Afghan (ethnonym)

[1] Since the second half of the twentieth century, the term "Afghan" evolved into a demonym for all residents of Afghanistan, including those outside of the Pashtun ethnicity.

[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] The term "Afghan" is later recorded in the 6th century CE in the form of "Avagāṇa" [अवगाण][15] by the Indian astronomer Varāha Mihira in his Brihat-samhita.

"[17]The word Afghan also appeared in the 982 Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam, where a reference is made to the village of Saul, which was estimated to be located near Gardez, in the Paktia province of Afghanistan.

In n his Tarikh-i Yamini records that many Afghans and Khiljis (possibly the modern Ghilji) living between Laghman and Peshawar enlisted in the army of Sabuktigin after Jayapala was defeated.

"The Afghans and Khiljis who resided among the mountains having taken the oath of allegiance to Subooktugeen, many of them were enlisted in his army, after which he returned in triumph to Ghizny.

Ibn Battuta, a famous Moroccan traveler, visiting Afghanistan following the era of the Khilji dynasty in 1333 writes.

It is told that the prophet Sulayman [Solomon] ascended this mountain and having looked out over India, which was then covered with darkness, returned without entering it.

"[24]A 16th-century Muslim historian writing about the history of Muslim rule in the subcontinent states: "He [Khalid bin Abdullah son of Khalid bin Walid] retired, therefore, with his family, and a number of Arab retainers, into the Sulaiman Mountains, situated between Multan and Peshawar, where he took up his residence, and gave his daughter in marriage to one of the Afghan chiefs, who had become a proselyte to Mahomedism.

I have read in the Mutla-ul-Anwar, a work written by a respectable author, and which I procured at Burhanpur, a town of Khandesh in the Deccan, that the Afghans are Copts of the race of the Pharaohs; and that when the prophet Moses got the better of that infidel who was overwhelmed in the Red Sea, many of the Copts became converts to the Jewish faith; but others, stubborn and self-willed, refusing to embrace the true faith, leaving their country, came to India, and eventually settled in the Sulimany mountains, where they bore the name of Afghans.

The name Afghanistan is mentioned in writing by the 16th century Mughal ruler Babur and his descendants, referring to the territory between Khorasan, Kabulistan, and the Indus River, which was inhabited by tribes of Afghans.

But it occurs to me, that when, under the rule of Muhammadan sovereigns, Musulmáns first came to the city of Patná, and dwelt there, the people of India (for that reason) called them Patáns—but God knows!

"[40] Regarding the modern state of Afghanistan, the Encyclopædia of Islam explains:[41]"The country now known as Afghanistan has borne that name only since the middle of the 18th century, when the supremacy of the Afghan race became assured: previously various districts bore distinct apellations, however the country was not a definite political unit, and its component parts were not bound together by any identity of race or language.

The earlier meaning of the word was simply "the land of the Afghans", a limited territory which did not include many parts of the present state but did comprise large districts now either independent or within the boundary of British India (Pakistan).