In the 4th century BC,
Alexander the Great encountered them and finally defeated them after they put up a stubborn and prolonged resistance, describing them as being distinct culturally and religiously from other peoples of the region. Nuristanis were formerly classified into "Siah-Posh" (
black-robed) and "Safed-Posh" (
white-robed) / "Lall-Posh" (
red-robed).
Timur fought with and was humbled by the Siah-Posh.
Babur advised not to tangle with them.
Genghis Khan passed by them. In 1014,
Mahmud of Ghazni attacked them:
Timur's encounter with Katirs/Kators The first reference to Siah-Posh Kafirs occurs in Timur's invasion of
Afghanistan in 1398 CE. Timur's autobiography (Tuzak-i-Timuri) amply attests that he had battled both with the Katirs as well as the Kam sections of the Siah-Posh (black-robed) Kafirs of the
Hindu Kush mountains.
Timur invaded Afghanistan in March 1398. On the basis of local complaints of ill-treatment and extortions filed by the
Muslims against the
Kafirs, Timur personally attacked the
Kators of the Siah-Posh group located north-east of
Kabul in eastern Afghanistan. The Kators left their
fort Najil and took refuge at the top of the hill. Timur razed the fort to ground, burnt their houses and surrounded the hill where the Kator had collected for shelter. The relic of the historic fort is said to still exist a little north to Najil in the form of a structure known as
Timur Hissar (Timur's Fort). After a tough fight, some of the Kators were defeated and were instantly put to death while the others held out against heavy odds for three days. Timur offered them
death or
Islam. They chose the latter, but soon recanted and attacked the regiment of Muslim soldiers during night. The latter being on guard, fought back, killed numerous Kators and took 150 as prisoners and put them to death afterwards. Next day, Timur ordered his
troops to advance on all four sides to
kill all men, enslave the women and children and plunder or lay waste all their property. In Tuzak-i-Timuri, Timur proudly boasts of the
towers of the skulls of the Kators which he built on the mountain in the auspicious month of Ramazan A.H. 800 (1300 CE)
Timur's encounter with Kam Kafirs '' Again, according to Timur's autobiography (Tuzak-i-Timuri), a military division of ten thousand Muslim soldiers was sent against the Siah-Posh (Kam) Kafirs under the command of General Aglan Khan to either slay these infidels or else to convert them into Islam. Tuzak-i-Timuri frankly admits that the regiment was badly routed by a small number of Siah-Posh Kafirs. The Muslim forces had to flee from the battle-field leaving their horses and armour. Another detachment had to be sent under Muhammad Azad which fought gallantly and recovered the horses and the armour lost by General Aglan and came back home, leaving the Siah-Posh alone. Timur does not boast of any killings or imprisonment of the Siah-Poshes as he does for the Katirs and numerous other communities of India proper. He gives no further details of his conflict with the Siah-Poshes in Tuzak-i-Timuri after this encounter, which suggests the outcome of the fight against the Siah-Poshes was very costly and shameful for Timur. Other references to these Kafirs are made in the fifteenth and later in sixteenth century during the
Mughal period. In 1839, the Kafirs sent a deputation to Sir William Macnaghten in Jalalabad claiming relationship with the fair skinned British troops who had invaded the country.
Settlement in Chitral At the time of the Afghan conquest of Kafiristan, a small number of Kom and Kati Kafirs fled east to
Chitral (modern Pakistan) where they were allowed to settle by the Mehtar. There they practised their faith for a few more decades, before finally converting to Islam as well. The final known non-converted Kafir was settled in a Chitrali village known as Urtsun. This Kafir's name was Chanlu, and he converted in 1938, several months after being interviewed about the cosmology of the Kati. In Chitral, the Nuristanis are known either as Bashgalis (as most migrated from a valley of Nuristan called Bashgal in the Chitrali
Khowar language), or alternatively as Sheikhan (a generic term for recent converts to Islam). The exact population size of Nuristanis in Chitral is unknown, but members of the community estimate that they number at least 12 000. All of them are speakers of the
Kamkata-vari language, also known locally as
Sheikhani.
Pre-1895 Kafir society Prior to 1895, the Kafirs of the
Hindu Kush were classified into two groups: the Siah-posh (black clad) and the Safed-posh (white clad) Kafirs, also known as the Lal-posh (red-clad), so-called because of the colour of the robes they wore. But the British investigator
George Scott Robertson who visited Kafiristan and studied the Kafirs for about two years (1889–1891) improved upon the old classification by recognising that the Safed-posh Kafirs were actually members of several separate clans, viz, the Waigulis, Presungulis or Viron, and the Ashkuns. The later three groups of the Kafirs used to be collectively known as Sped-Posh Kafirs. The term Siah-posh Kafirs used to designate the dominant group of Hindu Kush Kafirs inhabiting the
Bashgal Valley. The Siah-posh Kafirs have sometimes been confused with
Kalasha people of the neighbouring
Chitral region in
Pakistan. The Siah-Posh tribe was divided into Siah-posh Katirs or Kamtoz, Siah-posh
Mumans or Madugals, Siah-posh Kashtoz or Kashtan, Siah-posh Gourdesh or Istrat, and Siah-posh Kams or Kamoze. The Siah-posh Katirs were further divided into the Katirs, who occupied twelve villages of the lower Bashgul (Kam) country, the Kti or Katawar, who lived in two villages in the Kti Valley, the Kulam, and the Ramguli, the most numerous group, living in twenty four villages in the Ramgul Valley, in the westernmost part of Kafiristan on the
Afghan frontier. All Siah-posh groups of Kafirs were regarded as of common origin. They all had a common dress and customs and spoke closely related dialects of
Kati. Nicholas Barrington et al. reported that the Waigulis and Presungulis referred to all Siah-posh Kafirs as Katirs. While the Kamtoz of the lower Bashgul valley were the most numerous, the Kam of the upper Bashgul valley were the most intractable and fierce and dreaded for their military prowess. Prior to their conversion to Islam in the late 19th century, the Kafir people (now known as Nuristanis) maintained a complex, decentralized tribal society shaped by their mountainous environment and oral traditions. Their highland communities were divided into independent clans, each with its own leaders, ritual specialists, and customary laws. but Greek descent of Kafirs has been discounted by
H. W. Bellew,
George Scott Robertson and many later scholars. However some other people do believe in their authenticity of this tale that some of the Kalash themselves claim as being descendants of Alexander's army. This list of people who propagate the Kalash's ancestry claim is true includes Sir George Scott Robertson, and
Eric S. Margolis. • The Siah-Posh Kafirs themselves claim to have descended from certain Koresh (
Gurashi/Gorish or Goraish) a name linked to
Quraysh tribe of
Arabs but this is merely a fashionable fiction. H. W. Bellew relates name Gurish/Gorish or Koresh of the Kafirs accounts to Kurush and writes that Koresh or Kurush is the
national designation of the Kafir tribes of Kafiristan, north of Laghman. Bellew further speculates that Koresh (or Kurush) may have been the family name of the
Cyrus, king of
Persia who was born in the
Cabul country. Keruch, according to Bellew is the name of a Rajput clan which may have been adopted into the Rajput nation though of different race and descent. Thus, Bellew seem to relate Siah-Posh Kafirs to the
Iranians. •
George Scott Robertson also rejects Greek origin of the Kafirs. According to him, the present dominant clans of
Kafirstan viz. the Katirs (Kamtoz), the Kams (Kamoz) and the Wais are mainly descended from the ancient
Indian population of eastern
Afghanistan who refused to embrace
Islam in tenth century, and fled for refuge from victorious Muslims to the hilly
fastnesses of
Kafirstan. There they probably found other races already settled, whom they vanquished, drove away, or enslaved, or with whom they amalgamated. • According to
Donald Wilber and other writers,
anthropological data suggests that the Kafirs are not the tenth century migrants to Kafirstan but are a remnant of the original population of the area which according to some was
Dravidian but according to the others
Indo-Aryan.
External contacts and cultural resilience Despite their geographic isolation, the Kafir communities maintained extensive interaction with neighboring ethnic groups, including the Kalash of Chitral, Pashtuns, and Indo-Aryan Dardic peoples. Historical records and oral traditions suggest frequent exchanges of goods, rituals, and even kinship ties across these boundaries. The Kafirs spoke several Indo-Iranian languages, such as Kamkata-vari and Ashkun, characterized by rich oral vocabularies and poetic forms. These languages form a distinct subgroup of the Indo-Iranian family and are today endangered. The Islamic conversion was largely symbolic at first. Many Nuristanis continued to observe traditional practices in private or repurposed them under new Islamic labels. Former deities were sometimes reframed as Islamic saints, and seasonal rituals persisted with Qur'anic recitations replacing older hymns. This selective adaptation reflects a broader pattern of religious syncretism and cultural negotiation. Under the Afghan monarchy and successive regimes, efforts to assimilate Nuristanis continued through administrative restructuring, military conscription, Islamic schooling, and the symbolic elevation of tribal leaders. Despite this, the region remained politically and economically marginalized. Poor infrastructure, limited access to education and healthcare, and cultural stigmatization contributed to deep-seated resentment toward the central state. Gender roles also shifted after Islamization. While women had previously participated in communal rituals and managed household economies, their visibility and autonomy declined as Islamic norms enforced stricter gender segregation and curtailed public roles.
Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989) General
Issa Nuristani was second in command following the King during the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, being the commander of the 1st Central Army Corps. Before his assassination, General Issa called the Nuristani people in a "
Jihad" against the Soviet Army and the
Afghan Armed Forces. Led by the
Koms tribe, the Nuristani were the first citizens of
Afghanistan to revolt against
Saur Revolution in 1978. They played an important role in the conquering of some provinces, including
Kunar,
Nangarhar,
Badakhshan, and
Panjshir. Thereafter, Nuristan remained a scene of some of the bloodiest guerrilla fighting with the Soviet forces from 1979 through 1989. Following the withdrawal of the Soviet troops in 1989, the
Mawlawi Ghulam Rabbani was declared as governor of the Kunar Province. The Nuristanis inspired others to fight and contributed to the demise of the
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992. == Genetics ==