Nuristanis

Nuristanis
Total population
c. 125,000–300,000[1][2]
Regions with significant populations
Nuristan, Kunar, Afghanistan
Chitral, Pakistan
Languages
Nuristani languages,
Pashto, serving as the lingua franca and widely understood as a second language
Religion
Sunni Islam
[3][4]
Related ethnic groups
Kalash, Kho, Pashayi
Kautiak villagers in Nuristan province with U.S. Navy commander (right)

The Nuristanis are an ethnic group native to the Nuristan Province of northeastern Afghanistan and Chitral District of northwestern Pakistan.[5] Their languages comprise the Nuristani branch of Indo-Iranian languages.[6]

In the mid-1890s, after the establishment of the Durand Line when Afghanistan and the British Indian Empire reached an agreement regarding the Indo-Afghan border as the region of Kafiristan became part of the Great Game and for a period of time, Emir Abdur Rahman Khan conducted a military campaign to secure the eastern regions and followed up his conquest by imposition of Islam;[7][8] the region thenceforth being known as Nuristan, the "Land of Light".[9][10][11][12] Before their conversion, the Nuristanis practised a form of ancient Hinduism.[4][13][3] Non-Muslim religious practices endure in Nuristan today to some degree as folk customs. In their native rural areas, they are often farmers, herders, and dairymen.

The Nuristan region has been a prominent location for war, which has led to the death of many indigenous Nuristanis.[14][15] Nuristan has also received abundance of settlers from the surrounding Afghan regions due to the borderline vacant location.[16][17]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference LOC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Afghanistan population statistics". GeoHive. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  3. ^ a b Weiss, Mitch; Maurer, Kevin (31 December 2012). No Way Out: A Story of Valor in the Mountains of Afghanistan. Berkley Caliber. p. 299. ISBN 9780425253403. Up until the late nineteenth century, many Nuristanis practised a primitive form of Hinduism. It was the last area in Afghanistan to convert to Islam—and the conversion was accomplished by the sword.
  4. ^ a b Minahan, James B. (10 February 2014). Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 205. ISBN 9781610690188. Living in the high mountain valleys, the Nuristani retained their ancient culture and their religion, a form of ancient Hinduism with many customs and rituals developed locally. Certain deities were revered only by one tribe or community, but one deity was universally worshipped by all Nuristani as the Creator, the Hindu god Yama Raja, called imr'o or imra by the Nuristani tribes.
  5. ^ Karl Jettmar. Cultures of the Hindukush (PDF). Franz Steiner Verlag. p. 51.
  6. ^ "Kalash Religion" (PDF). people.fas.harvard.edu. Harvard University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
  7. ^ "Wlodek Witek (CHArt 2001)". chart.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011.
  8. ^ Motamedi, Ahmad; Edelberg, Lennart (1968). "Persée: A Kafir goddess". Arts Asiatiques. 18 (1): 3–21. doi:10.3406/arasi.1968.1603.
  9. ^ Ewans, Martin (2002). Afghanistan: a short history of its people and politics. Harper Perennial. p. 103.
  10. ^ A Former Kafir Tells His 'Tragic Story'. Notes on the Kati Kafirs of Northern Bashgal (Afghanistan) / Max Klimburg, East and West, Vol. 58 – Nos. 1–4 (December 2008), pp. 391–402
  11. ^ Reflections of the Islamisation of Kafiristan in Oral Tradition / Georg Buddruss Journal of Asian Civilizations — Volume XXXI — Number 1-2 – 2008, Special Tribute Edition, pp. 16–35
  12. ^ 'The pacification of the country was completed by the wholly gratuitous conquest of a remote mountain people in the north-east, the non-Muslim Kalash of Kafiristan (Land of the Unbelievers), who were forcibly converted to Islam by the army. Their habitat was renamed Nuristan (Land of Light).' Angelo Rasanayagam, Afghanistan: A Modern History, I.B. Tauris, 2005, p.11
  13. ^ Barrington, Nicholas; Kendrick, Joseph T.; Schlagintweit, Reinhard (18 April 2006). A Passage to Nuristan: Exploring the Mysterious Afghan Hinterland. I.B. Tauris. p. 111. ISBN 9781845111755. Prominent sites include Hadda, near Jalalabad, but Buddhism never seems to have penetrated the remote valleys of Nuristan, where the people continued to practise an early form of polytheistic Hinduism.
  14. ^ Hauner, M. (1991). The Soviet War in Afghanistan. United Press of America.
  15. ^ Ballard; Lamm; Wood (2012). From Kabul to Baghdad and back: The U.S. at war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
  16. ^ "Nuristan a Safe Passage for Taliban to Enter North and North-Eastern Parts of Afghanistan". Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  17. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)