Origin of Pashtun

[Proudpakistaniguy]

Can we get any definite answer about origin/history of Pashtuns? People come up with different conflicting theories about their origin? Some Pahtuns link themselves with Hadrat suleman and some say they were jews tribes who lost their way back and got settled in this region and later got converted into Islam

 

[Pathan02]

Can we get any definite answer about origin/history of Pashtuns? People come up with different conflicting theories about their origin? Some Pahtuns link themselves with Hadrat suleman and some say they were jews tribes who lost their way back and got settled in this region and later got converted into Islam

If educated historians and experts on genetics struggle to find the origin of our people then what makes you think that people on this forum will no offence.

 

[Proudpakistaniguy]

If educated historians and experts on genetics struggle to find the origin of our people then what makes you think that people on this forum will no offence.

No, actually i was looking for basis of these theories that Pashtuns are lost tribes of Jews/isreali and had link with Hadrat suleman because of which people call them sulemani. Where all these theories came from? or these are just fabricated ones without any logical evidence

 

[shuntmaster]

The history of the Pashtun people is ancient and has not been fully researched. Excavations of prehistoric sites suggest that early humans were living in what is now Afghanistan at least 50,000 years ago. Since the 2nd millennium BC, cities in the region now inhabited by Pashtuns have seen invasions and migrations, including by Ancient Iranian peoples, the Medes and Persians of antiquity,Greeks, Indians, Kushans, Hephthalites, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, and others. In recent times, people of the Western world have explored the area as well.

Most historians acknowledge that the origin of the Pashtuns is somewhat unclear, although there are many conflicting theories, some modern and others archaic, both among historians and the Pashtuns themselves.

"...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."

"Looking for the origin of Pashtuns and the Afghans is something like exploring the source of theAmazon. 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."

Early precursors to some of the Pashtuns may have been old Iranian tribes that spread throughout the eastern Iranian plateau. According to the Russian scholar Yu. V. Gankovsky, the Pashtuns probably began as a "union of largely East-Iranian tribes which became the initial ethnic stratum of the Pashtun ethnogenesis, dates from the middle of the first millennium CE and is connected with the dissolution of the Epthalites (White Huns) confederacy." He proposes Kushan-o-Ephthalite origin for Pashtuns but others draw a different conclusion. According to Abdul Hai Habibi some oriental scholars hold that the second largest Pasthun tribe, the Ghilzais, are the descendants of a mixed race of Hephthalite and Pakhtas who have been living in Afghanistan since the Vedic Aryan period.

They are intimately tied to the history of modern Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India. Following Muslim conquests from the 7th to 11th centuries, many Pashtun ghazis (warriors) invaded and conquered much of the Indian subcontinent during the periods of the Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Khiljis, Lodis,Suris and Durranis.​

 

[Kompromat]

They too came from where everyone else came from.

 

[Jungibaaz]

That's a tough question to post bro, at best you might be able to find oldest known history, but origin is something else all together.

 

[Burger Boy]

In Pakistan, isn't one's ethnicity defined moreso by what their first language is rather than their genetics/appearance.

If so, wouldn't there be some overlap between Pashtuns and Punjabis in some regions....though I suppose you could divide those ethnicities further.

 

[W.11]

my first theory is, i think that pashtuns are a mixture of central asian Caucasians, mongoloids and the indians groped together in one region who's natural restrictions and landscape made them the naturalised citizens of that territory

pashtun people also vary region to region

in pakistani side, there are pathuns who live in hindu kush mountains(like swatis, chitralis etc), and then there are pashtuns who dwell in sulaiman mountains(like mehsuds, waziristanis etc), both differ in topography

when i say indian then the proof is pashtuns practiced budhism which the north indians also practiced, i don't see any resemblence of judaism monothiestic influence in budhism, both are far apart, i don't see how pashtuns lived a separate life style surely they were influenced by the regions surrounding them like iran, south asia, central asia

my second theory is, pashtuns may well be the outer reach of iranian group who got isolated in the hindukush region and later mixed up with local indian, turk, or the russian(central asian Caucasian) culture

i maybe wrong though

 

[Shabaz Sharif]

my first theory is, i think that pashtuns are a mixture of central asian Caucasians, mongoloids and the indians groped together in one region who's natural restrictions and landscape made them the naturalised citizens of that territory

pashtun people also vary region to region

in pakistani side, there are pathuns who live in hindu kush mountains(like swatis, chitralis etc), and then there are pashtuns who dwell in sulaiman mountains(like mehsuds, waziristanis etc), both differ in topography

when i say indian then the proof is pashtuns practiced budhism which the north indians also practiced, i don't see any resemblence of judaism monothiestic influence in budhism, both are far apart, i don't see how pashtuns lived a separate life style surely they were influenced by the regions surrounding them like iran, south asia, central asia

my second theory is, pashtuns may well be the outer reach of iranian group who got isolated in the hindukush region and later mixed up with local indian, turk, or the russian(central asian Caucasian) culture

i maybe wrong though

Pashtuns are not mixture of mongloid, you are confusing them with Uzbeks and Tajiks who mixed with Mongols.

 

[W.11]

Pashtuns are not mixture of mongloid, you are confusing them with Uzbeks and Tajiks who mixed with Mongols.

im not confusing with them, some pashtuns i have seen have some mongoloid features who are not turks

thats why i have clearly defined turks in the first place

 

[Arya Desa]

They are the original Aryans. That's what some History Channel guy said. They have a very low rate of genetic mixing with other groups.

 

[Indischer]

Today's Pathans are likely the descendents of Eastern-Iranic tribes known as Pakthas or Pactyans. Their presence in today's Afghanistan region is also attested in the RigVeda.

 

[takeiteasy]

are these pashtuns?
Study of the Pathan Communities in Four States of India

 

[Shabaz Sharif]

im not confusing with them, some pashtuns i have seen have some mongoloid features who are not turks

thats why i have clearly defined turks in the first place

Maybe just few, personally i never have seen one with mongloid feutures and i have seen many Pakistani pashtuns.

 

[Pathan02]

im not confusing with them, some pashtuns i have seen have some mongoloid features who are not turks

thats why i have clearly defined turks in the first place

You might be getting confused with Hazaras, there's a lot off Hazaras and Pathans in Quetta I believe. Could be some mixing?

are these pashtuns?
Study of the Pathan Communities in Four States of India

Yes, quite a lot live in India I believe?