Afghanistan: Land of Valor, Land of Sorrow- Part 2
By Professor Nazeer Ahmed
CA
In the seventh century BC, Darius of Persia extended his empire into Afghanistan. Cyrus the Great consolidated the empire and Persian influence grew. Zoroastrianism and Aramaic were introduced as was centralized administration.
The Persian Empire was cosmopolitan and included Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, Central Asians and Indians. The extent of the empire facilitated the flow of ideas and great scholars such as Panini graced the period.
Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire (332 BC). Despite heavy resistance which lasted more than three years, Afghanistan and the eastern provinces of Persia fell to the advancing Greeks. Alexander’s armies reached the Indus and then turned south to march back to their homeland through the Makran desert. After the death of Alexander (323 BC), his extensive empire split and Kabul and Peshawar were absorbed into the empire of Seleucus. The Greeks left their mark on the language, art and sculpture of the land. Intermarriages were common and some of the tribes in the region trace their lineage to Alexander.
As the Greek empire disintegrated, eastern Afghanistan and modern day Pakistan were incorporated into the Maurya Empire based in north India. The third Mauryan emperor, Ashoka converted to Buddhism circa 250 BC after he was revolted by the bloodshed in the battle of Kalinga. He sent Buddhist emissaries to Sri Lanka, Thailand, Greece and Egypt. Buddhism spread throughout central Asia, Tibet, Western China, India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.
In the first century AD the Kushan Empire incorporated Afghanistan and Northern India in its fold. At its height the empire included Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Sinkiang, Eastern Iran, Afghanistan and northern India. It produced a synthesis of Buddhist and Greek culture, art and sculpture. King Kanishka, circa 130 AD, was its greatest king. He was a devout Buddhist. He is known to have convened a World Conference of Buddhists in Kashmir and to have erected a monumental tower, 700 feet tall, in Peshawar.
In the third century, the Kushan Empire disintegrated. Invasions from the north followed. The white Huns, descending from Central Asia overran all of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Sinkiang, Kashmir and the Punjab. In the sixth century, they were defeated by the Persians and Afghanistan once again became a province of the Persian Empire. It was during this period, even as the Buddhist influence in Central Asia waned that the giant statues of Buddha, revered by Buddhists all over the world, were carved out in Bamyan and the surrounding hills.
In the seventh century, Arab armies burst out of the Arabian Desert and rapidly overran the Persian Empire which included a major portion of Afghanistan. Kabul fell in the year 674 CE. The Arabs did not force their religion on the local population and it was not until the tenth century that Islam spread in the mountains of Hindu Kush through Muslim migrations from Central Asia.
In the tenth century, the Turkic Ghaznavis captured Afghanistan and made Ghazna their capital. Mahmud Ghaznavi (d 1030) was the most powerful of the Ghanavid sultans. He ruled over a kingdom stretching from Amu Darya in Uzbekistan to Gujarat in India, from Lahore in Pakistan to Tabriz in Iran. He is best known for his many raids into India which brought him extensive riches but which also left a bitter legacy of ill will among the Hindus of India. Mahmud was a patron of literature, art and architecture. He embellished his capital with many fine buildings. The celebrated historian Al Baruni graced his court. Some Afghans consider the Ghaznavid period to be their historical golden age.
The Ghaznavid Empire weakened after the death of Mahmud and was overrun by nomadic Turks from beyond the Amu Darya. One of these tribes, the Ghorids captured Ghazna and went on to conquer northern India (1192 CE) and paved the way for successive Muslim dynasties who ruled for more than five hundred years.
In 1219, Genghis Khan descended upon Central Asia and ravaged Khorasan, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. Great cities were razed, libraries burned, scholars impaled and dams destroyed turning fertile valleys into deserts. The destruction was so complete that many of the ravaged lands never recovered from the destruction. The Afghans resisted the Mongols and paid a heavy price for it. In one of the battles near Bamyan, the Mongols suffered a reversal and a grandson of Genghis Khan was killed. In retribution, Genghis razed Bamyan and the surrounding areas to the ground, killed the men and enslaved the women and children. Even the Mongol historians referred to Bamyan as the city of sorrow. Genghis advanced up to the Indus River, and then turned around in 1223 CE leaving behind a trail of death and destruction in vast swaths of Central Asia.
The Ghorids briefly reclaimed Afghanistan in the following century but the country was almost continuously fought over by the Uzbeks, Turkomans, Persians and the Afghans. Timurlane advanced through Kabul (1397 CE) on his way to Delhi destroying it once again. In the year 1509 CE, Babur, an Uzbek prince and a great grandson of Timur, captured Kabul and briefly made it his capital (1509-1526). In 1526, he defeated the Lodhis of Delhi and founded the Mogul dynasty of India. For the next two hundred years, Kabul and the Pashtu-speaking regions of Afghanistan were a part of the Mogul empire. The northern areas were controlled by the Uzbeks while Kandahar in the South was wrested from the Moguls by the Safavids of Persia (1622CE). Afghan uprisings against the foreign dynasties continued but it was not until 1708 under Mir Wais that the Afghans were finally successful in retaking Kandahar from the Safavids and establishing their own rule. Tto be continued)
