History of Arabs in Afghanistan

Following this colossal defeat, the last Sasanian shah, Yazdegerd III, who became a hunted fugitive, fled eastward deep into Central Asia.

In pursuing Yazdegerd, the route the Arabs selected to enter the area was from north-eastern Iran and thereafter into Herat where they stationed a large portion of their army before advancing toward eastern Afghanistan.

Other groups and contingents who elected not to settle gradually pushed eastwards but encountered resistance in areas surrounding Bamiyan.

The most famous Arab character killed in that war was Shah-do Shamshira, whose tomb is located near Kabul river in Asmayee street.

In the year 44 (664 AD), the Caliph Moavia Bin Aby Soofian nominated Zeead, the son of Oomya, to the government of Bussora, Seestan, and Khorassan.

In the same year also Abdool Ruhman Bin Shimur, another Arab Ameer of distinction, marched from Murv to Kabul, where he made converts of upwards of twelve thousand persons... Saad was recalled in the year 59, and Abdool Ruhman, the son of Zeead, who formerly invaded Kabul, was nominated ruler of Khorassan...

Not long after, Yezeed, having learned that the Prince of Kabul, throwing off his allegiance, had attacked and taken prisoner Aby Oobeyda, the son of Zeead, the late governor of Seestan, he marched with a force to recover that province, but was defeated in a pitched battle.

The Arabs later partially relinquished some of their territorial control though reasserted its authority approximately 50 years later in 750 when the Abbasid caliphs replaced the Ummayads.

Arab contingents settled throughout various parts of present-day Afghanistan including the Wardak, Logar, Kabul, Balkh and in the Sulaiman Mountains.

Khalid being subsequently superseded, became apprehensive of returning to Arabia by the route of Persia, on account of the enemies he had in that country, and equally so of remaining in Kabul, under his successor.

He retired, therefore, with his family, and a number of Arab retainers, into the Sooli-many mountains, situated between Mooltan and Pishawur, where he took up his residence, and gave his daughter in marriage to one of the Afghan chiefs, who had become a proselyte to Maho-medism.

[1] After the Bolshevik Revolution, many Sunni Arabs residing in Bukhara and other areas of Central Asia ruled by Russians migrated to Afghanistan where they were better able to practice their religion without fear of religious persecution or discrimination.

Arabs who settled in northern Balkh province are worried that their culture is being wiped out as more people adopt the language and traditions of Afghanistan.

[14] There are about 1,000 families living in Hassanabad of Shebarghan, capital of Jowzjan province, and in Sultan Arigh village of Aqcha district that identify themselves as Arabs.