Reflections on the prehistory of the Abdālī Afghans
Sajjad Nejatie
Central Asian Survey, 2019, vol. 38, issue 4, 548-569
Abstract:
The Abdālī Afghans-Pashtuns played a leading role in the creation of the Durrānī polity (est. 1747) – the precursor of present-day Afghanistan. Given their lasting contributions to the process of state formation in Central Asia, it is somewhat surprising that the early history of the Abdālī remains obscure. Nevertheless, authors of recent generations have not been deterred from speculating on the origins of the Abdālī. This article explores the prevailing theories concerning Abdālī prehistory, including the tribe’s purported connection to both the Hephthalites and the Sufi saint Abū Aḥmad Abdāl, as well as some of the motivations undergirding these theories. It also considers the place of the Abdālī within the Afghan-Pashtun tribal system and ventures to reconcile their Afghan identity with their alleged non-Afghan origins. The present study thus aims to offer a more nuanced understanding of the history of the Abdālī – the most politically prominent group in Afghanistan’s history.
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02634937.2019.1640661 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:ccasxx:v:38:y:2019:i:4:p:548-569
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/ccas20
DOI: 10.1080/02634937.2019.1640661
Access Statistics for this article
Central Asian Survey is currently edited by Raphael Jacquet
More articles in Central Asian Survey from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().