Editing Pashtuns

{{Short description|Ethnic group native to Afghanistan and Pakistan}}
{{Redirect|Ethnic Afghan|the citizens of the modern state of Afghanistan|Afghans}}
{{Redirect2|Pathan|Pakhtoon||Pathan (disambiguation)}}
{{for|the Pashtun language|Pashto}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
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{{Infobox ethnic group
| native_name      = پښتانه
| native_name_lang = ps
| group            = Pashtuns
| image            = 
| caption          = 
| pop              = {{circa|'''66–74 million'''}}
| region1          = {{flagcountry|Pakistan}}
| pop1             = 43,633,946 ([[2023 Pakistani census|2023 census]]){{efn|Only includes those who speak Pashto as mother tongue}}
| ref1             = <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/population/2023/tables/national/table_11.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241005130123/https://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/population/2023/tables/national/table_11.pdf|archive-date=5 October 2024|title=TABLE 11 : POPULATION BY MOTHER TONGUE, SEX, and RURAL/URBAN – 2023 Census}}</ref>
| region2          = {{nowrap|{{flagcountry|Afghanistan}}}}
| pop2             = {{circa|18.4–26.3 million}} (2025) {{efn|Estimations, 42–60% out of ca. 43.8 million Afghans ([https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/afghanistan]).}}
| ref2             = <ref>{{Cite web|access-date=5 May 2025|title=Afghanistan |url=https://minorityrights.org/country/afghanistan/|website=[[Minority Rights Group International|Minority Rights Group]] |quote=Main minority or indigenous communities: no reliable current data on ethnicity in Afghanistan exists, though surveys have pointed to some rough estimates of the population. However, previous estimates have put the population at Pashtun 42 per cent [...]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Concise encyclopedia of languages of the world|last1=Brown|first1=Keith|author2=Sarah Ogilvie|year=2009|publisher=Elsevie|quote=Pashto, which is mainly spoken south of the mountain range of the Hindu Kush, is reportedly the mother tongue of 60% of the Afghan population.|isbn=978-0-08-087774-7|page=845|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F2SRqDzB50wC&pg=PA845|access-date=24 September 2010}}</ref><ref name="Hawthorne">{{Cite book|title=September 11, 2001: feminist perspectives|last1=Hawthorne|first1=Susan|author2=Bronwyn Winter|year=2002|publisher=Spinifex Press|quote=Over 60 percent of the population in Afghanistan is Pashtun [...]|isbn=1-876756-27-6|page=225|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DwbfD_irV_AC&pg=PA225|access-date=24 September 2010}}</ref><ref name="hazara5">{{cite web|url=https://www.bilderreisen.at/themen/afghanistan-fakten.php?utm_source=chatgpt.com|title=Afghanistan - Zahlen & Fakten |publisher=[[Der Fischer Weltalmanach]] 1969, 2019 (Frankfurt: S. Fischer Verlag)|access-date=8 May 2025 |language=german}}</ref>
| region3          = {{nowrap|{{flagcountry|India}}}}
| pop3             = 3,200,000 (2018)
| ref3             = {{efn|Most don't speak Pashto any more; also includes those with only distant or part Pashtun ancestry}}<ref name="Ali2018">{{cite news|last=Ali|first=Arshad|title=Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan's great granddaughter seeks citizenship for 'Phastoons' in India|url=https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-khan-abdul-gaffar-khan-s-great-granddaughter-seeks-citizenship-for-phastoons-in-india-2584887|newspaper=[[Daily News and Analysis]]|date=15 February 2018|quote=Interacting with mediapersons on Wednesday, Yasmin, the president of All India Pakhtoon Jirga-e-Hind, said that there were 32 lakh Phastoons in the country who were living and working in India but were yet to get citizenship. |access-date=2 November 2023}}</ref><ref name="TNI2018">{{cite web |title=Frontier Gandhi's granddaughter urges Centre to grant citizenship to Pathans |url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/281681-protect-islamabad |publisher=[[The News International]] |access-date=28 May 2020 |language=en |date=16 February 2018}}</ref>
| region4          = {{nowrap|{{flagcountry|Iran}}}}
| pop4             = 242,500 (2022)
| ref4             = <ref name="Ethnologue-Pashto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/pbt/|title=Ethnologue report for Southern Pashto: Iran (2022)|access-date=17 November 2023}}</ref>
| region5          = {{flag|United Kingdom}}
| pop5             = 200,000 (2015)
| ref5             = <ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL861250|title=Support for Taliban dives among British Pashtuns|first=William|last=Maclean|publisher=Reuters|date=10 June 2009|access-date=6 August 2009}}</ref>
| region6          = {{flag|Germany}}
| pop6             = 150,800 (2021)
| ref6             = <ref name=BMZ>[http://www.bmz.de/en/what_we_do/countries_regions/asien/afghanistan/index.html Relations between Afghanistan and Germany] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116110211/http://www.bmz.de/en/what_we_do/countries_regions/asien/afghanistan/index.html |date=16 January 2017 }}: Germany is now home to almost 90,000 people of Afghan origin. 42% of 90,000 = 37,800</ref>
| region7          = {{flagcountry|United States}}
| pop7             = 138,554 (2010)
| ref7             = <ref name="Pashtuns in USA">42% of [http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/09/20/kabul.htm 200,000] [[Afghan American|Afghan-Americans]] = 84,000 and 15% of [http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_10_SF1_QTP8&prodType=table 363,699] [[Pakistani American|Pakistani-Americans]] = 54,554. Total Afghan and Pakistani Pashtuns in USA = 138,554.</ref>
| region8          = {{flag|Australia}}
| pop8             = 81,154 (2021)
| ref8             = <ref name="Pashtuns in Australia">{{cite web |url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/ABSNavigation/prenav/ViewData?breadcrumb=POLTD&method=Place%20of%20Usual%20Residence&subaction=-1&issue=2006&producttype=Census%20Tables&documentproductno=0&textversion=false&documenttype=Details&collection=Census&javascript=true&topic=Ancestry&action=404&productlabel=Ancestry%20(full%20classification%20list)%20by%20Sex&order=1&period=2006&tabname=Details&areacode=0&navmapdisplayed=true& |title=20680-Ancestry (full classification list) by Sex – Australia |format=Microsoft Excel download |publisher=[[Australian Bureau of Statistics]] |work=2006 Census |access-date=2 June 2008}} Total responses: 25,451,383 for total count of persons: 19,855,288.</ref>
| region9          = {{flagcountry|Canada}}
| pop9             = 60,590 (2018)
| ref9             = <ref>{{cite web | url=https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=PR&Code1=01&Geo2=&Code2=&SearchText=Canada&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&TABID=1&type=0 | title=Census Profile, 2016 Census - Canada &#91;Country&#93; and Canada &#91;Country&#93; | date=8 February 2017 }}</ref>{{verify source|date=December 2019}}
| region10         = {{nowrap|{{flagcountry|Tajikistan}}}}
| pop10            = 32,400 (2017)
| ref10            = <ref name="Pbt">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/pbt/|title=Ethnologue report for Southern Pashto: Tajikistan (2017)|access-date=17 November 2023}}</ref>
| region11         = {{flagcountry|Russia}}
| pop11            = 19,800 (2015)
| ref11            = <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perepis2002.ru/ct/doc/TOM_04_P1.doc|title=Perepis.ru|work=perepis2002.ru|language=ru|access-date=23 February 2014|archive-date=16 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116110211/http://www.perepis2002.ru/ct/doc/TOM_04_P1.doc|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| region12         = {{flagcountry|Uzbekistan}}
| pop12            = 3,000 (2024)
| ref12            = <ref>[https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/14256/UZ Northern Pashtuns of Uzbekistan] Joshua Project</ref>
| langs            = [[Pashto]] (in its different dialects: [[Wanetsi]], [[Central Pashto]], [[Southern Pashto]], [[Northern Pashto]]),<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Khan|first=Ibrahim|date=7 September 2021|title=Tarīno and Karlāṇi dialects|url=http://khyber.org/pacademy/journal3/index.php/path/article/view/178|journal=Pashto|language=en|volume=50|issue=661|issn=0555-8158}}</ref> [[Dari]], [[Hindi-Urdu]]<ref name="2012Hakala"/><ref name="Green2017"/>
| rels             = Predominantly [[File:Star and Crescent.svg|15px]] [[Islam]] (mainly [[Sunni Islam]])
| related_groups   = Other [[Iranian peoples]]
}}

'''Pashtuns''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|ʌ|ʃ|ˌ|t|ʊ|n}}, {{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|ɑː|ʃ|ˌ|t|ʊ|n}}, {{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|æ|ʃ|ˌ|t|uː|n}}; {{langx|ps|پښتانه|translit=Pəx̌tānə́}};<ref>{{Cite book|last=David|first=Anne Boyle|url=https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/125873|title=Descriptive Grammar of Pashto and its Dialects|date=1 January 2014|publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|isbn=978-1-61451-231-8|pages=76|language=en}}</ref>), also known as '''Pakhtuns''',<ref name="Minahan">{{Cite book|last=Minahan|first=James B.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fOQkpcVcd9AC&pg=PT318|title=Ethnic Groups of South Asia and the Pacific: An Encyclopedia: An Encyclopedia|date=30 August 2012|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781598846607}}</ref> or '''Pathans''',{{efn|From {{Langx|hi|पठान}} / {{langx|ur|{{nq|پٹھان}}}} ({{Transliteration|hi|paṭhān}})<ref name="Hindi">{{cite book|title=The Pathan Borderland|year=1963|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-8YNAAAAIAAJ&q=pathan+hindi+word|author=James William Spain|publisher=Mouton|page=40|access-date=1 January 2012|quote=The most familiar name in the west is Pathan, a Hindi term adopted by the British, which is usually applied only to the people living east of the Durand.}}</ref><ref name="Hindi3">{{cite book|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Pathan|title=Pathan|publisher=World English Dictionary|quote=Pathan (pəˈtɑːn) – n a member of the Pashto-speaking people of Afghanistan, Western Pakistan, and elsewhere, most of whom are Muslim in religion [C17: from Hindi]|access-date=1 January 2012}}</ref><ref name="Fürer-Haimendorf-1985">{{cite book|last=von Fürer-Haimendorf|first=Christoph|author-link=Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf|title=Tribal populations and cultures of the Indian subcontinent|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aRSOnRfPAq0C&pg=PA126|series=Handbuch der Orientalistik/2,7|year=1985|publisher=[[E. J. Brill]]|location=Leiden|isbn=90-04-07120-2|pages=126|oclc=240120731|access-date=22 July 2019}}</ref>}} are an [[Iranian peoples|Iranian ethnic group]]<ref name="Minahan"/> primarily residing in southern and eastern [[Afghanistan]] and northwestern [[Pakistan]].<ref name="Caldwell2011" /><ref name="Brit-Pashtun" /> They were historically also referred to as [[Afghan (ethnonym)|'''Afghans''']]{{efn|From {{langx|fa|افغان}} ({{Transliteration|fa|Afğân}}) or {{langx|xbc|αβγανο}} ({{Transliteration|xbc|Abgân}})<ref name="Sims-Williams 19">{{Cite journal|last=Sims-Williams|first=Nicholas|title=Bactrian Documents from Northern Afghanistan. Vol II: Letters and Buddhist|url=https://www.khalilicollections.org/portfolio/bactrian-documents-from-northern-afghanistan-part-ii/|journal=Khalili Collections|pages=19}}</ref><ref name="Habibi">{{Cite web|url=http://www.alamahabibi.com/English%20Articles/Afghan_and_Afghanistan.htm|title=Afghan and Afghanistan|work=[[Abdul Hai Habibi]]|publisher=alamahabibi.com|year=1969|access-date=24 October 2010}}</ref><ref name="Britannica-Abgan">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/7798/Afghanistan/129450/History?anchor=ref261360|title=History of Afghanistan|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=22 November 2010}}</ref><ref name="Ferishta">{{Cite web|url=http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=06901021&ct=10|title=''History of the Mohamedan Power in India''|author=[[Firishta|Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah]] (Firishta)|publisher=[[Packard Humanities Institute]]|work=Persian Literature in Translation|access-date=10 January 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090211200506/http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=06901021&ct=10|archive-date=11 February 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Brit-lib">{{cite web|url=http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/afghanistan/afghanistancollection/afghanglossary/afghanglossary.html|title=Afghanistan: Glossary|publisher=[[British Library]]|access-date=15 March 2008|archive-date=2 July 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100702122855/http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/afghanistan/afghanistancollection/afghanglossary/afghanglossary.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>}} until 1964<ref name="Greenwood" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Constitution of the Kingdom of Afghanistan – Wikisource, the free online library|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_Kingdom_of_Afghanistan|access-date=29 March 2024|website=en.wikisource.org|language=en}}</ref> after the term's meaning had become a demonym for all citizens of Afghanistan regardless of their [[ethnic groups in Afghanistan|ethnic group]].<ref name="Greenwood">{{Cite book|last=Huang|first=Guiyou|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d5RxDwAAQBAJ&dq=term+afghan+other+ethnic+groups&pg=PA5|title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Asian American Literature [3 volumes]|date=30 December 2008|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-56720-736-1|language=en|quote=In Afghanistan, up until the 1970s, the common reference to Afghan meant Pashtun. . . . The term Afghan as an inclusive term for all ethnic groups was an effort begun by the "modernizing" King Amanullah (1909-1921). . . .}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Tyler|first=John A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9_hLEAAAQBAJ&dq=term+afghan+other+ethnic+groups&pg=PT110|title=Afghanistan Graveyard of Empires: Why the Most Powerful Armies of Their Time Found Only Defeat or Shame in This Land of Endless Wars|date=10 October 2021|publisher=Aries Consolidated LLC|isbn=978-1-387-68356-7|language=en|quote=The largest ethnic group in Afghanistan is that of Pashtuns, who were historically known as the Afghans. The term Afghan is now intended to indicate people of other ethnic groups as well.}}</ref>

The Pashtuns speak the [[Pashto|Pashto language]], which belongs to the [[Eastern Iranian languages|Eastern Iranian]] branch of the [[Iranian languages|Iranian language family]]. Additionally, [[Dari]] serves as the second language of Pashtuns in Afghanistan,<ref>{{Cite news|last=Bodetti|first=Austin|title=What will happen to Afghanistan's national languages?|url=https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/indepth/2019/7/11/what-will-happen-to-afghanistans-national-languages|newspaper=The New Arab|date=11 July 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Chiovenda|first=Andrea|title=Crafting Masculine Selves: Culture, War, and Psychodynamics in Afghanistan|date=12 November 2019|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-007355-8|language=en|quote=Niamatullah knew Persian very well, as all the educated Pashtuns generally do in Afghanistan}}</ref> while those in Pakistan speak Urdu and English.<ref name="2012Hakala">{{cite web|url=https://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/file/asia_8.pdf|title=Languages as a Key to Understanding Afghanistan's Cultures|last=Hakala|first=Walter N.|year=2012|publisher=[[National Geographic]]|language=en|access-date=13 March 2018|quote=In the 1980s and '90s, at least three million Afghans—mostly Pashtun—fled to Pakistan, where a substantial number spent several years being exposed to Hindi- and Urdu-language media, especially Bollywood films and songs, and being educated in Urdu-language schools, both of which contributed to the decline of Dari, even among urban Pashtuns.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Saddiqa|first1=Ayesha|title=The Role of Pashto (as L1) and Urdu (as L2) in English Language Learning|journal=Linguistics and Literature Review|date=2018|volume=4|issue=1|pages=1–17|doi=10.29145/2018/llr/040101|doi-broken-date=1 November 2024|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326269319|issn=2221-6510}}</ref> In India, the majority of those of Pashtun descent have lost the ability to speak Pashto and instead speak Hindi and other regional languages.<ref>{{cite journal|date=1877|title=Hindu Society and English Rule|journal=[[The Westminster Review]]|language=English|publisher=The Leonard Scott Publishing Company|volume=108|issue=213–214|page=154|quote=Hindustani had arisen as a ''lingua franca'' from the intercourse of the Persian-speaking Pathans with the Hindi-speaking Hindus.}}</ref><ref name="Green2017">{{cite book|last1=Green|first1=Nile|title=Afghanistan's Islam: From Conversion to the Taliban|date=2017|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|isbn=978-0-520-29413-4|page=18|language=English|quote=Many of the communities of ethnic Pashtuns (known as Pathans in India) that had emerged in India over the previous centuries lived peaceably among their Hindu neighbors. Most of these Indo-Afghans lost the ability to speak Pashto and instead spoke Hindi and Punjabi.}}</ref><ref name="Krishnamurthy2013">{{cite web|url=http://www.gatewayhouse.in/kabul-diary-discovering-the-indian-connection/|title=Kabul Diary: Discovering the Indian connection|last=Krishnamurthy|first=Rajeshwari|date=28 June 2013|publisher=Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations|language=en|access-date=13 March 2018|quote=Most Afghans in Kabul understand and/or speak Hindi, thanks to the popularity of Indian cinema in the country.}}</ref>

There are an estimated 350–400 [[Pashtun tribes|Pashtun tribes and clans]] with a [[Theories of Pashtun origin|variety of origin theories]].<ref name="Romano">{{cite book|last1=Romano|first1=Amy|url=https://archive.org/details/historicalatlaso0000roma|title=A Historical Atlas of Afghanistan|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|year=2003|isbn=0-8239-3863-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/historicalatlaso0000roma/page/28 28]|access-date=17 October 2010|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=Syed Saleem Shahzad|date=20 October 2006|title=Profiles of Pakistan's Seven Tribal Agencies|newspaper=Jamestown|url=http://www.jamestown.org/programs/gta/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=891&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=181&no_cache=1|access-date=22 April 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Who Are the Pashtun People of Afghanistan and Pakistan?|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/who-are-the-pashtun-195409|access-date=14 August 2022|website=ThoughtCo|language=en}}</ref> In 2021, [[Shahid Javed Burki]] estimated the total Pashtun population to be situated between 60 and 70 million, with 15 million in Afghanistan.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|author=[[Shahid Javed Burki]]|date=13 September 2021|title=The wandering Pashtuns|url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/2319894/the-wandering-pashtuns|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250311205209/https://tribune.com.pk/story/2319894/the-wandering-pashtuns|archive-date=11 March 2025|website=[[The Express Tribune]]|quote=Demographers estimated the world’s Pashtun at 60-70 million of which the vast majority now live in Pakistan. Of Afghanistan’s current population of 38 million, the Pashtun account for less than a majority — 15 million — or 39 per cent of the total.}}</ref> Others who accept the 15 million figure include British academic Tim Willasey-Wilsey<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|last=Willasey-Wilsey|first=Tim|date=10 January 2023|title=Tangled history: the Pashtun|url=https://www.gatewayhouse.in/tangled-history-the-pashtun/|website=Gateway House|quote=There are 15 million Pashtuns in Afghanistan where they are the biggest and dominant ethnicity (...)}}</ref> as well as Abubakar Siddique, a journalist specializing in Afghan affairs.<ref name="auto2">{{Cite web|last=Siddique|first=Abubakar|date=January 2012|title=Afghanistan's Ethnic Divides|url=https://www.observatori.org/paises/pais_87/documentos/ABUBAKAR_SIDDIQUE.pdf|website=CIDOB Policy Research Project|quote=There are some 15 million Pashtuns in Afghanistan (...)}}</ref> This figure is disputed due to the [[Afghanistan conflict (1978–present)|lack of an official census in Afghanistan since 1979]] due to continuing conflicts there.<ref>{{cite web|title=Hybrid Census to Generate Spatially-disaggregated Population Estimate|url=https://unstats.un.org/unsd/undataforum/hybrid-census-to-generate-spatially-disaggregated-population-estimates/|archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20200517105822/https://unstats.un.org/unsd/undataforum/hybrid%2Dcensus%2Dto%2Dgenerate%2Dspatially%2Ddisaggregated%2Dpopulation%2Destimates/|url-status=dead|archive-date=17 May 2020|website=United Nations world data form|access-date=2 August 2020}}</ref>

They are the second-largest [[Ethnic groups in Pakistan|ethnic group in Pakistan]] and the largest [[ethnic groups in Afghanistan|ethnic group in Afghanistan]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=Pakistan – The World Factbook|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/pakistan/#people-and-society|access-date=19 January 2021|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency}}</ref> constituting around 18.24% of the total Pakistani population and around 47% of the total Afghan population.<ref>{{Cite CIA World Factbook|country=Afghanistan|access-date=24 September 2022|year=2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=South Asia :: Pakistan – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/pakistan/|access-date=24 February 2019|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=30 July 2019|title=What Languages Are Spoken in Pakistan?|url=https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-languages-are-spoken-in-pakistan.html|website=World atlas}}</ref> In India, significant and historical communities of the [[Pashtun diaspora]] exist in the northern region of [[Rohilkhand]], as well as in major Indian cities such as [[Delhi]] and [[Mumbai]].<ref name="CanfieldPaleczek">{{cite book|last1=Canfield|first1=Robert L.|title=Ethnicity, Authority and Power in Central Asia: New Games Great and Small|last2=Rasuly-Paleczek|first2=Gabriele|date=4 October 2010|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-92750-8|page=148|language=English|quote=By the late-eighteenth century perhaps 100,000 "Afghan" or "Puthan" migrants had established several generations of political control and economic consolidation within numerous Rohilkhand communities}}</ref><ref name="The Hindu">{{cite news|date=20 July 1954|title=Pakhtoons in Kashmir|work=The Hindu|url=http://www.hindu.com/2004/07/20/stories/2004072001220900.htm|url-status=dead|access-date=28 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041209153349/http://www.hindu.com/2004/07/20/stories/2004072001220900.htm|archive-date=9 December 2004|quote=Over a lakh Pakhtoons living in Jammu and Kashmir as nomad tribesmen without any nationality became Indian subjects on July 17. Batches of them received certificates to this effect from the Kashmir Prime Minister, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed, at village Gutligabh, 17 miles from Srinagar.}}</ref>

== Geographic distribution ==
{{Pashtuns}}
{{Further|Pashtun diaspora}}

===Afghanistan and Pakistan===
{{See also|Ethnic groups in Afghanistan|Ethnic groups in Pakistan}}
Pashtuns are spread over a wide geographic area, south of the [[Amu river]] and west of the [[Indus River]]. They can be found all over Afghanistan and Pakistan.<ref name="Caldwell2011">{{cite book|author=Dan Caldwell|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wSvp3VTGRecC&pg=PA36|title=Vortex of Conflict: U.S. Policy Toward Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq|date=17 February 2011|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-7666-0|pages=36|quote=A majority of Pashtuns live south of the Hindu Kush (the 500-mile mountain range that covers northwestern Pakistan to central and eastern Pakistan) and with some Persian-speaking ethnic groups.}}</ref> Big cities with a Pashtun majority include [[Jalalabad]], [[Kandahar]], [[Bannu]], [[Dera Ismail Khan]], [[Khost]], [[Kohat]], [[Lashkar Gah]], [[Mardan]], [[Ghazni]], [[Mingora]], [[Peshawar]], [[Quetta]], among others. Pashtuns also live in [[Abbottabad]], [[Farah, Afghanistan|Farah]], [[Herat]], [[Islamabad]], [[Kabul]], [[Karachi]], [[Kunduz]], [[Lahore]], [[Mazar-i-Sharif]], [[Mianwali]], and [[Attock]].{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

The city of [[Karachi]], the financial capital of Pakistan, is home to the world's largest urban community of Pashtuns, larger than those of [[Kabul]] and [[Peshawar]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rhOUEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA186|title=Under the Gun|first=Niloufer A.|last=Siddiqui|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781009242523|date=2022|page=186}}</ref> Likewise, [[Islamabad]], the country's political capital, also serves as the major urban center of Pashtuns. More than 20% of the city's population belongs to the [[Pashto]]-speaking community.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

===India===
{{Main|Pathans in India}}{{further|Pashtuns of Kashmir|Pathans of Punjab|Pathans of Sindh|Pathans of Gujarat|Pathans of Uttar Pradesh||Pathans of Bihar|}}
Pashtuns in India often identify as ''Pathans'' (the Hindustani word for Pashtun), and are referred to this way by other ethnic groups of the subcontinent.<ref name="Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Pashtun|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pashtun|access-date=29 May 2020|quote=Pashtun, also spelled Pushtun or Pakhtun, Hindustani Pathan, Persian Afghan, Pashto-speaking people residing primarily in the region that lies between the Hindu Kush in northeastern Afghanistan and the northern stretch of the Indus River in Pakistan.}}</ref><ref name="Morton-Jack2015">{{cite book|author=George Morton-Jack|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cczSCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA3|title=The Indian Army on the Western Front South Asia Edition|date=24 February 2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-11765-5|pages=3–|quote='Pathan', an Urdu and a Hindi term, was usually used by the British when speaking in English. They preferred it to 'Pashtun', 'Pashtoon', 'Pakhtun' or 'Pukhtun', all Pashtu versions of the same word, which the frontier tribesmen would have used when speaking of themselves in their own Pashtu dialects.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.islamicvoice.com/may.2003/cseries.htm|title=Memons, Khojas, Cheliyas, Moplahs&nbsp;... How Well Do You Know Them?|publisher=Islamic Voice|access-date=18 January 2007|archive-date=17 October 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061017055301/http://islamicvoice.com/may.2003/cseries.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Pathan|title=Pathan|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|access-date=7 November 2007}}</ref> Some Indians claim descent from Pashtun soldiers who settled in India by marrying local women during the [[Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent]].<ref name="Indian Pathans" />

Many Pathans chose to live in the Republic of India after the [[partition of India]]. Khan Mohammad Atif, a professor at the [[University of Lucknow]], estimates that "The population of Pathans in India is twice their population in Afghanistan".<ref name="Alavi2008">{{cite web|last1=Alavi|first1=Shams Ur Rehman|title=Indian Pathans to broker peace in Afghanistan|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/indian-pathans-to-broker-peace-in-afghanistan/story-W6Z4o4Dm0ETTz7tPBoHT1I.html|work=Hindustan Times|date=11 December 2008}}</ref>

Historically, Pashtuns settled in various cities of India before and during the [[British Raj]] in [[colonial India]]. These include Bombay (now called [[Mumbai]]), [[Farrukhabad]], [[Delhi]], [[Calcutta]], [[Saharanpur]], [[Rohilkhand]], [[Jaipur]], and [[Bangalore]].<ref name="CanfieldPaleczek" /><ref name="Khyber">{{cite web|last=Haleem|first=Safia|date=24 July 2007|title=Study of the Pathan Communities in Four States of India|url=http://www.khyber.org/articles/2007/Study_of_the_Pathan_Communitie.shtml|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200229013803/http://www.khyber.org/articles/2007/Study_of_the_Pathan_Communitie.shtml|archive-date=29 February 2020|access-date=1 July 2020|work=Khyber.org}}</ref><ref name="The Hindu" /> The settlers are descended from both Pashtuns of present-day [[Pakistan]] and [[Afghanistan]] ([[British India]] before 1947). In some regions in India, they are sometimes referred to as ''Kabuliwala''.<ref>{{cite news|title=The 'Kabuliwala' Afghans of Kolkata|publisher=BBC News|date=23 May 2015|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-32377276}}</ref>

In India significant Pashtun diaspora communities exist.<ref name="India-census">{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080201193939/http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement1.htm|archive-date=1 February 2008|url=http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement1.htm|title=Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues – 2001|publisher=Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India|year=2001|access-date=17 March 2008}}</ref><ref name="Indian Pathans">{{cite web|url=http://www.khyber.org/articles/2007/StudyofthePathanCommunitiesinF.shtml|title=Study of the Pathan Communities in Four States of India|work=Khyber.org|access-date=30 January 2008|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514122925/http://www.khyber.org/articles/2007/StudyofthePathanCommunitiesinF.shtml|archive-date=14 May 2008}}</ref> While speakers of Pashto in the country number only 21,677 as of 2011, estimates of the ethnic or ancestral Pashtun population in India range from 3,200,000<ref name="Ali2018" /><ref name="TNI2018"/><ref name="Bhattacharya2018">{{cite web|last1=Bhattacharya|first1=Ravik|title=Frontier Gandhi's granddaughter urges Centre to grant citizenship to Pathans|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/india/frontier-gandhi-khan-abdul-gaffar-khans-granddaughter-urges-centre-to-grant-citizenship-to-pathans-5064372/|work=[[The Indian Express]]|access-date=28 May 2020|language=en|date=15 February 2018}}</ref> to 11,482,000,<ref>{{cite web|title=Pashtun in India|url=https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/21537/IN|website=Joshua Project}}</ref> to as high as double their population in Afghanistan (approximately 30 million).<ref name="Alavi2008A">{{cite web|last1=Alavi|first1=Shams Ur Rehman|title=Indian Pathans to broker peace in Afghanistan|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/indian-pathans-to-broker-peace-in-afghanistan/story-W6Z4o4Dm0ETTz7tPBoHT1I.html|work=Hindustan Times|language=en|date=11 December 2008|quote=Pathans are now scattered across the country, and have pockets of influence in parts of UP, Bihar and other states. They have also shone in several fields, especially Bollywood and sports. Famous Indian Pathans include Dilip Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan and Irfan Pathan. "The population of Pathans in India is twice their population in Afghanistan and though we no longer have ties (with that country), we have a common ancestry and feel it's our duty to help put an end to this menace," Atif added. Academicians, social activists, writers and religious scholars are part of the initiative. The All India Muslim Majlis, All India Minorities Federation and several other organisations have joined the call for peace and are making preparations for the jirga.}}</ref>[[File:Major ethnic groups of Pakistan in 1980 borders removed.jpg|thumb|Pashtun-inhabited areas in Pakistan and Afghanistan (including the southern borders of the former Soviet Union, the northeastern borders of Iran, and the northwestern borders of India disputed with Pakistan), in early 1980s.]]
The [[Rohilkhand]] region of [[Uttar Pradesh]] is named after the [[Rohilla]] community of Pashtun ancestry; the area came to be governed by the [[Rampur State|Royal House of Rampur]], a Pashtun dynasty.<ref name="Frey2020">{{cite book|last1=Frey|first1=James|title=The Indian Rebellion, 1857–1859: A Short History with Documents|date=16 September 2020|publisher=Hackett Publishing|isbn=978-1-62466-905-7|page=141|language=en}}</ref> They also live in the states of [[Maharashtra]] in central India and [[West Bengal]] in eastern India that each have a population of over a million with Pashtun ancestry;<ref name="Joshua">{{cite web|title=Pashtun, Pathan in India|url=https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/21537/IN|publisher=[[Joshua Project]]}}</ref> both [[Bombay]] and [[Calcutta]] were primary locations of Pashtun migrants from [[Afghanistan]] during the colonial era.<ref>{{cite web|title="The Kabuliwala represents a dilemma between the state and migratory history of the world" – Shah Mahmoud Hanifi|url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2018/10/29/the-kabuliwala-represents-a-dilemma-between-the-territorial-ethos-of-the-nation-state-and-the-migratory-history-of-the-world-professor-shah-mahmoud-hanifi/|first=Christopher|last=Finnigan|date=29 October 2018|publisher=London School of Economics}}</ref> There are also populations over 100,000 each in the cities of [[Jaipur]] in [[Rajasthan]] and [[Bangalore]] in [[Karnataka]].<ref name=Joshua/> Bombay (now called [[Mumbai]]) and [[Kolkata|Calcutta]] both have a Pashtun population of over 1 million, while [[Jaipur]] and [[Bangalore]] have an estimate of around 100,000. The Pashtuns in [[Bangalore]] include the Khan siblings [[Feroz Khan (actor)|Feroz]], [[Sanjay Khan|Sanjay]] and [[Akbar Khan (director)|Akbar Khan]], whose father settled in [[Bangalore]] from [[Ghazni]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/922791|title=Bollywood actor Firoz Khan dies at 70|work=Dawn|date=27 April 2009|access-date=6 June 2020}}</ref>

During the 19th century, when the British were recruiting peasants from British India as indentured servants to work in the [[Caribbean]], [[South Africa]] and other places, Rohillas were sent to [[Trinidad and Tobago|Trinidad]], [[Surinam (Dutch colony)|Surinam]], [[Guyana]], and [[Fiji]], to work in the sugarcane fields and perform manual labour.<ref>{{cite web|title=Afghans of Guyana|url=http://afghanland.com/culture/guyana.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061105072533/http://afghanland.com/culture/guyana.html|archive-date=5 November 2006|access-date=18 January 2007|work=Wahid Momand|publisher=Afghanland.com}}</ref> Many stayed and formed communities of their own. Some of them [[Cultural assimilation|assimilated]] with the other South Asian Muslim nationalities to form a common Indian Muslim community in tandem with the larger Indian community, losing their distinctive heritage. Some Pashtuns travelled as far as [[Afghan (Australia)|Australia]] during the same era.<ref>{{cite web|title=Northern Pashtuns in Australia|url=https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/14256/AS|website=Joshua Project}}</ref>

Today, the Pashtuns are a collection of diversely scattered communities present across the length and breadth of India, with the largest populations principally settled in the plains of [[North India|northern]] and [[central India]].<ref name="Khan2015">{{cite book|author=Jasim Khan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2jgHCwAAQBAJ|title=Being Salman|date=27 December 2015|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|isbn=978-81-8475-094-2|pages=34, 35, 37, 38–|quote=Superstar Salman Khan is a Pashtun from the Akuzai clan...One has to travel roughly forty-five kilometres from Mingora towards Peshawar to reach the nondescript town of Malakand. This is the place where the forebears of Salman Khan once lived. They belonged to the Akuzai clan of the Pashtun tribe...}}</ref><ref name="Swarup">{{cite news|url=http://openthemagazine.com/art-culture/the-kingdom-of-khan/|title=The Kingdom of Khan|work=Open|date=27 January 2011|access-date=6 June 2020|first=Shubhangi|last=Swarup|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200604000833/http://openthemagazine.com/art-culture/the-kingdom-of-khan/|archive-date=4 June 2020|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Alavi20082">{{cite web|last1=Alavi|first1=Shams Ur Rehman|date=11 December 2008|title=Indian Pathans to broker peace in Afghanistan|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/indian-pathans-to-broker-peace-in-afghanistan/story-W6Z4o4Dm0ETTz7tPBoHT1I.html|work=Hindustan Times|language=en|quote=Pathans are now scattered across the country, and have pockets of influence in parts of UP, Bihar and other states. They have also shone in several fields, especially Bollywood and sports. The three most famous Indian Pathans are Dilip Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan and Irfan Pathan. "The population of Pathans in India is twice their population in Afghanistan and though we no longer have ties (with that country), we have a common ancestry and feel it's our duty to help put an end to this menace", Atif added. Academicians, social activists, writers and religious scholars are part of the initiative. The All India Muslim Majlis, All India Minorities Federation and several other organisations have joined the call for peace and are making preparations for the jirga.}}</ref> Following the [[partition of India]] in 1947, many of them [[Muhajir (Urdu-speaking people)|migrated to Pakistan]].<ref name="Khan2015" /> The majority of Indian Pashtuns are [[Urdu-speaking people|Urdu-speaking communities]],<ref name="Green20172" /> who have assimilated into the [[Culture of India|local society]] over the course of generations.<ref name="Green20172">{{cite book|author=Nile Green|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g6swDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA18|title=Afghanistan's Islam: From Conversion to the Taliban|publisher=Univ of California Press|year=2017|isbn=978-0-520-29413-4|page=18}}</ref> Pashtuns have influenced and contributed to various fields in India, particularly politics, the entertainment industry and sports.<ref name="Alavi20082" />

=== Iran ===
Pashtuns are also found in smaller numbers in the eastern and northern parts of [[Iran]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Windfuhr|first=Gernot|title=Iranian Languages|date=13 May 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-79704-1|pages=703–731}}</ref> Records as early as the mid-1600s report [[Durrani|Durrani Pashtuns]] living in the [[Khorasan province]] of [[Safavid Iran]].<ref>{{cite web|title=DORRĀNĪ – Encyclopaedia Iranica|url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/dorrani-1|website=iranicaonline.org|access-date=4 April 2021}}</ref> After the short reign of the [[Hotak dynasty|Ghilji Pashtuns in Iran]], [[Nader Shah]] defeated the last independent Ghilji ruler of [[Kandahar]], [[Hussain Hotak]]. In order to secure Durrani control in southern Afghanistan, Nader Shah deported [[Hussain Hotak]] and large numbers of the [[Ghilji|Ghilji Pashtuns]] to the [[Mazandaran province]] in northern Iran. The remnants of this once sizeable exiled community, although assimilated, continue to claim Pashtun descent.<ref>{{cite web|title=ḠILZĪ – Encyclopaedia Iranica|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gilzi-|access-date=4 April 2021|website=iranicaonline.org|quote=Nāder Shah also defeated the last independent Ḡalzay ruler of Qandahār, Shah Ḥosayn Hotak, Shah Maḥmūd's brother in 1150/1738. Shah Ḥosayn and large numbers of the Ḡalzī were deported to Mazandarān (Marvī, pp. 543–52; Lockhart, 1938, pp. 115–20). The remnants of this once sizable exiled community, although assimilated, continue to claim Ḡalzī Pashtun descent.}}</ref> During the early 18th century, in the course of a very few years, the number of Durrani Pashtuns in Iranian Khorasan, greatly increased.<ref>{{cite web|title=DORRĀNĪ – Encyclopaedia Iranica|url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/dorrani-1|access-date=4 April 2021|website=iranicaonline.org|quote=raided in Khorasan, and "in the course of a very few years greatly increased in numbers"}}</ref> Later the region became part of the [[Durrani Empire]] itself. The second Durrani king of Afghanistan, [[Timur Shah Durrani]] was born in [[Mashhad]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dalrymple|first1=William|last2=Anand|first2=Anita|title=Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KPVrDgAAQBAJ&q=Timur+Shah+Durrani+born+mashhad&pg=PT74|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|date=2017|isbn=978-1-4088-8885-8}}</ref> Contemporary to Durrani rule in the east, [[Azad Khan Afghan]], an ethnic Ghilji Pashtun, formerly second in charge of [[Azerbaijan]] during [[Afsharid dynasty|Afsharid rule]], gained power in the western regions of Iran and [[Azerbaijan (Iran)|Azerbaijan]] for a short period.<ref>{{cite web|title=ĀZĀD KHAN AFḠĀN|url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/azad-khan-afgan-d|access-date=4 April 2021|website=iranicaonline.org}}</ref> According to a sample survey in 1988, 75 per cent of all Afghan refugees in the [[South Khorasan province|southern part of the Iranian Khorasan province]] were Durrani Pashtuns.<ref>{{cite web|title=DORRĀNĪ – Encyclopaedia Iranica|url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/dorrani-1|access-date=4 April 2021|website=iranicaonline.org|quote=According to a sample survey in 1988, nearly 75 percent of all Afghan refugees in the southern part of Persian Khorasan were Dorrānī, that is, about 280,000 people (Papoli-Yazdi, p. 62).}}</ref>

===In other regions===
{{Further|Afghan diaspora|Overseas Pakistani}}
Indian and Pakistani Pashtuns have utilized the British/[[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] links of their respective countries, and modern communities have been established starting around the 1960s mainly in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia but also in other [[commonwealth countries]] (and the United States). Some Pashtuns have also settled in the Middle East, such as in the [[Arabian Peninsula]]. For example, about 300,000 Pashtuns migrated to the [[Arab states of the Persian Gulf|Persian Gulf countries]] between 1976 and 1981, representing 35% of Pakistani immigrants.<ref name="Jaffrelot">{{Cite book|title=Pakistan: nationalism without a nation?|last1=Jaffrelot|first1=Christophe|year=2002|publisher=Zed Books|isbn=1-84277-117-5|page=27|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I2avL3aZzSEC&pg=PA27|access-date=22 August 2010}}</ref> The [[overseas Pakistani|Pakistani]] and [[Afghan diaspora]] around the world includes Pashtuns.

== Etymology ==

=== 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>

=== Middle historical references: Afghan ===
{{Further|Afghan (ethnonym)}}

In the [[Middle Ages]] until the advent of modern Afghanistan in the 18th century, the Pashtuns were often referred to as ''[[Afghan (ethnonym)|"Afghans"]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|quote=Pashtun...bore the exclusive name of Afghan before that name came to denote any native of the present land area of Afghanistan.|title=Pashtun {{!}} people|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pashtun|access-date=3 November 2020|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|language=en}}</ref>
The [[etymological]] view supported by numerous noted scholars is that the name ''Afghan'' evidently derives from [[Sanskrit]] ''[[Aśvaka]]n'', or the [[Assakenoi]] of [[Arrian]], which was the name used for ancient inhabitants of the [[Hindu Kush]].<ref>* ''"The name Afghan has evidently been derived from Asvakan, the Assakenoi of Arrian... "'' (Megasthenes and Arrian, p 180. See also: Alexander's Invasion of India, p 38; J.W. McCrindle).
* ''"Even the name Afghan is Aryan being derived from Asvakayana, an important clan of the Asvakas or horsemen who must have derived this title from their handling of celebrated breeds of horses"'' (See: Imprints of Indian Thought and Culture Abroad, p 124, Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan).
* cf: ''"Their name (Afghan) means "cavalier" being derived from the [[Sanskrit]],'' Asva'', or'' Asvaka'', a horse, and shows that their country must have been noted in ancient times, as it is at the present day, for its superior breed of horses. Asvaka was an important tribe settled north to Kabul river, which offered a gallant resistance but ineffectual resistance to the arms of Alexander "''(Ref: Scottish Geographical Magazine, 1999, p 275, Royal Scottish Geographical Society).
* ''"Afghans are Assakani of the [[Greeks]]; this word being the [[Sanskrit]] [[Ashvaka]] meaning 'horsemen'"'' (Ref: Sva, 1915, p 113, Christopher Molesworth Birdwood).
* Cf: ''"The name represents Sanskrit Asvaka in the sense of a'' cavalier'', and this reappears scarcely modified in the Assakani or Assakeni of the historians of the expedition of [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]]"'' (Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial [[Anglo-Indian]] words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological..by Henry Yule, AD Burnell).</ref> ''Aśvakan'' literally means "horsemen", "horse breeders", or "[[cavalry]]men" (from ''[[aśva]]'' or ''aspa'', the [[Sanskrit]] and [[Avestan]] words for "[[horse]]").<ref>{{cite book|last=Majumdar|first=Ramesh Chandra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XNxiN5tzKOgC&pg=PA99|title=Ancient India|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|year=1977|isbn=978-8-12080-436-4|edition=Reprinted|page=99|author-link=Ramesh Chandra Majumdar|orig-year=1952}}</ref> This view was propounded by scholars like [[Christian Lassen]],<ref>Indische Alterthumskunde, Vol I, fn 6; also Vol II, p 129, et al.</ref> [[J. W. McCrindle]],<ref name="r0">''"The name Afghan has evidently been derived from Asvakan, the Assakenoi of Arrian... "'' (Megasthenes and Arrian, p 180. See also: Alexander's Invasion of India, p 38; J. W. McCrindle).</ref> M. V. de Saint Martin,<ref>Etude Sur la Geog Grecque & c, pp 39–47, M. V. de Saint Martin.</ref> and [[Élisée Reclus|É. Reclus]],<ref>The Earth and Its Inhabitants, 1891, p 83, Élisée Reclus – Geography.</ref><ref name="r1">''"Even the name Afghan is Aryan being derived from Asvakayana, an important clan of the Asvakas or horsemen who must have derived this title from their handling of celebrated breeds of horses"'' (See: Imprints of Indian Thought and Culture abroad, p 124, Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan).</ref><ref name="r2">cf: ''"Their name (Afghan) means "cavalier" being derived from the [[Sanskrit]], ''Asva'', or ''Asvaka'', a horse, and shows that their country must have been noted in ancient times, as it is at the present day, for its superior breed of horses. Asvaka was an important tribe settled north to Kabul river, which offered a gallant resistance but ineffectual resistance to the arms of Alexander "''(Ref: Scottish Geographical Magazine, 1999, p 275, Royal Scottish Geographical Society).</ref><ref>''"Afghans are Assakani of the [[Greeks]]; this word being the [[Sanskrit]] [[Ashvaka]] meaning 'horsemen' " '' (Ref: Sva, 1915, p 113, Christopher Molesworth Birdwood).</ref><ref name="r3">Cf: ''"The name represents Sanskrit Asvaka in the sense of a ''cavalier'', and this reappears scarcely modified in the Assakani or Assakeni of the historians of the expedition of [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]]" '' (Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial [[Anglo-Indian]] words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological..by Henry Yule, AD Burnell).</ref><ref>See few more references on Asvaka = Afghan: The Numismatic Chronicle, 1893, p 100, Royal Numismatic Society (Great Britain); Awq, 1983, p 5, Giorgio Vercellin; Der Islam, 1960, p 58, Carl Heinrich Becker, Maymūn ibn al-Qāsim Tabarānī; Journal of Indian History: Golden Jubilee Volume, 1973, p 470, Trivandrum, India (City), University of Kerala. Dept. of History; Literary History of Ancient India in Relation to Its Racial and Linguistic Affiliations, 1970, p 17, Chandra Chakraberty; Stile der Portugiesischen lyrik im 20 jahrhundert, p 124, Winfried Kreutzen.; See: Works, 1865, p 164, Dr H. H. Wilson; The Earth and Its Inhabitants, 1891, p 83; Chants populaires des Afghans, 1880, p clxiv, James Darmesteter; Nouvelle geographie universelle v. 9, 1884, p.59, Elisée Reclus; Alexander the Great, 2004, p.318, Lewis Vance Cummings (Biography & Autobiography); Nouveau dictionnaire de géographie universelle contenant 1o La géographie physique ... 2o La .., 1879, Louis Rousselet, [[Louis Vivien de Saint-Martin]]; An Ethnic Interpretation of Pauranika Personages, 1971, p 34, Chandra Chakraberty; Revue internationale, 1803, p 803; Journal of Indian History: Golden Jubilee Volume, 1973, p 470, Trivandrum, India (City). University of Kerala. Dept. of History; Edinburgh University Publications, 1969, p 113, University of Edinburgh; Shi jie jian wen, 1930, p 68 by Shi jie zhi shi chu ban she. Cf also: Advanced History of Medieval India, 1983, p 31, Dr J. L. Mehta; Asian Relations, 1948, p 301, Asian Relations Organization ("Distributed in the United States by: Institute of Pacific Relations, New York."); Scottish Geographical Magazine, 1892, p 275, Royal Scottish Geographical Society – Geography; The geographical dictionary of ancient and mediaeval India, 1971, p 87, Nundo Lal Dey; Nag Sen of Milind Paṅhö, 1996, p 64, P. K. Kaul – Social Science; The Sultanate of Delhi, 1959, p 30, Ashirbadi Lal Srivastava; Journal of Indian History, 1965, p 354, University of Kerala Dept. of History, University of Allahabad Dept. of Modern Indian History, University of Travancore – India; Mémoires sur les contrées occidentales, 1858, p 313, fn 3, Stanislas Julien Xuanzang – Buddhism.</ref>

[[File:Bactrian document Northern Afghanistan 4th century.jpg|thumb|Bactrian document in the Greek script from the 4th century mentioning the word Afghan (αβγανανο): "To Ormuzd Bunukan from Bredag Watanan, the chief of the Afghans"]]

The earliest mention of the name ''Afghan'' (''Abgân'') is by [[Shapur I]] of the [[Sassanid Empire]] during the 3rd century CE,<ref name="Abgan">{{Cite book|last1=Noelle-Karimi|first1=Christine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eo3tAAAAMAAJ|title=Afghanistan -a country without a state?|author2=Conrad J. Schetter|author3=Reinhard Schlagintweit|publisher=IKO|year=2002|isbn=3-88939-628-3|location=[[University of Michigan]], United States|page=18|quote=''The earliest mention of the name 'Afghan' (Abgan) is to be found in a Sasanid inscription from the 3rd century, and it appears in India in the form of 'Avagana'...''|access-date=24 September 2010}}</ref> In the 4th century the word "Afghans/Afghana" (αβγανανο) as a reference to a particular people is mentioned in the [[Bactria]]n documents found in Northern Afghanistan.<ref name="Barkhuis">{{cite book|last1=Balogh|first1=Dániel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=frnVDwAAQBAJ&q=bunukan&pg=PA144|title=Hunnic Peoples in Central and South Asia: Sources for their Origin and History|date=12 March 2020|publisher=Barkhuis|isbn=978-94-93194-01-4|pages=144|language=en|quote=[ To Ormuzd Bunukan, ... greetings and homage from ... ), Pithe ( sot ] ang ( ? ) of Parpaz ( under ) [ the glorious ) yabghu of [ Heph ] thal, the chief ... of the Afghans}}</ref><ref name="Bactrian documents from northern Af">{{cite book|last1=Sims-Williams|first1=Nicholas|title=Bactrian documents from northern Afghanistan|date=2000|publisher=The Nour Foundation in association with Azimuth Editions and Oxford University Press|isbn=1-874780-92-7|location=Oxford}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|"To Ormuzd Bunukan, from Bredag Watanan ... greetings and homage from ... ), the ( sotang ( ? ) of Parpaz ( under ) [ the glorious ) [[Tokhara Yabghus|yabghu of Hephthal]], the chief of the Afghans, ' the judge of [[Tokharistan|Tukharistan]] and [[Gharchistan]] . Moreover, ' a letter [ has come hither ] from you, so I have heard how [ you have ] written ' ' to me concerning ] my health . I arrived in good health, ( and ) ( afterwards ( ? ) ' ' I heard that a message ] was sent thither to you ( saying ) thus : ... look after the farming but the order was given to you thus. You should hand over the grain and then request it from the citizens store: I will not order, so.....I Myself order And I in Respect of winter sends men thither to you then look after the farming, To Ormuzd Bunukan, Greetings"|the Bactrian documents|4th century|source=}}
{{Blockquote|"because [you] (pl.), the clan of the Afghans, said thus to me:...And you should not have denied? the men of Rob<ref>A small kingdom in Bactria</ref> [that] the Afghans took (away) the horses"|the Bactrian documents|4th century|source=Sims-Williams 2007b, pp. 90–91}}{{Blockquote|"[To ...]-bid the Afghan... Moreover, they are in [War]nu(?) because of the Afghans, so [you should] impose a penalty on Nat Kharagan ... ...lord of Warnu with ... ... ...the Afghan... ... "|the Bactrian documents|4th century|source=Sims-Williams 2007b, pp. 90–91}}
The name Afghan is later recorded in the 6th century CE in the form of ''"Avagāṇa"'' [अवगाण]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sanskritdictionary.com: Definition of avagāṇa|url=https://sanskritdictionary.com/avag%C4%81%E1%B9%87a/20082/1|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200507190602/http://sanskritdictionary.com/avag%C4%81%E1%B9%87a/20082/1|archive-date=7 May 2020|access-date=18 November 2020|website=sanskritdictionary.com}}</ref> by the Indian astronomer [[Varahamihira|Varāha Mihira]] in his [[Bṛhat Saṃhitā|Brihat-samhita]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=15 December 1983|title=Afghan|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/afgan-in-current-political-usage-any-citizen-of-afghanistan-whatever-his-ethnic-tribal-or-religious-affiliation|access-date=27 September 2010|work=Ch. M. Kieffer|publisher=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] Online Edition}}</ref><ref name="Bhat">{{Cite book|last1=Varāhamihira|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7rboQwAACAAJ|title=Bṛhat Saṁhitā of Varāhamihira: with english translation, exhaustive notes and literary comments|last2=Bhat|first2=M. Ramakrishna|date=1981|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-0098-4|pages=143|language=en}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|"It would be unfavourable to the people of Chola, the Afghans (Avagāṇa), the white Huns and the Chinese."<ref name="Bhat" />|Varāha Mihira|6th century CE|source=chapt. 11, verse 61}}
The word Afghan also appeared in the 982 [[Hudud ul-'alam|Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam]], where a reference is made to a village, Saul, which was probably located near [[Gardez]], Afghanistan.<ref name="Vogelsang" />
{{blockquote|"Saul, a pleasant village on a mountain. In it live ''Afghans''".<ref name="Vogelsang">{{Cite book|title=The Afghans|last1=Vogelsang|first1=Willem|year=2002|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|isbn=0-631-19841-5|page=18|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9kfJ6MlMsJQC&pg=PA18|access-date=2010-08-22}}</ref>}} The same book also speaks of a king in Ninhar ([[Nangarhar Province|Nangarhar]]), who had Muslim, ''Afghan'' and Hindu wives.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Minorsky|first1=V. V.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3zB1CQAAQBAJ&q=hudud+alam|title=Hudud al-'Alam 'The Regions of the World' – A Persian Geography 372 A.H. (982 AD)|last2=Bosworth|first2=C. E.|date=31 January 2015|publisher=Gibb Memorial Trust|isbn=978-1-909724-75-4|pages=91|language=en|quote=Ninhar, a place of which the king makes a show of Islam, and has many wives, (namely) over thirty Muslim, Afghan, and Hindu (wives).}}</ref> In the 11th century, Afghans are mentioned in [[Al-Biruni]]'s ''Tarikh-ul Hind'' ("History of the Indus"), which describes groups of rebellious Afghans in the tribal lands west of the [[Indus River]] in what is today Pakistan.<ref name="Vogelsang" /><ref>A Glossary of the Tribes And Castes of the Punjab And North-West Frontier Province Vol. 3 By H.A. Rose, Denzil Ibbetson Sir Published by Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 1997, Page 211, {{ISBN|81-85297-70-3}}, {{ISBN|978-81-85297-70-5}}</ref>

Al-Utbi, the [[Ghaznavids|Ghaznavid]] chronicler, in his ''[[Tarikh Yamini|Tarikh-i Yamini]]'' recorded that many Afghans and Khiljis (possibly the modern [[Ghilji]]) enlisted in the army of [[Sabuktigin]] after [[Jayapala]] was defeated.<ref name=Farishta-2>{{cite web|work=[[Ferishta]], History of the Rise of Mohammedan Power in India, Volume 1: Section 15|url=http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=06901021&ct=13|title=AMEER NASIR-OOD-DEEN SUBOOKTUGEEN|publisher=Packard Humanities Institute|access-date=31 December 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130514092123/http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=06901021&ct=13|archive-date=14 May 2013|url-status=dead|quote=The Afghans and Khiljis who resided among the mountains having taken the oath of allegiance to Subooktugeen, many of them were enlisted in his army, after which he returned in triumph to [[Ghazni|Ghizny]].}}</ref> Al-Utbi further stated that Afghans and Ghiljis made a part of [[Mahmud of Ghazni|Mahmud Ghaznavi]]'s army and were sent on his expedition to [[Tocharistan]], while on another occasion Mahmud Ghaznavi attacked and punished a group of opposing Afghans, as also corroborated by [[Abulfazl Beyhaqi]].<ref>R. Khanam, Encyclopaedic ethnography of Middle-East and Central Asia: P-Z, Volume 3 – Page 18</ref> It is recorded that Afghans were also enrolled in the [[Ghurid dynasty|Ghurid Kingdom]] (1148–1215).<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Houtsma|first1=M. Th.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GEl6N2tQeawC&pg=PA150|title=E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam 1913–1936|publisher=BRILL|year=1993|isbn=90-04-09796-1|pages=150–51|access-date=23 August 2010}}</ref> By the beginning of the [[Khilji dynasty]] in 1290, Afghans have been well known in northern India.

[[Ibn Battuta]], when visiting Afghanistan following the era of the Khilji dynasty, also wrote about the Afghans.{{Blockquote|"We travelled on to Kabul, formerly a vast town, the site of which is now occupied by Afghans. They hold mountains and defiles and possess considerable strength, and are mostly highwaymen. Their principal mountain is called [[Sulaiman Mountains|Kuh Sulayman]]. It is told that the [[Islamic view of Solomon|prophet Sulayman [Solomon]]] ascended this mountain and having looked out over India, which was then covered with darkness, returned without entering it."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325–1354|author=Ibn Battuta|edition=reprint, illustrated|year=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-34473-5|page=180|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zKqn_CWTxYEC&pg=PA180|access-date=2010-09-10}}</ref>|[[Ibn Battuta]]|1333}}

[[Ferishta]], a 16th-century [[Muslim historians|Muslim historian]] writing about the history of [[Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent|Muslim rule in the subcontinent]], stated:
{{blockquote|He [Khalid bin Abdullah son of [[Khalid bin Walid]]] retired, therefore, with his family, and a number of Arab retainers, into the Sulaiman Mountains, situated between Multan and Peshawar, where he took up his residence, and gave his daughter in marriage to one of the Afghan chiefs, who had become a proselyte to Mahomedism. From this marriage many children were born, among whom were two sons famous in history. The one [[Lodi (Pashtun tribe)|Lodhi]], the other [[Sur (Pashtun)|Sur]]; who each, subsequently, became head of the tribes which to this day bear their name. I have read in the ''Mutla-ul-Anwar'', a work written by a respectable author, and which I procured at [[Burhanpur]], a town of [[Khandesh]] in the [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]], that the Afghans are [[Copt]]s of the race of the [[Pharaoh]]s; and that when the prophet Moses got the better of that infidel who was overwhelmed in the [[Red Sea]], many of the Copts became converts to the [[Judaism|Jewish faith]]; but others, stubborn and self-willed, refusing to embrace the true faith, leaving their country, came to India, and eventually settled in the Sulimany mountains, where they bore the name of Afghans.<ref name="Ferishta"/>}}

== History and origins ==
{{Main|Theories of Pashtun origin}}
{{Further|History of Afghanistan|History of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa|History of Balochistan|History of Indian subcontinent}}
[[File:Afghanistan region during 500 BC.jpg|thumb|The ''[[Arachosia]]'' [[Satrap]]y and the ''[[Pakthas|Pactyan people]]'' during the [[Achaemenid Empire]] in 500&nbsp;BCE]]
The [[ethnogenesis]] of the Pashtun ethnic group is unclear. There are many conflicting theories among historians and the Pashtuns themselves. Modern scholars believe that Pashtuns do not all share the same origin. The early ancestors of modern-day Pashtuns may have belonged to old [[Iranian tribes]] that spread throughout the eastern [[Iranian plateau]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Old Iranian Online|url=http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/aveol-0-X.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180924023825/https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol/aveol/00|archive-date=24 September 2018|access-date=10 February 2007|publisher=[[University of Texas at Austin]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Pashtun {{!}} people|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pashtun|access-date=8 November 2020|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|language=en|quote=...though most scholars believe it more likely that they arose from an intermingling of ancient Aryans from the north or west with subsequent invaders.}}</ref><ref name="Brit-Pashtun">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/445546/Pashtun|title=Pashtun|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=10 September 2010}}</ref> Historians have also come across references to various ancient [[Indo-Aryan tribes]] called ''[[Pakthas]]'' (''Pactyans'') between the [[2nd millennium BC|2nd]] and the 1st millennium BC,<ref name="Nath">{{Cite book|title=Dictionary of Vedanta|last1=Nath|first1=Samir|year=2002|publisher=Sarup & Sons|isbn=81-7890-056-4|page=273|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGBaXO54-HwC&pg=PA273|access-date=10 September 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Pradhan |first1=Shrinivas Vasudeo |title=The Elusive Aryans: Archaeological Search and Vedic Research; The Origin of the Hindus |date=11 August 2014 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-4438-6592-0 |page=114 |url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=huMxBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA114 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Heredotus">{{Cite book|url=http://www.piney.com/Heredotus7.html|title=The History of Herodotus|chapter=7|others=Translated by [[George Rawlinson]]|publisher=The History Files|date=4 February 1998|orig-year=original written 440&nbsp;BC|access-date=25 May 2006|archive-date=5 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205055843/http://www.piney.com/Heredotus7.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> although according to [[Richard N. Frye]] the identification of Pashtuns with the Pakhtas is a mere guess and not proven. And scholars such as [[Georg Morgenstierne]] propose the derivation of Pashto from [[Parsii (tribe)|Parsa]] or Parswana.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Frye |first=Richard |url=https://archive.org/details/heritageofpersia0000rich/page/45/mode/1up?view=theater |title=the heritage of persia |pages=45}}</ref>

[[Mohan Lal Kashmiri|Mohan Lal]] stated in 1846 that "the origin of the [[Afghans]] is so obscure, that no one, even among the oldest and most clever of the tribe, can give satisfactory information on this point."<ref>{{cite book|last=Lal|first=Mohan|title=Life of the Amir Dost Mohammed Khan; of Kabul|url=https://archive.org/details/afghanistan00bant|url-access=registration|publisher=Crabtree Publishing Company|volume=1|year=1846|page=[https://archive.org/details/afghanistan00bant/page/n7 3]|access-date=10 September 2010|isbn=0-7787-9335-4}}</ref> Others have suggested that a single origin of the Pashtuns is unlikely but rather they are a tribal confederation.{{blockquote|"Looking for the origin of Pashtuns and the Afghans is something like exploring the source of the [[Amazon Rainforest|Amazon]]. Is there one specific beginning? And are the Pashtuns originally identical with the Afghans? Although the Pashtuns nowadays constitute a clear ethnic group with their own language and culture, there is no evidence whatsoever that all modern Pashtuns share the same ethnic origin. In fact it is highly unlikely."<ref name="Vogelsang"/>|[[Willem Vogelsang|Vogelsang]]|2002}}

=== Linguistic origin ===
[[File:Saka warrior Termez Achaeological Museum.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Sculpture]] of a [[Saka]] warrior in [[Termez]], [[Uzbekistan]]]]
Pashto is generally classified as an [[Eastern Iranian]] language.<ref>{{cite web|quote=(69) Paṣ̌tō undoubtedly belongs to the Northeastern Iranic branch. It shares with Munǰī the change of *δ > l, but this tendency extends also to Sogdian|title=Encolypedia Iranica, AFGHANISTAN vi. Paṣ̌tō|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/afghanistan-vi-pasto}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Comrie|first=Bernard|title=The World's Major Languages|year=2009|quote="Pashto belongs to the North-Eastern group within the Iranian Languages"}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Afghanistan volume 28|publisher=Historical Society of Afghanistan.|year=1975|quote=Pashto originally belonged to the north – eastern branch of the Iranic languages}}</ref> It shares features with the [[Munji language]], which is the closest existing language to the extinct [[Bactrian language|Bactrian]],<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Waghmar|first1=Burzine|last2=Frye|first2=Richard N.|title=Bactrian History and Language: An Overview|journal=Journal of the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute|date=2001|volume=64|pages=40–48}}</ref> but also shares features with the [[Sogdian language]], as well as [[Khwarezmian language|Khwarezmian]], [[Shughni language|Shughni]], [[Sanglechi language|Sanglechi]], and [[Khotanese language|Khotanese Saka]].<ref>{{cite web|quote="It shares with Munǰī the change of *δ > l, but this tendency extends also to Sogdian. The Waṇ. dialect shares with Munǰī the change of -t- > -y-/0. If we want to assume that this agreement points to some special connection, and not to a secondary, parallel development, we should have to admit that one branch of pre-Paṣ̌tō had already, before the splitting off of Waṇ., retained some special connection with Munǰī, an assumption unsupported by any other facts. Apart from l <*δ the only agreement between Paṣ̌tō and Munǰī appears to be Pṣ̌t. zə; Munǰī zo/a "I." Note also Pṣ̌t. l but Munǰī x̌ < θ (Pṣ̌t. plan "wide", cal(w)or "four", but Munǰī paҳəy, čfūr, Yidḡa čšīr < *čəҳfūr). Paṣ̌tō has dr-, wr- < *θr-, *fr- like Khotanese Saka (see above 23). An isolated, but important, agreement with Sangl. is the remarkable change of *rs/z > Pṣ̌t. ҳt/ǧd; Sangl. ṣ̌t/ẓ̌d (obəҳta "juniper;" Sangl. wəṣ̌t; (w)ūǧd "long;" vəẓ̌dük) (see above 25). But we find similar development also in Shugh. ambaҳc, vūγ̌j. The most plausible explanation seems to be that *rs (with unvoiced r) became *ṣ̌s and, with differentiation *ṣ̌c, and *rz, through *ẓ̌z > ẓ̌j (from which Shugh. ҳc, γ̌j). Pṣ̌t. and Sangl. then shared a further differentiation into ṣ̌t, ẓ̌d ( > Pṣ̌t. ҳt, ğd)."|title=Encolypedia Iranica, AFGHANISTAN vi. Paṣ̌tō|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/afghanistan-vi-pasto}}</ref>

It is suggested by some that Pashto may have originated in the [[Badakhshan]] region and is connected to a [[Saka language]] akin to Khotanese.<ref>{{Cite web|quote=It is, however, possible that the original home of Paṣ̌tō may have been in Badaḵšān, somewhere between Munǰī and Sangl. and Shugh., with some contact with a Saka dialect akin to Khotanese.|title=Encolypedia Iranica, AFGHANISTAN vi. Paṣ̌tō|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/afghanistan-vi-pasto}}</ref> In fact major linguist [[Georg Morgenstierne]] has described Pashto as a [[Saka language|Saka]] dialect and many others have observed the similarities between Pashto and other Saka languages as well, suggesting that the original Pashto speakers might have been a [[Saka]] group.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Indo-Iranica|publisher=Iran Society|year=1946|location=Kolkata, India|pages=173–174|quote=... and their language is most closely related to on the one hand with Saka on the other with Munji-Yidgha}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Bečka|first=Jiří|title=A Study in Pashto Stress|publisher=Academia|year=1969|pages=32|quote=Pashto in its origin, is probably a Saka dialect.}}</ref> Furthermore, Pashto and [[Ossetian language|Ossetian]], another Scythian-descending language, share cognates in their vocabulary which other Eastern Iranian languages lack<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cheung|first=Jonny|title=Etymological Dictionary of the Iranian Verb|publisher=(Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series)|year=2007}}</ref> Cheung suggests a common isogloss between Pashto and Ossetian which he explains by an undocumented Saka dialect being spoken close to reconstructed Old Pashto which was likely spoken north of the [[Amu Darya|Oxus]] at that time.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cheung|first=Jonny|title=Etymological dictionary of the Iranian verb|publisher=(Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series)|year=2007}}</ref> Others however have suggested a much older Iranic ancestor given the affinity to [[Old Avestan]].<ref>{{Cite web|quote=But it seems that the Old Iranic ancestor dialect of Paṣ̌tō must have been close to that of the Gathas.|title=Encyclopaedia Iranica, AFGHANISTAN vi. Paṣ̌tō|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/afghanistan-vi-pasto}}</ref>

===Diverse origin===
According to one school of thought, Pashtun are descended from a variety of ethnicities, including [[Persians]], [[Greeks]], [[Turkish people|Turks]], [[Arabs]], [[Bactrians]], [[Dards]], [[Scythians]], [[Tatars|Tartars]], Huns ([[Hephthalites]]), [[Mongols]], [[Moghol people|Moghals]] (Mughals), and anyone else who has crossed the region where these Pashtun live. Unexpectedly, this includes alleged ties of [[Israelite]] descent.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Acheson|first=Ben|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QaW5EAAAQBAJ|title=The Pashtun Tribes in Afghanistan: Wolves Among Men|date=30 June 2023|publisher=Pen and Sword Military|isbn=978-1-3990-6924-3|pages=14|language=en|quote=Given the range of raiders and residents that the area has seen over the centuries, it is easy to see why today's Pashtuns could be descended from Persians, Greeks, Turks, Bactrians, Scythians, Tartars, Huns, Mongols, Moghuls or anyone else who has crossed the region over the years.__More unexpected are the alleged Pashtun ties to Israel (Israelites).}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Who Are the Pashtun People of Afghanistan and Pakistan?|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/who-are-the-pashtun-195409|access-date=9 October 2023|website=ThoughtCo|language=en|quote=Many scholars believe that the ''Pashtun'' people are descended from several ancestral groups. Likely the foundational population were of eastern Iranian (Persian) origin and brought the Indo-European language east with them. They probably mixed with other peoples, including possibly the Hephthalites or White Huns, 'Arabs', Mughals, and others who passed through the area.}}</ref>

Some Pashtun tribes claim descent from [[Arabs]], including some claiming to be [[Sayyids]].<ref name="ISBN Olaf Caroe">Caroe, Olaf. 1984. ''The Pathans: 500&nbsp;B.C.-A.D. 1957'' (Oxford in Asia Historical Reprints)." Oxford University Press.</ref>

One historical account connects the Pashtuns to a possible [[Ancient Egypt]]ian past but this lacks supporting evidence.<ref>{{cite web|last=Barmazid|title=Theory of Coptic origin of Pashtuns|url=http://www.barmazid.com/2016/11/copts-theory-of-pashtun-origin.html}}</ref>

[[Henry Walter Bellew]], who wrote extensively on Afghan culture, noted that some people claim that the [[Bangash]] Pashtuns are connected to [[Ismail Samani]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fAkEAAAAMAAJ&dq=bangash+ismail+samani&pg=PA105|title=An Inquiry Into the Ethnography of Afghanistan Prepared for and Presented to the 9th International Congress of Orientalists (London, Sept. 1891)|pages=105|quote=By Some, the Bangash ancestor, ''Ismail'', is connected with the Sultan Ismail, founder of the Saimani dynasty, which succeddeded to that of the Suffari (founded by Yacub Bin Leith or Lais) 875 A.D.|last1=Bellew|first1=Henry Walter|date=8 March 1891}}</ref>

===Greek origin===
According to Firasat et al. 2007, a proportion of Pashtuns may descend from Greeks, but they also suggest that Greek ancestry may also have come from Greek slaves brought by [[Xerxes I]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Firasat|first1=Sadaf|last2=Khaliq|first2=Shagufta|last3=Mohyuddin|first3=Aisha|last4=Papaioannou|first4=Myrto|last5=Tyler-Smith|first5=Chris|last6=Underhill|first6=Peter A|last7=Ayub|first7=Qasim|title=Y-chromosomal evidence for a limited Greek contribution to the Pathan population of Pakistan|journal=European Journal of Human Genetics|date=January 2007|volume=15|issue=1|pages=121–126|doi=10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201726|pmid=17047675|pmc=2588664}}</ref>

The Greek ancestry of the Pashtuns may also be traced on the basis of a homologous group. And Hoplogroup J2 is from the Semitic population, and this Hoplogroup is found in 6.5% of Greeks and Pashtuns and 55.6% of the Israelite population.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Huang|first1=De-Shuang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aZa5BQAAQBAJ&dq=greek+origin+of+Pashtun&pg=PA409|title=Intelligent Computing Theories: 9th International Conference, ICIC 2013, Nanning, China, July 28–31, 2013, Proceedings|last2=Bevilacqua|first2=Vitoantonio|last3=Figueroa|first3=Juan Carlos|last4=Premaratne|first4=Prashan|date=20 July 2013|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-642-39479-9|pages=409|language=en|quote=The Haplogroup J2 is from the Semitic population as well as the population shar- ing the common African ancestor. This Haplogroup was found 6.5% in both the Greek and Pashtun population while 55.6% in the Israel population. The Israel popu- lation however did not result in exact match for haplotype of the 9 or 7 markers tested. Very few exact matches were found only with the 5 markers test. However the 7 marker test had many exact matches from the Greek population.}}</ref>

A number of genetic studies on ''Pashtuns'' have lately been undertaken by academics from various institutions and research institutes. The Greek heritage of Pakistani Pashtuns has been researched in. In this study, the ''Pashtuns'', ''Kalash'', and ''Burusho'' to be descended from Alexander's soldiers considered.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Huang|first1=De-Shuang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aZa5BQAAQBAJ&dq=pashtun+from+greek+ancestry&pg=PA403|title=Intelligent Computing Theories: 9th International Conference, ICIC 2013, Nanning, China, July 28–31, 2013, Proceedings|last2=Bevilacqua|first2=Vitoantonio|last3=Figueroa|first3=Juan Carlos|last4=Premaratne|first4=Prashan|date=20 July 2013|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-642-39479-9|pages=403|language=en|quote=A number of genetic studies of the Pashtuns have been conducted recently by researchers of various universities and research groups. The Greek ancestry of the Pashtuns of Pakistan has been investigated in [1]. In this study, the claim of the three populations of the region, i.e. the Pashtuns, the Kalash and the Burusho, to have des- cended from the soldiers of Alexander, has been considered.}}</ref>

[[Henry Walter Bellew]] (1834–1892) was of the view that the Pashtuns likely have mixed [[Theory of Pashtun descent from Rajputs|Greek and Indian Rajput roots]].<ref name="Quddus1987">{{cite book|last1=Quddus|first1=Syed Abdul|title=The Pathans|date=1987|publisher=[[Ferozsons]]|page=28|language=English|quote=Grierson finds a form ''Paithan'' in use in the East Gangetic Valley to denote a Muslim ''Rajput''. Bellew, one of the greatest authorities on ''Pathans'', notes that several characteristics are common to both the Rajputs and the Afghans and suggests that ''Sarban'', one of the ancestors of the ''Afghans'', was a corruption of the word ''Suryabans'' (solar race) from which many Rajputs claim descent. The great Muslim historian ''Masudi'' writes that Qandahar was a separate kingdom with a non- Muslim ruler and states that it is a country of ''Rajputs''. It would be pertinent to mention here that at the time of ''Masudi'' most of the Afghans were concentrated in Qandahar and adjacent areas and had not expanded to the north. Therefore, it is highly significant that Masudi should call Qandahar a ''Rajput'' country.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Ahmad|first=Khaled|date=31 August 2009|title=Pathans and Hindu Rajputs|url=http://www.khyber.org/tribes/info/Pathans_and_Hindu_Rajputs.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140620193512/http://www.khyber.org/tribes/info/Pathans_and_Hindu_Rajputs.shtml|url-status=usurped|archive-date=20 June 2014|access-date=24 March 2018|publisher=Khyber|quote=In a nutshell, Bellew's thesis is that all Afghan tribal names can be traced to Greek and Rajput names, which posits the further possibility of a great Greek mixing with the ancient border tribes of India.}}</ref>

Following Alexander's brief occupation, the successor state of the [[Seleucid Empire]] expanded influence on the Pashtuns until 305&nbsp;BCE when they gave up dominating power to the Indian [[Maurya Empire]] as part of an alliance treaty.<ref>{{cite web|author=Nancy Hatch Dupree / Aḥmad ʻAlī Kuhzād|year=1972|title=An Historical Guide to Kabul – The Name|url=http://www.aisk.org/aisk/NHDAHGTK05.php|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100830031416/http://www.aisk.org/aisk/NHDAHGTK05.php|archive-date=30 August 2010|access-date=18 September 2010|work=[[Strabo]] (64&nbsp;BC – 24&nbsp;AD)|publisher=American International School of Kabul|quote=Alexander took these away from the [[Aryan]]s and established settlements of his own, but [[Seleucus I Nicator|Seleucus Nicator]] gave them to [[Chandragupta Maurya|Sandrocottus]] ([[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta]]), upon terms of intermarriage and of receiving in exchange 500 elephants.}}</ref>

Some groups from [[Peshawar]] and [[Kandahar]] believe to be descended from [[Greek people|Greeks]] who arrived with [[Alexander the Great]].<ref name="Greek ancestry">{{cite journal|vauthors=Mansoor A, Mazhar K, Khaliq S, etal|date=April 2004|title=Investigation of the Greek ancestry of populations from northern Pakistan|journal=Hum Genet|volume=114|issue=5|pages=484–90|doi=10.1007/s00439-004-1094-x|pmid=14986106|s2cid=5715518}}</ref>

=== Hephthalite origin ===

According to some accounts the [[Ghilji]] tribe has been connected to the [[Khalaj people]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Minorsky|first=V.|title=The Khalaj West of the Oxus|url=http://www.khyber.org/articles/2005/TheKhalajWestoftheOxus.shtml|journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London|volume=10|issue=2|pages=417–437|doi=10.1017/S0041977X00087607|s2cid=162589866|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613145756/http://www.khyber.org/articles/2005/TheKhalajWestoftheOxus.shtml|archive-date=13 June 2011|url-status=usurped|quote="The fact is that the important Ghilzai tribe occupies now the region round Ghazni, where the Khalaj used to live and that historical data all point, to the transformation of the Turkish Khalaj into Afghan Ghilzai."}}</ref> Following [[al-Khwarizmi]], [[Josef Markwart]] claimed the Khalaj to be remnants of the [[Hephthalite]] confederacy.<ref name="iri1">"[http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/khalaj-i-tribe-turkistan ḴALAJ i. TRIBE]" – ''[[Encyclopaedia Iranica]], 15 December 2010 (Pierre Oberling)''</ref> The Hephthalites may have been Indo-Iranian,<ref name="iri1" /> although the view that they were of [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] [[Tiele people|Gaoju]] origin{{sfn|de la Vaissière|2003|pp=119–137}} "seems to be most prominent at present".<ref>{{harvnb|Rezakhani|2017|p=135}}. "The suggestion that the Hephthalites were originally of Turkic origin and only later adopted Bactrian as their administrative, and possibly native, language (de la Vaissière 2007: 122) seems to be most prominent at present."</ref> The Khalaj may originally have been Turkic-speaking and only federated with Iranian Pashto-speaking tribes in medieval times.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://iranicaonline.org/|title=Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica|first=Encyclopaedia Iranica|last=Foundation|website=iranicaonline.org}}</ref>

However, according to linguist [[Nicholas Sims-Williams|Sims-Williams]], archaeological documents do not support the suggestion that the Khalaj were the successors of the Hephthalites,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Bonasli|first=Sonel|year=2016|title=The Khalaj and their language|journal=Endangered Turkic Languages II A|location=Aralık|pages=273–275}}</ref> while according to historian [[Vladimir Minorsky|V. Minorsky]], the Khalaj were "perhaps only politically associated with the Hephthalites."<ref>{{cite web|last=Minorsky|first=V.|title=The Khalaj West of the Oxus [excerpts from "The Turkish Dialect of the Khalaj", Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, Vol 10, No 2, pp 417–437]|url=http://www.khyber.org/articles/2005/TheKhalajWestoftheOxus.shtml|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613145756/http://www.khyber.org/articles/2005/TheKhalajWestoftheOxus.shtml|archive-date=13 June 2011|access-date=10 January 2007|website=Khyber.ORG}}</ref>

According to [[Georg Morgenstierne]], the [[Durrani]] tribe who were known as the "Abdali" before the formation of the [[Durrani Empire]] 1747,<ref>{{cite book|last=Runion|first=Meredith L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EY6NDgAAQBAJ&q=sadozai+or+durrani&pg=PR24|title=The History of Afghanistan, 2nd Edition|date=24 April 2017|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781610697781}}</ref> might be connected to with the [[Hephthalites]];<ref>{{cite journal|last=Morgenstierne|first=Georg|year=1979|title=The Linguistic Stratification of Afghanistan|journal=Afghan Studies|volume=2|pages=23–33}}</ref> [[Aydogdy Kurbanov]] endorses this view who proposes that after the collapse of the Hephthalite confederacy, Hephthalite likely assimilated into different local populations.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kurbano|first=Aydogdy|title=THE HEPHTHALITES: ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ANALYSIS|url=https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/bitstream/handle/fub188/8366/01_Text.pdf|url-status=live|journal=Department of History and Cultural Studies of the Free University, Berlin|type=PhD Thesis|pages=242|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/bitstream/handle/fub188/8366/01_Text.pdf|archive-date=9 October 2022|quote="The Hephthalites may also have participated in the origin of the Afghans. The Afghan tribe Abdal is one of the big tribes that has lived there for centuries. Renaming the Abdals to Durrani occurred in 1747, when descendants from the Sadozai branch Zirak of this tribe, Ahmad-khan Abdali, became the shah of Afghanistan. In 1747 the tribe changed its name to "Durrani" when Ahmad khan became the first king of Afghanistan and accepted the title "Dur-i-Duran" (the pearl of pearls, from Arabian: "durr" – pearl). "}}</ref>

According to [[The Cambridge History of Iran]] volume 3, Issue 1, the [[Ghilji]] tribe of Afghanistan are the descendants of Hephthalites.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fisher|first1=William Bayne|last2=Yarshater|first2=Ehsan|title=The Cambridge History of Iran|date=1968|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-20092-9|page=216|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ko_RafMSGLkC&dq=the+cambridge+history+of+iran+pashtun+hephthalites&pg=PA216}}</ref>

=== 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''}}

== Modern era ==
{{See also|Pashtun nationalism}}
[[File:Sher Ali Khan and company of Afghanistan in 1869.jpg|thumb|[[List of monarchs of Afghanistan|Afghan Amir]] [[Sher Ali Khan]] (in the center with his son) and his delegation in [[Ambala]], near [[Lahore]], in 1869|left]]
Their modern past stretches back to the [[Delhi Sultanate]] ([[Khalji dynasty|Khalji]] and [[Lodi dynasty]]), the [[Hotak dynasty]] and the [[Durrani Empire]]. The Hotak rulers rebelled against the [[Safavids]] and seized control over much of Persia from 1722 to 1729.<ref name="Browne">{{Cite web|url=http://persian.packhum.org/persian/main?url=pf%3Ffile%3D90001014%26ct%3D29|title=A Literary History of Persia, Volume 4: Modern Times (1500–1924), Chapter IV. An Outline Of The History Of Persia During The Last Two Centuries (A.D. 1722–1922)|author=Edward G. Browne, M.A., M.B.|location=London|publisher=[[Packard Humanities Institute]]|access-date=9 September 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130726142425/http://persian.packhum.org/persian/main?url=pf%3Ffile%3D90001014&ct=29|archive-date=26 July 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> This was followed by the conquests of [[Ahmad Shah Durrani]] who was a former high-ranking military commander under [[Nader Shah]] and founder of the Durrani Empire, which covered most of what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, [[Kashmir region|Kashmir]], [[Punjab, India|Indian Punjab]], as well as the [[Quhistan|Kohistan]] and [[Khorasan province|Khorasan]] provinces of Iran.<ref name="Last-Afghan-empire">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/7798/Afghanistan/21392/Last-Afghan-empire|title=Last Afghan empire|author=[[Louis Dupree (professor)|Louis Dupree]], [[Nancy Hatch Dupree]]|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=10 September 2010|display-authors=etal}}</ref> After the decline of the [[Durrani dynasty]] in the first half of the 19th century under [[Shuja Shah Durrani]], the [[Barakzai dynasty]] took control of the empire. Specifically, the [[Mohamedzai]]s held Afghanistan's monarchy from around 1826 to the end of [[Mohammed Zahir Shah|Zahir Shah]]'s reign in 1973.

During the so-called "[[The Great Game|Great Game]]" of the 19th century, rivalry between the [[British Empire|British]] and [[Russian Empire|Russian]] empires was useful to the Pashtuns of Afghanistan in resisting foreign control and retaining a degree of autonomy (see the [[Siege of Malakand]]). However, during the reign of [[Abdur Rahman Khan]] (1880–1901), [[Pashtunistan|Pashtun regions]] were [[politically]] divided by the [[Durand Line]] – areas that would become western Pakistan fell within British India as a result of the border.
[[File:Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Gandhi in 1940.jpg|thumb|Leader of the [[Nonviolence|non-violent]] [[Khudai Khidmatgar]], also referred to as "the Red shirts" movement, [[Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan|Bacha Khan]], standing with [[Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi|Mohandas Gandhi]]]]
In the 20th century, many politically active Pashtun leaders living under British rule of undivided India supported [[Indian independence movement|Indian independence]], including [[Ashfaqulla Khan]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Thakurta|first=R.N. Guha|title=The Contemporary, Volume 22|year=1978|publisher=National Galvanizing Pvt. Limited}}</ref><ref name="Rajesh">{{cite book|last=Rajesh|first=K. Guru|title=Sarfarosh: A Naadi Exposition of the Lives of Indian Revolutionaries|publisher=Notion Press|isbn=9789352061730|page=524|quote=Ashfaqullah's father, Shafeequlla Khan, was a member of a Pathan military family.}}</ref> [[Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai]], [[Ajmal Khattak]], [[Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan|Bacha Khan]] and his son [[Khan Abdul Wali Khan|Wali Khan]] (both members of the [[Khudai Khidmatgar]]), and were inspired by [[Mohandas Gandhi]]'s [[nonviolence|non-violent]] method of resistance.<ref name="Brit-Ghaffar-Khan">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/232353/Khan-Abdul-Ghaffar-Khan|title=Abdul Ghaffar Khan|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=24 September 2008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.iloveindia.com/indian-heroes/abdul-ghaffar-khan.html|title=Abdul Ghaffar Khan|publisher=I Love India|access-date=24 September 2008}}</ref> Many Pashtuns also worked in the [[All India Muslim League|Muslim League]] to fight for an independent Pakistan through non violent resistance, including [[Yusuf Khattak]] and [[Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar|Abdur Rab Nishtar]] who was a close associate of [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]].<ref name="iloveindia">{{Cite web|url=http://www.pakpost.gov.pk/philately/stamps2003/mohammad_yousaf_khan_khattak.html|title=Mohammad Yousaf Khan Khattak|website=Pakpost.gov.pk|access-date=14 December 2021|archive-date=18 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118020240/http://www.pakpost.gov.pk/philately/stamps2003/mohammad_yousaf_khan_khattak.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
The Pashtuns of Afghanistan attained complete independence from British [[Interventionism (politics)|political intervention]] during the reign of [[Amanullah Khan]], following the [[European influence in Afghanistan#Third Anglo-Afghan War and Independence|Third Anglo-Afghan War]]. By the 1950s a popular call for [[Pashtunistan]] began to be heard in Afghanistan and the new state of Pakistan. This led to bad relations between the two nations. The Afghan monarchy ended when [[List of Presidents of Afghanistan|President]] [[Mohammed Daoud Khan|Daoud Khan]] [[1973 Afghan coup d'état|seized control of Afghanistan]] from his cousin [[Zahir Shah]] in 1973 on a [[Pashtun nationalism|Pashtun Nationalist]] agenda, which opened doors for a [[proxy war]] by neighbours. In April 1978, [[Saur Revolution|Daoud Khan was assassinated]] along with his family and relatives in a bloody coup orchestrated by [[Hafizullah Amin]]. [[Afghan mujahideen]] commanders in exile in neighbouring Pakistan began recruiting for a [[guerrilla warfare]] against the [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan]] – the Marxist government which was also dominated by Pashtun [[Khalq]]ists who held [[Pashtun nationalism|Nationalist]] views including [[Hafizullah Amin]], [[Nur Muhammad Taraki]], General [[Mohammad Aslam Watanjar|Mohammad Aslam Vatanjar]], [[Shahnawaz Tanai]], [[Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy|Mohammad Gulabzoy]] and many more. In 1979, the [[Soviet Union]] intervened in its southern neighbour Afghanistan in order to defeat a rising insurgency. The Afghan mujahideen were funded by the United States, Saudi Arabia, China and others, and included some Pashtun commanders such as [[Abdul Rasul Sayyaf]], [[Gulbuddin Hekmatyar]], [[Jalaluddin Haqqani]], [[Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi]] and [[Mohammad Yunus Khalis]]. In the meantime, millions of Pashtuns joined the [[Afghan diaspora]] in [[Afghans in Pakistan|Pakistan]] and [[Afghans in Iran|Iran]], and from there tens of thousands proceeded to Europe, North America, Oceania and other parts of the world.<ref name="wider.unu.edu">{{cite web|title=Young Afghan refugees and asylum seekers in the UK|url=https://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/young-afghan-refugees-and-asylum-seekers-uk|website=UN university|date=18 June 2018}}</ref> The Afghan government and [[Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|military]] would remain predominantly Pashtun until the fall of [[Mohammad Najibullah|Mohammad Najibullah's]] [[Republic of Afghanistan (1978-1992)|Republic of Afghanistan]] in April 1992.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ahady|first=Anwar-ul-Haq|date=1995|title=The Decline of the Pashtuns in Afghanistan|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2645419|journal=Asian Survey|volume=35|issue=7|pages=621–634|doi=10.2307/2645419|jstor=2645419|issn=0004-4687}}</ref>
[[File:Secretary Pompeo Meets with the Taliban Negotiation Team (50632321483).jpg|thumb|American diplomat [[Zalmay Khalilzad]] with the [[Taliban]] officials [[Abdul Ghani Baradar]], [[Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai]], [[Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai]] and [[Suhail Shaheen]]]]
[[File:Imran Khan WEF.jpg|thumb|[[Imran Khan]], Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician and former Prime Minister, belongs to the [[Niazi]] tribe.]]
Many high-ranking government officials in the [[Islamic Republic of Afghanistan]] were Pashtuns, including: [[Abdul Rahim Wardak]], [[Abdul Salam Azimi]], [[Anwar ul-Haq Ahady]], [[Amirzai Sangin]], [[Ghulam Farooq Wardak]], [[Hamid Karzai]], [[Mohammad Ishaq Aloko]], [[Omar Zakhilwal]], [[Sher Mohammad Karimi]], [[Zalmay Rasoul]], [[Yousef Pashtun]]. The [[list of current governors of Afghanistan]] also include large percentage of Pashtuns. [[Mullah Yaqoob]] serves as acting Defense Minister, [[Sirajuddin Haqqani]] as acting Interior Minister, [[Amir Khan Muttaqi]] as acting Foreign Minister, [[Gul Agha Ishakzai]] as acting Finance Minister, and [[Hasan Akhund]] as acting Prime Minister. A number of other ministers are also Pashtuns.

The Afghan [[royal family]], which was represented by [[Mohammad Zahir Shah|King Zahir Shah]], are referred to [[Mohammadzai]]s. Other prominent Pashtuns include the 17th-century poets [[Khushal Khan Khattak]] and [[Rahman Baba]], and in contemporary era [[Astronaut#Terminology|Afghan Astronaut]] [[Abdul Ahad Mohmand]], former [[United States Ambassador to the United Nations|U.S. Ambassador]] [[Zalmay Khalilzad]], and [[Ashraf Ghani]] among many others.

Many Pashtuns of Pakistan and India have adopted non-Pashtun cultures, mainly by abandoning Pashto and using languages such as [[Urdu]], [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]], and [[Hindko language|Hindko]].<ref name="Hakala2012">{{cite magazine|last=Hakala|first=Walter N.|url=https://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/file/asia_8.pdf|title=Languages as a Key to Understanding Afghanistan's Cultures|year=2012|magazine=[[National Geographic]]|access-date=13 March 2018|quote=In the 1980s and '90s, at least three million Afghans—mostly Pashtun—fled to Pakistan, where a substantial number spent several years being exposed to Hindustani-language media, especially Bollywood films and songs, and being educated in Urdu-language schools, both of which contributed to the decline of Dari, even among urban Pashtuns.}}</ref> These include [[Malik Ghulam Muhammad|Ghulam Mohammad]] (first [[Finance Minister of Pakistan|Finance Minister]], from 1947 to 1951, and third [[Governor-General of Pakistan]], from 1951 to 1955),<ref name="express">{{cite web|last=Rahi|first=Arwin|date=25 February 2020|title=Why Afghanistan should leave Pakistani Pashtuns alone|url=https://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/94157/why-afghanistan-should-leave-pakistani-pashtuns-alone/|access-date=26 June 2020|website=The Express Tribune|language=en-US|archive-date=3 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200503132315/https://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/94157/why-afghanistan-should-leave-pakistani-pashtuns-alone/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="pakistanherald">{{cite web|date=23 July 2017|title=Malik Ghulam Muhammad – Governor-General of Pakistan|url=http://www.pakistanherald.com/profile/malik-ghulam-muhammad-1177|access-date=9 August 2020|website=Pakistan Herald|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170723042210/http://www.pakistanherald.com/profile/malik-ghulam-muhammad-1177|archive-date=23 July 2017}}</ref><ref name="samaatv">{{cite web|title=Ex Gov.Gen. Ghulam Muhammad's 54th death anniversary today|url=https://www.samaa.tv/news/2010/08/ex-gov-gen-ghulam-muhammad-s-54th-death-anniversary-today/|access-date=9 August 2020|publisher=Samaa TV|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="Kakazai">{{cite news|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1365402|title=The history of Lahore's Kakayzais|last=Sheikh|first=Majid|date=22 October 2017|newspaper=Dawn|location=Pakistan|access-date=28 February 2018|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="Routledge, Kumarasingham">{{cite book|last1=Kumarasingham|first1=H.|date=2016|chapter=Bureaucratic Statism|title=Constitution-making in Asia: Decolonisation and State-Building in the Aftermath of the British Empire|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GwjeCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT160|publisher=Routledge|location=U.S.|edition=1|isbn=978-1-317-24509-4}}</ref> [[Ayub Khan (President of Pakistan)|Ayub Khan]], who was the second [[President of Pakistan]], [[Zakir Husain (politician)|Zakir Husain]] who was the third [[President of India]] and [[Abdul Qadeer Khan]], father of Pakistan's [[Pakistan and weapons of mass destruction|nuclear weapons program]].

Many more held high government posts, such as [[Asfandyar Wali Khan]], [[Mahmood Khan Achakzai]], [[Sirajul Haq]], and [[Aftab Ahmad Sherpao]], who are presidents of their respective political parties in Pakistan. Others became famous in sports (e.g., [[Imran Khan]], [[Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi]], [[Younis Khan]], [[Shahid Afridi]], [[Irfan Pathan]], [[Jahangir Khan]], [[Jansher Khan]], [[Hashim Khan]], [[Rashid Khan (cricketer)|Rashid Khan]], [[Shaheen Afridi]], [[Naseem Shah (cricketer)|Naseem Shah]], [[Misbah-ul-Haq|Misbah Ul Haq]], [[Mujeeb Ur Rahman]] and [[Mohammad Wasim (cricketer, born 2001)|Mohammad Wasim]]) and literature (e.g., [[Khan Abdul Ghani Khan|Ghani Khan]], [[Hamza Shinwari]], and [[Kabir Stori]]). [[Malala Yousafzai]], who became the youngest [[Nobel Peace Prize]] recipient in [[2014 Nobel Peace Prize|2014]], is a Pakistani Pashtun. Pashtuns are considered to be well-integrated in the Pakistani society, and as per a 2009 [[Pew Research Center]] report 92% of the Pashtuns identified with their Pakistani identity before their ethnic Pashtun identity.<ref>[[Pew Research Center]]. (2009, August 13). ''[https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2009/08/13/chapter-2-religion-law-and-society/ Chapter 2. Religion, Law, and Society]''. Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project. [https://web.archive.org/web/20250512155333/https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2009/08/13/chapter-2-religion-law-and-society/ Archived] May 12, 2025.

</ref>

Many of the [[Bollywood]] film stars in India have Pashtun ancestry; some of the most notable ones are [[Aamir Khan]], [[Shah Rukh Khan|Shahrukh Khan]], [[Salman Khan]], [[Feroz Khan (Indian actor)|Feroz Khan]], [[Madhubala]], [[Kader Khan]], [[Saif Ali Khan]], [[Soha Ali Khan]], [[Sara Ali Khan]], and [[Zarine Khan]].<ref name="Devasher2022"/><ref name="pathan"/> In addition, one of India's former presidents, [[Zakir Husain]], belonged to the [[Afridi (Pashtun)|Afridi]] tribe.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Famous Indians of the 21st century|last1=Sharma|first1=Vishwamitra|year=2007|publisher=Pustak Mahal|isbn=978-81-223-0829-7|page=60|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jx1XJp6wOFAC&pg=PA60|access-date=18 September 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Dr. Zakir Hussain, quest for truth (by Ziāʼulḥasan Fārūqī)|last1=Fārūqī|first1=Z̤iāʼulḥasan|year=1999|publisher=APH Publishing|isbn=81-7648-056-8|page=8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uzNnwUasQ3wC&pg=PA8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Educational thought|last1=Johri|first1=P.K|year=1999|publisher=Anmol Publications PVT. LTD|isbn=81-261-2175-0|page=267|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dAYxGg0w8xMC&pg=PA267}}</ref> [[Mohammad Yunus (diplomat)|Mohammad Yunus]], India's former ambassador to Algeria and advisor to [[Indira Gandhi]], is of Pashtun origin and related to the legendary Bacha Khan.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2003/05/26/stories/2003052600431000.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030703101955/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2003/05/26/stories/2003052600431000.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 July 2003|title=To Islamabad and the Frontier|access-date=1 August 2007|location=Chennai, India|date=26 May 2003|work=The Hindu|quote=Ruled now by parties of the religious right, the Frontier province emerges soon after one proceeds westwards from Islamabad. I was lucky to find Ajmal Khan Khattak in his humble home in Akora Khattak, beyond the Indus. Once Badshah Khan's young lieutenant, Mr. Khattak spent years with him in Afghanistan and offered a host of memories. And I was able to meet Badshah Khan's surviving children, Wali Khan, the famous political figure of the NWFP, and his half-sister, Mehr Taj, whose husband Yahya Jan, a schoolmaster who became a Minister in the Frontier, was the brother of the late Mohammed Yunus, who had made India his home.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Commonwealth and Nehru|last1=Darbari|first1=Raj|year=1983|publisher=Vision Books|isbn=81-261-2175-0|page=28}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Pathan unarmed: opposition & memory in the North West Frontier (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa)|quote=He was visiting his cousin Mohammed Yunus, a Pathan who had chosen to move to Delhi at Partition and become a well-known figure in the Congress regime.|publisher=James Currey}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopædia of Muslim Biography|quote=Mohammad Yunus is belong to a rich and distinguished Pathan family and son of Haji Ghulam Samdani (1827–1926).|publisher=A.P.H. Pub. Corp.}}</ref>

In the late 1990s, Pashtuns were the primary ethnic group in the ruling regime i.e. [[Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996–2001)|Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan]] (Taliban regime).<ref>{{Cite web|last=Watkins|first=Andrew|date=17 August 2022|title=One Year Later: Taliban Reprise Repressive Rule, but Struggle to Build a State|url=https://www.usip.org/publications/2022/08/one-year-later-taliban-reprise-repressive-rule-struggle-build-state|access-date=27 February 2023|website=United States Institute of Peace}}{{dead link|date=April 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref name="BBC Taliban">{{cite web|last=Cruickshank|first=Dan|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/recent/sept_11/afghan_culture_03.shtml|title=Afghanistan: At the Crossroads of Ancient Civilisations|publisher=BBC|access-date=10 October 2006}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=July 2021}} The [[Northern Alliance]] that was fighting against the Taliban also included a number of Pashtuns. Among them were [[Abdullah Abdullah]], [[Abdul Qadir (Afghan leader)|Abdul Qadir]] and his brother [[Abdul Haq (Afghan leader)|Abdul Haq]], [[Abdul Rasul Sayyaf]], [[Asadullah Khalid]], [[Hamid Karzai]] and [[Gul Agha Sherzai]]. The Taliban regime was ousted in late 2001 during the US-led [[Operation Enduring Freedom|War in Afghanistan]] and replaced by the [[Presidency of Hamid Karzai|Karzai administration]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scis.org/SA_L2_A4_teacher_resource_2_10_p115.pdf|title=Afghan Government 2009|work=scis.org|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728004043/http://www.scis.org/SA_L2_A4_teacher_resource_2_10_p115.pdf|archive-date=28 July 2011}}</ref> This was followed by the Ghani administration and the reconquest of Afghanistan by the Taliban (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan).

The long wars in Afghanistan have led to Pashtuns gaining a reputation for being exceptional fighters.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.khaama.com/leaving-afghanistans-bagarm-airfield-was-a-grave-military-mistake-trump/|title=Leaving Afghanistan's 'Bagarm Airfield' Was a Grave Military Mistake: Trump|publisher=Khaama Press|date=29 January 2023|access-date=29 January 2023}}</ref> Some activists and intellectuals are trying to rebuild Pashtun intellectualism and its pre-war culture.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.macleans.ca/news/world/redeeming-the-pashtun-the-ultimate-warriors/|title=Redeeming the Pashtun, the ultimate warriors|website=Macleans.ca|access-date=14 December 2021}}</ref>

== Genetics ==
The majority of Pashtuns from Afghanistan belong to [[R1a]], with a frequency of 50–65%.<ref name="Afghanistan from a Y-chromosome per">{{cite journal|last1=Lacau|first1=Harlette|last2=Gayden|first2=Tenzin|last3=Reguerio|first3=Maria|last4=Underhill|first4=Peter|title=Afghanistan from a Y-chromosome perspective|journal=European Journal of Human Genetics|date=October 2012|volume=20|issue=October 2012|pages=1063–70|doi=10.1038/ejhg.2012.59|pmid=22510847|pmc=3449065|doi-access=free}}</ref> Subclade R1a-Z2125 occurs at a frequency of 40%.<ref name="nagy">{{cite journal|last1=Nagy|first1=Péter L.|last2=Olasz|first2=Judit|last3=Neparáczki|first3=Endre|last4=Rouse|first4=Nicholas|last5=Kapuria|first5=Karan|last6=Cano|first6=Samantha|last7=Chen|first7=Huijie|last8=Di Cristofaro|first8=Julie|last9=Runfeldt|first9=Goran |last10=Ekomasova |first10=Natalia|last11=Maróti|first11=Zoltán|last12=Jeney|first12=János|last13=Litvinov|first13=Sergey|last14=Dzhaubermezov|first14=Murat|last15=Gabidullina|first15=Lilya|last16=Szentirmay|first16=Zoltán|last17=Szabados|first17=György|last18=Zgonjanin|first18=Dragana|last19=Chiaroni|first19=Jacques |last20=Behar |first20=Doron M.|last21=Khusnutdinova|first21=Elza|last22=Underhill|first22=Peter A.|last23=Kásler|first23=Miklós|title=Determination of the phylogenetic origins of the Árpád Dynasty based on Y chromosome sequencing of Béla the Third|journal=European Journal of Human Genetics|date=January 2021|volume=29|issue=1|pages=164–172|doi=10.1038/s41431-020-0683-z|pmid=32636469|pmc=7809292}}</ref> This subclade is predominantly found in Tajiks, Turkmen, Uzbeks and in some populations in the Caucasus and Iran.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Underhill|first1=Peter A.|last2=Poznik|first2=G. David|last3=Rootsi|first3=Siiri|last4=Järve|first4=Mari|last5=Lin|first5=Alice A.|last6=Wang|first6=Jianbin|last7=Passarelli|first7=Ben|last8=Kanbar|first8=Jad|last9=Myres|first9=Natalie M. |last10=King |first10=Roy J.|last11=Di Cristofaro|first11=Julie|last12=Sahakyan|first12=Hovhannes|last13=Behar|first13=Doron M.|last14=Kushniarevich|first14=Alena|last15=Šarac|first15=Jelena|last16=Šaric|first16=Tena|last17=Rudan|first17=Pavao|last18=Pathak|first18=Ajai Kumar|last19=Chaubey|first19=Gyaneshwer |last20=Grugni |first20=Viola|last21=Semino|first21=Ornella|last22=Yepiskoposyan|first22=Levon|last23=Bahmanimehr|first23=Ardeshir|last24=Farjadian|first24=Shirin|last25=Balanovsky|first25=Oleg|last26=Khusnutdinova|first26=Elza K.|last27=Herrera|first27=Rene J.|last28=Chiaroni|first28=Jacques|last29=Bustamante|first29=Carlos D. |last30=Quake |first30=Stephen R.|last31=Kivisild|first31=Toomas|last32=Villems|first32=Richard|title=The phylogenetic and geographic structure of Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a|journal=European Journal of Human Genetics|date=January 2015|volume=23|issue=1|pages=124–131|doi=10.1038/ejhg.2014.50|pmid=24667786|pmc=4266736}}</ref> [[Haplogroup G-M201]] reaches 9% in Afghan Pashtuns and is the second most frequent haplogroup in Pashtuns from southern Afghanistan.<ref name="Afghanistan from a Y-chromosome per"/><ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0076748|title=Afghan Hindu Kush: Where Eurasian Sub-Continent Gene Flows Converge|year=2013|last1=Di Cristofaro|first1=Julie|last2=Pennarun|first2=Erwan|last3=Mazières|first3=Stéphane|last4=Myres|first4=Natalie M.|last5=Lin|first5=Alice A.|last6=Temori|first6=Shah Aga|last7=Metspalu|first7=Mait|last8=Metspalu|first8=Ene|last9=Witzel|first9=Michael |last10=King|first10 = Roy J.|last11=Underhill|first11=Peter A.|last12=Villems|first12=Richard|last13=Chiaroni|first13=Jacques|journal=PLOS One|volume=8|issue=10|pages=e76748|pmid=24204668|pmc=3799995|bibcode=2013PLoSO...876748D|doi-access=free}}</ref> Haplogroup L and Haplogroup J2 occurs at an overall frequency of 6%.<ref name="Afghanistan from a Y-chromosome per" /> According to a Mitochondrial DNA analysis of four ethnic groups of Afghanistan, the majority of mtDNA among Afghan Pashtuns belongs to West Eurasian lineages, and share a greater affinity with West Eurasian and Central Asian populations rather than to populations of South Asia or East Asia. The haplogroup analysis indicates the Pashtuns and Tajiks in Afghanistan share ancestral heritage. Among the studied ethnic groups, the Pashtuns have the greatest mtDNA diversity.<ref>{{cite thesis|last1=Whale|first1=John William|year=2012|title=Mitochondrial DNA analysis of four ethnic groups of Afghanistan|url=https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis12892.html}}</ref> The most frequent haplogroup among Pakistani Pashtuns is haplogroup R which is found at a rate of 28–50%. Haplogroup J2 was found in 9% to 24% depending on the study and Haplogroup E has been found at a frequency of 4% to 13%. Haplogroup L occurs at a rate of 8%. Certain Pakistani Pashtun groups exhibit high levels of R1b.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Tariq|first1=Muhammad|last2=Ahmad|first2=Habib|last3=Hemphill|first3=Brian E.|last4=Farooq|first4=Umar|last5=Schurr|first5=Theodore G.|title=Contrasting maternal and paternal genetic histories among five ethnic groups from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan|journal=Scientific Reports|date=19 January 2022|volume=12|issue=1|pages=1027|doi=10.1038/s41598-022-05076-3|pmid=35046511|pmc=8770644|bibcode=2022NatSR..12.1027T}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ikram|first1=Muhammad Salman|last2=Mehmood|first2=Tahir|last3=Rakha|first3=Allah|last4=Akhtar|first4=Sareen|last5=Khan|first5=Muhammad Imran Mahmood|last6=Al-Qahtani|first6=Wedad Saeed|last7=Safhi|first7=Fatmah Ahmed|last8=Hadi|first8=Sibte|last9=Wang|first9=Chuan-Chao |last10=Adnan |first10=Atif|title=Genetic diversity and forensic application of Y-filer STRs in four major ethnic groups of Pakistan|journal=BMC Genomics|date=30 November 2022|volume=23|issue=1|page=788|doi=10.1186/s12864-022-09028-z|doi-access=free|pmid=36451116|pmc=9714238}}</ref> Overall Pashtun groups are genetically diverse, and the Pashtun ethnic group is not a single genetic population. Different Pashtun groups exhibit different genetic backgrounds, resulting in considerable heterogeneity.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Zubair|first1=Muhammad|last2=Hemphill|first2=Brian E.|last3=Schurr|first3=Theodore G.|last4=Tariq|first4=Muhammad|last5=Ilyas|first5=Muhammad|last6=Ahmad|first6=Habib|title=Mitochondrial DNA diversity in the Khattak and Kheshgi of the Peshawar Valley, Pakistan|journal=Genetica|date=August 2020|volume=148|issue=3–4|pages=195–206|doi=10.1007/s10709-020-00095-2|pmid=32607672|s2cid=220287795}}</ref>

Y haplogroup and mtdna haplogroup samples were taken from Jadoon, Yousafzai, Sayyid, Gujar and Tanoli men living in [[Swabi District]], Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. Jadoon men have predominantly East Asian origin paternal ancestry with West Eurasian maternal ancestry and a lesser amount of South Asian maternal ancestry according to a Y and mtdna haplogroup test indicating local females marrying immigrant males during the medieval period. Y Haplogroup O3-M122 makes up the majority of Jadoon men, the same haplogroup carried by the majority (50–60%) of Han Chinese. 82.5% of Jadoon men carrying Q-MEH2 and O3-M122 which are both of East Asian origin. O3-M122 was absent in the Sayyid (Syed) population and appeared in low numbers among Tanolis, Gujars and [[Yousafzai]]s. There appears to be founder affect in the O3-M122 among the Jadoon.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Tariq|first1=Muhammad|last2=Ahmad|first2=Habib|last3=Hemphill|first3=Brian E.|last4=Farooq|first4=Umar|last5=Schurr|first5=Theodore G.|date=2022|title=Contrasting maternal and paternal genetic histories among five ethnic groups from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan|journal=Scientific Reports|volume=12|issue=1027|page=1027|doi=10.1038/s41598-022-05076-3|pmid=35046511|pmc=8770644|bibcode=2022NatSR..12.1027T}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|pmid=35046511|date=2022|last1=Tariq|first1=M.|last2=Ahmad|first2=H.|last3=Hemphill|first3=B. E.|last4=Farooq|first4=U.|last5=Schurr|first5=T. G.|title=Contrasting maternal and paternal genetic histories among five ethnic groups from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan|journal=Scientific Reports|volume=12|issue=1|page=1027|doi=10.1038/s41598-022-05076-3|pmc=8770644|bibcode=2022NatSR..12.1027T}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357933818|title=Contrasting maternal and paternal genetic histories among five ethnic groups from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan|website=ResearchGate}}</ref> 76.32% of Jadoon men carry O3-M122 while 0.75% of Tanolis, 0.81% of Gujars and 2.82% of Yousafzais carry O3-M122.<ref>{{cite thesis|last=Tariq|first=Muhammad|date=2017|title=Genetic Analysis of the Major Tribes of Buner and Swabi Areas through Dental Morphology and DNA Analysis|url=http://prr.hec.gov.pk/jspui/handle/123456789/9941|type=This research study has been conducted and reported as partial fulfillment of the requirements of PhD degree in Genetics awarded by Hazara UniversityMansehra, Pakistan|pages=1–229|publisher=Hazara University, Mansehra|docket=13737}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://prr.hec.gov.pk/jspui/bitstream/123456789/9941/1/Muhammad%20Tariq_Genetics_2017_HU_Mansehra_Main%20part.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207195512/http://prr.hec.gov.pk/jspui/bitstream/123456789/9941/1/Muhammad%20Tariq_Genetics_2017_HU_Mansehra_Main%20part.pdf|url-status=dead|title=GENETIC ANALYSIS OF THE MAJOR TRIBES OF BUNER AND SWABI AREAS THROUGH DENTAL MORPHOLOGY AND DNA ANALYSIS|first=Muhammad|last=Tariq|date=2017|archive-date=7 December 2019|work=Department of Genetics|publisher=Hazara University Mansehra}}</ref>
 
56.25% of the Jadoons in another test carried West Eurasian maternal [[Haplogroup H (mtDNA)]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Akbae|first1=N.|last2=Ahmad|first2=H.|last3=Nadeem|first3=M.S.|last4=Hemphill|first4=B.E.|last5=Muhammad|first5=K.|last6=Ahmad|first6=W.|last7=Ilyas|first7=M.|date=24 June 2016|title=HVSI polymorphism indicates multiple origins of mtDNA in the Hazarewal population of Northern Pakistan|url=https://www.geneticsmr.org/articles/hvsi-polymorphism-indicates-multiple-origins-of-mtdna-in-the-hazarewal-population-of-northern-pakistan.pdf|journal=Genetics and Molecular Research|volume=15|issue=2|publisher=Department of Genetics, Hazara University, Garden Campus, Mansehra, Pakistan|pages=1–10|doi=10.4238/gmr.15027167|pmid=27420957}}</ref> Dental morphology of the Swabi Jadoons was also analysed and compared to other groups in the regions like Yousufzais and Sayyids.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Zubair|first1=Muhammad|last2=Ahmad|first2=Habib|last3=Hemphill|first3=Brian E.|last4=Tariq|first4=Muhammad|last5=Shah|first5=Muzafar|date=25 March 2021|title=Identification of Genetic Lineage of Peshawar and Nowshera Tribes through Dental Morphology|url=https://researcherslinks.com/current-issues/Identification-of-Genetic-Lineage-Dental-Morphology/20/1/3734/html|journal=Pakistan Journal of Zoology|volume=53|issue=3|publisher=Zoological Society of Pakistan|doi=10.17582/journal.pjz/20190927080941|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Definitions==
The most prominent views among Pashtuns as to who exactly qualifies as a Pashtun are:<ref name="Conflict">{{Cite book|last=Schiffman|first=Harold|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=52aicl9l7rwC|title=Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors: The Changing Politics of Language Choice|date=9 December 2011|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-20145-3|pages=55–56|language=en|quote=Barfield (2007: 11) depicts Pashtun identity as sort of Venn diagram where those claiming Pashtun descent belong to the largest circle, those using the Pashto language appear as a smaller subset, and those adhering to the Pashtun code of conduct are the most authentic Pashtun of all.}}</ref>
# Those who are well-versed in [[Pashto]] and use it significantly. The Pashto language is "one of the primary markers of ethnic identity" among Pashtuns.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hakala|first=Walter|url=https://brill.com/view/title/17296|title=Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors: The Changing Politics of Language Choice|date=9 December 2011|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-21765-2|pages=55|language=en|quote="As is well known, the Pashtun people place a great deal of pride upon their language as an identifier of their distinct ethnic and historical identity. While it is clear that not all those who self-identify as ethnically Pashtun themselves use Pashto as their primary language, language does seem to be one of the primary markers of ethnic identity in contemporary Afghanistan."}}</ref>
# Adherence to the code of [[Pashtunwali]].<ref name="Conflict" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0506/feature2_4.html|title=Understanding Pashto|publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania]]|year=2006|access-date=18 January 2007|archive-date=12 December 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061212221109/http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0506/feature2_4.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The cultural definition requires Pashtuns to adhere to Pashtunwali codes.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=The Pashtun Code|url=http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/011203fa_FACT1|magazine=The New Yorker|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061117130055/http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/011203fa_FACT1|archive-date=17 November 2006|access-date=18 January 2007}}</ref>
# Belonging to a [[Pashtun tribes|Pashtun tribe]] through [[patrilineality|patrilineal descent]], based on an important orthodox law of Pashtunwali which mainly requires that only those who have a Pashtun father are Pashtun. This definition places less emphasis on the language.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Shackle|first1=C.|date=1980|title=Hindko in Kohat and Peshawar|journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London|volume=43|issue=3|pages=482–510|doi=10.1017/S0041977X00137401|jstor=615737|s2cid=129436200}}</ref>

=== Tribes ===
{{Main|Pashtun tribes}}
[[File:Afghanistan ethnic groups 2005.jpg|thumb|A map of Pashtun tribes<ref>{{Cite web|title=Afghanistan ethnic groups.|url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/g7631e.ct002134/|access-date=22 September 2021|website=Library of Congress}}</ref>]]

A prominent institution of the Pashtun people is the intricate system of [[tribe]]s.<ref>{{cite web|title=Minority Rights Group Pashtuns|url=https://minorityrights.org/minorities/pashtuns/|website=Minority Rights Group|date=19 June 2015}}</ref> The tribal system has several levels of organization: the tribe they are in is from [[Qais Abdur Rashid#Descendants|four 'greater' tribal groups]]: the [[Sarbani]], the [[Bettani]], the Gharghashti, and the [[Karlani]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Adebayo|first1=Akanmu G.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tGtGAwAAQBAJ&dq=karlani+sarbani&pg=PA203|title=Indigenous Conflict Management Strategies: Global Perspectives|last2=Benjamin|first2=Jesse J.|last3=Lundy|first3=Brandon D.|date=4 April 2014|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-8805-7|pages=203|language=en}}</ref> The tribe is then divided into kinship groups called ''khels'', which in turn is divided into smaller groups (''pllarina'' or ''plarganey''), each consisting of several extended families called ''kahols''.<ref name="Jirga">{{cite web|url=http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN017434.pdf|title=Jirga – A Traditional Mechanism of Conflict Resolution in Afghanistan|publisher=United Nations|first=Ali|last=Wardak|year=2003|page=7|access-date=10 October 2006|archive-date=7 October 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061007192558/http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN017434.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

====Durrani and Ghilji Pashtuns====
{{Main|Durrani|Ghilji}}
The Durranis and Ghiljis (or Ghilzais) are the two largest groups of Pashtuns, with approximately two-thirds of Afghan Pashtuns belonging to these confederations.<ref name="USMA">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ctc.usma.edu/tribal-dynamics-of-the-afghanistan-and-pakistan-insurgencies/|title=Tribal Dynamics of the Afghanistan and Pakistan Insurgencies|date=15 August 2009|website=Combating Terrorism Center at West Point|access-date=14 December 2021|archive-date=21 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021132110/https://www.ctc.usma.edu/tribal-dynamics-of-the-afghanistan-and-pakistan-insurgencies/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Durrani tribe has been more urban and politically successful, while the Ghiljis are more numerous, more rural, and reputedly tougher. In the 18th century, the groups collaborated at times and at other times fought each other. With a few gaps, Durranis ruled modern Afghanistan continuously until the [[Saur Revolution]] of 1978; the new [[Khalq|communist rulers]] were Ghilji.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cZUtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA20|title=Our Latest Longest War: Losing Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan|first=Aaron B.|last=O'Connell|date=3 April 2017|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|isbn=9780226265650|access-date=14 December 2021}}</ref>

Tribal allegiances are stronger among the Ghilji, while governance of the Durrani confederation is more to do with cross-tribal structures of land ownership.<ref name="USMA"/>{{multiple image
| total_width       = 300
| footer            = The paternal ancestries for Indian Bollywood actors [[Saif Ali Khan]] (left), [[Salman Khan]] (middle), and [[Shah Rukh Khan]] (right) are Pashtun.
}}

== Language ==
{{Main|Pashto}}
{{See also|Pashto alphabet|Pashto dialects|Pashto grammar|Page 4=}}
{{Further|Pashto phonology|Wanetsi|Languages of Afghanistan|Languages of Pakistan}}
[[File:Map of Pashto-speaking areas in Afghanistan and Pakistan.svg|thumb|258x258px|Map of [[Pashto|Pashto-speaking]] areas in [[Afghanistan]] and [[Pakistan]]]]
[[Pashto]] is the [[First language|mother tongue]] of most Pashtuns.<ref name="T&F">{{cite book|last1=Claus|first1=Peter J.|title=South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia : Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka|last2=Diamond|first2=Sarah|last3=Ann Mills|first3=Margaret|date=2003|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9780415939195|page=447}}</ref><ref name="Henderson">{{cite web|last=Henderson|first=Michael|title=The Phonology of Pashto|url=http://people.ku.edu/~mmth/Sample_Pashto_Phonology_I_Term_Paper.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004085316/http://people.ku.edu/~mmth/Sample_Pashto_Phonology_I_Term_Paper.pdf|archive-date=4 October 2012|access-date=20 August 2012|publisher=University of Wisconsin|location=Madison, Wisconsin}}</ref><ref name="Henderson 1983">{{cite journal|last=Henderson|first=Michael|year=1983|title=Four Varieties of Pashto|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=103|issue=3|pages=595–8|doi=10.2307/602038|jstor=602038}}</ref> It is one of the two [[national language]]s of [[Afghanistan]].<ref name="Pashto-language">{{cite web|title=Pashto language|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/445534/Pashto-language|access-date=7 December 2010|work=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref><ref name="socioling">Modarresi, Yahya: "Iran, Afghanistan and Tadjikistan, 1911–1916." In: ''Sociolinguistics'', Vol. 3, Part. 3. Ulrich Ammon, Norbert Dittmar, Klaus J. Mattheier, Peter Trudgill (eds.). Berlin, De Gryuter: 2006. p. 1915. {{ISBN|3-11-018418-4}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=LMZm0w0k1c4C&pg=PA1914]</ref> In Pakistan, although being the second-largest language being spoken,<ref>[http://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/tables/POPULATION%20BY%20MOTHER%20TONGUE.pdf Population by Mother Tongue] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141010134307/http://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/tables/POPULATION%20BY%20MOTHER%20TONGUE.pdf |date=10 October 2014}}, Population Census – [[Pakistan Bureau of Statistics]], [[Government of Pakistan]]</ref> it is often neglected officially in the education system.<ref name="Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan">{{Cite book|author=Hallberg|first=Daniel|url=http://www-01.sil.org/sociolx/pubs/32847_SSNP04.pdf|title=Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan|publisher=Quaid-i-Azam University & Summer Institute of Linguistics|year=1992|isbn=969-8023-14-3|volume=4|page=36 to 37|access-date=6 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180712204446/http://www-01.sil.org/sociolx/pubs/32847_SSNP04.pdf|archive-date=12 July 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=د کرښې پرغاړه (په پاکستان کې د مورنیو ژبو حیثیت)|url=http://www.mashaalradio.org/content/article/25466375.html|access-date=18 July 2016|work=mashaalradio.org|date=22 July 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite report|url=http://www.britishcouncil.org/pakistan-ette-role-of-language-in-education.htm|title=TEACHING AND LEARNING IN PAKISTAN: THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN EDUCATION|author=Hywel Coleman|publisher=[[British Council]], Pakistan|access-date=24 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101104060039/http://www.britishcouncil.org/pakistan-ette-role-of-language-in-education.htm|archive-date=4 November 2010|year=2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Mohmand|first=Mureeb|date=27 April 2014|title=The decline of Pashto|work=The Express Tribune|url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/700836/the-decline-of-pashto|quote="...because of the state's patronage, Urdu is now the most widely-spoken language in Pakistan. But the preponderance of one language over all others eats upon the sphere of influence of other, smaller languages, which alienates the respective nationalities and fuels aversion towards the central leadership...If we look to our state policies regarding the promotion of Pashto and the interests of the Pakhtun political elite, it is clear that the future of the Pashto language is dark. And when the future of a language is dark, the future of the people is dark."}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Carter|first=Lynn|title=Socio-Economic Profile of Kurram Agency|journal=Planning and Development Department, Peshawar, NWFP|volume=1991|pages=82}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Carter and Raza|title=Socio-Economic Profile of South Waziristan Agency|journal=Planning and Development Department, Peshawar, NWFP|volume=1990|pages=69|quote=Sources say that this is mainly because the Pushto text books in use in the settled areas of N.W.F.P. are written in the Yusufzai dialect, which is not the dialect in use in the Agency}}</ref> This has been criticized as adversely impacting the economic advancement of Pashtuns,<ref>{{cite web|title=Education in Pashto language stressed|url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/793981-education-in-pashto-language-stressed|access-date=18 March 2021|website=The News International|location=Pakistan|quote=Khpalwaak Pakhtunistan Ghurzang on Sunday demanded the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to introduce Pashto as a medium of instruction for the Pakhtun children as that was needed for their socio-economic development.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Report|first=Dawn|date=22 February 2021|title=Govt urged to declare Pashto as medium of instruction in schools|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1608698|access-date=18 March 2021|newspaper=Dawn|location=Pakistan|quote=Besides Peshawar, literary and cultural organisations in Swat, Malakand, Buner, Swabi, Mardan, Nowshera, Charsadda, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Karak and tribal districts organised events to mark the importance of mother tongue.They were of the view that Pashto curriculum from 1st grade to 12th grade was already evolved but it was yet to be implemented.}}</ref> as students do not have the ability to comprehend what is being taught in other languages fully.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hallberg|first=Daniel|title=Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan|url=https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/10/21/84/102184639558058261191157258320075530940/32847_SSNP04.pdf|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/10/21/84/102184639558058261191157258320075530940/32847_SSNP04.pdf|archive-date=9 October 2022|url-status=live|journal=National Institute of Pakistan Studies Quaid-i-Azam University and Summer Institute of Linguisitics|volume=4|pages=36|quote=A brief interview with the principal of the high school in Madyan, along with a number of his teachers, helps to underscore the importance of Pashto in the school domain within Pashtoon territory. He reported that Pashto is used by teachers to explain things to students all the way up through tenth class. The idea he was conveying was that students do not really have enough ability in Urdu to operate totally in that language. He also expressed the thought that Pashto-speaking students in the area really do not learn Urdu very well in public school and that they are thus somewhat ill prepared to meet the expectation that they will know how to use Urdu and English when they reach the college level. He likened the education system to a wall that has weak bricks at the bottom.}}</ref> Robert Nichols remarks:<ref>{{cite book|url=https://brill.com/view/title/17296|title=Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors: The Changing Politics of Language Choice|date=9 December 2011|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-21765-2|pages=278}}</ref>

{{blockquote|text=The politics of writing Pashto language textbooks in a nationalist environment promoting integration through Islam and Urdu had unique effects. There was no lesson on any twentieth century Pakhtun, especially Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the anti-British, pro-Pakhtun nationalist. There was no lesson on the Pashtun state-builders in nineteenth and twentieth century Afghanistan. There was little or no sampling of original Pashto language religious or historical material.|title=Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors|source=Chapter 8, page 278}}
[[File:Pashto-speakers by Pakistani District - 2017 Census.svg|thumb|256x256px|The map of Pashto speaking areas of Pakistan]]
Pashto is categorized as an [[Eastern Iranian languages|Eastern Iranian]] language,<ref name="Iranica-Pashto">{{cite web|title=AFGHANISTAN vi. Paṧto|url=http://www.iranica.com/articles/afghanistan-vi-pasto|access-date=10 October 2010|work=[[Georg Morgenstierne|G. Morgenstierne]]|publisher=Encyclopaedia Iranica|quote=Paṧtō undoubtedly belongs to the Northeastern Iranic branch.|archive-date=22 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120122024645/http://www.iranica.com/articles/afghanistan-vi-pasto|url-status=usurped}}</ref> but a remarkably large number of words are unique to Pashto.<ref name="BensonKosonen20132">{{cite book|author1=Carol Benson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tdREAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA64|title=Language Issues in Comparative Education: Inclusive Teaching and Learning in Non-Dominant Languages and Cultures|author2=Kimmo Kosonen|date=13 June 2013|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-94-6209-218-1|pages=64}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Ehsan M Entezar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fdTJgCSPsGwC&q=pashto+purification&pg=PA89|title=Afghanistan 101: Understanding Afghan Culture|publisher=Xlibris Corporation|year=2008|isbn=978-1-4257-9302-9|page=89}}</ref> [[Pashto grammar|Pashto morphology]] in relation to verbs is complex compared to other Iranian languages.<ref>{{Cite book|last=David|first=Anne Boyle|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zK7zMgEACAAJ|title=Descriptive Grammar of Pashto and Its Dialects|date=2014|publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|isbn=978-1-61451-303-2|pages=185}}</ref> In this respect [[David Neil MacKenzie|MacKenzie]] states:<ref>{{cite book|doi=10.4324/9780203412336-14|chapter=Pashto|title=The Major Languages of South Asia, the Middle East and Africa|date=2003|pages=116–130|isbn=978-0-203-41233-6}}</ref>

{{blockquote|text=If we compare the archaic structure of Pashto with the much simplified morphology of Persian, the leading modern Iranian language, we see that it stands to its 'second cousin' and neighbour in something like the same relationship as Icelandic does to English.|author=David Neil MacKenzie|title=|source=}}

Pashto has a large number of [[Pashto dialects|dialects]]: generally divided into [[Northern Pashto|Northern]], [[Southern Pashto|Southern]] and [[Central Pashto|Central]] groups;<ref>Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. [[ethnologuefamily:2236-16|Language Family Trees]]. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International.</ref> and also [[Wanetsi|Tarino or Waṇetsi]] as distinct group.<ref>{{cite web|title=Waneci, Glottolog: wane1241|url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/wane1241|access-date=20 March 2021|website=glottolog.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Waneci, ISO 639-3 wne|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/wne|access-date=20 March 2021|website=Ethnologue}}</ref> As Elfenbein notes: "Dialect differences lie primarily in [[Pashto phonology|phonology]] and lexicon: the morphology and syntax are, again with the exception of [[Wanetsi]], quite remarkably uniform".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kaye|first1=Alan S.|title=Phonologies of Asia and Africa: (including the Caucasus)|date=1997|publisher=Eisenbrauns|isbn=978-1-57506-019-4|page=736}}</ref> Ibrahim Khan provides the following classification on the letter ښ: the Northern Western dialect (e.g. spoken by the [[Ghilji|Ghilzai]]) having the phonetic value {{IPA|/ç+/}}, the North Eastern (spoken by the [[Yusufzai|Yusafzais]] etc.) having the sound {{IPA|/x/}}, the South Western (spoken by the [[Durrani|Abdalis]] etc.) having {{IPA|/ʂ/}} and the South Eastern (spoken by the [[Kakar]]s etc.) having {{IPA|/ʃ/}}.<ref name=Khan2021>{{cite journal|last1=Khan|first1=Ibrahim|title=Tarīno and Karāṇi dialects|journal=Pashto|date=7 September 2021|volume=50|issue=661|url=http://www.pashto.org.pk/index.php/path/article/view/178}}</ref> He illustrates that the Central dialects, which are spoken by the [[Karlani|Karlāṇ tribes]], can also be divided on the North {{IPA|/x/}} and South {{IPA|/ʃ/}} distinction but provides that in addition these Central dialects have had a vowel shift which makes them distinct: for instance {{IPA|/ɑ/}} represented by [[Pashto alphabet|aleph]] the non-Central dialects becoming {{IPA|/ɔː/}} in [[Banuchi|Banisi]] dialect.<ref name=Khan2021/>

The first Pashto alphabet was developed by [[Pir Roshan]] in the 16th century.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Siddique|first1=Abubakar|title=The Pashtun Question: The Unresolved Key to the Future of Pakistan and Afghanistan|date=2014|publisher=Hurst|isbn=978-1-84904-292-5|page=28}}</ref> In 1958, a meeting of Pashtun scholars and writers from both Afghanistan and Pakistan, held in Kabul, standardized the present [[Pashto alphabet]].<ref name="MacKenzie 1959 231–235">{{cite journal|last=MacKenzie|first=D.N.|title=A Standard Pashto|journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London|date=1959|volume=22|issue=1/3|pages=231–235|jstor=609426}}</ref>

== Culture ==
{{main|Pashtun culture}}
{{Further|Culture of Afghanistan|Culture of Pakistan}}
{{see also|Pashtun cuisine|Pashtun clothing}}
[[File:Pashtuns.jpg|thumb|Local clothes used by Pashtun children]]
Pashtun culture is based on Pashtunwali, [[Islam]] and the understanding of Pashto language. The Kabul dialect is used to standardize the present [[Pashto alphabet]].<ref name="MacKenzie 1959 231–235" /> Poetry is also an important part of Pashtun culture and it has been for centuries.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://celcar.indiana.edu/materials/language-portal/pashto/index.html|title=Pashto|website=Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region|access-date=14 December 2021}}</ref> Pre-Islamic traditions, dating back to [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]]'s defeat of the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian Empire]] in 330&nbsp;BC, possibly survived in the form of [[Attan|traditional dances]], while literary styles and music reflect influence from the [[Culture of Iran|Persian tradition]] and regional [[musical instrument]]s fused with localized variants and interpretation. Like other [[Muslims]], Pashtuns celebrate [[Islamic holidays]]. Contrary to the Pashtuns living in Pakistan, [[Nowruz in Afghanistan]] is celebrated as the Afghan New Year by all Afghan ethnicities.

===Jirga===
{{main|Jirga}}

Another prominent Pashtun institution is the [[loya jirga|''lóya jirgá'']] ({{langx|ps|لويه جرګه}}) or 'grand council' of elected [[elder (administrative title)|elders]].<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1782079.stm|publisher=BBC News|title=Q&A: What is a loya jirga?|date=1 July 2002|access-date=11 May 2010}}</ref> Most decisions in tribal life are made by members of the [[jirga|''jirgá'']] ({{langx|ps|جرګه}}), which has been the main institution of authority that the largely egalitarian Pashtuns willingly acknowledge as a viable governing body.<ref name="HRW">{{cite web|url=http://hrw.org/press/2002/04/qna-loyagirga.htm|title=Q & A on Afghanistan's Loya Jirga Process|access-date=10 October 2006|publisher=Human Rights Watch}}</ref>

=== Religion ===
{{main|Religion in Afghanistan|Religion in Pakistan}}
[[File:Mosque in Kandahar-2011.jpg|thumb|The [[tomb of Ahmad Shah Durrani]] in [[Kandahar|Kandahar City]], which also serves as the [[Congregational Mosque]] and contains the [[Shrine of the Cloak|sacred cloak]] that the [[Islamic prophet]] [[Muhammad]] wore.]]

Before Islam there were various different beliefs which were practised by Pashtuns such as [[Zoroastrianism]],<ref>https://fieldsupport.dliflc.edu/products/pak_pashto/pw_co/pashto.pdf "it is believed that millennia ago they emerged from Kandahar in Afghanistan and the Sulaiman Mountains in Pakistan. They then began expanding into what is known as the NWFP today. They are believed to have mainly practiced the Buddhist and Zoroastrian religions."</ref> [[Buddhism]] and [[Hinduism]].<ref name="ArnoldNettl2000">{{cite book|last1=Arnold|first1=Alison|title=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: South Asia|last2=Nettl|first2=Bruno|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|year=2000|isbn=9780824049461|page=785|language=en|quote=Before the emergence of Islam, the Pakhtuns were followers of Hinduism and Buddhism and considered music sacred, employing it in many religious rituals.}}</ref>

The overwhelming majority of Pashtuns adhere to [[Sunni Islam]] and belong to the [[Hanafi]] school of thought. Small [[Shia Islam|Shia]] communities exist in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Paktia. The Shias belong to the [[Turi (tribe)|Turi]] tribe while the [[Bangash]] tribe is approximately 50% Shia and the rest Sunni, who are mainly found in and around [[Parachinar]], [[Kurram District|Kurram]], [[Hangu District, Pakistan|Hangu]], [[Kohat]] and [[Orakzai District|Orakzai]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Sunni Militants Claim Deadly Attack at Market in Pakistan|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/14/world/asia/sunni-militants-claim-deadly-attack-at-market-in-pakistan.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=13 December 2015|access-date=14 December 2015}}</ref>

[[File:Afghan men praying in Kunar-2009.jpg|thumb|left|Men doing Islamic [[salat]] (praying) outside in the open in the [[Kunar Province]] of Afghanistan]]
A legacy of [[Sufism|Sufi]] activity may be found in some Pashtun regions, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as evident in songs and dances. Many Pashtuns are prominent [[Ulema]], Islamic scholars, such as Maulana Aazam an author of more than five hundred books including Tafasee of the Quran as Naqeeb Ut Tafaseer, Tafseer Ul Aazamain, Tafseer e Naqeebi and Noor Ut Tafaseer etc., as well as [[Muhammad Muhsin Khan]] who has helped translate the [[Noble Qur'an (Hilali-Khan)|Noble Quran]], [[Sahih Bukhari|Sahih Al-Bukhari]] and many other books to the English language.<ref name="Noble Quran">{{cite web|url=http://firstedition.com.my/the%20noble%20quran.htm|title=''The Noble Quran'' (in 9 VOLUMES), Arabic-English|work=firstedition.com.my|editor=Muhammad Muhsin Khan|access-date=18 January 2007|archive-date=28 June 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060628232824/http://firstedition.com.my/the%20noble%20quran.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Many Pashtuns want to reclaim their identity from being lumped in with the Taliban and international terrorism, which is not directly linked with Pashtun culture and history.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6198382.stm|title=Pashtuns want an image change|publisher=BBC News|first=Ahmed|last=Rashid|year=2006}}</ref>

Little information is available on non-Muslim as there is limited data regarding [[irreligion|irreligious]] groups and minorities, especially since many of the [[Hindu]] and [[Sikh]] Pashtuns migrated from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after the [[partition of India]] and later, after the [[Battle of Kabul (1992–1996)|rise of the Taliban]].<ref name="Tariq Ali">{{cite book|title=The clash of fundamentalisms: crusades, jihads and modernity|url=https://archive.org/details/clashoffundament00alit|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/clashoffundament00alit/page/20 20]|quote=The friends from Peshawar would speak of Hindu and Sikh Pashtuns who had migrated to India. In the tribal areas – the no man's land between Afghanistan and Pakistan – quite a few Hindus stayed on and were protected by the tribal codes. The same was true in Afghanistan itself (till the mujahidin and the Taliban arrived).|publisher=Verso|access-date=20 April 2008|isbn=978-1-85984-457-1|author1=Ali, Tariq|year=2003}}</ref><ref name="John Trimbur">{{cite book|title=The call to write|url=https://archive.org/details/calltowrite0000trim|url-access=registration|quote=Sikh Pashtuns.|publisher=Pearson Longman|access-date=20 April 2008|isbn=978-0-321-20305-2|author1=Trimbur, John|date=10 August 2004}}</ref>

There are also Hindu Pashtuns, sometimes known as the Sheen Khalai, who have moved predominantly to India.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Haidar|first1=Suhasini|date=3 February 2018|title=Tattooed 'blue-skinned' Hindu Pushtuns look back at their roots|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tattooed-blue-skinned-hindu-pushtuns-look-back-at-their-roots/article22645932.ece}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ur8WAQAAMAAJ&q=hindu+pashtuns|title=Himāl: The South Asian Magazine|date=2002|publisher=Himal, Incorporated|pages=91|quote=Most Hindus and Sikhs left Afghanistan during the 1992–1996 fighting}}</ref> A small Pashtun Hindu community, known as the ''[[Sheen Khalai]]'' meaning 'blue skinned' (referring to the color of Pashtun women's facial [[tattoo]]s), migrated to Unniara, [[Rajasthan]], India after [[partition of India|partition]].<ref name="Haider2018">{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tattooed-blue-skinned-hindu-pushtuns-look-back-at-their-roots/article22645932.ece|title=Tattooed 'blue-skinned' Hindu Pushtuns look back at their roots|last=Haider|first=Suhasini|date=3 February 2018|work=The Hindu|access-date=9 February 2020}}</ref> Prior to 1947, the community resided in the [[Quetta]], [[Loralai]] and Maikhter regions of the British Indian province of [[Baluchistan (Chief Commissioner's Province)|Baluchistan]].<ref name="thebetterindia">{{cite web|url=https://www.thebetterindia.com/155394/hindu-pashtun-shilpi-batra-sheenkhalai-afghanistan/|title=India's Forgotten Links to Afghanistan|website=thebetterindia|date=8 August 2018}}</ref><ref name="Haider2018"/><ref name="hind">{{cite web|url=https://www.arabnews.pk/node/1697086/pakistan|title=70 years on, one Pashtun town still safeguards its old Hindu-Muslim brotherhood|date=30 June 2020|last=Khan|first=Naimat|work=Arab News|quote=The meat-eating Hindu Pashtuns are a little known tribe in India even today, with a distinct culture carried forward from Afghanistan and Balochistan which includes blue tattoos on the faces of the women, traditional Pashtun dancing and clothes heavily adorned with coins and embroidery.}}</ref> They are mainly members of the Pashtun [[Kakar]] tribe. Today, they continue to speak Pashto and celebrate Pashtun culture through the [[Attan]] dance.<ref name="thebetterindia"/><ref name="Haider2018"/>

There is also a minority of Pashtun Sikhs in [[Tirah]], [[Orakzai District|Orakzai]], [[Kurram District|Kurram]], [[Malakand District|Malakand]], and [[Swat District|Swat]]. Due to the ongoing [[insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]], some Pashtun Sikhs were [[internally displaced person|internally displaced]] from their ancestral villages to settle in cities like [[Peshawar]] and [[Nankana Sahib]].<ref name="Eusufzye2018">{{cite web|last1=Eusufzye|first1=Khan Shehram|title=Two identities, twice the pride: The Pashtun Sikhs of Nankana Saheb|url=https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/03/11/two-identities-twice-the-pride-the-pashtun-sikhs-of-nankana-saheb/amp/|work=[[Pakistan Today]]|access-date=31 May 2020|year=2018|quote=One can sense a diminutive yet charming cultural amalgamation in certain localities within the town with the settling of around 250 Pashtun Sikh families in the city.}}<br />Ruchi Kumar, [https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/12/decline-afghanistan-hindu-sikh-communities-161225082540860.html The decline of Afghanistan's Hindu and Sikh communities], Al Jazeera, 2017-01-01, "the culture among Afghan Hindus is predominantly Pashtun"<br />Beena Sarwar, [https://www.himalmag.com/finding-lost-heritage/ Finding lost heritage], Himal, 2016-08-03, "Singh also came across many non turban-wearing followers of Guru Nanak in Pakistan, all of Pashtun origin and from the Khyber area."<br />Sonia Dhami, [https://indicanews.com/2020/01/05/sikh-religious-heritage-my-visit-to-lehenda-punjab-part-two-by-sonia-dhami/ Sikh Religious Heritage – My visit to Lehenda Punjab], Indica News, 2020-01-05, "Nankana Sahib is also home to the largest Sikh Pashtun community, many of whom have migrated from the North West Frontier Provinces, renamed Khyber-Pakhtunwa."<br />Neha, [https://www.siasat.com/pak-misusing-durand-line-facilitate-terrorists-says-pashtun-1626604/ Pak misusing Durand Line to facilitate terrorists, says Pashtun], Siasat Daily, 2019-09-20, "The members of the Pashtun and Afghan Sikh community living in Europe and UK have gathered in Geneva"<br />Sabrina Toppa, [https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/despite-border-tensions-indian-sikhs-celebrate-festival-in-pakistan-25905 Despite border tensions, Indian Sikhs celebrate festival in Pakistan], TRT World, 2019-04-16, "Hasanabdal is home to around 200 Sikh families that have primarily moved from Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, including Pakistan's former tribal areas. The majority are Pashtun Sikhs who abandoned their homes and took refuge near Sikhism's historical sites."</ref><ref name="Sikhs">{{cite web|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1193942|title=Tirah Sikhs glad at getting status of tribal elders|date=12 July 2015|work=Dawn|location=Pakistan}}</ref><ref name="Sikh Pashtuns">{{cite news|url=http://www.newsline.com.pk/NewsOct2008/sprepoct.htm|date=October 2008|title=The Frontier Singhs|publisher=Newsline Publications (Pvt.) Ltd.|access-date=7 June 2009|quote=There is a small Sikh community in the largely ungoverned Orakzai tribal region, while a few live in Kurram's regional headquarters of Parachinar. They consider themselves "sons of the soil" – Pashtuns to be more specific – and are identified as such. "We are proud to be Pashtuns," says Sahib Singh. "Pashto is our tongue, our mother tongue – and we are proud of it."|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091022122735/http://www.newsline.com.pk/NewsOct2008/sprepoct.htm|archive-date=22 October 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Pashto literature and poetry ===
{{Main|Pashto literature and poetry}}
[[File:Mahmud Tarzi in 1920-cropped.jpg|thumb|left|[[Mahmud Tarzi]], son of [[Ghulam Muhammad Tarzi]], became the pioneer of [[Media of Afghanistan|Afghan journalism]] for publishing the first newspaper [[Seraj al Akhbar]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bl.uk/collections/afghan/chronology1881to1919.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070715124008/http://www.bl.uk/collections/afghan/chronology1881to1919.html|url-status=dead|title=Chronology: the reigns of Abdur Rahman Khan and Habibullah, 1881–1919|archive-date=15 July 2007|access-date=14 December 2021}}</ref>]]
The majority of Pashtuns use [[Pashto]] as their [[first language|native tongue]], belonging to the [[Iranian languages|Iranian]] [[language family]],<ref name="Iranica">[[Nicholas Sims-Williams]], {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110719014711/http://iranica.com/articles/eastern-iranian-languages Eastern Iranian languages]}}, in Encyclopædia Iranica, Online Edition, 2010. ''"The Modern Eastern Iranian languages are even more numerous and varied. Most of them are classified as North-Eastern: Ossetic; Yaghnobi (which derives from a dialect closely related to Sogdian); the Shughni group (Shughni, Roshani, Khufi, Bartangi, Roshorvi, Sarikoli), with which Yaz-1ghulami (Sokolova 1967) and the now extinct Wanji (J. Payne in Schmitt, p. 420) are closely linked; Ishkashmi, Sanglichi, and Zebaki; Wakhi; Munji and Yidgha; and Pashto."''</ref> and spoken by up to 60&nbsp;million people.<ref name="Penzl">{{Cite book|title=A Grammar of Pashto a Descriptive Study of the Dialect of Kandahar, Afghanistan|last1=Penzl|first1=Herbert|first2=Ismail|last2=Sloan|year=2009|publisher=Ishi Press International|isbn=978-0-923891-72-5|page=210|quote=''Estimates of the number of Pashto speakers range from 40&nbsp;million to 60&nbsp;million&nbsp;...''|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zvRePgAACAAJ}}</ref><ref name="Omniglot">{{cite web|url=http://www.omniglot.com/writing/pashto.htm|title=Pashto language, alphabet and pronunciation|publisher=Omniglot|access-date=18 January 2007}}</ref> It is written in the [[Pashto alphabet|Pashto-Arabic script]] and is divided into two main dialects, the southern "Pashto" and the northern "Pukhto". The language has ancient origins and bears similarities to [[extinct language]]s such as [[Avestan language|Avestan]] and [[Bactrian language|Bactrian]].<ref name="Britannica Avestan">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9356220|title=Avestan language|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=18 February 2007}}</ref> Its closest modern relatives may include [[Pamir languages]], such as [[Shughni language|Shughni]] and [[Wakhi language|Wakhi]], and [[Ossetic language|Ossetic]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia : An Encyclopedia|author=Minahan, James|location=Santa Barbara, California|isbn=978-1-61069-018-8|oclc=879947835|chapter=Pamiri|date=10 February 2014}}</ref> Pashto may have ancient legacy of borrowing vocabulary from neighbouring languages including such as [[Persian language|Persian]] and [[Vedic Sanskrit]]. Modern borrowings come primarily from the English language.<ref name="Pashto Dictionary">Awde, Nicholas and Asmatullah Sarwan. 2002. ''Pashto: Dictionary & Phrasebook'', New York: Hippocrene Books Inc. {{ISBN|0-7818-0972-X}}. Retrieved 18 February 2007.</ref>

The earliest describes Sheikh Mali's conquest of [[Swat (princely state)|Swat]].<ref name="UCLA">{{cite web|url=http://www.afghan-network.net/Ethnic-Groups/pashtu-history.html|title=History of Pushto language|publisher=UCLA Language Materials Project|access-date=18 January 2007}}</ref> [[Pir Roshan]] is believed to have written a number of Pashto books while fighting with the Mughals. Pashtun scholars such as [[Abdul Hai Habibi]] and others believe that the earliest Pashto work dates back to [[Amir Kror Suri]], and they use the writings found in [[Pata Khazana]] as proof. Amir Kror Suri, son of ''Amir Polad Suri'', was an 8th-century [[folk hero]] and king from the [[Ghor Province|Ghor]] region in Afghanistan.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Afghan Monarchs: Sher Shah Suri, Amanullah Khan, Habibullah Khan, Amir Kror Suri|year=2010|publisher=General Books|location=London|isbn=978-1-156-38425-1|page=26}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Afghanistan|volume=20–22|year=1967|publisher=Historical Society of Afghanistan|page=47|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zhrjAAAAMAAJ}}</ref> However, this is disputed by several European experts due to lack of strong evidence.

The advent of poetry helped transition Pashto to the modern period. Pashto literature gained significant prominence in the 20th century, with poetry by [[Ameer Hamza Shinwari]] who developed ''Pashto Ghazals''.<ref name="Shinwari Baba">{{cite web|url=http://www.khyber.org/people/literary/AmirHamzaShinwariBaba.shtml|title=Amir Hamza Shinwari Baba|work=Khyber.org|access-date=18 January 2007|archive-date=27 September 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927155949/http://www.khyber.org/people/literary/AmirHamzaShinwariBaba.shtml|url-status=usurped}}</ref> In 1919, during the expanding of mass media, [[Mahmud Tarzi]] published Seraj-al-Akhbar, which became the first Pashto newspaper in Afghanistan. In 1977, [[Khan Roshan Khan]] wrote ''Tawarikh-e-Hafiz Rehmatkhani'' which contains the family trees and Pashtun tribal names. Some notable poets include [[Malak Ahmad Khan Yusufzai]] [[Abdul Ghani Khan]], [[Afzal Khan Khattak]], [[Ahmad Shah Durrani]], [[Gaju Khan]] [[Kalu Khan Yousafzai]] [[Ajmal Khattak]], [[Ghulam Muhammad Tarzi]], [[Hamza Shinwari]], [[Hanif Baktash]], [[Khushal Khan Khattak]], [[Nazo Tokhi]], [[Pareshan Khattak]], [[Rahman Baba]], [[Shuja Shah Durrani]], and [[Timur Shah Durrani]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.afghan-web.com/culture/poetry/cpoets.html|title=Classical Dari and Pashto Poets|publisher=Afghanistan Online|access-date=20 April 2011|archive-date=12 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140412113451/http://www.afghan-web.com/culture/poetry/cpoets.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Rahman Baba">{{cite web|url=http://www.pashto.org/content/view/12/26/|title=Rahman Baba: Poet of the Pashtuns|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070417172354/http://www.pashto.org/content/view/12/26/|archive-date=17 April 2007|publisher=Pashto.org|access-date=18 January 2007}}</ref>

=== Media and arts ===
{{Further|Pashto media|Pashto music|Pashto cinema}}
[[Pashto media]] has expanded in the last decade, with a number of [[List of Pashto-language television channels|Pashto TV channels]] becoming available. Two of the popular ones are the Pakistan-based [[AVT Khyber]] and Pashto One. Pashtuns around the world, particularly those in Arab countries, watch these for entertainment purposes and to get latest news about their native areas.<ref name="ATVKhyber">{{cite web|url=http://www.avtkhyber.tv/website/about.htm|title=Link|work=avtkhyber.tv|publisher=[[AVT Khyber]]|access-date=15 January 2008|archive-date=5 January 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080105030355/http://www.avtkhyber.tv/website/about.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Others are Afghanistan-based [[Shamshad TV]], [[Radio Television Afghanistan]], [[TOLOnews]] and [[Lemar TV]], which has a special children's show called ''[[Baghch-e-Simsim]]''. International news sources that provide Pashto programs include [[BBC Pashto]] and [[Voice of America#Languages|Voice of America]].

Producers based in [[Peshawar]] have created [[List of Pashto-language films|Pashto-language films]] since the 1970s.

Pashtun performers remain avid participants in various physical forms of expression including dance, sword fighting, and other physical feats. Perhaps the most common form of artistic expression can be seen in the various forms of Pashtun dances. One of the most prominent dances is ''[[Attan]]'', which has ancient roots. A rigorous exercise, Attan is performed as musicians play various native instruments including the ''[[dhol]]'' (drums), ''[[tabla]]s'' (percussions), ''[[Rubab (instrument)|rubab]]'' (a [[bow (music)|bowed]] [[string instrument]]), and ''toola'' (wooden flute). With a rapid circular motion, dancers perform until no one is left dancing, similar to [[Sufism|Sufi]] [[Mevlevi|whirling dervishes]]. Numerous other dances are affiliated with various tribes notably from Pakistan including the ''Khattak Wal Atanrh'' (eponymously named after the [[Khattak]] tribe), ''Mahsood Wal Atanrh'' (which, in modern times, involves the juggling of loaded rifles), and ''Waziro Atanrh'' among others. A sub-type of the ''Khattak Wal Atanrh'' known as the ''Braghoni'' involves the use of up to three swords and requires great skill. Young women and girls often entertain at weddings with the ''Tumbal'' ([[Dayereh]]) which is an instrument.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter=Ghaval|title=New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments|edition=2nd|last=McCollum|first=Jonathan|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2014|isbn=978-0-19-974339-1}}</ref>

=== Sports ===
{{Further|Sport in Pakistan|Sport in Afghanistan}}
[[File:Shahid Afridi 2010-cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Shahid Afridi]], former captain of the [[Pakistan national cricket team]]]]
Both the [[Pakistan national cricket team]] and the [[Afghanistan national cricket team]] have Pashtun players.<ref name="EWC">{{Cite book|title=The Encyclopedia of World Cricket|first=Roy|last=Morgan|location=Cheltenham|publisher=SportsBooks|year=2007|page=15|isbn=978-1-89980-751-2}}</ref> One of the most popular sports among Pashtuns is [[cricket]], which was introduced to South Asia during the early 18th century with the arrival of the British. Many Pashtuns have become prominent international [[cricket]]ers, including [[Imran Khan]], [[Shahid Afridi]], [[Majid Khan (cricketer, born 1946)|Majid Khan]], [[Misbah-ul-Haq]], [[Younis Khan]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Younis Khan Profile|url=https://www.espncricinfo.com/pakistan/content/player/43652.html|publisher=ESPNcricinfo}}</ref> [[Umar Gul]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Umar Gul Profile|url=https://www.cricbuzz.com/profiles/504/umar-gul#!#profile|website=CricBuzz}}</ref> [[Junaid Khan (cricketer)|Junaid Khan]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Fakhar Zaman, Junaid Khan reveal their Pathan aggression|url=https://www.brecorder.com/2017/12/02/384328/fakhar-zaman-junaid-khan-reveal-their-pathan-aggression/|website=Business Recorder|date=2 December 2017}}</ref> [[Fakhar Zaman (cricketer)|Fakhar Zaman]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Pakistan's Fakhar Zaman aims to win World Cup and break into Test team|url=https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/12343/11479807/pakistans-fakhar-zaman-aims-to-win-world-cup-and-break-into-test-team|publisher=Sky Sports}}</ref> [[Mohammad Rizwan (cricketer)|Mohammad Rizwan]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Mohammad Rizwan profile|url=https://www.espncricinfo.com/pakistan/content/player/323389.html|publisher=ESPNcricinfo}}</ref> [[Usman Shinwari]], [[Naseem Shah (cricketer)|Naseem Shah]], [[Shaheen Afridi]], [[Iftikhar Ahmed (cricketer)|Iftikhar Ahmed]], [[Mohammad Wasim (cricketer, born 2001)|Mohammad Wasim]] and [[Yasir Shah]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Yasir Shah ready to be the difference for Pakistan over England as world's best wrist-spinner prepares for his first Test outside Asia|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2016/07/11/yasir-shah-ready-to-be-the-difference-for-pakistan-over-england/|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2016/07/11/yasir-shah-ready-to-be-the-difference-for-pakistan-over-england/|archive-date=11 January 2022|url-access=subscription|url-status=live|website=The Telegraph|date=11 July 2016|last1=Berry|first1=Scyld}}{{cbignore}}{{subscription required}}</ref> Australian cricketer [[Fawad Ahmed]] is of Pakistani Pashtun origin who has played for the Australian national team.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/578939/hottie-of-the-week-fawad-ahmed/|title=Hottie of the week: Fawad Ahmed|work=The Express Tribune|date=23 July 2013|access-date=1 September 2013}}</ref>

[[Makha]] is a traditional archery sport in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, played with a long arrow (''gheshai'') having a saucer shaped metallic plate at its distal end, and a long bow.<ref>{{cite web|title='Mukha' lovers throng Topi contest|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/729598/mukha-lovers-throng-topi-contest|website=Dawn|date=26 June 2012}}</ref> In Afghanistan, some Pashtuns still participate in the ancient sport of [[buzkashi]] in which horse riders attempt to place a goat or calf carcass in a goal circle.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sports and Games of Pashtoons|url=http://www.khyber.org/culture/a/Sports_and_Games_of_Pashtoons.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170419174423/http://www.khyber.org/culture/a/Sports_and_Games_of_Pashtoons.shtml|url-status=usurped|archive-date=19 April 2017|website=Khyber.org}}</ref><ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/columnists/dom-joly/dom-joly-know-your-kokpar-from-your-kyz-kuu-1917860.html "Dom Joly: Know your Kokpar from your Kyz-Kuu"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828033105/http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/columnists/dom-joly/dom-joly-know-your-kokpar-from-your-kyz-kuu-1917860.html |date=28 August 2017}}, The Independent: Columnists</ref><ref>Dean, Ruth and Melissa Thomson, ''Making the Good Earth Better: The Heritage of Kurtz Bros., Inc.'' pp. 17–18</ref>

=== Women ===
Pashtun women are known to be modest and honourable because of their modest dressing.<ref>Ahmed, A. (2010). Women's Agency in Muslim Society. The SAGE Handbook of Islamic Studies, 22, 213</ref><ref>Agarwal, B. (1998). A field of one's own: Gender and land rights in South Asia. New York: Cambridge University Press.</ref> The lives of Pashtun women vary from those who reside in the ultra-conservative rural areas to those found in urban centres.<ref name="Women's Rights">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/features/ihavearightto/four_b/report-azami.shtml|title=I have a right to|publisher=BBC World Service|date=16 January 2006|access-date=10 October 2006}}</ref> At the village level, the female village leader is called "qaryadar". Her duties may include witnessing women's ceremonies, mobilizing women to practice religious festivals, preparing the female dead for burial, and performing services for deceased women. She also arranges marriages for her own family and arbitrates conflicts for men and women.<ref name="Harvard">{{cite web|url=http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/ilsp/research/kakar.pdf|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/ilsp/research/kakar.pdf|archive-date=9 October 2022|url-status=live|title=Tribal Law of Pashtunwali and Women's Legislative Authority|work=law.harvard.edu|publisher=[[Harvard University]]}}</ref> Though many Pashtun women remain tribal and illiterate, some have completed universities and joined the regular employment world.<ref name="Women's Rights" />

[[File:Shinzō Abe and Malala Yousafzai (1) Cropped.jpg|175px|thumb|[[Malala Yousafzai]], Pakistani activist for female education and the 2014 [[Nobel Peace Prize]] laureate]]
The decades of war and the rise of the Taliban [[Taliban treatment of women|caused considerable hardship]] among Pashtun women, as many of their rights have been curtailed by a rigid interpretation of [[Sharia|Islamic law]]. The difficult lives of Afghan female refugees gained considerable notoriety with the iconic image ''[[Afghan Girl]]'' (Sharbat Gula) depicted on the June 1985 cover of ''[[National Geographic Magazine|National Geographic]]'' magazine.<ref name="Sharbat Gula">{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/100best/storyA_story.html|title=Along Afghanistan's War-torn Frontier|work=National Geographic|date=June 1985|access-date=10 October 2006|archive-date=9 November 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061109082729/http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/100best/storyA_story.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Modern social reform for Pashtun women began in the early 20th century, when Queen [[Soraya Tarzi]] of Afghanistan made rapid reforms to improve women's lives and their position in the family. She was the only woman to appear on the list of rulers in Afghanistan. Credited with having been one of the first and most powerful Afghan and Muslim female activists. Her advocacy of social reforms for women led to a protest and contributed to the ultimate demise of [[Amanullah Khan|King Amanullah]]'s reign in 1929.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iiav.nl/ezines/web/JournalofInternationalWomensStudies/2003/Vol4Nr3May/Afghanistan.pdf|title=A History of Women in Afghanistan: Lessons Learnt for the Future|work=Huma Ahmed-Ghosh|publisher=Aletta, Institute for Women's History|date=May 2003|access-date=2 December 2010|archive-date=18 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110518125237/http://www.iiav.nl/ezines/web/JournalofInternationalWomensStudies/2003/Vol4Nr3May/Afghanistan.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Civil rights]] remained an important issue during the 1970s, as feminist leader [[Meena Keshwar Kamal]] campaigned for [[women's rights in Afghanistan|women's rights]] and founded the [[Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan]] (RAWA) in the 1977.<ref name="RAWA">{{cite web|url=http://www.rawa.org/waves.htm|title=Making Waves: Interview with RAWA|work=RAWA.org|date=16 January 2006|access-date=10 October 2006}}</ref>

Pashtun women these days vary from the traditional housewives who live in seclusion to urban workers, some of whom seek or have attained parity with men.<ref name="Women's Rights" /> But due to numerous social hurdles, the literacy rate remains considerably lower for them than for males.<ref name="Afghan women literacy">{{cite news|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/laura-bush-meets-afghan-women/|title=Laura Bush Meets Afghan Women|publisher=CBS News|date=16 January 2006|access-date=10 October 2006|archive-date=28 April 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060428010424/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/29/world/main683742.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> Abuse against women is present and increasingly being challenged by women's rights organizations which find themselves struggling with conservative religious groups as well as government officials in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. According to a 1992 book, "a powerful ethic of forbearance severely limits the ability of traditional Pashtun women to mitigate the suffering they acknowledge in their lives."<ref name="Paxtun Women">{{cite book|last=Grima|first=Benedicte|year=1992|title=Performance of Emotion Among Paxtun Women|publisher=[[University of Texas Press]]|isbn=0-292-72756-9}}</ref>

Further challenging the status quo, [[Vida Samadzai]] was selected as Miss Afghanistan in 2003, a feat that was received with a mixture of support from those who back the individual rights of women and those who view such displays as anti-traditionalist and un-Islamic. Some have attained political office in Afghanistan and Pakistan.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4434782.stm|title=Warlords and women in uneasy mix|first=Andrew|last=North|publisher=BBC News|date=14 November 2005|access-date=10 October 2006}}</ref> A number of Pashtun women are found as TV hosts, journalists and actors.<ref name=Khyber /> In 1942, [[Madhubala]] (Mumtaz Jehan), the [[Marilyn Monroe]] of India, entered the [[Bollywood]] film industry.<ref name="Devasher2022">{{cite book|last1=Devasher|first1=Tilak|title=The Pashtuns: A Contested History|date=15 September 2022|publisher=Harper Collins|isbn=978-93-94407-64-0|language=en|quote=The Pashtuns have made a vital contribution in diverse spheres of life: all rulers of Afghanistan since 1747, except for a nine-month interlude in 1929 and between 1992 and 1996, have been Pashtuns. In Pakistan, Ayub Khan, a Tarin Pashtun, as also Gen. Yahya Khan and Ghulam Ishaq Khan, became presidents; in India, Zakir Hussain, an Afridi Pashtun, became president. Muhammed Yusuf Khan (Dilip Kumar) and Mumtaz Jahan (Madhubala) were great Bollywood actors; Mansoor Ali Khan (Tiger Pataudi) led the Indian cricket team;}}</ref> Bollywood blockbusters of the 1970s and 1980s starred [[Parveen Babi]], who hailed from the lineage of Gujarat's historical Pathan community: the royal [[Babi Dynasty]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Khanna|first1=Anshu|title=Remembering the Brightest of the Babis|url=https://thedailyguardian.com/remembering-the-brightest-of-the-babis/|publisher=Daily Guardian|date=22 January 2021}}</ref> Other Indian actresses and models, such as [[Zarine Khan]], continue to work in the industry.<ref name="pathan">{{cite news|last=Dalal|first=Mangal|title=When men were men|url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/when-men-were-men/564691/0|newspaper=The Indian Express|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100211074052/https://indianexpress.com/news/when-men-were-men/564691/0|archive-date=11 February 2010|access-date=23 August 2013|quote="She's a Pathan girl who speaks Hindi and Urdu well and was spectacular in the screen test. It was pure luck."|date=8 January 2010}}</ref> During the 1980s many Pashtun women served in the ranks of the [[Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghan communist regime's Military]]. [[Khatol Mohammadzai]] served paratrooper during the [[Afghan Civil War (1989–1992)|Afghan Civil War]] and was later promoted to [[brigadier general]] in the [[Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghan Army]].<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Yousafzai|first=Sami|date=28 November 2011|title=Afghanistan: The Trials of Woman Paratrooper Khatool Mohammadzai|url=http://www.newsweek.com/afghanistan-trials-woman-paratrooper-khatool-mohammadzai-66285|magazine=Newsweek|access-date=22 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131122045549/http://www.newsweek.com/afghanistan-trials-woman-paratrooper-khatool-mohammadzai-66285|archive-date=22 November 2013}}</ref> [[Nigar Johar]] is a [[three-star rank|three-star general]] in the Pakistan Army, another Pashtun female became a fighter [[Aviator|pilot]] in the [[Pakistan Air Force]].<ref name="Female Pilots">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4533367.stm|title=Pakistan's first women fighter pilots|first=Zaffar|last=Abbas|publisher=BBC News|date=11 May 2005|access-date=10 October 2006}}</ref> 
Pashtun women often have their legal rights curtailed in favour of their husbands or male relatives. For example, though women are officially [[women's suffrage|allowed to vote]] in Pakistan, some have been kept away from [[ballot box]]es by males.<ref name="BBC Women">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/features/ihavearightto/four_b/report-azami.shtml|title=I have a right to – Muhammad Dawood Azami: Pashto|publisher=BBC World Service|access-date=10 October 2006}}</ref>

==Notable people==
{{Main|List of Pashtuns}}

== Explanatory notes ==
{{notelist}}
* Note: population statistics for Pashtuns (including those without a notation) in foreign countries were derived from various census counts, the UN, the CIA's ''[[The World Factbook]]'' and ''[[Ethnologue]]''.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
{{Commons|Pashtuns}}
{{EB1911 poster|Pathan}}
{{refbegin}}
* Ahmad, Aisha and Boase, Roger. 2003. "Pashtun Tales from the Pakistan-Afghan Frontier: From the Pakistan-Afghan Frontier." Saqi Books (1 March 2003). {{ISBN|0-86356-438-0}}.
* Ahmad, Jamil. 2012. "The Wandering Falcon." Riverhead Trade. {{ISBN|978-1-59448-616-6}}. A loosely connected collection of short stories focused on life in the Pashtun tribal regions.
* [[Akbar S. Ahmed|Ahmed, Akbar S]]. 1976. "Millennium and Charisma among Pathans: A Critical Essay in Social Anthropology." London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
* Ahmed, Akbar S. 1980. "Pukhtun economy and society." London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
* Banuazizi, Ali and [[Myron Weiner]] (eds.). 1994. "The Politics of Social Transformation in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East)." Syracuse University Press. {{ISBN|0-8156-2608-8}}.
* Banuazizi, Ali and Myron Weiner (eds.). 1988. "The State, Religion, and Ethnic Politics: Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East)." Syracuse University Press. {{ISBN|0-8156-2448-4}}.
* {{cite web|last=Barth|first=Frederik|title=Pathan Identity and its Maintenance|url=http://newdoc.nccu.edu.tw/teasyllabus/113721265905/Barth%20Pathan%20Identity.pdf|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://newdoc.nccu.edu.tw/teasyllabus/113721265905/Barth%20Pathan%20Identity.pdf|archive-date=9 October 2022|url-status=live|publisher=National Chengchi University|access-date=17 August 2021|date=n.d.}}
* [[Olaf Caroe|Caroe, Olaf]]. 1984. ''The Pathans: 500&nbsp;B.C.-A.D. 1957'' (Oxford in Asia Historical Reprints). Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-577221-0}}.
* [[Ahmad Hasan Dani|Dani, Ahmad Hasan]]. 1985. "Peshawar: Historic city of the Frontier." Sang-e-Meel Publications (1995). {{ISBN|969-35-0554-9}}.
* {{cite book|last1=Docherty|first1=Paddy|title=The Khyber Pass: A History of Empire and Invasion|date=2008|publisher=Union Square Press|isbn=978-1-4027-5696-2}}
* [[Louis Dupree (professor)|Dupree, Louis]]. 1997. "Afghanistan." Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-577634-8}}.
* [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006C1P4M/ Elphinstone, Mountstuart. 1815. "An account of the Kingdom of Caubul and its dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India: comprising a view of the Afghaun nation." Akadem. Druck- u. Verlagsanst (1969).] [https://books.google.com/books?id=RSEPAAAAYAAJ&q=An+account+of+the+Kingdom+of+Caubul+and+its+dependencies online version].
* {{cite book|title=Afghanistan's Endless War:State Failure, Regional Politics, and the Rise of the Taliban|author=Goodson, Larry P.|publisher=University of Washington Press|year=2001|isbn=978-0-295-98111-6}}
* [[Abdul Hai Habibi|Habibi, Abdul Hai]]. 2003. "Afghanistan: An Abridged History." Fenestra Books. {{ISBN|1-58736-169-8}}.
* [[Hopkirk, Peter]]. 1984. "[[The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia]]" Kodansha Globe; Reprint edition. {{ISBN|1-56836-022-3}}.
* [[James W. Spain|Spain, James W.]] (1962; 2nd edition 1972). "The Way of the Pathans." Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-636099-7}}.
* Wardak, Ali [http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN017434.pdf "Jirga – A Traditional Mechanism of Conflict Resolution in Afghanistan"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061007192558/http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN017434.pdf |date=7 October 2006}}, 2003, online at [[UNPAN]] (the United Nations Online Network in Public Administration and Finance).
{{refend}}

{{Ethnic groups in Afghanistan}}
{{Ethnic groups in Pakistan}}
{{Iranian peoples}}
{{Pashtun nationalism}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pashtun People}}
[[Category:Social groups of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]]
[[Category:Social groups of Balochistan, Pakistan]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Pakistan]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Balochistan]]
[[Category:Nomads]]
[[Category:Iranian nomads]]
[[Category:Modern nomads]]
[[Category:Pastoralists]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Afghanistan]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in India]]
[[Category:Iranian ethnic groups]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups divided by international borders]]
[[Category:Pashtun people]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in South Asia]]