View source for Kafiristan

{{Short description|Historical region of Afghanistan}}
{{Infobox settlement
| name                     = Kafiristan
| native_name              = کافرستان
| native_name_lang         = prs
| settlement_type          = Historical region of Afghanistan & Pakistan
| image_skyline            = MAPNuristani.png
| image_caption            = The Kafiristan region, located in the southern range of [[Hindu Kush]]
| image_map                = AfghanistanNurestan.png
| map_caption              = Map showing present-day [[Nuristan Province]] of [[Afghanistan]]
| etymology                = 
| nickname                 = 
| coordinates              = <!-- {{Coord}} -->
| subdivision_type         = Country
| subdivision_name         = {{flag|Afghanistan}}
| website                  = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} -->
| subdivision_type1        = Country
}}
[[File:Kafiristan.gif|thumb|right|250px|Map of Kafiristan prior to its conversion to Islam in 1890s]]

'''Kāfiristān''', or '''Kāfirstān''' ({{langx|ps|کاپیرستان}}; {{langx|prs|کافرستان}}; {{Literally|Land of [[Kafir|Infidel]]s}}), is a [[historical region]] that covered present-day [[Nuristan Province]] in [[Afghanistan]] and its surroundings. This historic region lies on, and mainly comprises, the basins of the rivers [[Alingar River|Alingar]], [[Pech River|Pech (Kamah)]], [[Landai Sin River|Landai Sin]] and [[Kunar River|Kunar]], and the intervening mountain ranges. It is bounded by the main range of the [[Hindu Kush]] on the north, [[Pakistan|Pakistan's]] [[Chitral District]] to the east, the [[Kunar Valley]] in the south and the [[Alishang]] River in the west.

Kafiristan took its name from the enduring [[kafir]] (non-Muslim) [[Nuristanis|Nuristani]] inhabitants who once practised what authors consider as a form of [[animism]] and ancestor worship{{efn|See Kalash People, [[Kalash people#cite note-animism ancestor worship-3|Note on animism and ancestor worship]].}} with elements of Indo-Iranian ([[Historical Vedic religion|Vedic-]] or [[Hinduism|Hindu-like]]) religion;{{efn|See Kalash people, [[Kalash people#cite note-Indo Iranian religion-4|Note on Indo-Iranian religion]].}} they were thus known to the surrounding predominantly [[Sunni Islam|Sunni Muslim]] population as [[Kafir]]s, meaning "disbelievers" or "infidels".<ref name="nuristan.info">{{cite web|url=http://nuristan.info/Nuristani/Nuristanis1.html|title=Richard Strand's Nuristân Site: Peoples and Languages of Nuristan|author=Richard F. Strand|date=31 December 2005|work=nuristan.info|author-link=Richard Strand}}</ref> They are closely related to the [[Kalash people]], an independent people with a distinctive culture, language and religion, who reside in the [[Chitral District]] of the [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa|Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa]] province of [[Pakistan]].

The area extending from modern Nuristan to Kashmir was known as "Peristan", a vast area containing a host of "Kafir" cultures and Indo-European languages that became Islamized over a long period of time, which eventually led them to become Muslim on the orders of [[Emir of Afghanistan|Emir]] [[Abdur Rahman Khan]] who conquered the territory in 1895–96. The region was earlier surrounded by Buddhist states that temporarily brought literacy and state rule to the mountains; the decline of Buddhism heavily isolated the region. It was surrounded by Muslim states in the 16th century.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Archivio per l'Antropologia e la Etnologia
|title=Fence of Peristan – The Islamization of the "Kafirs" and Their Domestication|publisher=Società Italiana di Antropologia e Etnologia|author=Alberto M. Cacopardo|year=2016|pages=69, 77}}</ref>

==Etymology==
''Kafiristan'' or ''Kafirstan'' is normally taken to mean "land [''[[-stan]]''] of the [[kafir]]s" in the [[Persian language]], where the name {{lang|fa|کافر}} ''{{Transliteration|fa|kafir}}'' is derived from {{lang|ar|كافر}} ''{{Transliteration|ar|DIN|kāfir}}'', literally meaning a person who refuses to accept a principle of any nature and figuratively as a person refusing to accept Islam as his faith; it is commonly translated into English as a "non-believer". However, the influence from district names in Kafiristan of Katwar or Kator and the ethnic name [[Kata people|Kati]] has also been suggested.<ref name=Pellat>{{cite book|title=The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Volume IV|editor1=C. E. Bosworth|editor1-link=C. E. Bosworth |editor2=E. Van Donzel|editor3=Bernard Lewis|editor3-link=Bernard Lewis|editor4=Charles Pellat|editor4-link=Charles Pellat|page=409|publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]]}}</ref> Kafiristan was inhabited by people who followed a form of Paganism before their conversion to [[Islam]] in 1895–1896.<ref name="nuristan.info"/>

==History of Kafiristan==

===Ancient history===
{{History of Afghanistan}}
{{Further|History of Afghanistan}}
Ancient [[Kapisa Province|Kapiśa]] ''[[janapada]]'', located south-east of the [[Hindukush]], included and is related to Kafiristan.<ref>Ethnology of Ancient Bhārata, 1970, p. 112, Dr R. C. Jain; Ethnic Settlements in Ancient India: (a Study on the Puranic Lists of the Peoples of Bharatavarsa, 1955, p. 133, Dr S. B. Chaudhuri; The Cultural Heritage of India, 1936, p. 151, Sri Ramakrishna Centenary Committee; Geography of the Mahabharata, 1986, p 198, Bhagwan Singh Suryavanshi.</ref> The [[China|Chinese]] [[pilgrim]] [[Xuanzang]] who visited Kapisa in 644 AD calls it ''Kai-pi-shi(h)'' (迦畢試; [[standard Chinese]]: ''Jiābìshì'' < [[Middle Chinese]] [[Zhengzhang Shangfang|ZS]]: *''kɨɑ-piɪt̚-ɕɨ<sup>H</sup>''). Xuanzang describes ''Kai-pi-shi''<ref>Su-kao-seng-chaun, Chapter 2, (no. 1493); Kai-yuan-lu, chapter 7; Publications, 1904, p 122-123, published by Oriental Translation Fund (Editors Dr T. W. Rhys Davis, S. W. Bushel, London, Royal Asiatic Society).</ref> as a flourishing kingdom ruled by a [[Buddhist]] ''[[kshatriya]]'' king holding sway over ten neighbouring states, including [[Lampaka]], [[Nagarahara]], [[Gandhara]] and [[Bannu]]. Until the 9th century AD, Kapiśi remained the second capital of the [[Turk Shahis|Shahi dynasty]] of [[Kabul]]. Kapiśa was known for goats and their skin.<ref>Geography of the Mahabharata, 1986, p. 183, B. S.Suryavanshi.</ref> [[Xuanzang]] talks of ''Shen'' breed of horses from Kapiśa (''Kai-pi-shi''). There is also a reference to Chinese [[Emperor Taizong of Tang|emperor Taizong]] being presented with an excellent breed of horses in 637 AD by an envoy from Chi-pin (Kapisa).<ref>See:: T'se-fu-yuan-kuei, p 5024; Wen hisen t'ung-k'ao, 337: 45a; Diplomacy and Trade in the Chinese World, 589–1276, 2005, p. 345, Hans Bielenstein</ref> Further evidence from Xuanzang shows that Kai-pi-shi produced a variety of cereals, many kinds of fruits, and a scented root called ''yu-kin'', probably of the grass [[Chrysopogon zizanioides|khus, or vetiver]]. The people used woollen and fur clothes; also gold,<ref>Corpus II. 1, xxiv; Cambridge History of India, Vol i\I, p 587.</ref><ref>Ancient references like [[Mahabharata]], [[Ramayana]], etc profusely attest that the [[Kambojas]] produced and made use of woollen, fur and skin clothes and shawls, all embroidered with gold. Ancient Kambojas were noted for their horses, gold, woollen blankets, furry clothing, etc (Foundations of Indian Culture, 1990, p. 20, Dr Govind Chandra Pande&nbsp;– Spiritualism (Philosophy); Hindu World, Volume I, 1968, p. 520, Benjamin Walker etc.</ref> silver and copper coins. Objects of merchandise from all parts were found here.<ref>Si-yu-ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World, 1906, p. 54 & fn, By Samuel Beal.</ref>

===Medieval history===
The area extending from modern Nuristan to Kashmir was known as "Peristan", a vast area containing a host of "Kafir" cultures and Indo-European languages that became Islamized over a long period. Earlier, it was surrounded by [[Buddhism in Afghanistan|Buddhist states and societies]] which temporarily extended literacy and state rule to the region. The journey to the region was perilous according to reports of Chinese pilgrims [[Faxian]] and [[Song Yun]]. The decline of Buddhism resulted in the region becoming heavily isolated. The Islamization of the nearby [[Badakhshan]] began in the 8th century and Peristan was surrounded by Muslim states in the 16th century. The [[Kalash people]] of lower [[Chitral]] are the last surviving heirs of the area.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Archivio per l'Antropologia e la Etnologia
|title=Fence of Peristan - The Islamization of the "Kafirs" and Their Domestication|publisher=Società Italiana di Antropologia e Etnologia|author=Alberto M. Cacopardo|year=2016|pages=69, 77}}</ref>

===Ghaznavids era===
{{blockquote|Another jihad against idolatry was at length resolved on; and Mahmud led the seventh one against Nardain, the then boundary of India, or the eastern part of the Hindu Kush; separating, as [[Firishta|Ferishta]] says, the countries of Hindustan and [[Turkestan|Turkistan]] and remarkable for its excellent fruit. The country into which the army of [[Ghazni]] marched appears to have been the same as that now called Kafirstan, where the inhabitants were and still are, idolaters and are named the [[Siah-Posh Kafirs|Siah-Posh]], or black-vested, by the Muslims of later times. In Nardain there was a temple, which the army of Ghazni destroyed; and brought from thence a stone covered with certain inscriptions, which were according to the Hindus, of great antiquity.<ref>{{cite book|last=K̲h̲ān̲ |first=ʻAlī Muḥammad |title=The Political and Statistical History of Gujarát|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M58IAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA29|year=1835 |location=London |publisher=Richard Bentley|page=29|translator-first = James |translator-last = Bird}}</ref>}}

===Early modern and later history===
{{More citations needed|section|date=January 2025}}
The first European recorded as having visited Kafiristan was the [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] [[Jesuit]] [[missionary]] [[Bento de Góis]], [[Society of Jesus|SJ]]. By his account, he visited a city named "Capherstam"<ref>{{cite journal|title=De Land-Reyse, door Benedictus Goes, van Lahor gedaan, door Tartaryen na China|url=http://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/15489?view=print|author=Pieter Vander Aa|publisher=Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps}}</ref> in 1602, during the course of a journey from [[Lahore]] to [[China]].<ref name="newby">{{cite book|title=A short walk in the Hindukush|first=Eric|last=Newby|chapter=A little bit of protocol|pages=74–93|isbn=978-0-330-46267-9|publisher=Picador India|year=2008}}</ref>

American adventurer Colonel [[Alexander Gardner (soldier)|Alexander Gardner]] claimed to have visited Kafiristan twice, in 1826 and 1828.<ref name="newby" /> On the first occasion, [[Dost Mohammad Khan|Dost Mohammad]], the [[amir]] of [[Kabul]], killed members of Gardner's delegation in Afghanistan and forced him to flee from Kabul to [[Yarkant County|Yarkand]] through west Kafiristan.<ref name="newby" /> On his second visit, Gardner briefly sojourned in northern Kafiristan and the [[Kunar Valley]] while returning from Yarkand.<ref name="newby" />

In 1883, [[William Watts McNair]], a British surveyor on leave, explored the area disguised as a hakim. He reported on the journey later that year to the [[Royal Geographical Society]].

[[George Scott Robertson]], [[Physician|medical officer]] during the [[Second Anglo-Afghan War]] and later British political officer in the [[princely state]] of [[Chitral (princely state)|Chitral]], was given permission to explore the country of the Kafirs in 1890–91. He was the last outsider to visit the area and observe these people's polytheistic culture before their conversion to [[Islam]]. Robertson's 1896 account was entitled ''The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush''. Though some sub-groups such as the [[Kom people (Afghanistan)|Kom]] paid tribute to Chitral, the majority of Kafiristan was left on the Afghan side of the frontier in 1893, when large areas of tribal lands between Afghanistan and British India were divided into zones of control by the [[Durand Line]].

The territory between Afghanistan and [[British Raj|British India]] was [[Durand Line|demarcated between 1894 and 1896]]. Part of the frontier lying between Nawa Kotal in the outskirts of [[Mohmand District|Mohmand country]] and [[Landai Sin Valley|Bashgal Valley]] on the outskirts of Kafiristan was demarcated by 1895 in an agreement reached on 9 April 1895.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PfrXAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA162|title=An Historical Geography of Iran|author=Vasily Bartold|page=85|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|author-link=Vasily Bartold|isbn=9781107662094|date=2013-10-17}}</ref> [[Emir of Afghanistan|Emir]] [[Abdur Rahman Khan]] wanted to force every community and tribal confederation to accept his single interpretation of Islam due to it being the only uniting factor. After the subjugation of [[Hazaras]], Kafiristan was the last remaining autonomous part.<ref name=Katib>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g6swDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA142|title=Afghanistan's Islam: From Conversion to the Taliban|author=Nile Green|publisher=University of California Press|pages=142–143|isbn=9780520294134|year=2017}}</ref>

Abdur Rahman Khan's forces [[Conquest of Kafiristan|invaded Kafiristan]] in the winter of 1895–96 and captured it in 40 days according to his autobiography. Columns invaded it from the west through Panjshir to Kullum, the strongest fort of the region. The columns from the north came through [[Badakhshan]] and from the east through [[Asmar, Afghanistan|Asmar]]. A small column also came from south-west through [[Laghman Province|Laghman]]. The Kafirs were resettled in Laghman while the region was settled by veteran soldiers and other Afghans.<ref name=Sykes1>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AXAABAAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA195|title=A History of Afghanistan: Volumes 1 and 2, Volume 1|author=Percy Sykes|publisher=Routledge|page=195|author-link=Percy Sykes|isbn=9781317845874|date=2014-07-10}}</ref> The Kafirs were converted and some also converted to avoid the ''[[jizya]]''.<ref name=Katib/>

A few years after Robertson's visit, in 1895–96, Abdur Rahman Khan invaded and converted the Kafirs to Islam as a symbolic climax to his campaigns to bring the country under a centralised Afghan government. He had similarly subjugated the [[Hazaras|Hazara people]] in 1892–93. In 1896 Abdur Rahman Khan, who had thus conquered the region for Islam,<ref>Tanner, Stephen. Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2002. p. 64</ref> renamed the people the [[Nuristanis|Nuristani]] ("Enlightened Ones" in [[Persian language|Persian]]) and the land as [[Nuristan Province|Nuristan]] ("Land of the Enlightened").

Kafiristan was full of steep and wooded valleys. It was famous for its precise wood carving, especially of cedar-wood pillars, carved doors, furniture (including "[[horn furniture|horn chairs]]") and statuary. Some of these pillars survive, as they were reused in mosques, but temples, shrines, and centers of local cults, with their wooden effigies and multitudes of ancestor figures were torched and burnt to the ground. Only a small fraction brought back to Kabul as spoils of this Islamic victory over infidels. These consisted of various wooden effigies of ancestral heroes and pre-Islamic commemorative chairs. Of the more than thirty wooden figures brought to Kabul in 1896 or shortly thereafter, fourteen went to the [[Kabul Museum]] and four to the [[Guimet Museum|Musée Guimet]] and the [[Musée de l'Homme]] located in [[Paris]].<ref>Edelberg, Lennart. "Statues de bois rapporte‚ es du Kafiristan aà Kabul apreàs la conquête de cette province par l'Emir Abdul Rahman en 1895/96," Arts Asiatiques 7, 1960, pp. 243–286</ref>
Those in the Kabul Museum were badly damaged under the [[Taliban]] but have since been restored.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.reportages-pictures.com/AFGHANISTAN/R20405%20KAkir%20sculpture%20from%20Nuristan%20destroyed%20by%20the%20talibans%20then%20restored/index.htm|title=R20405 KAkir sculpture from Nuristan destroyed by the talibans then restored|work=reportages-pictures.com|access-date=2008-11-07|archive-date=2016-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023144/http://www.reportages-pictures.com/AFGHANISTAN/R20405%20KAkir%20sculpture%20from%20Nuristan%20destroyed%20by%20the%20talibans%20then%20restored/index.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Their last cultural and religious activities just before their forced conversion were however recorded by the Westerners.<ref>[https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/8/3/early-explorers-of-kafiristan/ EARLY EXPLORERS OF KAFIRISTAN]</ref>

A few hundred [[Kata people|Kati Kafirs]], known as the "Red Kafirs" of the Bashgal Valley, fled across the border into Chitral but, uprooted from their homeland, they converted by the 1930s. They settled near the frontier in the valleys of [[Rumbur]], [[Bumburet]] and [[Urtsun]], which were then inhabited by the [[Kalash people|Kalash tribe]] or the Black Kafirs. Only this group in the five valleys of [[Birir Valley|Birir]], Bumburet, Rumbur, Jineret and Urtsun escaped conversion, because they were located east of the Durand Line in the [[princely state]] of [[Chitral (princely state)|Chitral]]. However, by the 1940s the southern valleys of Urtsun and Jingeret had been converted. After a decline in population caused by forced conversion in the 1970s, this region of Kafiristan in Pakistan, known as Kalasha Desh, has recently shown an increase in its population.

In early 1991, the [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Republic of Afghanistan]] government recognized the ''de facto'' autonomy of Nuristan and created a new province of that name from districts of [[Kunar Province]] and [[Laghman Province]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IXIRDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA116|title=Afghanistan from the Cold War Through the War on Terror|author=Barnett B. Rubin|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|page=116|author-link=Barnett Rubin|isbn=9780190229276|date=2015-03-25}}</ref>

==Appearances in culture==
{{In popular culture|section|date=January 2025}}
* Kafiristan is the setting of most of [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s famous 1888 novella "[[The Man Who Would Be King]]". It was adapted into the 1975 [[The Man Who Would Be King (film)|film of the same name]]. 
* English [[travel writer]] [[Eric Newby]]'s 1958 ''[[A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush]]'' describes the adventures of himself and [[Hugh Carless]] in [[Nuristan]] and their attempt at the then-unprecedented feat of scaling the [[Mir Samir]] mountain.
* German author [[Herbert Kranz]] chose Kafiristan as the setting of his 1953 adventure novel ''In den Klauen des Ungenannten: Abenteuer in den Schluchten des Hindukusch''.
* ''[[The Journey To Kafiristan (2001 film)|The Journey to Kafiristan]]'' is a German film by [[Donatello Dubini]] and [[Fosco Dubini]] recounting an overland journey by [[Annemarie Schwarzenbach]] and [[Ella Maillart]] from Geneva to Kabul.
* [[Umberto Eco]] mentions Kafiristan (as "Kefiristan") in "[[How to Travel with a Salmon]]",<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/02/22/how-to-travel-with-a-salmon |title=How to Travel with a Salmon |first=Umberto |last=Eco |date=February 22, 2016 |work=[[The Paris Review]] |access-date=11 March 2021}}</ref> where a bellboy spoke a dialect that was last heard in Kafiristan at the time of [[Alexander the Great]].
* [[Nile (band)|Nile]], an American death metal band, wrote the song "Kafir" for their album ''[[Those Whom the Gods Detest]]'' which was inspired by Kafiristan.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/79299125/Those-Whom-the-Gods-Detest-Liner-Notes|title=Those Whom the Gods Detest Liner Notes|website=Scribd|language=en|access-date=2019-11-20}}</ref>
* In the novels based on Doom written by Dafydd ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver, and were published between June 1995 and January 1996, there is country called Kefiristan.
* Kafiristan is the setting of the Madeleine Brent novel ''Stormswift''.
* Kafiristan was cited in Season 5 Episode 4 of the hit show Hot in Cleveland as the destination where Victoria's husband, Emmett, is hiding away.

==See also==
{{Portal|Afghanistan}}
* [[Nuristan Province]]
* [[Chiliss]], an ancient people
* [[Kalash people]]
* [[Chitral Kalasha language]]
* [[Kho people]]
* [[Khowar language]]
* [[Nuristanis]]
* [[Nuristani languages]]
* [[Pashayi people]]
* [[Pashayi languages]]
* [[Shina people]]
* [[Shina language]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* Greg, Mortenson. ''Stones into Schools''. Penguin Books, 2009; p.&nbsp;259

==External links==
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Kafiristan|short=x}}
* [https://www.loc.gov/item/2006627702/ Map of Kafiristan] 1881. Contributors Royal Geographical Society (Great Britain)

{{Nuristan Province}}

[[Category:Buddhism in Afghanistan]]
[[Category:Chitral (princely state)]]
[[Category:Former provinces of Afghanistan]]
[[Category:Geography of South Asia]]
[[Category:Historical regions]]
[[Category:Historical regions of Afghanistan]]
[[Category:History of Nuristan Province]]
[[Category:Hindu Kush]]
[[Category:Kalasha Valleys]]
[[Category:Landforms of Nuristan Province]]
[[Category:Rudyard Kipling]]

[[sv:Nuristan]]