Kurds in Afghanistan
 Flag of the Kurds | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| ≈ 200,000[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Herat, Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Ghazni | |
| Languages | |
| Dari, Kurdish | |
| Religion | |
| Shafiʽi Sunni Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Pashtuns, Tajiks, Baloch, other Iranian peoples |
 |
|
Kurds in Afghanistan refers to Afghans who are ethnic Kurds and culturally Kurdish.
History[edit]
The oldest proof of Kurds in Afghanistan was during the Mongol invasion, when the Kurds were taken from northwestern Iran into present-day Afghanistan to fight the Mongols, the same reason as the Khorasani Kurds, who were sent to Khorasan to create a defense-line against Turkmen and Uzbek nomads.[2] Kurds have been coming to Afghanistan at different times and lived there. Another large wave of Kurdish migration into Afghanistan was the continuation of their migration from Iranian Kurdistan to greater Khorasan during the Afsharid dynasty.[3][4][5]
Two main groups formed Nader Shah's army. The first was a group of Shahsevan Turks who were in charge of warfare and combat, and the second was a group of Kurds who accompanied Nader's army. The Kurds who accompanied Nader Shah Afshar were scattered in three cities in present-day Afghanistan. Ghazni, Mazar-i-Sharif and Kabul.[4][5]
Although the majority of Afghan Kurds are descendants from the Kurds brought to fight against Mongols, the descendants of the Kurds who migrated to Afghanistan, or the descendants of Kurds loyal to Nader Shah, a significant amount came in the 1980s to fight in the Soviet–Afghan War to fight against the Soviets.[6]
Culture[edit]
After several centuries away from their original homeland, Afghan Kurds have kept their culture and language, although many of them now speak better Dari then Kurdish. While a lot of Kurds in Afghanistan have settled, many still practice their farming nomadic lifestyle, living in the mountains of Afghanistan with goats and sheep.[7]
In Kabul, a Kurdish bathhouse and a Kurdish mosque still remain. The mosque is made of pure wood, and the architecture of the mosque also shows that it was originally a Sufi temple. Historian Pahlavan Mansour believes that the mosque is more than a hundred years old, but the Ministry of Information and Culture of Afghanistan believe that it is 230 years old.[4][5]
Kurds of Afghanistan speak Kurdish and Dari, they follow the Shafiʽi madhhab of Sunni Islam and mainly live in the cities of Herat, Ghazni, Mazar-i-Sharif, and Kabul. Their population is about 200,000 and they are approximately 2% of Afghanistan's total population.[1][8][4][5]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The Kurdish Diaspora". Institutkurde.org.
- ↑ Madih (2007), p. 13.
- ↑ Tanner, Stephen (2002). Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander The Great to the Fall of The Taliban. DA CAPO Press. ISBN 0-306-81233-9. Search this book on
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "کُردهای افغانستان – کوردستان و کورد".
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 smarttech, Mirwais Farahi. ""کُردهای افغانستان"". aiss.af.
- ↑ Martin, Gus. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Terrorism, Second Edition. SAGE. p. 48. ISBN 9781412980166. Search this book on
- ↑ "Typology of Iran Nomads". Iran Nomad Tours. 2019-09-28. Retrieved 2022-03-26.
- ↑ Cigerxwin, Tarixa Kurdistan, I (Stockholm: Weşanên Roja Nû, 1985), p. 17.
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