The Kafirs Of Kafiristan Essays - Ethnic Groups In Pakistan

The Kafirs Of Kafiristan THE KAFIRS OF KAFIRISTAN The land in the east of the Hindu-Kush range that lies between Pakistan and Afghanistan was called Kafiristan (the land of Kafirs), and there dwelled the Kafirs (the islamic word for pagan) who rejected any conversion to Muslim and followed their own religion. Guarded by their geography and strength, it is assumed that 200 thousand Kafirs lived there. They drove away the armies of Timur (14C.), Akbar (16C.), Nadir-Shah (18C.), and were completely shut out from the exterior world. But in 1895, Amir Abdul Rahman, the King of Afghanistan, conquered Kafiristan after a grueling battle and compelled them to convert to Islam. The name of Kafiristan was changed to Nuristan which means the land of light. Thus, the main energy of the guerrillas that resist the Soviet army in Afghanistan today were Kafirs ninety years ago. KALASH-KAFIRS OF CHITRAL The Kafirs of Afghanistan were converted to Islam, but those of Pakistan who belonged to British-India after the Durand Line (1893) still followed their own religion. These are the Kalash-Kafirs and estimably 1700 of them live in three valleys of Chitral District, North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. THE ORIGIN OF KAFIRS The history of the Kafirs remains obscure but some consider them to be the descendant of the armies of Alexander the Great ( B.C.327). They say that some Greek cultural elements can partly be identified in Kafiristan. For example, the sports and games in Nuristan (wrestling and shot-put etc.) were supposedly practiced in the ancient Olympics. Secondly, their features are thought to resemble those of the South-European characteristics. Thirdly, it is believed that the Greeks had an influence on their music. They consider that these facts seem to point to their Ancient Greek origin. But there is no conclusive evidence. It is true that in The Invasion by Alexander the Great's by Arrianus and Plutarchos, the authors state that the army of Alexander reached Nisa which is thought to be Kafiristan. But the leader of Nisa proclaimed to him that they were the descendants of Dionysus (Bacchus) that came from Greece long ago. G.Woodcock (1966) thinks that Nisa is one of the colonies of Greece which was scattered widely throughout Achamenid Persia before the times of Alexander. I think that of the Indo-Aryan expansion from the land near the Caspean Sea (B.C.1500-1000) those who came south in the first wave were the ancestors of the Kafirs. Those who came south in the second wave were the ancestors of the Indians, the third wave included the ancestors of the lranians. Linguistically, the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-Aryan (Indo-European) family of languages are divided into three main groups : Indian, Iranian, Kafiri. The latter is considered to be the oldest, but there is no proof for this. I do not deny the influence of Ancient Greece upon Kafiristan. This is a possibility, but the Greeks would have been in the minority, there --- the majority of the ancient Kafirs were a different race from the same original land as the Greeks. Any subsequent Ancient Greek influence would have been easily adopted by the Kafirs because of their common origin. LANGUAGE Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European can be divided into three main groups : Indo-Aryan (Indian), Iranian, Kafiri (the language of the Kafirs). Geographically Kafiristan is located in the middle of India and Iran and thus linguistically the group of languages has similarities with the Indo-Aryan and Iranian groups. However unlike them it has no written script. Also the dialect of the Kafir languages (like Kati and Waigali) coincide with the distribution of the tribes. However, Kalasha, spoken by the last of the Kafirs, is not in Kafiri. It is part of the Indian group of languages with Khowar (Chitrali) which is spoken in Chitral District. Kalasha is very similar to Khowar and even a small Kalasha child can speak it. Mixed in their language, we can identify Persian words used for abstract concept and modern Urdu for tools and articles etc. At present, about 2000 people speak Kalasha and 250 thousand speak Khowar. CHITRAL AND KALASHA VALLEYS A forty-five minute flight from Peshawar by PIA Domestic Airlines takes us to Chitral proper. By road it takes two days via Dir and Lowarai Pass (3177m). Previously, the Kafirs predominated the