid22510847">{{cite journal|last1=Lacau|first1=Harlette|last2=Gayden|first2=Tenzin|last3=Regueiro|first3=Maria|last4=Chennakrishnaiah|first4=Shilpa|last5=Bukhari|first5=Areej|last6=Underhill|first6=Peter A.|last7=Garcia-Bertrand|first7=Ralph L.|last8=Herrera|first8=Rene J.|title=Afghanistan from a Y-chromosome perspective|journal=European Journal of Human Genetics|date=October 2012|volume=20|issue=10|pages=1063–1070|doi=10.1038/ejhg.2012.59|pmid=22510847|pmc=3449065}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|"Our study demonstrates genetic similarities between Pathans from Afghanistan and Pakistan, both of which are characterized by the predominance of haplogroup R1a1a*-M198 (>50%) and the sharing of the same modal haplotype...Although Greeks and Jews have been proposed as ancestors to Pathans, their genetic origin remains ambiguous...Overall, Ashkenazi Jews exhibit a frequency of 15.3% for haplogroup R1a1a-M198"||"Afghanistan from a Y-chromosome perspective"
|source=''European Journal of Human Genetics''}}