𝗢𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 ethnonym - 𝗔𝗳𝗴𝗵𝗮𝗻

The relation between “Afghan” and “Pashtun” can thus be differentiated as follows: the former term is derived from a geographical entity, while the latter has strongly ethnic-cultural overtones.

Ever since the post-Classical (post-Hellenistic) era, the people around the Sulaymān mountain range are better known as the “Afghans.” It is first attested in several Bactrian fragmentary documents (late 4th century CE) spelled as αβαγανο and in a late Skt. treatise of the astronomer Varāha mihira (6th century CE) the Avagāṇa is mentioned.

moreover, it is referred to as 阿薄健 ʔa-bak-gianh/ʔa-phakken in the biographies of the Chinese Buddhist scholar xuanzang (629 CE). In the Islamic era, the designation “Afghan” is first mentioned in the 11th century CE, notably by the anonymous compiler of the Ḥudūd al-͑Ālam and by the Khwarezmian polymath al-Bīrūnī.

For Bactrian αβ(α)γανο we may posit a formation apāka-āna ‘People from a distant land (behind Bactria),’ derived from apānč-/apāka-‘being behind, off.’ Pers. afġān would have developed from an older form aβaġān, reflecting Bactrian αβαγανο.

The arrival of several north Iranian steppe peoples, including the linguistic ancestors of the Pashto speakers, in Afghanistan must have taken place, somewhere in the 2nd century BCE, if not during the rule of Diodotus, cf. morgEnSTIErnE 1979, p. 29: “It is, a priori, a very plausible theory to connect the Pashtuns with the Sakas, who in the 2nd century B.C. penetrated, via Herat, etc., into Sakastāna (Seistān)” (echoing TArn 1938, pp. 284, 292 ff.; morgEnSTIErnE 1940, p. 173

Source: UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI “L’ORIENTALE” DIPARTIMENTO ASIA, AFRICA E MEDITERRANEO ISMEO – ASSOCIAZIONE INTERNAZIONALE DI STUDI SUL MEDITERRANEO E L’ORIENTE STUDIA PHILOLOGICA IRANICA GHERARDO GNOLI MEMORIAL VOLUME Edited by Enrico Morano, Elio Provasi and Adriano V. Rossi.

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