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The Nasher, sometimes Nashir, are an ancient Afghan family. As Ghilzai Khans, they are said to be descendants of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni (971-1030), the ruler of the Kingdom of Ghazni and founder of the Ghaznavid Empire. Under Mahmud, the former province of Ghazni became a flourishing capital. The Ghaznavids conquered all of modern Afghanistan, most of today's Iran as well as northwest India, which Mahmud invaded 17 times. The aggressive campaign of expansion was halted in 1149 when the Ghurids took over Ghazni.

The wealth brought back to Ghazni was enormous, Mahmud transformed Ghazni into one of the leading cities of Central Asia, patronizing scholars, establishing colleges, laying out gardens, and building mosques, palaces, and caravansaries. Contemporary historians (e.g. Abolfazl Beyhaghi, Ferdowsi) give glowing descriptions of the magnificence of the capital, as well as of the conqueror's munificent support of literature - over 400 poets and scholars stayed at the court, Ferdowsi wrote the 'Book of Kings' for the Sultan. It was for this patronage of the written word that the Ghaznavid family took on the name “Nashir”. Besides being the name of the family, the word “Nashir” today still means “publisher” in the Arabic as well as in the Persian language.

After their loss of power, the remaining Ghaznavids stayed in Ghazni, where – over the centuries – a new tribe evolved, namely the Ghilzai tribe, first documented in the 16th century. The historical sources are quite unclear but it is assumed that it was the Nashir, the former Ghaznavid Khans, who ruled the Ghilzai Kharoti-tribe for ten centuries. They became prominent again between the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Khans founded several dynasties, among them the Hotaki Dynasty, ruling Persia and the (Lodi) Moghul Dynasty in Delhi.

It wasn't until 1747, the time of Ahmad Shah Durrani, the Ghilzai's arch rival, when Ghazni became part of the new Kingdom of Afghanistan. However, by the late 20th century, the Nashir and the ruling Barakzai dynasty had some family ties. This relationship was almost shattered when Zahir Shah's uncle and prime minister Mohammad Hashim Khan murdered one of the Ghaznavid Khans, Shir Khan Afghan Nashir, in order to prevent his raise to Kingdom by his enormous gain of power, ruling the north of the country: it was under Sher Khan Nashir and his nephew Ghulam Sarwar Nashir, then based in Khanabad, went on to establish the city of Kunduz in the early 20th century by creating the Spinzar Cotton Company in Kunduz with branches in northern part of the country,until the communist coup in 1973. Ghulam Sarwar Nashir, President of Spinzar Cotton Company had turned Kunduz into Afghanistan's richest province, he was the last ruling Ghaznavid-Nashir Khan imprisoned by the communist regime of prince Daud in 1973.

Gholam Nabi Nasher represented the area as a Senator in the Afghan capital until the King Zahir Shah was overthrown by Prince Daud in 1973. Today, many monuments, streets and schools in Kunduz reflect the influence of the Nashir family. Afghanistan's largest port is called Shir Khan port. Gholam Rabani Nasher is a member of the Loya Jirga, the new Afghan Parliament. Farhad Darya, Afghanistan's most popular contemporary singer, is a Nashir.

External links

  • [http://www.farhaddarya.info/biography_english.htm Farhad Darya Nasher homepage]
  • [http://www.afgha.com/?af=who&op=read&id=207.de Information on Gholam Serwar Nasher]
  • [http://www.institute-for-afghan-studies.org/Constitutions/LIST_OF_MEMBERS_OF_THE_AFGHAN_CONSTITUTIONAL_LOYA_JIRGA.htm Gholam Rabani Nasher in the Loya Jirga]
  • [http://www.planetneverwinter.com/images/image.asp?/nwn/info/screenshots/concepts/lord_nasher_algondar.jpg Lord Nasher as a video game character based on Shir Khan Nasher]
  • [http://nashersculpturecenter.org Nasher Sculpture Center]

Literature on the subject:

J. W. Anderson, Doing Pakhtu: Social Organization of the Ghilzai Pakhtun, Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1979. H. W. Bellew, The Races of Afghanistan, London, 1880; repr. New Delhi, 1982. Idem,, An Inquiry into the Ethnography of Afghanistan, London, 1891; repr. Karachi, 1977. A. R. Benawa, Mir Wais Nikka, Kabul, 1946. Idem, Hutakha, Kabul, 1956. W. Bernhard, Etnische Anthropologie von Afghanistan, Pakistan und Kashmir, Stuttgart, 1991. C. E. Bosworth, Khaladji. History, in EI2 IV, pp. 917-18. Burke's Royal Families of the World, Volume II: Africa & The Middle East. Burke's Peerage Ltd., London 1980. J. S. Broadfoot, Reports on Parts of the Ghilzi Country, and on Some of the Tribes in the Neighborhood of Ghazni, JRGS, Supplementary Papers 1, 1886, pp. 341-400. F. C. Burton, History and Origin of the Ghilzais, Collected from Information Received through the Khans of the Tezin, the Ahmadzai Khans, and the Sehak Khan of Sarobi, National Archives of India, 1880, F-No.-5, pp. 1-6. O. Caroe, The Pathans: 550 B. C.-A. D. 1957, New York, 1958. G. Doerfer et al., Khalaj Materials, Bloomington, Ind., 1971. Idem, Khaladji Language, EI2 IV, p. 918. M. Elphinstone, An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul and its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India, London, 1815, repr., Graz, 1969. Molla Fayzi Muhammad Kateb-e Hazara, Seraj al-tawarikh, 3 vols., Kabul, 1333/1915; vols. 1-2 in one, Tehran, 1372 Hijri (1993); vol. 3 pts. 1-2, Tehran, 1370 Hijri (1991) Idem, Ne‘ad-nama-ye Afgan, eds. K. Yazdani and A.A. Rahimi, Qom, 1372 Hijri (1993) W. M. Floor, The Afghan Occupation of Persia, 1721-1729, Paris, 1998. W. K. Fraser-Tytler, The Ghilzai: Jew, Turk or Pathan?, Eastern World 2/4, 1948, pp. 11-13. R. N. Frye, Ghalzay, in EI2 II, p. 1002. 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Kakar, Afgan, Afganestan, wa Afganha wa tashkil-e dawlat dar Hendustan, Fars, wa Afganestan, Peshawar, 1988. Khan Jahan Lodhi, Merath al-Afagena, Dushanbe, Manuscript Collection, Academy of Sciences, Tajikistan P. Judasz T. Krusinski, Histoire de la dernieàre revolution de Perse, tr. anon. as The History of the Late Revolutions of Persia …, 2. vols., London, 1733; 2 vols. in 1, New York, 1973. Idem, The Chronicles of a Traveller: A History of the Afghan Wars with Persia in the Beginning of the Last Century, London, 1840; tr. Abd-al-Razzaq Donboli as Safar-nama-ye Kerusinski: Yaddashtha-ye keshish-e lahestani-e asár-e sáafawi, ed. M. Meer-Ahmadi, Tehran, 1363 Hijri (1984) R. Leech, An Account of the Early Ghiljaees, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 14, 1845, pp. 306-28. L. Lockhart, Nadir Shah, London, 1938. Idem, The Fall of the Safavi Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia, London, 1958. John Malcolm, The History of Persia, 2 vols. London, 1815. Muhammad-Kazáem Marvi, Alamara-ye naderi, ed. M.A. Riahái, 3 vols., Tehran, 1364 Hijri (1985) V. Minorsky, The Turkish Dialect of the Khalaj, BSO(A)S 10/1, 1940, pp. 417-37. Muhammad-Hayat Khan, Hayat-e afgani, tr. H. Priestly as Afghanistan and its Inhabitants, Lahore, 1981. S. Moinul Haq, Khaldjis, in EI2 IV, pp. 920-24. M. J. Momand, Da Paxtano qabilo shajaray, Peshawar, 1986. J. W. Murray, A Dictionary of the Pathan Tribes of the North-West Frontier of India, Culcutta, 1899. Neamat-Allah Heravi, Makhzan-e afgani, ed. and tr. B. Dorn as The History of the Afghans, 2 vols., London, 1829-36; repr., Dacca, 1960-62. J. Rai, Rough Notes on the Nasar, Kharot, and Other Afghan Pawindas, Quetta, 1922. H. G. Raverty, Notes on Afghanistan and Part of Baluchistan, Geographical, Ethnographical, and Historical, London, 1888. J. A. Robinson, Notes on Nomad Tribes of Eastern Afghanistan, 1934, repr. Quetta, 1978. R. Scott, Khalaj Market, USAID Afghanistan, Kabul, 1972. Idem, Tribal and Ethnic Groups in the Helmand Valley, Occasional Paper no. 21, the Afghanistan Council, Asia Society, New York, 1980. H. Tegey, Pashtana: Accounts from Old Texts, Traditional Narratives, Primary Sources, and Modern Writings on the Language, Early Social Life, and Country of the Pashtuns, Peshawar, 1999 (text in Pashto). H. Vansitart, The Descent of the Afghans from the Jews, Asiatick Researches II, 1807, pp. 67-76. R. Warburton, Report on the District of Lughman, Chiefly in Regard to Revenue, Simla, 1880.