Nuristani people

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Nuristan, in light green

Image:U.S. humanitarian assistance supply hand out in Nuristan, June 28, 2007 at 11-27.jpg

A Nuristani boy beside an American soldier during a U.S. humanitarian assistance supply handout to Nuristani families.

The Nuristani people are an ethnic group in Nurestan Province of Afghanistan. They are sometimes called Kalasha people, though they are not directly related to the Kalash of neighbouring Chitral Province in Pakistan. The Nuristanis are a muslim people whose ancestors practiced what was apparently an ancient Indo-European polytheistic religion, until they were forcibly converted to Islam around the year 1895. Non-Muslim religious practices endure today to some degree as folk customs. Like certain other groups in the region, they sometimes exhibit European-like physical characteristic of light hair, eyes, and skin. These physical features may be a preservation of characteristics from the initial migration of Indo-Iranian peoples into the region (likely in the 2nd Millenium B.C.), or characteristics introduced or reinforced by later migrations into the region such as the Greek-Macedonian armies of Alexander the Great (3rd Century B.C.) and the Kushan people (1st Century A.D.).

The Nuristani's were formerly classified into "Siah-Posh (black-robed) Kafirs" and "Sped-Posh (white robed)/Lall-Posh (Red-Robed) Kafirs" (The Gates of India, p 270, Sir Thomas Hungerford Holdich). Timur fought with and was humbled by the Siah-Posh Kafirs (Ref: Tuzak-i-Timuri, pp 401-08; The History and Culture of the Indian People, Vol VI, 1977, p 117, Dr Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Achut Dattatraya Pusalker, Asoke Kumar Majumdar). Babur advised not to tangle with them. Genghis Khan passed by them. In fourth century BCE, Alexander the Great also encountered them and reduced them after stubborn fight.

The word Kafir means "non-believer" in the Islamic tradition, and the Nurestan province was known as Kafiristan, before the majority were converted to Islam during Abdur Rahman Khan's rule around 1895. They are now known as Nuristani.

The root of the ethnic name, however, is not the Arabic 'kafir' (pagan), but Kapeer, that was recorded for the group by the earliest of Islamic historians, like Gardezi and Tabari.^{[citation needed]} The name seem Indo-European in its root.^{[citation needed]}

1 Nuristanis and the Soviet invasion
2 Nuristani tribes
3 External links
4 See also

[edit] Nuristanis and the Soviet invasion

General Issa Nuristani was second in command following the King during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Before his assassination, General Issa called the Nuristani people in a "Jihad" against the Soviet Army. The Nuristani people were among the first in Afghanistan to rise against the Soviet invasion.

Most of the former Hindukush Kafir people are today's Nuristanis. They are such devout Muslims now that, led by the Koms, these former Kafirs were the first citizens of Afghanistan to successfully revolt against the communist overthrow of their government in 1978. Thereafter, Nuristan remained a scene of some of the bloodiest guerrilla fighting with the Soviet forces from 1979 through 1989. The Nuristanis inspired others to fight and contributed to the demise of the Afghan communist regime in 1992 [1].