Hindus

Hindu Shahi rulers of Kabul and Gandhara were Brahmans

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The Arab geographer Al-Masudi (896-956) writes that from “Al-Qandahar” comes one of the five rivers which forms the Mihran (Indus river). The Al-Qandahar of Al-Masudi was most likely Gandhara region (Peshawar valley and surroundings), not the modern Kandahar (which is referred to as “Rukhaj” or “Rakhaj” الرخج by Masudi and other Arabs). There is no … Read more

A thirteenth-century description of Pashtuns

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Pashtuns appeared as a strange, novel and fearsome body of people to Minhaj al-Siraj Juzjani, the author of Tabaqat-i-Nasiri who was born in the Ghurid capital city of Firuzkuh and passed his childhood in the harem of a Ghurid princess. He gives the awe-struck description of Pashtun soldiers in the service of Ulugh Khan (the … Read more