sitting on a Corinthian chariot from
ancient Afghanistan The eastern regions of Afghanistan were considered regionally as parts of India and were also politically ruled by the
Mauryan Empire. Buddhism and Hinduism held sway over the region until the Muslim conquest. Kabul and Zabulistan which housed Buddhism and other
Indian religions, offered stiff resistance to the Muslim advance for two centuries, with the
Kabul Shahi and
Zunbils remaining unconquered until the
Saffarid and
Ghaznavid conquests. The significance of the realm of
Zun and its rulers Zunbils had laid in them blocking the path of Arabs in invading the
Indus Valley. According to historian
André Wink, "In southern and eastern Afghanistan, the regions of
Zamindawar (Zamin I Datbar or land of the justice giver, the classical
Arachosia) and
Zabulistan or
Zabul (Jabala,
Kapisha, Kia pi shi) and
Kabul, the Arabs were effectively opposed for more than two centuries, from 643 to 870 AD, by the indigenous rulers the
Zunbils and the related
Kabul-Shahs of the dynasty which became known as the Buddhist-Shahi. With
Makran and
Baluchistan and much of Sindh this area can be reckoned to belong to the cultural and political frontier zone between India and
Persia." He also wrote, "It is clear however that in the seventh to ninth centuries the Zunbils and their kinsmen the Kabulshahs ruled over a predominantly Indian rather than a Persianate realm. The Arab geographers, in effect, commonly speak of 'that king of al-Hind ... (who) bore the title of Zunbil." Around 644 CE, the Chinese travelling monk
Xuanzang made an account of Zabul (which he called by its Sanskrit name
Jaguda), which he describes as mainly pagan, though also respecting
Mahayana Buddhism, which although in the minority had the support of its royals. In terms of other cults, the god Śuna, is described to be the prime deity of the country. The Caliph
Al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833 A.D.) led the last Arab expeditions on Kabul and Zabul, after which the long-drawn conflict ended with the dissolution of the empire. Rutbil were made to pay double the tribute to the Caliph. The king of Kabul was captured by him and converted to Islam. The last Zunbil was killed by
Ya'qub bin al-Layth along with his former overlord Salih b. al-Nadr in 865. Meanwhile, the Hindu Shahi of Kabul were defeated under
Mahmud of Ghazni. Indian soldiers were a part of the Ghaznavid army,
Baihaki mentioned Hindu officers employed by
Ma'sud. The 14th-century scholar Muslim scholar
Ibn Battuta described the
Hindu Kush as meaning "slayer of Indians", because large numbers of slaves brought from
India died from its treacherous weather.
Zabulistan Zabulistan, a historical region in southern
Afghanistan roughly corresponding to the modern provinces of
Zabul and
Ghazni, was a collection of loose suzerains of the Hindu rulers when it fell to the
Turk Shahis in the 7th century, though the suzerainty continued up to the 11th century. The Hindu kingdom of Kapisha had split up as its western part formed a separate state called the kingdom of Zabul. It was a family division because there were consanguineous and political relationships between the states of Kabul and Zabul. The
Zunbils, a royal dynasty south of the
Hindu Kush in present-day southern Afghanistan region, worshiped the Zhuna, possibly a
sun god connected to the Hindu god Surya and is sometimes referred to as Zoor or Zoon. He is represented with flames radiating from his head on coins. Statues were adorned with gold and used rubies for eyes.
Huen Tsang calls him "sunagir". It has been linked with the Hindu god
Aditya at
Multan,
pre-Buddhist religious and
kingship practices of
Tibet as well as
Shaivism. His shrine lay on a sacred mountain in Zamindawar. Originally it appears to have been brought there by
Hepthalites, displacing an earlier god on the same site. Parallels have been noted with the pre-Buddhist monarchy of Tibet, next to
Zoroastrian influence on its ritual. Whatever its origins, it was certainly superimposed on a mountain and on a pre-existing mountain god while merging with Shaiva doctrines of worship.
Buddhist Turk Shahi dynasty of Kabul at
Mes Aynak in Logar Province. Similar stupas have been discovered in neighboring
Ghazni Province, including in the northern
Samangan Province. The area had been under the rule of the
Turk Shahi who took over the rule of Kabul in the seventh century and later were attacked by the Arabs. The Turk Shahi dynasty was
Buddhist and were followed by a
Hindu dynasty shortly before the Saffarid conquest in 870 A.D. The Turk Shahi were a Buddhist
Turkic dynasty that ruled from Kabul and
Kapisa in the 7th to 9th centuries. They replaced the
Nezak – the last dynasty of Bactrian rulers.
Kabulistan was the heartland of the Turk Shahi domain, which at times included
Zabulistan and
Gandhara. The last Shahi ruler of Kabul, Lagaturman, was deposed by a
Brahmin minister, possibly named Vakkadeva,
Hindu Shahis was built between the 7th and 9th centuries CE during the reign of the Hindu Shahi Empire The Hindu Shahi (850–1026 CE) was a
Hindu dynasty that held sway over the
Kabul Valley,
Gandhara (modern-day north-west Pakistan and north-east Afghanistan), and present-day northwestern India, during the
early medieval period in the Indian subcontinent. They succeeded the
Turk Shahis. There were two successive dynasties in
Kabul Valley and
Gandhara – the
Kshatriya dynasty and the
Brahmana dynasty which replaced it. In 1973, Historian Yogendra Mishra proposed that according to
Rajatarangini, Hindu Shahis were
Kshatriyas. According to available inscriptions following are the names of Hindu Shahi kings: Vakkadeva, Kamalavarman, Bhimadeva,
Jayapala,
Anandapala,
Trilochanapala and Bhimpala. •
Vakkadeva: According to
The Mazare Sharif Inscription of the Time of the Shahi Ruler Veka, recently discovered from northern Afghanistan and reported by the Taxila Institute of Asian Civilisations,
Islamabad,
Veka (sic.) conquered northern region of Afghanistan 'with eightfold forces' and ruled there. He established a
Shiva temple there which was inaugurated by
Parimaha Maitya (the Great Minister). He also issued copper coins of the Elephant and Lion type with the legend Shri Vakkadeva. Nine principal issues of Bull and Horseman silver coins and only one issue of corresponding copper coins of Spalapatideva have become available. As many as five Elephant and Lion type of copper coins of Shri Vakkadeva are available and curiously the copper issues of Vakka are
contemporaneous with the silver issues of Spalapati. •
Jayapala: With
Jayapala, a new dynasty started ruling over the former Shahi kingdom of southeastern Afghanistan and the change over was smooth and consensual. On his coronation, Jayapala used the additional name-suffix
Deva from his predecessor's dynasty in addition to the
pala name-ending of his own family. (With Kabul lost during the lifetime of Jayapaladeva, his successors – Anandapala, Trilochanapala and Bhimapala – reverted to their own family
pala-ending names.) Jayapala did not issue any coins in his own name. Bull and Horseman coins with the legend Samantadeva, in billon, seem to have been struck during Jayapala's reign. As the successor of Bhima, Jayapala was a Shahi monarch of the state of Kabul, which now included Punjab. Minhaj-ud-din describes Jayapala as "the greatest of the Rais of Hindustan."
Hui'Chao, who visited around 726, mentions that the Arabs ruled it and all the inhabitants were
Buddhists.
Balkh's final conquest was undertaken by
Qutayba ibn Muslim in 705. Among Balkh's Buddhist monasteries, the largest was
Nava Vihara, later Persianized to
Naw Bahara after the Islamic conquest of Balkh. It is not known how long it continued to serve as a place of worship after the conquest. Accounts of early Arabs offer contradictory narratives.
Ghur Amir Suri, a king of the
Ghurid dynasty, in the
Ghor region of present-day central Afghanistan, and his son
Muhammad ibn Suri, despite bearing Arabic names were Buddhists. During their rule from the 9th century to the 10th century, they were considered
pagans by the surrounding Muslim people, and it was only during the reign of Muhammad's son
Abu Ali ibn Muhammad that the Ghurid dynasty became an Islamic dynasty. Amir Suri was a descendant of the Ghurid king
Amir Banji, whose rule was legitimized by the
Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid. He is known to have fought the
Saffarid ruler
Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar, who managed to conquer much of
Khurasan except
Ghur. Ghur remained a pagan enclave until the 11th century.
Mahmud of Ghazni, who raided it, left Muslim precepts to teach Islam to the local population. The region became Muslim by 12th century though the historian
Satish Chandra states that
Mahayana Buddhism is believed to have existed until the end of the century.
Nuristan The vast area extending from modern
Nuristan to Kashmir (styled "Peristan" by A. M. Cacopardo) containing host of "
Kafir" cultures and Indo-European languages that became Islamized over a long period. Earlier, it was surrounded by Buddhist areas. The Islamization of the nearby
Badakhshan began in the 8th century and Peristan was completely surrounded by Muslim states in the 16th century with Islamization of
Baltistan. The Buddhist states temporarily brought literacy and state rule into the region. The decline of Buddhism resulted in it becoming heavily isolated. Successive wave of
Pashtun immigration, before or during 16th and 17th centuries, displaced the original Kafirs and
Pashayi people from
Kunar Valley and Laghman valley, the two eastern provinces near
Jalalabad, to the less fertile mountains. Before their conversion, the
Kafir people of
Kafiristan practiced a form of
ancient Hinduism infused with locally developed accretions. The region from
Nuristan to
Kashmir (styled
Peristan by A. M. Cacopardo) was host to a vast number of "Kafir" cultures. while others also converted to avoid paying
jizya. In 1020–21, Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna led a campaign against Kafiristan and the people of the "pleasant valleys of Nur and Qirat" according to Gardizi. These people worshipped the lion.
Mohammad Habib however considers they might have been worshipping Buddha in form of a lion (
Sakya Sinha).
Ramesh Chandra Majumdar states they had a Hindu temple which was destroyed by Mahmud's general. == Land area ==