Nuristanis

Invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni

In 1020–21, Mahmud of Ghazni led a campaign against Kafiristan and the people of the "pleasant valleys of Nur and Qirat" according to Gardizi. The Persian chronicles speak of Qirat and Nur (or Nardin), which H. M. Elliot on authority of Al-Biruni identifies with Nur and Kira tributaries of Kabul river. Ferishta wrongly calls these two valleys as "Nardin" and Qirat and confuses this conquest with the one against "Nardin" or Nandana. He also wrongly mentions that it took place after 412 AH. Alexander Cunningham identifies the places conquered as "Bairath" and "Narayanpura".

These people worshipped the lion. While Clifford Edmund Bosworth considers that Mahmud attacked "pagan Afghans", Joseph Theodore Arlinghaus of Duke University does not consider it correct because his source Gardizi simply calls them "pagan (kafiran)" and not "pagan Afghans", as they were not known to be pagan or live on borders of Nuristan in the 11th century. Mohammad Habib however considers that they might have been worshipping Buddha in the form of a lion (Sakya Sinha). Ramesh Chandra Majumdar states that they had a Hindu temple which was destroyed by Mahmud's general. Ram Sharan Sharma meanwhile states that they may have been Buddhist. Cunningham claims based on the reporting of Ferishta that the place was plundered by 'Amir Ali after being taken.

According to Gardizi, while returning from his recent invasion of India, Mahmud had heard about the Kafirs and the chief of Qirat surrendered without any struggle and accepted to convert, with the inhabitants converting as well. Nur however refused to surrender and his general 'Amir Ali led an attack on it, forcing its people to convert. According to Firshta, the rulers of both of them submitted and accepted Islam in 1022. He adds, "On breaking a great temple situated there, the ornamented figure of a lion came out of it, which according to the belief of the Hindus was four thousand years old."

However, no permanent conquest was attempted. Iqbal namah-i-Jahangiri stated that Kafirs still lived in Darrah-i-Nur which Mahmud of Ghazni had claimed to have converted. The Mughal Emperor Jahangir had received a delegation of these pure Kafirs in Jalalabad and had honoured them with gifts.

Invasions by Timurids

The campaigns of Timur are recorded by Zafarnama, written by Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi, which is based on another work. On his way to India, Timur attacked the Siyah-Posh in 1398 AD after receiving complaints from the trading city of Andarab about the raids by the Kafirs. He penetrated Kafiristan from Khawak pass and restored an old fortress there. He personally proceeded against the Kator region, which extended from Kabul to Kashmir.

Timur sent a detachment of 10,000 soldiers against the Siyah-Poshas under Burhan Aglan and had the fort of Kator deserted by Kafirs destroyed, while the houses of the city were burnt. The Kafirs took refuge on top of a hill and many were killed in the ensuing clash. Some held out for three days but agreed to convert after Timur offered them the choice between death and Islam. They however soon apostatised and ambushed Muslim soldiers in the night. The Muslims repelled them and a number of the Kafirs were killed, with 150 being taken prisoner and later executed. Timur ordered his men "to kill all the men, to make prisoners of women and children, and to plunder and lay waste all their property." His soldiers carried out the order and he directed them to build a tower of skulls of the dead Kafirs.

Timur had his expedition engraved on a neighbouring hill in the month of Ramadan. His detachment sent against the Siyah-Poshas however met with disaster, with Aglan being routed and forced to flee. A small detachment of 400 men under Muhammad Azad was then sent and defeated the Kafirs, retrieving the horses and armour Aglan lost. Timur later captured a few more places, though nothing more is stated, presumably he left the Siyah-Poshas alone. He proceeded to exterminate the rebellious Afghan tribes and crossed the Indus River in September 1398.

The Timurid Sultan Mahmud Mirza is said to have raided Kafiristan twice by Baburnama, which earned him the title of ghazi.

Yarkand Khanate

Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat invaded Balor under orders of Sultan Said Khan in 1527-1528 AD, and was accompanied by Said's eldest son Rashid Khan. The expedition was an Islamic frontier raid called ghaza. Dughlat undertook highly devastating plundering raids against the region.

Rashid Khan (r. 1533–1560) undertook further expeditions against Bolor (Kafiristan), which are recorded by Tarikh-i-Kashgar and Bahr al-asar of Mahmud b. Amir Wali. The Kashgari author mentions it briefly, though Wali goes into detail. The first campaign failed with a number of Kashgari captured and enslaved by the people of Bolor. A second invasion was successful and forced them to submit. Tarikh-i-Kashgar states that Bolor was governed by Shah Babur after Abdullah Khan's successful campaign in 1640.

In 1839, the Kafirs sent a deputation to Sir William Hay Macnaghten in Jalalabad claiming relationship with the fair skinned British troops who had invaded the country during the First Anglo-Afghan War.

Mughals

Babur himself came to the region in the winter of 1507–1508 and had an inscription carved commemorating his transit. While fleeing to India to take refuge in the Afghan-Indian borderlands after Shibani Khan attacked Qandahar, which Babur had recently conquered, he marched from Kabul to Lamghan in September 1507. He eventually reached the Adinapur fort in Nangarhar district and commented that his men had to forage for food and raided the rice fields of the Kafirs in the Alishang district.

While writing in his memoirs, Babur noted that when he captured Chigha Sarai in 1514, the "Kafirs of Pech came to their assistance." He mentions some Muslim nīmčas or half-breeds, probably converted Kafirs, who married with the Kafirs and lived at Chigha Sarai, located at confluence of Kunar River and Pech River. In 1520, he mentions sending Haidar Alamdar to the Kafirs, who returned and met him under Bandpakht along with some Kafir chiefs who gifted him some wineskins.

The relationship between the Siahposh and the residents of Panjshir and Andarab remained the same even more than a century after Timur's expedition. Babur records about Panjshir that, "It lies upon the road, and is in the immediate vicinity of Kafiristan. The inroads of the robbers of Kafiristan are made through Panjshir. In consequence of their vicinity of the Kafirs – the inhabitants of this district are happy to pay them a fixed contribution. Since I last invaded Hindustan, and subdued it (in 1527), the Kafirs have descended into Panjshir, and returned after slaying a great number of people and committing extensive damages."

Per Tabakat-i-Akbari, the Mughal Emperor Akbar had dispatched his younger brother Mirza Muhammad Hakim, who was a staunch adherent of the missionary-minded Naqshbandi Sufi order, against the Kafirs of Katwar in 1582. Hakim was a semi-independent governor of Kabul. The Sifat-nama-yi Darviš Muhammad Hān-i Ğāzī of Kadi Muhammad Salim who accompanied the expedition mentions its details and gives Hakim the epithet of Darviš Khan Gazi.

Muhammad Darvish's religious crusade fought its way from Lamghan to Alishang, and is stated to have conquered and converted 66 valleys to Islam. After conquering Tajau and Nijrau valleys in Panjshir area, his forces established a fort at Islamabad, located at the confluence of Alishang and Alingar rivers. They continued the raid up to Alishang and made their last effort against the non-Muslims of Alingar, fighting up to Mangu, the modern border between Pashai and Ashkun-speaking areas.

The conquest does not seem to have had a lasting effect, as Henry George Raverty mentions that Kafirs still lived in upper part of Alishang and Tagau. Khulasat al-ansab of Hafiz Rahmat Khan stated that the Afghans and Kafirs of Lamghan were still fighting each other during the time of Jahangir.

Settlement in Chitral

At the time of the Afghan conquest of Kafiristan, a small number of Kom and Kati Kafirs fled east to Chitral (in modern Pakistan) where they were allowed to settle by the Mehtar. There they practised their faith for a few more decades, before finally converting to Islam as well. The final known non-converted Kafir was settled in a Chitrali village known as Urtsun. This Kafir's name was Chanlu, and he converted in 1938, several months after being interviewed about the cosmology of the Kati.

In Chitral, the Nuristanis are known either as Bashgalis (as most migrated from a valley of Nuristan called Bashgal in the Chitrali Khowar language), or alternatively as Sheikhan (a generic term for recent converts to Islam). The exact population size of Nuristanis in Chitral is unknown, but members of the community estimate that they number at least 12,000. All of them are speakers of the Kamkata-vari language, also known locally as Sheikhani.

1895–1979: Integration and resistance

In 1895–96, Emir Abdur Rahman Khan conquered Kafiristan as part of his campaign to consolidate Afghan territorial control. The region was renamed "Nuristan" ("Land of Light") to reflect the population's forced conversion to Islam. Pre-Islamic shrines, idols, and ritual structures were destroyed, and religious leaders were either executed, marginalized, or co-opted.

The Islamic conversion was largely symbolic at first. Many Nuristanis continued to observe traditional practices in private or repurposed them under new Islamic labels. Former deities were sometimes reframed as Islamic saints, and seasonal rituals persisted with Qur'anic recitations replacing older hymns. This selective adaptation reflects a broader pattern of religious syncretism and cultural negotiation.

While some Nuristanis accepted Islam to avoid persecution, others resisted actively. The rugged terrain and clan-based society enabled certain communities to maintain partial autonomy well into the 20th century. Oral histories recount episodes of defiance, martyrdom, and the clandestine preservation of sacred knowledge.

Under the Afghan monarchy and successive regimes, efforts to assimilate Nuristanis continued through administrative restructuring, military conscription, Islamic schooling, and the symbolic elevation of tribal leaders. Despite this, the region remained politically and economically marginalized. Poor infrastructure, limited access to education and healthcare, and cultural stigmatization contributed to deep-seated resentment toward the central state.

Gender roles also shifted after Islamization. While women had previously participated in communal rituals and managed household economies, their visibility and autonomy declined as Islamic norms enforced stricter gender segregation and curtailed public roles.

By the late 1970s, these historical grievances helped fuel support for emerging anti-government and Islamist movements. Nuristan's terrain and tribal networks made it a stronghold for early mujahideen resistance following the 1978 Saur Revolution and during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989)

General Issa Nuristani was second in command following the King during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, being the commander of the 1st Central Army Corps. Before his assassination, General Issa called the Nuristani people in a "Jihad" against the Soviet Army and the Afghan Armed Forces. Led by the Kom tribe, the Nuristani were the first citizens of Afghanistan to revolt against Saur Revolution in 1978. They played an important role in the conquering of some provinces, including Kunar, Nangarhar, Badakhshan, and Panjshir. Thereafter, Nuristan remained a scene of some of the bloodiest guerrilla fighting with the Soviet forces from 1979 through 1989. Following the withdrawal of the Soviet troops in 1989, the Mawlawi Ghulam Rabbani was declared as governor of the Kunar Province. The Nuristanis inspired others to fight and contributed to the demise of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992.

Pre-1895 Kafir society

Prior to 1895, the Kafirs of the Hindu Kush were classified into two groups: the Siah-Posh (black clad) and the Safed-Posh (white clad) Kafirs, also known as the Lal-Posh (red-clad), so-called because of the colour of the robes they wore. But the British investigator George Scott Robertson who visited Kafiristan and studied the Kafirs for about two years (1889–1891) improved upon the old classification by recognising that the Safed-Posh Kafirs were actually members of several separate clans, viz, the Waigulis, Presungulis or Viron, and the Ashkuns. The later three groups of the Kafirs used to be collectively known as Safed-Posh Kafirs.

The term Siah-Posh Kafirs used to designate the dominant group of Hindu Kush Kafirs inhabiting the Bashgal Valley. The Siah-Posh Kafirs have sometimes been confused with Kalash people of the neighbouring Chitral region in Pakistan.

The Siah-Posh tribe was divided into Katirs or Kamtoz, Mumans or Madugals, Kashtoz or Kashtan, Gourdesh or Istrat, and Kams or Kamoze. The Katirs were further divided into the Katirs, who occupied twelve villages of the lower Bashgul (Kam) country, the Kti or Katawar, who lived in two villages in the Kti Valley, the Kulam, and the Ramguli, the most numerous group, living in twenty four villages in the Ramgul Valley, in the westernmost part of Kafiristan on the Afghan frontier.

All Siah-Posh groups of Kafirs were regarded as of common origin. They all had a common dress and customs and spoke closely related dialects of Kati. Nicholas Barrington et al. reported that the Waigulis and Presungulis referred to all Siah-posh Kafirs as Katirs.

While the Kamtoz of the lower Bashgal Valley were the most numerous, the Kam of the upper Bashgal Valley were the most intractable and fierce and dreaded for their military prowess.

Prior to their conversion to Islam in the late 19th century, the Kafir people (now known as Nuristanis) maintained a complex, decentralized tribal society shaped by their mountainous environment and oral traditions. Their highland communities were divided into independent clans, each with its own leaders, ritual specialists, and customary laws.

Kafir society was stratified into several classes, including landowning elites, free commoners, skilled artisans, and dependent or servile groups. Social status was closely tied to one's performance in ritual life, success in warfare, and generosity in feasting. Youth initiation rites for both boys and girls marked social maturity and spiritual engagement, often involving communal dancing, animal sacrifice, and oaths to clan deities.

Their spiritual worldview was polytheistic, centered on a pantheon of gods associated with the sun, fire, rivers, and ancestral spirits. Sacred groves, springs, and mountaintops served as ritual spaces. The bagisht (priest) and shamans held key religious roles, leading seasonal festivals and divination ceremonies to ensure fertility and communal wellbeing. These leaders mediated between the human and divine worlds, performing sacrifices, healing, and protection rites.

Economically, the Kafirs practiced terrace agriculture, cultivating wheat, barley, millet, and pulses on steep mountain slopes. Goat and cattle herding supplemented their diet, and they were particularly noted for producing and consuming wine made from grapes and mulberries — an important feature of feasts and hospitality. Beekeeping and fruit orchards added further variety to their subsistence strategies.

Kafirs were also accomplished ironworkers, producing weapons, farming tools, and ritual items used locally or traded with neighboring valleys. Trade goods included daggers, salt, woolen fabrics, and medicinal herbs. Raiding, while morally sanctioned under certain customs, was a form of redistributive warfare and a source of prestige, often glorified in oral poetry and songs.

Cultural expression flourished through oral literature — epic songs, genealogical recitations, and mythic storytelling — passed down through generations. These narratives served to preserve history, identity, and cosmology.

External contacts and cultural resilience

Despite their geographic isolation, the Kafir communities maintained extensive interaction with neighboring ethnic groups, including the Kalash of Chitral, Pashtuns, and Indo-Aryan Dardic peoples such as the Pashayi. Historical records and oral traditions suggest frequent exchanges of goods, rituals, and even kinship ties across these boundaries.

Some scholars argue that the region formed part of ancient Gandhara or existed as a contested frontier resisting imperial encroachment. Arab geographers referred to it as "Kafiristan" acknowledging its religious distinctiveness.

The Kafirs spoke several Indo-Iranian languages, such as Kamkata-vari and Ashkun, characterized by rich oral vocabularies and poetic forms. These languages form a distinct subgroup of the Indo-Iranian family and are today endangered. Oral literature included epics celebrating legendary ancestors, hymns to deities, and moral tales transmitted through communal performance.

Cultural resilience was maintained through ritualized community life emphasizing collective feasting, seasonal festivals, and the preservation of sacred spaces. These practices helped sustain a cohesive identity despite the pressures of trade, migration, and military threat.

Religious syncretism and the persistence of Indo-Iranian mythic motifs — such as divine twins, sacred fire, and world mountains — indicate deep historical continuity. Ethnographers have emphasized parallels between the Nuristanis and the Kalash people of Pakistan, both of whom retain distinct non-Islamic cultural elements and cosmologies.

During the colonial period, European writers often romanticized the Kafirs as "lost Aryans" or descendants of Alexander the Great's army. While these narratives have been discredited by modern scholarship, they contributed to a lasting mystique around the region.

Bibliography

Further reading

• Halfmann, Jakob. "Nuristani Theonyms in Light of Historical Phonology". In: Roots of Peristan: The Pre-Islamic Cultures of the Hindukush/Karakorum. Proceedings of the International Interdisciplinary Conference ISMEO, Rome, Palazzo Baleani, 5–7 October 2022. Part I. Edited by Alberto M. Cacopardo & Augusto S. Cacopardo. Rome: ISMEO, 2023. pp. 317–358. ISBN 978-88-66872-65-8.