Editing Afghanistan (section)

===Medieval period===
{{Main|Muslim conquests of Afghanistan|Mongol campaigns in Central Asia|Ghaznavid campaigns in India}}
[[File:Ghurid Empire according to Schwartzberg Atlas, p.147.png|thumb|right|The [[Ghurid dynasty|Ghurids]] originated from [[Ghor Province]] in central Afghanistan.]]

[[Arab]] [[Muslim]]s brought Islam to [[Herat]] and [[Zaranj]] in 642&nbsp;CE and began spreading eastward; some of the native inhabitants they encountered accepted it while others revolted. Before the [[Islamic conquest of Afghanistan|arrival of Islam]], the region used to be home to various beliefs and cults, often resulting in [[Syncretism]] between the dominant religions<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Weber|first1=Olivier|url=|title=Eternal Afghanistan|last2=Unesco|date=2002|publisher=Chêne|isbn=978-92-3-103850-1|quote=Gradually there emerged a fabulous syncretism between the Hellenistic world and the Buddhist universe}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Grenet|first=Grenet|title=Zoroastriansm among the Kushans|year=2016}}</ref> such as [[Zoroastrianism]],<ref name="Gnoli-1989"/><ref name="Gnoli-1989a"/><ref name="ARACHOSIA – Encyclopaedia Iranica"/> [[Buddhism]] or [[Greco-Buddhism]], [[Ancient Iranian religion]]s,<ref name="Allen">{{Cite book|last=Allen|first=Charles|url=|title=The Search For Shangri-La: A Journey into Tibetan History|date=5 November 2015|publisher=Little, Brown Book Group|isbn=978-0-349-14218-0|quote=With Aurmuzd, Sroshard, Narasa and Mihr, we are on safer ground because all are Zoroastrian deities: Aurmuzd is the supreme god of light, Ahura Mazda; and Mihr, the sun god, is linked with the Iranian Mithra. Exactly the same non-Buddhist[...]}}</ref> [[Hinduism]], Christianity,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gorder|first1=A. Christian Van|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FeHAxxEpe-cC&q=nestorian+christians+Afghanistan&pg=PA34|title=Christianity in Persia and the Status of Non-muslims in Iran|date=2010|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7391-3609-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Kennedy|first1=Hugh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pk7BS9XC10QC&q=Zaranj+christians+Afghanistan&pg=PT127|title=The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In|date=9 December 2010|publisher=Orion|isbn=978-0-297-86559-9|quote=.. when the patriarch at Ctesiphon had to broker a compromise that left one bishop at the capital Zaranj and another further east at Bust, now in southern Afghanistan. A Christian text composed in about 850 also records a monastery of ...}}</ref> and Judaism.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Yossef|first1=Noam Bar'am-Ben|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wVMwAAAAYAAJ&q=Judaism+in+Afghanistan+ghor|title=Brides and Betrothals: Jewish Wedding Rituals in Afghanistan|date=1998|publisher=Israel Museum|isbn=978-965-278-223-6|quote=The Jews of Afghanistan According to tradition, the first Jews reached ... in Hebrew script found in the Tang - e Azao Valley in the Ghor region ...}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Ende|first1=Werner|title=Islam in the World Today: A Handbook of Politics, Religion, Culture, and Society|last2=Steinbach|first2=Udo|date=15 April 2010|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=9780801464898|page=257|quote=At the time of the first Muslim advances, numerous local natural religions were competing with Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Hinduism in the territory of modern Afghanistan.}}</ref> An exemplification of the syncretism in the region would be that people were patrons of Buddhism but still worshipped local Iranian gods such as [[Ahura Mazda]], [[Nana (Kushan goddess)|Lady Nana]], [[Anahita]] or [[Mithra|Mihr (Mithra)]] and portrayed [[Greek mythology|Greek gods]] as protectors of Buddha.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Adrych|first1=Philippa|url=|title=Images of Mithra|last2=coins)|first2=Robert Bracey (Writer on|last3=Dalglish|first3=Dominic|last4=Lenk|first4=Stefanie|last5=Wood|first5=Rachel|date=2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-879253-6|quote=The Rabatak inscription includes Miiro amongst a list of gods: Nana, Ahura Mazda, and Narasa. All of these gods likely had images dedicated at the Bagolaggo, presumably alongside statues of Kanishka}}</ref><ref name="Allen"/><ref>{{Cite book|last=Allen|first=Charles|url=|title=The Search For Shangri-La: A Journey into Tibetan History|date=5 November 2015|publisher=Little, Brown Book Group|isbn=978-0-349-14218-0|quote=The two most important deities are goddesses: one is the lady Nana', daughter of the moon god and sister of the sun god, the Kushan form of Anahita, Zoroastrian goddess of fertility}}</ref> The [[Zunbils]] and Kabul Shahi were first conquered in 870&nbsp;CE by the [[Saffarid dynasty|Saffarid]] Muslims of Zaranj. Later, the [[Samanids]] extended their Islamic influence south of the Hindu Kush. The [[Ghaznavids]] rose to power in the 10th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=80201012&ct=98 |title=A.—The Hindu Kings of Kábul |work=Sir H. M. Elliot |publisher=[[Packard Humanities Institute]] |location=London |date=1867–1877 |access-date=18 September 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408220905/http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=80201012&ct=98 |archive-date=8 April 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=16301012&ct=16 |title=The Geographical Part of the NUZHAT-AL-QULUB |author =Hamd-Allah Mustawfi of Qazwin |work=Translated by Guy Le Strange |publisher=[[Packard Humanities Institute]] |year=1340 |access-date=19 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130726144951/http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=16301012&ct=16 |archive-date=26 July 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=80201012&ct=100 |title=A.—The Hindu Kings of Kábul (p.3) |work=Sir H. M. Elliot |publisher=[[Packard Humanities Institute]] |location=London |date=1867–1877 |access-date=18 September 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130726133107/http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=80201012&ct=100 |archive-date=26 July 2013}}</ref>

By the 11th century, [[Mahmud of Ghazni]] had defeated the remaining Hindu rulers and effectively [[Islamized]] the wider region,{{sfn|Ewans|2002|page=22–23}} with the exception of [[Kafiristan]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nuristan.info/Nuristani/Nuristanis1.html|title=Richard Strand's Nuristân Site: Peoples and Languages of Nuristan|author=Richard F. Strand|date=31 December 2005|work=nuristan.info|author-link=Richard Strand|access-date=2 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401180243/http://nuristan.info/Nuristani/Nuristanis1.html|archive-date=1 April 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Mahmud made [[Ghazni]] into an important city and patronized intellectuals such as the historian [[Al-Biruni]] and the poet [[Ferdowsi]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Afghanistan: A Country Study|date=1986|publisher=Foreign Area Studies, The American University|editor1=Richard Nyrop|editor2=Donald Seekins|page=10}}</ref> The [[Ghaznavid dynasty]] was [[Siege of Lahore (1186)|overthrown by the Ghurids in 1186]], whose architectural achievements included the remote [[Minaret of Jam]]. The Ghurids controlled Afghanistan for less than a century before being conquered by the [[Khwarazmian dynasty]] in 1215.{{sfn|Ewans|2002|page=23}}

[[File:Genghis Khan empire-en.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Mongol invasions and conquests]]]]

In 1219 CE, [[Genghis Khan]] and his [[Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire|Mongol army overran the region]]. His troops are said to have annihilated the Khwarazmian cities of [[Herat]] and [[Balkh]] as well as [[Siege of Bamyan|Bamyan]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://faculty.washington.edu/modelski/CAWC.htm |title=Central Asian world cities |publisher=Faculty.washington.edu |date=29 September 2007 |access-date=6 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130723185841/https://faculty.washington.edu/modelski/CAWC.htm |archive-date=23 July 2013}}</ref> The destruction caused by the Mongols forced many locals to return to an agrarian rural society.<ref>{{cite news |last=Page |first=Susan |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-02-17-afghanistan-forces_N.htm |title=Obama's war: Deploying 17,000 raises stakes in Afghanistan |work=[[USA Today]] |date=18 February 2009 |access-date=19 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110513040037/http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-02-17-afghanistan-forces_N.htm |archive-date=13 May 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> Mongol rule continued with the [[Ilkhanate]] in the northwest while the [[Khalji dynasty]] administered the Afghan tribal areas south of the Hindu Kush until the invasion of [[Timur]] (aka Tamerlane), who established the [[Timurid Empire]] in 1370. Under the rule of [[Shah Rukh]], the city of Herat<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dale |first=Stephen Frederic |year=1998 |title=The Legacy of the Timurids |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25183465 |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=43–58 |doi=10.1017/S1356186300016424 |jstor=25183465 |s2cid=154120015 |issn=1356-1863 |access-date=26 November 2023 |archive-date=26 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231126185502/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25183465 |url-status=live }}</ref> served as the focal point of the [[Timurid Renaissance]], whose glory matched [[Florence]] of the [[Italian Renaissance]] as the center of a cultural rebirth.<ref>Periods of World History: A Latin American Perspective – Page 129</ref><ref>The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia – Page 465</ref>

In the early 16th century [[Babur]] arrived from [[Ferghana]] and captured Kabul from the [[Arghun dynasty]].{{sfn|Barfield|2012|pp=92–93}} [[Babur]] would go on to conquer the Afghan [[Lodi dynasty]] who had ruled the Delhi Sultanate in the [[First Battle of Panipat]].{{sfn|Barfield|2012|pp=75}} Between the 16th and 18th century, the Uzbek [[Khanate of Bukhara]], Iranian [[Safavids]], and Indian [[Mughals]] ruled parts of the territory.{{sfn|Dupree|1997|pp=319, 321}} During the medieval period, the northwestern area of Afghanistan was referred to by the regional name [[Greater Khorasan|Khorasan]], which was commonly used up to the 19th century among natives to describe their country.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ziaeDwAAQBAJ&q=elphinstone+khorasan&pg=PA128|title=Mountstuart Elphinstone in South Asia: Pioneer of British Colonial Rule|first=Shah Mahmoud|last=Hanifi|date=15 July 2019|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780190914400}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cJQ3AAAAIAAJ |chapter=Khurasan |title=The Encyclopaedia of Islam |page=55 |quote=In pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, the term "Khurassan" frequently had a much wider denotation, covering also parts of what are now Soviet Central Asia and Afghanistan |publisher=Brill |year=2009 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-date=25 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240225074807/https://books.google.com/books?id=cJQ3AAAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325–1354 |last1=Ibn Battuta |edition=reprint, illustrated |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-34473-9 |page=416 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zKqn_CWTxYEC&pg=PA180|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170416132656/https://books.google.com/books?id=zKqn_CWTxYEC&pg=PA180 |archive-date=16 April 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=80201016&ct=199 |title=The History of India |volume=6 |chapter=Chapter 200: Translation of the Introduction to Firishta's History |page=8 |access-date=22 August 2010 |author=Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah |others=Sir H. M. Elliot |publisher=Packard Humanities Institute |location=London |year=1560|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130726121158/http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=80201016&ct=199 |archive-date=26 July 2013 |author-link=Firishta}}</ref>