Growing up in Waziristan after the Soviet Afghan War, I would often hear that Afghanistan was “the graveyard of empires” and that the Afghan nation had never been subjugated by a foreign power. Back then, these slogans moved me. But by the time a new war began in Afghanistan in 2001, I had read enough to know that the assertion was nothing more than self-acclamation.
The idea of Afghanistan as a state is no older than 18th Century. Before that, it was at best a region, part of one empire or the other. Historian Thomas Barfield calls Afghanistan “the highway of conquests” and “a cradle of empires”.
Before Darius I’s conquest of the areas that comprise today’s Afghanistan, the region was under the sway of Medes as a part of an extensive empire starting in 700BC. The neighboring Persians from the Fars area of today’s southern Iran came to dominate the region soon after that. It was under their rule, especially that of Cyrus the Great, that Zoroastrianism became the dominant religion of the empire, whose origins are thought to be in Balkh – an ancient city of Afghanistan. After Alexander the Great conquered the area in 4th Century BC, it remained under Greek influence for years. After Alexander’s death, the region came under the influence of the Maurya dynasty of Northern India, which also brought Buddhism to Afghanistan. It was at this point that Gandhara became a great seat of learning of Buddhist religion under King Ashoka, the famous Mauryan emperor. A university at the present day Taxila attracted students of Buddhism from as far as China.
Kushans were the next dynasty to conquer what we now call Afghanistan. Kanishka the Great, a famous Kushan emperor, chose Purushpura (today’s Peshawar) as his capital. Then came the devastating attack of the White Huns. With their winter capital at Badian, now called Kunduz, and ruling over large swathes of what are now Afghanistan and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, these central Asian nomads began to attack the Gupta dynasty of India towards the end of the 5th Century. These pressures contributed to the disintegration of the Gupta empire, and the White Huns had by then expanded their empire far enough to make a capital at what is now Sialkot.
The Hindu Shahis, whose sway over most of the Indian subcontinent lasted from the mid eighth century to the beginning of the twelfth century, also ruled over the Afghans.
When the Arab invaders arrived, many Afghans converted from Buddhism to Islam. The Janjau Rajput empire controlled the Afghan region until the last powerful emperor Jaypala was defeated in a battle by Mahmud of Ghazni.
The famous Mongol invasion of Genghis Khan from 1219 to 1221 left many cities, including Bamiyan, Herat and Balkh, in ruins. His descendant Timur attacked Afghanistan from the north from 1383 to 1385, expanding his vast Timurid Empire which he ruled from Samarkand, a famous Central Asian city. His son Shah Rukh moved the capital to Herat, in western Afghanistan. These invasions brought in with them the nomadic Central Asian culture, and Herat arose as one of the most cultured and refined cities of the world. To this day, it is regarded as the cultural capital of Afghanistan – a legacy of a foreign ruler.
In the 16th Century, Afghanistan came under the occupation of three foreign forces – the Khanate of Bukhara in the north, the Shi’a Safavids in the west, and the Sunni Mughals in the east.
[quote]It was in the 18th century that the Afghans, led by Ahmed Shah Durrani, asserted their independence for the first time[/quote]
It was only in the middle of the 18th Century that Afghans, under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Durrani, asserted their independence for the first time, and also formed a confederacy which could be considered the forerunner of the modern day Afghanistan.
According to Hugh Beattie, the state of Afghanistan came into being in the late nineteenth century. Although the British could not hold Afghanistan for long, they kept its foreign affairs in their own hands until 1919.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, Afghanistan remained under the influence of Czarist Russia and colonial Britain, whose mutual struggle for power is now known as the Great Game.
The idea of Afghanistan as a state is no older than 18th Century. Before that, it was at best a region, part of one empire or the other. Historian Thomas Barfield calls Afghanistan “the highway of conquests” and “a cradle of empires”.
Before Darius I’s conquest of the areas that comprise today’s Afghanistan, the region was under the sway of Medes as a part of an extensive empire starting in 700BC. The neighboring Persians from the Fars area of today’s southern Iran came to dominate the region soon after that. It was under their rule, especially that of Cyrus the Great, that Zoroastrianism became the dominant religion of the empire, whose origins are thought to be in Balkh – an ancient city of Afghanistan. After Alexander the Great conquered the area in 4th Century BC, it remained under Greek influence for years. After Alexander’s death, the region came under the influence of the Maurya dynasty of Northern India, which also brought Buddhism to Afghanistan. It was at this point that Gandhara became a great seat of learning of Buddhist religion under King Ashoka, the famous Mauryan emperor. A university at the present day Taxila attracted students of Buddhism from as far as China.
Kushans were the next dynasty to conquer what we now call Afghanistan. Kanishka the Great, a famous Kushan emperor, chose Purushpura (today’s Peshawar) as his capital. Then came the devastating attack of the White Huns. With their winter capital at Badian, now called Kunduz, and ruling over large swathes of what are now Afghanistan and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, these central Asian nomads began to attack the Gupta dynasty of India towards the end of the 5th Century. These pressures contributed to the disintegration of the Gupta empire, and the White Huns had by then expanded their empire far enough to make a capital at what is now Sialkot.
The Hindu Shahis, whose sway over most of the Indian subcontinent lasted from the mid eighth century to the beginning of the twelfth century, also ruled over the Afghans.
When the Arab invaders arrived, many Afghans converted from Buddhism to Islam. The Janjau Rajput empire controlled the Afghan region until the last powerful emperor Jaypala was defeated in a battle by Mahmud of Ghazni.
The famous Mongol invasion of Genghis Khan from 1219 to 1221 left many cities, including Bamiyan, Herat and Balkh, in ruins. His descendant Timur attacked Afghanistan from the north from 1383 to 1385, expanding his vast Timurid Empire which he ruled from Samarkand, a famous Central Asian city. His son Shah Rukh moved the capital to Herat, in western Afghanistan. These invasions brought in with them the nomadic Central Asian culture, and Herat arose as one of the most cultured and refined cities of the world. To this day, it is regarded as the cultural capital of Afghanistan – a legacy of a foreign ruler.
In the 16th Century, Afghanistan came under the occupation of three foreign forces – the Khanate of Bukhara in the north, the Shi’a Safavids in the west, and the Sunni Mughals in the east.
[quote]It was in the 18th century that the Afghans, led by Ahmed Shah Durrani, asserted their independence for the first time[/quote]
It was only in the middle of the 18th Century that Afghans, under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Durrani, asserted their independence for the first time, and also formed a confederacy which could be considered the forerunner of the modern day Afghanistan.
According to Hugh Beattie, the state of Afghanistan came into being in the late nineteenth century. Although the British could not hold Afghanistan for long, they kept its foreign affairs in their own hands until 1919.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, Afghanistan remained under the influence of Czarist Russia and colonial Britain, whose mutual struggle for power is now known as the Great Game.