Editing Pashtuns (section)

=== Ancient historical references: Pashtun ===
A tribe called [[Pakthas|Pakthās]], one of the tribes that fought against [[Sudas]] in the [[Dasarajna]], or ''"Battle of the Ten Kings"'', are mentioned in [[Mandala 7|the seventh mandala]] of the [[Rigveda]], a text of [[Vedic Sanskrit]] hymns dated between {{circa}} 1500 and 1200 BCE:<ref>p. 2 "Some Aspects of Ancient Indian Culture" By D. R. Bhandarkar</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Rig Veda: Rig-Veda, Book 7: HYMN XVIII. Indra.|url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07018.htm|access-date=2 November 2020|website=sacred-texts.com}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|Together came the Pakthas (पक्थास), the Bhalanas, the Alinas, the Sivas, the Visanins. Yet to the Trtsus came the Ārya's Comrade, through love of spoil and heroes' war, to lead them.|Rigveda|Book 7|source=Hymn 18, Verse 7}}

[[Heinrich Zimmer]] connects them with a tribe mentioned by [[Herodotus]] (''Pactyans'') in 430 BCE in the [[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]:<ref>[[A. A. Macdonell|Macdonell, A.A.]] and Keith, A.B. 1912. The Vedic Index of Names and Subjects.</ref><ref>Map of the [[Median Empire]], showing ''Pactyans'' territory in what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan...[http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/shepherd/oriental_empire.jpg Link]</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Herodotus, The Histories, Book 3, chapter 102, section 1|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0126:book=3:chapter=102:section=1|access-date=2 November 2020|website=perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|Other Indians dwell near the town of Caspatyrus[Κασπατύρῳ] and the Pactyic [Πακτυϊκῇ] country, north of the rest of India; these live like the Bactrians; they are of all Indians the most warlike, and it is they who are sent for the gold; for in these parts all is desolate because of the sand.|Herodotus |The Histories, Book III|source=Chapter 102, Section 1}}

These Pactyans lived on the eastern frontier of the [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid]] [[Arachosia]] [[Satrapy]] as early as the 1st millennium BCE, present-day Afghanistan.<ref>{{cite web|title=The History of Herodotus Chapter 7, Written 440 B.C.E, Translated by George Rawlinson|url=http://www.piney.com/Heredotus7.html|access-date=21 September 2012|publisher=Piney.com|archive-date=5 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205055843/http://www.piney.com/Heredotus7.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Herodotus]] also mentions a tribe of known as Aparytai (Ἀπαρύται).<ref>{{cite web|title=The History of Herodotus Book 3, Chapter 91, Verse 4; Written 440 B.C.E, Translated by G. C. Macaulay|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh3090.htm|access-date=21 February 2015|publisher=sacred-texts.com}}</ref> [[Thomas Holdich]] has linked them with the [[Afridi]] tribe:<ref>{{cite web|title=Herodotus, The Histories, Book 3, chapter 91, section 4|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0126:book=3:chapter=91:section=4|access-date=3 November 2020|website=perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Dani|first=Ahmad Hasan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9yduAAAAMAAJ|title=History of Pakistan: Pakistan through ages|publisher=Sang-e Meel Publications|year=2007|isbn=978-969-35-2020-0|page=77}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Holdich|first=Thomas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JnC-wwEACAAJ&q=Holdich++gates+of+india|title=The Gates of India, Being an Historical Narrative|date=12 March 2019|publisher=Creative Media Partners, LLC|isbn=978-0-530-94119-6|pages=28, 31}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|The Sattagydae, Gandarii, Dadicae, and Aparytae (Ἀπαρύται) paid together a hundred and seventy talents; this was the seventh province|Herodotus |The Histories, Book III|source=Chapter 91, Section 4}}

[[Josef Markwart|Joseph Marquart]] made the connection of the Pashtuns with names such as the Parsiētai (Παρσιῆται), Parsioi (Πάρσιοι) that were cited by [[Ptolemy]] 150 CE:<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Ptolemy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VfkQAQAAIAAJ|title=Geography, book 6 : Middle East, Central and North Asia, China. Part 1. Text and English/German translations|last2=Humbach|first2=Helmut|last3=Ziegler|first3=Susanne|date=1998|publisher=Reichert|isbn=978-3-89500-061-4|pages=224|language=el}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Marquart|first=Joseph|url=http://archive.org/details/UntersuchungenZurGeschichteVonEran21905|title=Untersuchungen zur geschichte von Eran II (1905)|pages=177|language=de}}</ref>{{Blockquote|"The northern regions of the country are inhabited
by the Bolitai, the western regions by the Aristophyloi below whom live the Parsioi (Πάρσιοι). The southern regions are inhabited by the Parsiētai (Παρσιῆται), the eastern regions by the Ambautai. The towns and villages lying in the country of the Paropanisadai are these: Parsiana Zarzaua/Barzaura Artoarta Baborana Kapisa niphanda"|Ptolemy|150 CE|source=6.18.3–4}}

[[Strabo]], the Greek geographer, in the [[Geographica]] (written between 43 BC to 23 AD) makes mention of the Scythian tribe Pasiani (Πασιανοί), which has also been identified with Pashtuns given that Pashto is an [[Eastern Iranian languages|Eastern-Iranian]] language, much like the [[Scythian languages]]:<ref>{{cite web|title=Strabo, Geography, BOOK XI., CHAPTER VIII., section 2|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0239:book=11:chapter=8:section=2|access-date=7 November 2020|website=perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref><ref name="Sagar1992">{{cite book|last=Sagar|first=Krishna Chandra|title=Foreign Influence on Ancient India|date=1 January 1992|publisher=Northern Book Centre|isbn=9788172110284|page=91|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0UA4rkm9MgkC&pg=PA91|quote=According to Strabo (c. 54 B.C., A.D. 24), who refers to the authority of [[Apollodorus of Artemita|Apollodorus of Artemia]] {{Sic}}, the Greeks of Bactria became masters of Ariana, a vague term roughly indicating the eastern districts of the Persian empire, and of India.}}<!--|access-date=17 July 2015--></ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-early-inner-asia/90634C2E365B2AE442EDCA51E5335033|title=The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia|date=1990|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-24304-9|editor-last=Sinor|editor-first=Denis|location=Cambridge|pages=117|doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521243049|quote="All contemporary historians, archeologists and linguists are agreed that since the Scythian and Sarmatian tribes were of the Iranian linguistic group..."}}</ref><ref name="Onomasiological">{{cite book|last1=Humbach|first1=Helmut|last2=Faiss|first2=Klaus|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iMACuwAACAAJ&q=Herodotus+Scythians+and+Ptolemy%E2%80%99s+Central+Asia|title=Herodotus's Scythians and Ptolemy's Central Asia: Semasiological and Onomasiological Studies|date=2012|publisher=Reichert Verlag|isbn=978-3-89500-887-0|pages=21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Alikuzai|first=Hamid Wahed|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YZJcAQAAQBAJ&q=Strabo+pashtuns&pg=PA142|title=A Concise History of Afghanistan in 25 Volumes|date=October 2013|publisher=Trafford Publishing|isbn=978-1-4907-1441-7|pages=142}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|"Most of the Scythians...each separate tribe has its peculiar name. All, or the greatest part of them, are nomades. The best known tribes are those who deprived the Greeks of Bactriana, the Asii, Pasiani, Tochari, and Sacarauli, who came from the country on the other side of the Iaxartes (Syr Darya)"|Strabo|The Geography|source=Book XI, Chapter 8, Section 2}}
This is considered a different rendering of Ptolemy's Parsioi (Πάρσιοι).<ref name="Onomasiological" /> Johnny Cheung,<ref>{{cite web|last=Cheung|first=Johnny|title=Cheung2017-On the Origin of the Terms "Afghan" & "Pashtun" (Again) – Gnoli Memorial Volume.pdf|url=https://www.academia.edu/32353626|pages=39}}</ref> reflecting on Ptolemy's ''Parsioi (Πάρσιοι)'' and Strabo's ''Pasiani'' (Πασιανοί) states: "Both forms show slight phonetic substitutions, viz. of υ for ι, and the loss of r in Pasianoi is due to perseveration from the preceding Asianoi. They are therefore the most likely candidates as the (linguistic) ancestors of modern day Pashtuns."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Morano|first1=Enrico|last2=Provasi|first2=Elio|last3=Rossi|first3=Adriano Valerio|title=Studia Philologica Iranica: Gherardo Gnoli Memorial Volume|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hJihtAEACAAJ|chapter=On the Origin of Terms Afghan and Pashtun|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/32353626|publisher=Scienze e lettere|date=2017|pages=39|isbn=978-88-6687-115-6}}</ref>