Pashtuns (
Pashto:
پښتون Paṣ̌tun,
Pax̌tun, also rendered as
Pushtuns,
Pakhtuns,
Pukhtuns) or
Pathans (
Urdu:
پٹھان,
Hindi:
पठान Paṭhān), also known as ethnic
Afghans (
Persian:
افغان), are an
Eastern Iranian ethnic group with populations primarily in
Afghanistan and northwestern
Pakistan, which includes
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa,
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and
Balochistan.
[11] The Pashtuns are typically characterized by their usage of the
Pashto language and practice of
Pashtunwali, a
traditional set of
ethics guiding individual and
communal conduct. Their origins are unclear but historians have come across references to various ancient peoples called
Paktha (
Pactyans) between the
2nd and the
1st millennium BC,
[12][13][14] who may be the early ancestors of Pashtuns. Since the 3rd century AD and onward, they are mostly referred to by the
ethnonym "Afghan".
[15][16][17][18].
Often characterized as a warrior and martial race, they have a tumultuous past, especially after their conversion to the faith of
Islam. Their turbulent history is spread amongst various countries of South, Central and West Asia, centered around the
medieval state of Afghanistan, which has been their traditional seat of power. During the
Delhi Sultanate era, many
Pashtun emperors (sultans) ruled the Indian subcontinent. Other Pashtuns defeated the
Safavid Persians and the
Mughal Empire[19] before obtaining an
independent state in the early-18th century, which began with a successful
revolution by the
Hotaki dynasty followed by
conquests by
Ahmad Shah Durrani.
[20] Pashtuns played a vital role during the
Great Game from the 19th century to the 20th century as they were caught between the imperialist designs of the
British and
Russian empires. For over 300 years, they
reigned as the dominant
ethnic group in Afghanistan with nearly all rulers being Pashtun. More recently, the Pashtuns gained global attention during the 1980s
Soviet war in Afghanistan and with the rise of the
Taliban, since they are the main ethnic contingent in the movement. Pashtuns are also an important community in Pakistan, where they have attained the
presidency and high positions in the
military, and are the
second-largest ethnic group in that country.
The Pashtuns are the world's largest (patriarchal)
segmentary lineage ethnic group. According to
Ethnologue, the total population of the group is estimated to be around 50 million
[1] but an accurate count remains elusive due to the lack of an official census in Afghanistan since 1979. Estimates of the number of
Pashtun tribes and clans range from about 350 to over 400.
[19][21]
[edit] Geographic distribution
Map of Afghanistan and Pakistan showing the predominant Pashtun areas in green color.
The vast majority of Pashtuns are found between the
Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the
Indus River in Pakistan. Additional Pashtun communities are located in western and northern Afghanistan, the
Gilgit-Baltistan region and northern
Punjab province of Pakistan, as well as in the
Khorasan province of
Iran. There are also sizable communities in
India, which are of largely putative ancestry.
[8][22] Smaller
Pashtun communities are found in the countries of the
Arabian Peninsula,
Europe and the
Americas, particularly in
North America.
Important metropolitan centers of
Pashtun culture include
Kandahar,
Quetta,
Peshawar,
Jalalabad,
Kunduz and
Swat.
Kabul and
Ghazni are home to around 25% Pashtun population while
Herat and
Mazar-i-Sharif each has at least 10%.
[23] With as high as 7 million by some estimates, the city of
Karachi in Pakistan may have the largest concentration of urban Pashtuns in the world.
[24][25] In addition,
Rawalpindi,
Islamabad, and
Lahore also have sizable Pashtun populations.
[26]
Pashtuns comprise roughly 15.42% of
Pakistan's 174 million population.
[2] In
Afghanistan, they make up an estimated 42% of the
29 million population according to the
CIA World Factbook.
[27] Some sources give 50-60%
[28][29][30][31][32][33] because the exact figure remains uncertain in Afghanistan, and are affected by the 1.7 million
Afghan refugees that remain in
Pakistan a majority of which are Pashtuns.
[34] Another 937,600
Afghans live in Iran according to the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
[35] A cumulative population assessment suggests a total of around 49 million individuals all across the world.
[1]
[edit] History and origins
 Part of a series on
Pashtuns
 v · d · e
|
The history of the Pashtun people is ancient and much of it is not fully researched. Since the
2nd millennium BC, cities in the region now inhabited by Pashtuns have seen invasions and migrations, including by
Ancient Iranian peoples, the
Median and
Persian empires of antiquity,
Greeks,
Mauryas,
Kushans,
Hephthalites,
Sassanids,
Arab Muslims,
Turks,
Mongols, and others. In recent age, people of the
Western world have explored the area as well.
[36][37][38][39]
There are many conflicting theories about the origin of Pashtuns, some modern and others archaic, both among historians and the Pashtuns themselves. According to most historians and experts, the true origin of the Pashtuns is some what unclear.
[40]
...the origin of the Afghans is so obscure, that no one, even among the oldest and most clever of the tribe, can give satisfactory information on this point.[41]
Looking for the origin of Pashtuns and the Afghans is something like exploring the source of the Amazon. Is there one specific beginning? And are the Pashtuns originally identical with the Afghans? Although the Pashtuns nowadays constitute a clear ethnic group with their own language and culture, there is no evidence whatsoever that all modern Pashtuns share the same ethnic origin. In fact it is highly unlikely.[42]
