The Muslim conquests of Afghanistan began during the Muslim conquest of Persia as the Arab Muslims migrated eastwards to Khorasan, Sistan and Transoxiana. Fifteen years after the Battle of Nahāvand in 642 AD, they controlled all Sasanian domains except in Afghanistan. Fuller Islamization was not achieved until the period between 10th and 12th centuries under Ghaznavid and Ghurid dynasty's rule who patronized Muslim religious institutions.
The history of Afghanistan, preceding the establishment of the Emirate of Afghanistan in 1823 is shared with that of neighbouring Iran, central Asia and Indian subcontinent. The Sadozai monarchy ruled the Afghan Durrani Empire, considered the founding state of modern Afghanistan.
Ghazni, historically known as Ghaznain (غزنين) or Ghazna (غزنه), also transliterated as Ghuznee, and anciently known as Alexandria in Opiana, is a city in southeastern Afghanistan with a population of around 190,000 people. The city is strategically located along Highway 1, which has served as the main road between Kabul and Kandahar for thousands of years. Situated on a plateau at 2,219 metres (7,280 ft) above sea level, the city is 150 kilometres (93 mi) south of Kabul and is the capital of Ghazni Province. The name Ghazni drives from the Persian word ganj ‘treasure’.
Kandahār is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southern part of the country, sharing a border with Pakistan, to the south. It is surrounded by Helmand in the west, Uruzgan in the north and Zabul Province in the east. Its capital is the city of Kandahar, Afghanistan's second largest city, which is located on the Arghandab River. The greater region surrounding the province is called Loy Kandahar. The Emir of Afghanistan sends orders to Kabul from Kandahar making it the de facto capital of Afghanistan, although the main government body operates in Kabul. All meetings with the Emir take place in Kandahar, meetings excluding the Emir are in Kabul.
Abu Mansur Nasir al-Din Sabuktigin, also spelled as Sabuktagin, Sabuktakin, Sebüktegin and Sebük Tigin, was the founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty, ruling from 367 A.H/977 A.D to 387 A.H/997 A.D. In Turkic the name means beloved prince.
Zamindawar is a historical region of Afghanistan. It is a very large and fertile valley the main sources for irrigation is the Helmand River. Zamindawar is located in the greater territory of northern Helmand and encompasses the approximate area of modern-day Baghran, Musa Qala, Naw Zad, Kajaki and Sangin districts. It was a district of hills, and of wide, well populated, and fertile valleys watered by important tributaries of the Helmand. The principal town was Musa Qala, which stands on the banks of a river of the same name, about 60 km north of the city of Grishk.
Greater India, also known as the Indian cultural sphere, the Indosphere, or the Indic world, is an area composed of many countries and regions in South and Southeast Asia that were historically influenced by Indian culture, which itself formed from the various distinct indigenous cultures of these regions. Specifically Southeast Asian influence on early India had lasting impacts on the formation of Hinduism and Indian mythology. Hinduism itself formed from various distinct folk religions, which merged during the Vedic and subsequent periods. The term Greater India, as a reference to the Indian cultural sphere, was popularised by a network of Bengali scholars in the 1920s. It is an umbrella term encompassing the Indian subcontinent and surrounding countries, which are culturally linked through a diverse cultural cline. These countries have been transformed to varying degrees by the acceptance and introduction of cultural and institutional elements from each other. Since around 500 BCE, Asia's expanding land and maritime trade had resulted in prolonged socio-economic and cultural stimulation and diffusion of Hindu and Buddhist beliefs into the region's cosmology, in particular in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. In Central Asia, the transmission of ideas was predominantly of a religious nature.
The Ghiljī also spelled Khilji, Khalji, or Ghilzai or Ghilzay (غلزی), are one of the largest Pashtun tribes. Their traditional homeland is Ghazni and Qalati Ghilji in Afghanistan but they have also settled in other regions throughout the Afghanistan-Pakistan Pashtun belt. The Khilji dynasty was a dynasty in Delhi Sultanate founded by Jalaluddin Khalji and expanded by Alauddin Khalji who were from Ghilji tribe. The modern nomadic Kochi people are predominantly made up of Ghilji tribes. The Ghilji make up around 20-25% of Afghanistan's total population.
Zabulistan, was a historical region in southern Afghanistan roughly corresponding to the modern provinces of Zabul and Ghazni. Following the Ghaznavid rule (977–1186), "Zabul" became largely synonymous with the name of its capital and main city, Ghazni.
Buddhism, an religion founded by Gautama Buddha, first arrived in modern-day Afghanistan through the conquests of Ashoka, the third emperor of the Maurya Empire. Among the earliest notable sites of Buddhist influence in the country is a bilingual mountainside inscription in Greek and Aramaic that dates back to 260 BCE and was found on the rocky outcrop of Chil Zena near Kandahar.
Hinduism in Afghanistan is practiced by a tiny minority of Afghans, about 30-40 individuals as of 2021, who live mostly in the cities of Kabul and Jalalabad. Afghan Hindus are ethnically Pashtun, Hindkowan (Hindki), Punjabi, or Sindhi and primarily speak Pashto, Hindko, Punjabi, Sindhi, Dari, and Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu).
Alakozai is a Pashtun tribe in Afghanistan. They are one of the four tribes of the Zirak tribal confederacy of Durrani Pashtuns.
Abu Ali Lawik of the Lawik dynasty was the son of Abu Bakr Lawik, and also a brother-in-law of the Hindu Shahi ruler of the region, Kabul Shah. He was invited by the people of Ghazni to overthrow Böritigin or Pirai and proceeded in alliance with the Shahi Rulers of the region in this venture.
'Yamini Turks had claimed their descent from Shahyar, the last of the Parthian ruler who was killed in 637AD in the battle of Cadesia. The family had migrated to Turkistan and after three generations had passed on as Turks. Their founder Sabuktgin had come into the service of Alptgin, a Samanid governor of Turkistan. The latter had captured Ghazni and settled there in 963AD. He raised Sabuktigin to the position of a general. After the death of Alptgin in 966 AD, Balktgin the commander of Turkish troops succeeded him who was later succeeded by Pirai a slave. The latter was a cruel king and the people of Zabul invited Abu Ali Lawik son of the last ruler of Zabul who in alliance with the Shahis of Udabhanda marched to recover Ghazni. On the way at Charkh, Sabuktgin defeated them and became a hero.
Amīr Krōṛ Sūrī, also known as Jahan Pahlawan, is a legendary character in Afghan national history and is claimed to have become the King of Mandesh in Ghor. Amir Kror Suri is considered to be the first poet of Pashto language. He is not to be confused with Amir Suri, the king of Ghor in the 9th-10th centuries.
Zunbil, also written as Zhunbil, or Rutbils of Zabulistan, was a royal dynasty south of the Hindu Kush region, in Afghanistan. A remnant of Hephthalite Empire, they ruled from circa 680 AD until the Saffarid conquest in 870 AD. The Zunbil dynasty was founded by Rutbil, the elder brother of the Turk Shahi ruler, who ruled over Hephthalite kingdom from his capital in Kabul. The Zunbils are described as having Turkic troops in their service by Arabic sources like Tarikh al-Tabari and Tarikh-i Sistan.
The Persian Empire's province of Sistan in the 7th century extended from the modern Iranian province of Sistan to central Afghanistan and Baluchistan province of Pakistan.
The Turk Shahis or Kabul Shahis were a dynasty of Western Turk, or mixed Turko-Hephthalite, origin, that ruled from Kabul and Kapisa to Gandhara in the 7th to 9th centuries AD. They may have been of Khalaj ethnicity. The Gandhara territory may have been bordering the Kashmir kingdom and the Kanauj kingdom to the east. From the 560s, the Western Turks had gradually expanded southeasterward from Transoxonia, and occupied Bactria and the Hindu-Kush region, forming largely independent polities. The Turk Shahis may have been a political extension of the neighbouring Western Turk Yabghus of Tokharistan. In the Hindu-Kush region, they replaced the Nezak Huns – the last dynasty of Bactrian rulers with origins among the Xwn (Xionite) and/or Huna peoples.
The Lawīk dynasty was the last native dynasty which ruled Ghazni prior to the Ghaznavid conquest in the present-day Afghanistan. Lawiks were originally Hindus, but later became Muslims. They were closely related to the Hindu Shahis, and after 877, ruled under the Hindu Shahi suzerainty.
Alkhis was a ruler of the area of Zabul, with its capital at Gazan (Ghazni) in Afghanistan in the early decades of the 8th century CE. He was the son of Khuras. He expanded his territory as far north of the region of Band-e Amir, west of Bamiyan. Although not listed in contemporary Chinese sources, Alkhis may have been a member of the Zunbil ruler of Zabulistan, and was probably of the same ethnicity as the nearby Turk Shahis ruling in Kabul at that time.
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Samura was a general of the Rashidun caliphate and the succeeding Umayyad Caliphate, and caliphal governor of Sijistan in the 7th century CE.
