History of Afghanistan

The written history of Afghanistan can be traced back to around 500 BCE when the area was under the Achaemenid Empire, although evidence indicates that an advanced degree of urbanized culture has existed in the land since between 3000 and 2000 BCE.  Alexander the Great and his Macedonian army arrived in what is now Afghanistan in 330 BCE after conquering Persia during the Battle of Gaugamela. Many powerful foreign kingdoms have established their capitals inside the modern state of Afghanistan, including the Greco-Bactrians, Mauryas, Kushans, Kabul Shahi, Saffarids, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Timurids, Mughals, Hotakis, Durranis, and others.

Afghanistan (meaning “land of the Afghans”) has been a strategically important location throughout history. The land served as “a gateway to India, impinging on the ancient Silk Road, which carried trade from the Mediterrarnean to China” Sitting on many trade and migration routes, Afghanistan may be called the ‘Central Asian roundabout’^[10] since routes converge from the Middle East, from the Indus Valley through the passes over the Hindur Kush, from the Far East via the Tarim Basin, and from the adjacent Eurasian Steppe.

Afghan people called the Aryans from Central Asia^[5] arrived in Afghanistan after the 20th century BCE,^[3] who left their languages that survived in the form of Pashto and Dari.^[2][11] The Arab invasions influenced the culture of Afghanistan, as its Zoroastrian, Macedonian and Buddhist past has long vanished. Local empire-builders such as the Ghaznavids, Ghurids and Timurids made Afghanistan a major medieval power as well as a learning center that produced the likes of Avicenna, Al-Biruni, and Rumi, among many other academic or iconic figures.

Mirwais Hotak followed by Ahmad Shah Durrani unified Afghan tribes and founded the last Afghan Empire in the early 18th century CE. Afghanistan’s sovereignty has been held during the Anglo-Afghan Wars, the 1980s Soviet war, and the 2001-present war by the country’s many and diverse people: the Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, Turkmen, Aimak, Baloch, and others. The Pashtuns form the largest group, claiming to be descendants of ancient Israelites or Qais Abdur Rashid but scholars believe that they are a confederation of various peoples from the past who united under Pashtunwali.

Pre-History

Excavations of prehistoric sites by Louis Dupree and others at Darra-e Kur in 1966 where 800 stone implements were recovered along with a fragment of Neanderthal right temporal bone, suggest that early humans were living in what is now Afghanistan at least 52,000 years ago. Kara Kamar, a cave, contained Upper Paleolithic blades Carbon-14 dated at 34,000 years old.[18] Farming communities in Afghanistan were among the earliest in the world.[5]

Archaeologists have found evidence of human habitation in Afghanistan from as far back as 50,000 BC. The artifacts indicate that the indigenous people were small farmers and herdsmen, very probably grouped into tribes, with small local kingdoms rising and falling through the ages.[2]

Urbanization may have begun as early as 3000 BCE.[19] Zoroastrianism predominated as the religion in the area, even the modern Afghan solar calendar shows the influence of Zoroastrianism in the names of the months.[2] Other religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism arrived in the region later. Gandhara is the name of an ancient Hindu kingdom from the Vedic period and its capital city located between the Hindukush and Sulaiman Mountains (mountains of Solomon),[20] although Kandahar in modern times and the ancient Gandhara are not geographically identical.[21][22]

Early inhabitants, around 3000 BCE were likely to have been connected through culture and trade to neighboring civilizations like Jiroft and Tappeh Sialk and more distantly to the Indus Valley Civilization. Urban civilization may have begun as early as 3000 BCE, and it is possible that the early city of Mundigak (near Kandahar) was a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization.[4] The first known people were Indo-Iranians,[5] but their date of arrival has been estimated widely from as early as about 3000 BCE[23] to 1500 BCE.[24] (For further detail see Indo-Aryan migration.)

Bactria-Margiana

Main article: Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex

The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex became prominent in the southwest region between 2200 and 1700 BCE (approximately). The city of Balkh (Bactra) was founded about this time (c. 2000–1500 BCE). It’s possible that the BMAC may have been an Indo-European culture, perhaps the Proto-Indo-Aryans.[23] But the standard model holds the arrival of Indo-Aryans to have been in the Late Harappan which gave rise to the Vedic civilization of the Early Iron Age.[25]