Source: Mohammad Enam Wak
WAK Foundation
Email: abdaliwak[at]yahoo.com

Mohammad Enam Wak is the author of the "History of Pashto" section. Hence all credit goes to him and if you have any question he will be pleased to answer them through his email.
 

The word 'Afghan' has been used in the form of abgan as apakan during the sassanid period, which is a praise world meaning chivalry, rectitude, nobility etc. While tracing naqh-i-rustam of shiraz some 50 years back, an inscription in the ka, aba zardushth written in two languages- parti and Greek, came into the hands of an archaeological delegation of chicago institute for the east which was engraved by shah purthe first, the second king of sassanid dynasty in 260 ad. It is Persian translation can be found in the archaeological recollections in vol. Iv printed in shiraz in the year 1338 hijra.

Apart from mentioning khaspapurus of Greek, comparable with the parsha pur r modern Peshawar, it mentions among the distinguished men of the shah pur empire, the name of vinda parn abgan rismaud. Mr. Sprengling compared the word abgan with that of Afghan. Further more, it is said that the shah pur 3rd who ruled for 70 years (309-379 ad) was given the title of apakan which as stated before, was a praise word signifying chivalry, rectitude and line of descent.

According to sir olaf caro, some ancestors of the durrani and yousafzai tribes were men of the sassani courts. The "shah nama" of firdausi as follows:

the mighty soldiers had gathered round the castle,
armed with golden cudgels and golden helmets,
their commander was karen kawgan,
lead by the valiant general, awgan

when kaikhusro saw the battle of Turks
in which the sun shone no more on earth,
he glanced at awa and samkanian
two pugnacious lions of the battlefield

Awa was samkanian's son, and these tow persons were heroes of the era of kaikhusro who are mentioned in the great battle with afrasiab.

In another ancient document, the word has been written as 'avagana' which resembles abgan and apgan of the sassanid period.

However, we can conclude from these facts that awa and awgan were used in ancient aryan narrations and shah nama, and if we consider the words to be originating from avest, as justi has put it, then they probably mean kind and partron, for the heroes of that era were worthy of such titles. there is a possibility that subsequently the words became the names of tribes of nations. On the other hand, if the word Afghan, Afghan and awgan have been given prominence in ancient stories of the sassanid period, just as sprenglingand olaf caro believe, we can claim that the noun Afghans was used in the form of abgan and apgan in the third century a. D. And was also common in the courts of the rulers of that time. this is the most ancient document tracing narrations is the 'Afghan' of today.

Monsiour a. Fourcher, a French scholar says that the word has been mentioned in the middle of 6th century. Viraha mihira, an Indian astronomer and poet who was born in the 5th century ad, used the word Afghanin the form of avagana in his book bhrita sanhita. On this basis the word Afghan has an historical background of 1400 years in Indian literature and Indian scholars have constantly mentioned it in their books. This book was translated by abdur rehman al-beruni into arabic which gave further recognition to him.

Many historians especially general cunningham, the author of the ancient geography of India (page 89) correspond o-po-kien to be awa-gan (Afghan) and further goes on to say that hsuen tsang did not consider their language to be hindi, but he says that it somewhat resembles the languages spoken in India, thus it must have been Pashto. On the other hand, since o-po-kien has the same syllables as the ancient a-wa-gan, therefore, we can say that he meant the present Afghan which as a tribe still lies between the indus and ghazni and is the dweeing place of provinces of paktia, urgoon and ghazni. Hsuen tsang traveled from bannu to ghazni and crossed these mountainous provinces which were the home of o-po-kien or the Afghans.

From the pre-islamic period we have the sassanid, Indian and chinese documents in which the name of Afghan had been mentioned. During the islamic period the name has been consequently used in arabic and dari books. The most ancient of these books is hudod-ul-alam which was written in 372 h by an anonymous author. In this book, Afghans have been mentioned several times. Later, mohammad bin abdul jabbar urbi in tarikhi-yemeni mentions the name in the reign of subuktegeen and his family. Ibn-i-asir has, however, noted it down as abgan. Similarly other historians in their authentic volumes have noted the name. Some of these are fakhr-i-mudabir who mentions it in adab-ul-harb, kazi mehhaj seraj in tabakat-i-nasseri and hamdullah mustufi in tarikhi-i-guzeda. Mohammad kasimfereshha and others have also mentioned the Afghan and awgan tribes.