Theories of Pashtun origin#Israelite theory

Most modern scholars believe that the Pashtuns do not have a common and singular origin. 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. Likely the foundational population were of eastern Iranian origin and later mixed with various other groups which they came into contact with in the region over time.{{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).}}{{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.}}

The Cambridge History of Iran: Volume 2 also states the Bactrian tribes to be ancestors of Pashtuns.{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BBbyr932QdYC&dq=bactrians+and+various+small+tribes&pg=PA48 |title=The Cambridge History of Iran |publisher=Cambridge University |year=2008 |isbn=9781139054935 |edition=Vol 2 |publication-date=2008 |pages=48 |language=English}}

In The Cambridge History of Iran Volume 3, Issue 2 the tribe Parsii are possibly Pashtuns.{{Cite book |last=Yarshater |first=Ehsan |title=The Cambridge History of Iran |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1968 |edition=Volume 3, Issue 2 |pages=771 |language=English}}

The Parsii were a nomadic tribe, in the district of Paropamisadae.

Accrording to Yu. V. Gankovsky the Tocharians took part in there ethnogenesis of Pashtuns.{{Cite book |last=Pstrusinska |first=Jadwiga |title=Secret Languages of Afghanistan and Their Speakers |date=18 July 2014 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=9781443864411 |pages=49}}

André Wink, states that Ghilji or Ghilzai are descended from the Khalaj who were a Turkicized group and remnants of early Indo-European nomads such as Kushans, Hephthalites and Sakas who later merged with the Afghans.{{Cite book |last=Wink |first=André |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uPXvDwAAQBAJ&q=The+Making+of+the+Indo-Islamic+World%0A%0AC.700-1800+CE+archive+org |title=The Making of the Indo-Islamic World C.700-1800 CE |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2020 |isbn=9781108417747 |pages=80 |language=English}}

File:Afghanistan region during 500 BC.jpg. ]]

There is mention of the tribe called Pakthās who were one of the Vedic tribes that fought against Sudas in the Dasarajna the Battle of the Ten Kings (dāśarājñá), a battle alluded to in Mandala 7 of the Rigveda (RV 7.18.7).p. 2 "Some Aspects of Ancient Indian Culture" By D. R. Bhandarkar dated between c. 1500 and 1200 BCE. The Pakthās are mentioned:{{Cite web|title=Rig Veda: Rig-Veda, Book 7: HYMN XVIII. Indra.|url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07018.htm|website=www.sacred-texts.com}}

{{Blockquote|Together came the Pakthas (पक्था), 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:{{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|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}Macdonell, A.A. and Keith, A.B. 1912. The Vedic Index of Names and Subjects.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]

{{Blockquote|Other Indians dwell near the town of Caspatyrus [Κασπάτυρος] and the Pactyic [Πακτυϊκή] 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 Arachosia Satrapy as early as the 1st millennium BCE.{{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 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205055843/http://www.piney.com/Heredotus7.html |archive-date=5 February 2012 |access-date=21 September 2012 |publisher=Piney.com}} Herodotus also mentions a tribe of known as Aparytai (Ἀπαρύται).{{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}} Thomas Holdich has linked them with the Afridi tribe:{{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=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}{{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}}{{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}}

{{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}}

File:Saka_warrior_Termez_Achaeological_Museum.jpg

Pashto is generally classified as an Eastern Iranian language.{{cite web |title=Encolypedia Iranica, AFGHANISTAN vi. Paṣ̌tō |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/afghanistan-vi-pasto |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}}{{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"}}{{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}} It is one of the closest languages to Bactrian along with Munji and Yidgha, with Munji being the closest existing language to the extinct Bactrian,Henning (1960), p. 47. Bactrian thus "occupies an intermediary position between Pashto and Yidgha-Munji on the one hand, Sogdian, Choresmian, and Parthian on the other: it is thus in its natural and rightful place in Bactria".{{Cite book |last=Alikuzai |first=Hamid Wahed |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-dP1AQAAQBAJ&dq=origin+of+pashto+from+bactrian+language&pg=PA144 |title=A Concise History of Afghanistan in 25 Volumes: Volume 14 |date=10 October 2013 |publisher=Trafford Publishing |isbn=978-1490714417 |pages=144 |language=en |quote=The Pashto language shows affinities to Bactrian, as both languages are believed to be of Middle Afghanistan origin.}}{{Cite book |last=Scham |first=Sandra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o9orEQAAQBAJ&dq=origin+of+pashto+from+bactrian+language&pg=PT101 |title=An Archaeology of Persecuted Peoples: Religion and Hate in the Mountains of Asia |date=29 November 2024 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781040194096 |pages=101 |language=en |quote=but Pashto is also derived from Iranian languages and shares more features with the extinct Bactrian language.}}{{Cite book |last=Kakar |first=Hasan Kawun |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ItaBBAAAQBAJ&dq=georg+morgenstierne+on+pashto+and+bactrian+language&pg=PT13 |title=Government and Society in Afghanistan: The Reign of Amir 'Abd Al-Rahman Khan |date=27 August 2014 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0292729001 |pages=13 |language=en |quote=According to Georg Morgenstierne, Pashto, the language of the Pashtuns, originally belonged to the northeastern branch of the Aryani languages, represented today by the Pamir dialects (Shughni, Munji, and so forth), and has some features that point to a special relation to the ancient Bactrian languages of the Surkh Kotal inscription.}}{{cite journal |last1=Waghmar |first1=Burzine |last2=Frye |first2=Richard N. |date=2001 |title=Bactrian History and Language: An Overview |journal=Journal of the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute |volume=64 |pages=40–48}} sharing features with Munji but it also shares features with the Sogdian language, as well as Khwarezmian, Shughni, Sanglechi, and Khotanese Saka.{{cite web |title=Encolypedia Iranica, AFGHANISTAN vi. Paṣ̌tō |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/afghanistan-vi-pasto |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)."}}

This is considered a different rendering of Ptolemy's Parsioi (Πάρσιοι).{{cite book |last1=Humbach |first1=Helmut |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 |last2=Faiss |first2=Klaus |date=2012 |publisher=Reichert Verlag |isbn=978-3-89500-887-0 |pages=21}} [http://www.inalco.fr/enseignant-chercheur/johnny-cheung Johnny Cheung],{{cite book |last1=Morano |first1=Enrico |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hJihtAEACAAJ |title=Studia Philologica Iranica: Gherardo Gnoli Memorial Volume |last2=Provasi |first2=Elio |last3=Rossi |first3=Adriano Valerio |date=2017 |publisher=Scienze e lettere |isbn=978-88-6687-115-6 |pages=39 |chapter=On the Origin of Terms Afghan and Pashtun |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/32353626}} 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."{{cite book |last1=Morano |first1=Enrico |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hJihtAEACAAJ |title=Studia Philologica Iranica: Gherardo Gnoli Memorial Volume |last2=Provasi |first2=Elio |last3=Rossi |first3=Adriano Valerio |date=2017 |publisher=Scienze e lettere |isbn=978-88-6687-115-6 |pages=39 |chapter=On the Origin of Terms Afghan and Pashtun |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/32353626}}

Linguist Georg Morgenstierne has described Pashto as a 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.{{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}}{{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.}} Furthermore, Pashto and Ossetian, another Scythian-descending language, share cognates in their vocabulary which other Eastern Iranian languages lack{{Cite book |last=Cheung |first=Jonny |title=Etymological Dictionary of the Iranian Verb |publisher=(Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series) |year=2007}} 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 Oxus at that time.{{Cite book |last=Cheung |first=Jonny |title=Etymological dictionary of the Iranian verb |publisher=(Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series) |year=2007}} Others however have suggested a much older Iranic ancestor given the affinity to Old Avestan.{{Cite web |title=Encyclopaedia Iranica, AFGHANISTAN vi. Paṣ̌tō |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/afghanistan-vi-pasto |quote=But it seems that the Old Iranic ancestor dialect of Paṣ̌tō must have been close to that of the Gathas.}}{{Cite journal |last=Rehman |first=Tasneem Ur |title=LEXICAL COMPARISON OF PASHTO AND AVESTAN LANGUAGES AND HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF PASHTO PHONOLOGY |url=http://dspace.qau.edu.pk:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/2810/1/LIN%2012.pdf |journal=Department of Linguistics Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad |type=Fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Science in Linguistics |pages=10 |quote="This study carries out a lexical analysis of Pashto, a modern Iranian language and compare it with Avestan, an ancient Iranian language. While within Iranology, scholars somewhat differ in opinion over the exact system of classification but two major sub-groups are generally upheld. This study not only affirms that Pashto is an Iranian language but also the fact that it belongs to the sub-group of East Iranian languages. Pashto shows spiriantization of the word initial stops of the Avestan and fronting of the palatal affricates to dental-alveolar position as its most defining characteristics of historical development. Proving the laws of the uniformity of the phonological change in human languages, it also traces out the major phonological changes that mark out the Pashto language and are the characteristic changes through which we can understand the phonological development of Pashto from a predecessor closely related to the Avestan language (Morgenstierne 1985)."}}

Yu. V. Gankovsky, a Soviet historian, proposed an Ephthalite origin for Pashtuns.{{Cite book|title=A History of Afghanistan|last1=Gankovsky|first1=Yu. V.|year=1982|publisher=Progress Publishers|page=382}}{{Cite book|title=The Pathans|last1=Quddus|first1=Syed Abdul|year=1987|publisher=Ferozsons|location=Moscow|page=29|isbn=9789690006813|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EoBCAAAAYAAJ|access-date=25 October 2010}}Kurbanov pp238-243

{{blockquote|The Pashtuns began as a union of largely East-Iranian tribes which became the initial ethnic stratum of the Pashtun ethnogenesis, dates from the middle of the first millennium CE and is connected with the dissolution of the Epthalite (White Huns) confederacy. ... Of the contribution of the Epthalites (White Huns) to the ethnogenesis of the Pashtuns we find evidence in the ethnonym of the largest of the Pashtun tribe unions, the Abdali (Durrani after 1747) associated with the ethnic name of the Epthalites — Abdal. The Siah-posh, the Kafirs (Nuristanis) of the Hindu Kush, called all Pashtuns by a general name of Abdal still at the beginning of the 19th century.}}According to Georg Morgenstierne, the Durrani tribe who were known as the "Abdali" before the formation of the Durrani Empire 1747,{{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}} might be connected to with the Hephthalites;{{cite journal |last=Morgenstierne |first=Georg |year=1979 |title=The Linguistic Stratification of Afghanistan |journal=Afghan Studies |volume=2 |pages=23–33}} Aydogdy Kurbanov endorses this view who proposes that after the collapse of the Hephthalite confederacy, Hephthalite likely assimilated into different local populations.{{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). "}}

Others draw different conclusions. Ghilji tribe has been connected to the Khalaj people.{{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."|url-access=subscription}} Following al-Khwarizmi, Josef Markwart claimed the Khalaj to be remnants of the Hephthalite confederacy."[http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/khalaj-i-tribe-turkistan ḴALAJ i. TRIBE]" - Encyclopaedia Iranica, 15 December 2010 (Pierre Oberling) The Hephthalites may have been Indo-Iranian, although the view that they were of Turkic Gaoju origin{{sfn|de la Vaissière|2003|pp=119–137}} "seems to be most prominent at present".{{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." The Khalaj may originally have been Turkic-speaking and only federated with Iranian Pashto-speaking tribes in medieval times.{{Cite web |title=Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/hephthalites}}

According to The Cambridge History of Iran volume 3, Issue 1, the Ghilji tribe of Afghanistan are the descendants of Hephthalites.{{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}}

However, according to linguist Sims-Williams, archaeological documents do not support the suggestion that the Khalaj were the successors of the Hephthalites,{{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}} while according to historian V. Minorsky, the Khalaj were "perhaps only politically associated with the Hephthalites."{{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}}

The British physician and authority on oriental languages, Henry Walter Bellew, accredited for writing the first Pashto dictionary in colonial India, suggested that the Pashtuns (Pathans) are descended from Rajputs.{{cite web |last1=Ahmed |first1=Khaled |title=Are the Pathans in fact Rajputs? |url=http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_6-4-2003_pg3_5 |publisher=Daily Times |accessdate=2 September 2019 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060525084024/http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_6-4-2003_pg3_5 |archivedate=25 May 2006 |language=English |date=6 April 2003}}{{cite web |author1=Sir Olaf Caroe |url=http://www.the-south-asian.com/April2004/Books-Pathans-1.htm |title=The Pathans – 550 BC - AD 1957|publisher=Oxford University Press |accessdate=2 September 2019 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080304012541/http://www.the-south-asian.com/April2004/Books-Pathans-1.htm |archivedate=4 March 2008 |language=English |date=2003|author1-link=Sir Olaf Caroe }}[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2842569 Swatis and Afridis, By T. H. Holdich], The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 29, No. 1/2 (1899), pp. 2-9 (retrieved 4 May 2007). Bellew's theory was that all Pashtun tribal names could be traced to Rajput names.{{cite web |last1=Ahmad |first1=Khaled |title=Are the Pathans Hindu Rajputs? |url=http://www.khyber.org/pashtohistory/hindurajputs.shtml |publisher=Khyber Gateway |accessdate=2 September 2019 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060626094055/http://www.khyber.org/pashtohistory/hindurajputs.shtml |archivedate=26 June 2006|language=English|date=2003}}{{cite book |last1=Bellew |first1=Henry Walter |title=Afghanistan and the Afghans |date=1879 |publisher=S. Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington |page=218 |language=English|quote=Of the several tribes reckoned as Pukhtun or Pathan several are evidently of Indian origin, judging from their names, such as the Khatrini (Khatri or Hindu military caste), Sheorani (Shiva sect of Hindus), Kakar (Gakar tribe of Indians in the north Panjab), Tori (Tuari tribe of Rajputs), &c. All these Pathan tribes are located on the Suleman and Khybar ranges from the Kabul river in the north to the Kaura or Vahou Pass in the south. }}

The Arab historian al-Masudi wrote that "Qandhar" (Gandhara in modern-day north west Pakistan) is a country of Rajputs and was a separate kingdom with a non-Muslim ruler.{{cite web |last=Ball |first=Warwick |date=August 2010 |title=The seven qandahārs the name Q.ND.HAR. in the islamic sources |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233196324 |quote=Gandhara in north Pakistan}} Due to similar sounding names, this has been a source of confusion.{{cite web |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233196324 |title= The seven qandahārs the name Q.ND.HAR. in the islamic sources |last= Ball |first= Warwick |date= August 2010 |quote= A comprehensive examination of the Islamic sources in Part I reveals a total of seven Qandahārs, all located in very different places. Understandably, this has led to some considerable confusion in the past amongst both ancient and modern scholars}} Modern scholars and historians have mentioned that Masudi is not referring to the modern city of Kandahar but rather the area of Gandhara in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.{{cite web | url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gandhara- | title=Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica }}{{cite web |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233196324 |title= The seven qandahārs the name Q.ND.HAR. in the islamic sources |last= Ball |first= Warwick |date= August 2010 |quote= To conclude, the few clues in the verse itself seem to indicate Gandhara as the likely location of this Qandahdr. }}{{cite web |last=Ball |first=Warwick |date=August 2010 |title=The seven qandahārs the name Q.ND.HAR. in the islamic sources |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233196324 |quote=Masudis first reference to Qandahar (in the Muritjadh-Dhahab, de Meynard and de Courteille, r85r, r, pp. 372-3; ED, r, pp. 22-3; Raverty, tBg2, p. 2o7), clearly refers to Gandhara, so need not be discussed”}}"In view of Masudis other references to Qandahir which all refer to Gandhara, it seems more than likely that Gandhara is meant here as well. The source of later confusion of the names and its attribution is evident" https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233196324_The_seven_qandahars_the_name_QNDHAR_in_the_islamic_sources

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 the study, the Pashtuns, Kalash, and Burusho to be descended from Alexander's soldiers considered.{{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.}}

{{See also|Groups claiming affiliation with Israelites}}

Some anthropologists lend credence to the oral traditions 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-e-Jehan Lodhi in the reign of Mughal Emperor Jehangir in the 17th century.{{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}} The 13th century Tabaqat-i Nasiri discusses the settlement of immigrant Bani Israel at the end of the 8th century CE in the 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."{{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}} These references to Bani Israel agree with the commonly held view by Pashtuns that when the ten tribes of Israel were dispersed, the tribe of Joseph, among other Hebrew tribes, settled in the Afghanistan region.{{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}} 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 Ferishta.{{Cite web|url=http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=06901021&ct=10|title=History of the Mohamedan Power in India|author=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}} However, the similarity of names can also be traced to the presence of Arabic through Islam.{{cite journal |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 }}

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.{{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 }}

Some Afghan historians have maintained that Pashtuns are linked to the ancient Israelites. Mohan Lal quoted Mountstuart Elphinstone who wrote:

{{Blockquote|"The Afghan historians proceed to relate that the children of Israel, both in Ghore and in Arabia, preserved their knowledge of the unity of 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 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."Life of the Amir Dost Mohammed Khan; of Kabul, Volume 1. By Mohan Lal (1846), pg.5|Mountstuart Elphinstone|1841|source=}}

While some sources assert that historical and anecdotal evidence strongly suggests a connection between the Israelite tribes & the Pashtuns,{{Cite news |last1=McCarthy |first1=Rory |last2=Jerusalem |date=17 January 2010 |title=Pashtun clue to lost tribes of Israel |language=en-GB |work=The Observer |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/17/israel-lost-tribes-pashtun |access-date=20 November 2023 |issn=0029-7712}} the theory has been criticized by others as not being substantiated by historical evidence. Dr. Zaman Stanizai criticizes this theory:

{{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."|}}

According to genetic studies Pashtuns have a greater R1a1a*-M198 modal halogroup than Jews:{{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 }}

{{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 (2012)}}

Some Pashtun tribes claim descent from Arabs, including some claiming to be Sayyids (descendants of Prophet Muhammad).Caroe, Olaf. 1984. The Pathans: 500 B.C.-A.D. 1957 (Oxford in Asia Historical Reprints). Oxford University Press.

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

• Pashtun tribes
• Qais Abdur Rashid, the legendary patriarch of the Pashtun people
• Groups claiming affiliation with the Israelites
• Dasht-e Yahudi, a Mughal-era term for the "Jewish Desert" that was Pashtun-inhabited territory
• Nimat Allah al-Harawi, a Mughal-era chronicler who compiled a Persian-language history of the Pashtuns

{{Reflist}}

• Alden Oreck, [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Afghanistan.html The Virtual Jewish History Tour: Afghanistan] from Jewish Virtual Library
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20050206164434/http://afghanology.com/BaniIsraeli.html Bani-Israelite Theory of Paktoons Ethnic Origin] on the site of World Afghan Jirgah. Archived 6 February 2005.
• [https://www.academia.edu/1803421/Traditions_of_Israelite_Descent_Among_Certain_Muslim_Groups_in_South_Asia Traditions of Israelite Descent Among Certain Muslim Groups in South Asia]
• From the most of ages by Shahid Hassan [https://www.academia.edu/21027637/From_the_Mists_of_Ages From the Mists of Ages]

{{Jews and Judaism in Pakistan}}

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Pashtun

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