Early history The surrounding area fell to
Alexander the Great in 330 BC. It later fell to
Chandragupta Maurya. The
Mauryas introduced
Buddhism to the region, and were attempting to expand their empire to Central Asia until they faced local Greco-Bactrian forces.
Seleucus is said to have reached a
peace treaty with Chandragupta by giving control of the territory south of the Hindu Kush to the Mauryas upon intermarriage and 500 elephants. Before their conversion to Islam, the Nuristanis practiced an
animist religion They were called "
kafirs" due to their enduring paganism while other regions around them became Muslim. However, the influence from district names in Kafiristan of Katwar or Kator and the ethnic name
Kati has also been suggested. The area extending from modern Nuristan to
Kashmir was part of a wider cultural area called "Kafiristan" in contemporary Islamic sources, containing a host of "Kafir" cultures and Indo-European languages that became Islamized over a long period. In the scientific literature, the term "Peristan" has been applied to this region. Earlier, it was surrounded by Buddhist areas. The Islamization of the nearby
Badakhshan began in the 8th century and Peristan was surrounded by Muslim states in the 16th century with the 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. Oral traditions of some of the Nuristanis place themselves to be at the confluence of
Kabul River and
Kunar River a millennium ago. These traditions state they were driven off from
Kandahar to Kabul to
Kapisa to
Kama with the Muslim invasion. They identify themselves as late arrivals in Nuristan, being driven by
Mahmud of Ghazni who after establishing his empire forced the unsubmissive population to flee. The theory of Kators being related to Turki Shahis is based on the information of
Jami- ut-Tawarikh and
Tarikh-i-Binakiti. The region was also named after its ruling elite. The royal usage may be the origin behind the name of Kator. The high god of the pre-Islamic Nuristani religion was the god
Imra, derived from the Hindu god
Yama, and was also called
Mara. Another god was Indr, derived from
Indra. He was seen as the brother of the god Gisht and father of Pano and the goddess Dishani. There were also many other minor gods worshiped in the region. The region was
invaded by forces of Afghan Amir
Abdur Rahman Khan in 1896 and most of the people were converted either by force or did so to avoid the
jizya: The region was renamed Nuristan, meaning
Land of the enlightened, a reflection of the "enlightening" of the
pagan Nuristani by the "light-giving" of Islam. Nuristan was once thought to have been a region through which Alexander the Great passed with a detachment of his army; thus the
folk legend that the Nuristani people are descendants of Alexander (or "his generals"). In the 19th century, the
Emirate of Afghanistan incorporated Nuristan into its territory via military conquest; this occurred around the same time as the beginning of
European influence in Afghanistan. During this period, one of the most well known Afghan generals from this period, Abdul Wakil Khan, was born in Nuristan. He fought against the insurgent forces of
Habibullāh Kalakāni and was buried on the same plateau where Afghan king
Amanullah Khan is buried.
Recent history (ANA) during a U.S.-led patrol in Wadawu valley during Operation Silver Creek in August 2009 Since the creation of Pakistan in 1947, Afghan politicians (particularly
Mohammed Daoud Khan) have been focused on invading
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. This has led to terrorism on both sides of the border as the scene of some of the heaviest
guerrilla fighting during the 1980s
Soviet–Afghan War. The province was influenced by
Mawlawi Afzal's
Islamic Revolutionary State of Afghanistan, which was supported by Pakistan nationalists and
Saudi Arabia. It dissolved under the
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban rule) in the late 1990s. Nuristan is one of the poorest and most remote provinces of Afghanistan. Prior to the takeover of the Taliban in 2021, few
NGOs operated in Nuristan because of the
insurgency and a lack of safe roads. Some road construction projects were launched linking Nangarej to
Mandol and
Chapa Dara to Titan Dara. The Afghan government also worked on a direct road route to
Laghman province, in order to reduce dependence on the road through restive
Kunar province to the rest of Afghanistan. Other road projects were started aimed at improving the primitive road from
Kamdesh to
Barg-i Matal, and from
Nangalam in Kunar province to the provincial center at Parun. Since Nuristan is a highly ethnically homogeneous province, there are few incidents of inter-ethnic violence. However, there are instances of disputes among inhabitants, some of which continue for decades. Nuristan has suffered from its inaccessibility and lack of infrastructure. The government presence is under-developed, even compared to neighboring provinces. Nuristan's formal educational sector is weak, with few professional teachers. Due to its proximity to Pakistan, many of the inhabitants are actively involved in trade and commerce across the border. A map from the
Afghan Ministry of the Interior produced in 2009 showed the western region of Nuristan to be under "enemy control". There have been numerous conflicts between militants and U.S.-led Afghan security forces. In April 2008 members of the
3rd Special Forces Group led Afghan soldiers from the
Commando Brigade into the Shok valley in
an unsuccessful attempt to capture warlord
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. In July 2008, approximately 200
Taliban guerrillas attacked a NATO position just south of Nuristan, near the village of Wanat in the
Waygal District, killing 9 U.S. soldiers. In the following year, in early October, more than 350 insurgents backed by members of the
Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin and other militia groups fought U.S.-led Afghan security forces in the
Battle of Kamdesh at Camp Keating in Nuristan. The base was nearly overrun; more than 100 Taliban fighters, eight U.S. soldiers, and seven members of the Afghan security forces were killed during the fighting. Four days after the battle, in early October 2009, U.S. forces withdrew from their four main bases in Nuristan, as part of a plan by General
Stanley McChrystal to pull troops out of small outposts and relocate them closer to major towns. The U.S. has pulled out from some areas in the past, but never from all four main bases. A month after the U.S. pullout the Taliban was governing openly in Nuristan. In 2021, the
Taliban gained control of the province during the
2021 Taliban offensive. ==Administrative divisions==