Theories of Pashtun origin

[1][2] Although a number of theories attempting to explain their ethnogenesis have been put forward, the exact origin of the Pashtun tribes is acknowledged as being obscure.

However, the lack of historical evidence for this theory has complicated scholarly debate on whether or not the Ten Lost Tribes relocated to modern-day Afghanistan during the Assyrian captivity, which began after the Kingdom of Israel was destroyed and annexed by the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

[15] 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.

Yet to the Trtsus came the Ārya's Comrade, through love of spoil and heroes' war, to lead them.Heinrich Zimmer connects them with a tribe mentioned by Herodotus (Pactyans) in 430 BCE in the Histories:[19][20][21] 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.These Pactyans lived on the eastern frontier of the Achaemenid Arachosia Satrapy as early as the 1st millennium BCE.

[23] Thomas Holdich has linked them with the Afridi tribe:[24][25][26] The Sattagydae, Gandarii, Dadicae, and Aparytae (Ἀπαρύται) paid together a hundred and seventy talents; this was the seventh provincePashto is generally classified as an Eastern Iranian language.

[32] Johnny Cheung,[33] reflecting on Ptolemy's Parsioi (Πάρσιοι) and Strabo's Pasiani (Πασιανοί) states: "Both forms show slight phonetic substitutions, viz.

"[53] 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.

[55][56] 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.

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.

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.

Mohan Lal quoted Mountstuart Elphinstone who wrote: "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.

[68] Dr. Zaman Stanizai criticises this theory:[68] "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:[72] "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"Some Pashtun tribes claim descent from Arabs, including some claiming to be Sayyids (descendants of Muhammad).