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Kafiristan
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Kafiristan or Kafirstan was a historic name of Nurestan (Nuristan), a province in the Hindukush region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, prior to 1896. This historic region lies on, and mainly comprises, basins of the rivers Alingar, Pech (Kamah), Landai Sin, and Kunar, and the intervening mountain ranges.
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Kafiristan or Kafirstan was a historic name of Nurestan (Nuristan), a province in the Hindukush region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, prior to 1896. This historic region lies on, and mainly comprises, basins of the rivers Alingar, Pech (Kamah), Landai Sin, and Kunar, and the intervening mountain ranges. It is bounded by the main range of the Hindukush on the north, the city of Chitral in Pakistan to the east, the Kunar Valley in the south, and the Alishang River in the west.
Kafiristan takes its name from the inhabitants, the Kafirs, a fiercely independent people with distinctive culture, language and religion. They were called Kafir ("infidel") because they were not Muslim.
George Scott Robertson, later British political officer in the Princely State of Chitral, was given permission to explore the country of the Kafirs in 1890-91. He was the last outsider to visit the area and observe these people's polytheistic culture before conversion. He published a description in 1896 called The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush. Though some sub-groups such as the Kam paid tribute to Chitral, most of Kafirstan was left on the Afghan side of the frontier in 1893, when large areas of tribal lands between Afghanistan and British India were divided into zones of control by the Durand Line.
Soon after Robertson’s visit, in 1895-6, Emir Abdur Rahman Khan invaded and converted the Kafirs to Islam as a symbolic climax to his campaigns to bring the country under a centralized Afghan government. He had similarly subjugated the Hazara people in 1892-3. In 1896 Abdur Rahman Khan, who had thus conquered the region for Islam, renamed the people as Nuristani ("Enlightened Ones" in Persian) and the land as Nuristan ("Land of the Enlightened").
Kafirstan consisted of steep, wooded valleys and was famous for its crisp wood carving especially of cedar-wood pillars, carved doors, furniture (including 'horn-chairs') and statues. Some of these pillars survive reused in mosques, but all temples, shrines, and cult places with their wooden effigies and multitudes of ancestor figures were torched. Only a small amount were brought back to Kabul as spoils of this Islamic victory over infidels. These consisted of various wooden effigies of ancestral heroes and pre-Islamic commemorative chairs. Of the more than thirty wooden figures brought to Kabul in 1896 or shortly thereafter, fourteen went to the Kabul Museum and four to the Musée Guimet and the Musée de l'Homme in Paris .
Those in the Kabul Museum were badly damaged under the Taliban but have since been restored .
Kafiristan was invaded several times and eventually its cultural identity became degraded as priests were killed, religious sites burned, young boys kidnapped and conscripted into the Afghan military school in Kabul, as Islam was imposed. Only a few hundred Kati Kafirs (the Red Kafirs of the Bashgal Valley) fled across the border into Chitral but uprooted from their homeland had converted by the 1930s. They settled near the frontier in the valleys of Rumbur, Bumboret and Urtsun, which were then inhabited by the Kalasha tribe (the Black Kafirs). Only this group in the three valleys of Birir, Bumburet and Rumbur, escaped conversion because they were located east of the Durand line, under the administrative control of the British Raj and later Pakistan. After declining population figures throughout the 70's, this region of Kafiristan in Pakistan has recently shown an increase in its population, much to the delight of historians and local philanthropists.
Etymology
Kafirstan means land of the infidels in the Persian. According to the conventional etymology, the name "Kafir" derives from Arabic Kafir, commonly translated into English as "infidels" or "idolaters". Kafiristan then would be "The Land of the Infidels". This explanation would justify the renaming of the country after its Islamization.
Many historians, however, opine that the local name "Kafir" comes from Kapis (= Kapish), the ancient Sanskrit name of the region that included historic Kafiristan; which is also given as "Ki-pin" (or Ke-pin, Ka-pin, Chi-pin) in old Chinese chronicles. That name, unrelated to the Arabic word, is believed to have, at some point, mutated into the word Kapir. This linguistic phenomenon is not unusual for this region. The name of King Kanishaka, who once ruled over this region, is also found written as "Kanerika", an example of "s" or "sh" mutating to "r". In a similar way, Kapis -- the name of the people of Kapis/Kapisa, is believed to have changed to Kapir and then Kafir . One of the dominant clan of the Kafirs till recently was known as Katir. In many languages, term Kafir is pronounced as Kapir.
The second change from Kapir to Kafir, may have occurred spontaneously, since the exchange of "p" by "f" is fairly common in Indo-European languages. It may also have been the result of confusion or intentional wordplay with the Arabic word, since the Kafirs were indeed pagans until 1895.
The derivation of Kafiristan is now fairly easy since -stan in Iranian language means country, abode or place. Thus, Kafiristan would literally mean the land or abode of the Kafir (Kapir) peoples i.e. people belonging to Kapisa.
Today it is disputed if the term Kafir really defines a traditional ethnic group.
Kafiristan in Ancient History
Ancient Kapisa Janapada located south-east of the Hindukush included and is related to Kafiristan . Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang who visited Kapisa in 644 AD calls it Kai-pi-shi(h) . Hiuen Tsang describes Kai-pi-shi as a flourishing kingdom ruled by a Buddhist Kshatriya king holding sway over ten neighboring states including Lampaka, Nagarahara, Gandhara and Banu etc. Till 9th century AD, Kapisi remained the second capital of the Shahi Dynasty of Kabul. Kapisa (Chinese Ki-pin) is stated to have been earlier visited by lord Buddha in 6th c BCE. Kapisa was known for goats and their skin. Hiuen Tsang talks of Shen breed of horses from Kapisa (Kai-pi-shi). There is also a reference to Chinese emperor Tai-Tsung being presented with excellent breed of horses in 637 AD by an envoy from Chi-pin (Kapisa) . These Kapisa or Chi-pin (Ki-pin) horses of the Chinese records, in reality, were the famed Kamboja breed since Kapisa was a mere part of ancient Kamboja . Further evidence from Hiuen Tsang shows that Kai-pi-shi produced all kind of cereals, many kinds of fruits, and a scented root called Yu-kin. The people used woolen and fur clothes and gold , silver and copper coins . Objects of merchandise from all parts were found here .
Kapisa equivalence to Kamboja
As stated above, Kapisa is related to and included Kafiristan. Scholar community holds that Kapisa is equivalent to Sanskrit Kamboja.In other words, Kamboja and Kapisa are believed to be two attempts to render the same foreign word (which could not appropriately be transliterated into Sanskrit).. Dr S Levi further holds that old Persian Ka(m)bujiya or Kau(n)bojiya, Sanskrit Kamboja as well as Kapisa, all etymologically refer to the same foreign word. Even the evidence from third century Buddhist tantra text Mahamayuri (which uses Kabusha for Kapisha) and the Ramayana-manjri by Sanskrit Acharya, Kshmendra of Kashmir (11th c AD), which specifically equates Kapisa with Kamboja and substituting the former with the latter, sufficiently prove that Kapisa and Kamboja are equivalent. Even according to illustrious Indian history series: History and Culture of Indian People, Kapisa and Kamboja are equivalent . Scholars like Dr Moti Chandra, Dr Krishna Chandra Mishra etc further observe that the Karpasika (of Mahabharata) and Kapisa (Ki-pin/Ka-pin/Chi-pin of the Chinese writings) are synonymous terms . Thus, both Karpasika and Kapisa are essentially equivalent to Sanskrit Kamboja . And Paninian term Kapisi is believed to have been the capital of ancient Kamboja. Kapisa (Ki-pin, Ke-pin, Ka-pin, Chi-pin of the Chinese records), in fact, refers to the Kamboja kingdom, located on the south-eastern side of the Hindukush in the Paropamisadae region. It was anciently inhabited by the Asvakayana (Greek: Assakenoi), and the Asvayana (Greek Aspasio) (q.v.) sub-tribes of the Kambojas. Epic Mahabharata refers to two Kamboja settlements: one called Kamboja, adjacent to the Daradas (of Gilgit), extending from Kafiristan to south-east Kashmir including Rajauri/Poonch districts, while the original Kamboja, known as Parama Kamboja was located north of Hindukush in Transoxiana territory mainly in Badakshan and Pamirs/Allai valley, as neighbors to the Rishikas in the Scythian land. Even Ptolemy refers to two Kamboja territories/and or ethnics - viz.: (1) Tambyzoi, located north of Hindukush on Oxus in Bactria/Badakshan and (2) Ambautai located on southern side of Hindukush in Paropamisadae. Scholars like Dr S. Levi, Dr Michael Witzel and many others accept the identity of Tambyzoi and Ambautai with Sanskrit Kamboja. Obviously, the Ptolemian Ambautai formed parts of the Kapisa kingdom under sway of Asvakayana/Asvayana (Asvaka) Kambojas. It appears probable that the original home of the Kambojas was trans-Oxian Kamboja, from where, some tribal sections moved south-wards and planted colonies in Paropamisan on southern side of Hindukush. With passage of time, the Paropamisan settlements came to be addressed as Kamboja proper, whereas the original Kamboja settlement lying north of Hindukush, in Transoxiana, became known as 'Parama-Kamboja' i.e. furthest Kamboja. Some scholars call Parama Kamboja as 'Uttara-Kamboja' i.e. northern Kamboja or Distant Kamboja . The Kapisa-Kamboja equivalence as suggested by scholars like Dr Levi applies to the Paropamisan Kamboja settlement.
Kam, Kamoj, Kamoz and Kamtoz of Kafiristan
Mountstuart Elphinstone (1779– 1859) observed in early 19th century that the Kafirs of Kafiristan call themselves Camoj/Camoz . Later investigators like Henry Walter Bellow (1834-1892 , George Scott Robertson (1852-1916) , and John Biddulph (1848 - 1921) also attest that a principal tribe of Kafiristan is divided into upper Kam (Kamoz) and lower Kam (Kamtoz). The Scholars have identified in the names of Camoj/Camtoz or Kam, Kamoz/Kamtoz the relics of ancient Kambojas . Thus, it can bee seen that the former Kafirs of the Hindukush mountains (modern Nuristanis) are believed to have predominantly descended from ancient Kambojas of Kapisa country.
Appearances in popular culture
Kafiristan is where the famous Kipling story "The Man Who Would Be King" takes place. The story was made into a film starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine.
See also
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