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Pashto culture is very ancient. Any discussion of its origins however fall afoul of what various tribes claim and what historians have uncovered.
Briefly, the word Afghan, appears in the inscriptions of Shahpur I at Naksh-e-Rustam which names Goundifer Abgan Rismaund.
According to Sprenger a similar name 'Apakan' occurs as the designation of the Sassanian Emperor Shahpur III.
"The word Afghan ... first appears in history in the Hudud-al-Alam, a work by an unknown Arab geographer who wrote in 982 A.D." (Afghanistan, by W.K Frazier Tytler).
"The supposition that the Pathans are any different from the Afghans is not borne
out either by the legendary accounts associated with the origin of this people or by historical or ethnological data." (Afghan Immigration in the Early Middle Ages, by K.S Lal).
From the 1st century B.C. to the 5th century A.D. this region saw three immense migrations of peoples from Central Asia: the arrival of the Sakas, Kushans, Huns and Gujjars. Previous groups whether Aryan, Jewish, Greek or Iranian would be a drop in the ocean of new arrivals.
According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, the theory of the Jewish descent of Afghans is of later origin and may be traced back to Maghzan-e-Afghani compiled for Khan-e-Jehan Lodhi in the reign of Mughal Emperor Jehangir and does not seem to have been recorded before the end of the 16th century A.D.
Prior to this period no other book mentions that Afghans are descended from Jewish tribes. The Jewish books also do not mention anywhere that Saul's son Jeremia had a son named Afghan from whom Afghans claim descent.
See Bellew: Races of Afghanistan, Yu V. Gankovsky, Syed Bahadur Shah Zafar Kaka Khel: Pukhtana, and Sir Olaf Caroe: The Pathans.
The word for the language itself, Pashto or Pashtun, has been historically synonymous with the word Afghan. Because of this etymology, the Pashtuns are often referred to as "ethnic Afghans". In fact, just as Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tajikstan, Uzbekistan and other countries were named for their historical majority ethnic group, it can be said that Afghanistan was also named after its largest ethnic majority.
The Pashtuns are intimately tied to the history of modern-era Afghanistan. The country's founder, Ahmad Shah Durrani, was a Pashtun. He founded the country, as we know it today, in 1747 and the Pashtuns would rule it for the next 200 years. More recently the Pashtuns are known for being the primary ethnic group that comprised the Taliban, whose ideological basis began in the North West Frontier Province, centered around the Pakistani city of Peshawar and at the Madarassa-e-Haqqania in Akora , KhattakThe Khattak are a famous tribe of the Pashtun nation, originating from the region currently known as the North-West Frontier Province (N. of Pakistan. The Khattak are the only Pashtun tribe whose recorded history indicates that they were always based in w.
Throughout Pashtun history the warrior has been the most revered member of society. The term 'Pakhto' or 'Pashto' from which they derive their name is not merely the name of their language, but the name of an honour code and religion. The main tenets of 'Pakhto' or formally known as Pashtunwali are:
Most decisions in tribal life are made by a ' Jirga ' or 'Senate' of elected elderAn elder refers to various Wikipedia topics. Listed below are some examples. Elder (religious) Elderberry plant Sambucus Box-elder plant ( maple) Elderly person see: Old age Class of enlightened people watching over good witches in the Charmed tv series Ts and wise men. However, Pashtun society is also marked by its matriarchal tendencies. Folktales involving reverence for Pashtun mothers and matriarchs are common and are passed down from parent to child, as most Pashtun heritage, through a rich oral tradition.
However, some historians believe that the name Pakhtun has its origin in Pactyan, the name of an ancient Iranian tribe that lived in the Persian Satrapy ArachosiaArachosia is the ancient name of an area that corresponds to the southern part of today 's Afghanistan, around the city of Kandahar. It is directly to the south of Bactria, but is separated from it by the Hindu Kush. The main inhabitants of Arachosia were.