Signs from Allah: History, Science and Faith in Islam
170. Afghanistan, Land of Valor, Land of Sorrow
By Professor Nazeer Ahmed
Concord, CA
If there was an angel sitting on top the Hindu Kush mountains looking down on Afghanistan, he would shed a tear for each of the last three thousand years and each tear would be an ocean large enough to cause flooding in both the Kabul River and the Amu Darya. Afghanistan is a land of sorrow, invaded time and again over the centuries, ravaged by mighty conquerors and ruthless destroyers. Necessity has made the people of the land valiant warriors, resisting the writ of foreigners. Today, they stand at a point in history when the destructive force of technological warfare unleashed by nations thousands of miles away threatens to overwhelm them and drag Pakistan into the consequent whirlpool.
The history of Afghanistan is dictated by its geography. It sits on a mountainous plateau at the intersection of axes connecting India, Central Asia, Mesopotamia and China. Ancient caravans plying their goods between these great centers of civilization passed through its valleys. Mighty conquerors, in their grandiose schemes to extend their sway over other lands, were forced to scale its mountains and negotiate its narrow passes. Sitting as it does at the crossroads of trade between Central and South Asia, it was fought over time and again by invading armies who were almost always resisted and ultimately expelled by the Afghans.
The term “Afghan” has been used for at least a thousand years in Farsi. Al Baruni mentions it in his book Tareek e Hind (1031 CE). The celebrated world traveler Ibn Batuta who passed through Afghanistan circa 1332 CE uses the term Afghan in his Rehla to refer to the people around Kabul. Although different explanations are offered to explain the term, the word probably has its origin in “fughan” meaning echo, or wailing. It perhaps connotes the multiple echoes that resound from the valleys that are surrounded by mountains. The song of a farmer, the ballad of a mendicant or the adhan of a muezzin echoes many times over and comes back to you in degrees of amplification and subsidence. In modern times the term “fughan” most aptly describes the wailing of its women and children caught in the gristmill of invasions from Russia and the United States, and its unending and brutal civil wars. In any case, the term Afghan is a matter of identity. The Pashtun speaking people refer to themselves as Afghan. Today, it connotes a nationality within the broadly agreed upon boundaries of the modern nation of Afghanistan.
The strategic location of Afghanistan, its isolation and its checkered and turbulent history have subjected its people to multiple tensions. The mountainous and harsh terrain has fostered a culture where the tribe and family provide cohesion and support for survival. Over the centuries, invading armies have intermingled with the local populations and have left their traces on the ethnic makeup of different tribes who are often at loggerheads with each other for turf and booty. The constant threat of invasion has made the people tough and resilient who value valor and courage and has molded the men and women of Hindu Kush into warriors who value valor and courage. Sandwiched between mighty empires, Afghanistan has been squeezed from all sides and perforce must accommodate or fight off the foreign pressures. The story of Afghanistan is one of continuous resistance to foreigners. Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Timurlane, Safavid Iran, Mogul India, Czarist Russia, the British Empire, the Soviet Union and now the United States all had a taste of Afghan resistance. In modern times, its strategic location has increased as it sits astride potential oil and gas pipelines from the Asian heartland to the ports of the Arabian Sea. The mad rush for energy resources puts Afghanistan squarely in the midst of the strategic competition between the United States and China.
Afghanistan has also been an ideational caldron. Traditional Islam flourished for a thousand years. More recently, fundamentalism and extremism, part home grown, part imported from Saudi Arabia have taken hold. Hence, a modern Afghan is torn apart between tribalism, traditional Islam, fundamentalism, modernism, ethnic discord and great power rivalry. The tensions induced by these multiple pulls have made it impossible for these valiant people to seek their own soul and renew themselves from within.
The invasions and the ideas have left their traces on the land. The present boundaries of Afghanistan were carved out in the 19 th century between the British and Soviet empires who were competing for political and economic advantage in Central Asia. The modern history of Afghanistan is a search for a transcendental idea which supersedes the ethnical, linguistic and national pulls. The task would be difficult under any circumstances. But the interference of the neighboring countries and of the global powers has made the task well neigh impossible. Monarchy, communism and Islam have been tried as the transcendent ideas to cement together a modern nation, but each has proven to be inadequate in a matrix largely dominated by feudalism and tribalism.
Afghanistan was one of the earliest lands to attract human settlement and civilized habitation. Between 2000 CE and 3000 CE the Aryans, migrating out of Central Asia, settled the land. The kingdom of Aryana (land of Aryans) straddled the plateau between the Indus and Amu Darya and included Afghanistan, Tadzhikistan, eastern Iran and western Pakistan. The Indus Valley civilization thrived between the lower Indus delta and the Hindu Kush Mountains between 2500 CE and 1900 CE. The Rig Veda, one of the Hindu classics, was composed in Afghanistan (2500-1500 BC). Some scholars maintain that the Sanskrit language may have been born in this region.
In the 7 th 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 6 th 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 7 th 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 10 th century that Islam spread in the mountains of Hindu Kush through Muslim migrations from Central Asia.
In the 10 th 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 author is Director, World Organization for Resource Development and Education, Washington, DC; Director, American Institute of Islamic History and Culture, CA; Member, State Knowledge Commission, Bangalore; and Chairman, Delixus Group)
