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The Nuristanis are an Indo-Iranians ethnic group native to the Nuristan Province (formerly Kafiristan) of northeastern Afghanistan and Chitral District of northwestern Pakistan. Their languages comprise the Nuristani branch of Indo-Iranian languages.
In the mid-1890s, after the establishment of the Durand Line when Afghanistan and the British Raj reached an agreement regarding the Indo-Afghan border as the region of Kafiristan became part of the Great Game and for a period of time, Emir Abdur Rahman Khan conducted a military campaign to secure the eastern regions and followed up his conquest by imposition of Islam; the region thenceforth being known as Nuristan, the "Land of Light".A Former Kafir Tells His 'Tragic Story'. Notes on the Kati Kafirs of Northern Bashgal (Afghanistan) / Max Klimburg, East and West, Vol. 58 – Nos. 1–4 (December 2008), pp. 391–402Reflections of the Islamisation of Kafiristan in Oral Tradition / Georg Buddruss Journal of Asian Civilizations — Volume XXXI — Number 1-2 – 2008, Special Tribute Edition, pp. 16–35'The pacification of the country was completed by the wholly gratuitous conquest of a remote mountain people in the north-east, the non-Muslim Kalash of Kafiristan (Land of the Unbelievers), who were forcibly converted to Islam by the army. Their habitat was renamed Nuristan (Land of Light).' Angelo Rasanayagam, Afghanistan: A Modern History, I.B. Tauris, 2005, p.11 Before their conversion, the Nuristanis practised an Indo-Iranian (Vedic- or Hinduism-like) religion. (2006). 9781845111755, I.B. Tauris. ISBN 9781845111755 (2012). 9780425253403, Berkley Caliber. ISBN 9780425253403 Non-Muslim religious practices endure in Nuristan today to some degree as folk customs. In their native rural areas, they are often farmers, herders, and dairymen.
The Nuristan region has been a prominent location for war, which has led to the death of many indigenous Nuristanis. Nuristan has also received abundance of settlers from the surrounding Afghan regions due to the borderline vacant location.
However, recent research by Jakob Halfmann shows that the pre-Islamic Nuristani religion was heavily influenced by local accretions of Hinduism, evidenced in most theonyms being loanwords from Indo-AryanHalfmann, Jakob. "Nuristani Theonyms in Light of Historical Phonology". In: 6th Indo-European Research Colloquium
Mitch Weiss and Kevin Maurer describe the Nuristanis of having traditionally practising a "primitive" form of Hinduism, up until the late nineteenth century, before their conversions to Islam. The names of multiple Nuristani deities resembled those of Iranian peoples and old Vedic sources.
Certain deities were revered only in one community or tribe, but one was universally revered as the creator: the Hindu god Yama Râja called Imr'o in Kâmviri. There is a creator god, appearing under various names, as lord of the nether world and of heaven: Yama Rājan, or Māra ('death' in Nuristani), or Dezau (ḍezáw) whose name is derived from Indo-European *dheiǵh- i.e. "to form" (Kati Nuristani dez "to create", CDIAL 14621); Dezauhe is also called by the Persian language term Khuda.
They believed in a pantheon of deities. Among the most prominent was Imra (or Mara), regarded as the creator and sky deity, possibly connected to the Indo-Aryan god Yama or Indra.Robertson, G. S. (1896). The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush. London: Lawrence and Bullen. pp. 7–10, 47–55, 133–135. Another major figure was Great Gish or Giwish, the war god and cultural hero, often invoked for victory and clan protection.Jones, Schuyler. (1974). Men of Influence in Nuristan. Seminar Press. Mandi or Moni, another deity, may have functioned as a trickster or divine messenger. Each god had a distinct cult, sacred sites, and feast days, often tied to seasonal or agricultural cycles.
In addition to the supreme deity named Mara or Imra, the Nuristani worshipped a multitude of lesser gods and goddesses known locally as Wushum or Shomde, Bagisht, Indra, Züzum, Disani, Kshumai or Kime etc.
Each village and clan had its guardian deity, with shamans advising those seeking help and priests officiating at religious services. The cult centered on the sacrifice of animals.
Their religious life followed a ritual calendar based on seasonal changes and included communal festivals celebrating the summer and winter solstices, planting and harvest times, and the New Year, referred to as gósham in some areas. These festivals involved sacrifices, communal feasting, dancing in masks, wine-drinking, and the recitation of epic poetry, providing opportunities for social and spiritual renewal.Cacopardo, A.S., & Cacopardo, A.M. (2001). Gates of Peristan: History, Religion and Society in the Hindu Kush. IsIAO.
Sacrifices played a central role, often performed before sacred fires. These fires, maintained by priests known as bagisht, were used for purification, oaths, and major ceremonies. The reverence for fire likely reflects ancient Indo-Iranian fire cult traditions.Honigmann, J. J. (1954). The Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Religious life centered on shrines called astān, which housed wooden effigies of gods or ancestors. These included horned masks, stylized animals, and human figures carved from wood. Such shrines were adorned and protected from pollution and were often located near sacred trees, springs, or elevated sites.Strand, R. F. (2001). Notes on the Nuristani and Dardic Languages. In Iran and the Caucasus (Vol. 5).
The religious specialists, mostly male priests from hereditary lines, were responsible for sacrifices, rituals, and interpreting omens. Bards and storytellers also played a crucial role, transmitting epic tales about gods and heroes through oral tradition. While men led public ceremonies, women participated in domestic rites, fertility offerings, and healing practices. There are occasional accounts of female spirit mediums or oracles in localized contexts.Fussman, Gérard. (1972). Documents épigraphiques kouchans. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Ancestor worship was another significant component. Clan founders and revered ancestors were honored at special shrines, and feasts were held in their memory. These spirits were believed to influence the living and protect the community.
The area extending from modern Nuristan to Kashmir was known as "Peristan", a vast area containing a host of Nuristani cultures and Indo-European languages that became Islamized over a long period. Earlier, it was surrounded by Buddhist states and societies which temporarily extended literacy and state rule to the region. The journey to the region was perilous according to reports of Chinese pilgrims Fa-hsien and Sung Yun. The decline of Buddhism resulted in the region becoming heavily isolated. The Islamization of the nearby Badakhshan began in the 8th century and Peristan was completely surrounded by Muslim states in the 16th century. The Kalash people of lower Chitral are the last surviving heirs of the area.
The region was called Kafiristan because while the surrounding populations were converted to Islam, the people in this region retained their traditional religion, and were thus known as "Kafirs" to the Muslims. The Arabic word "Kufr" means disbelief and the related word "Kafir" means one who does not believe in Islam. After Emir Abdur Rahman Khan's conquest of Kafiristan in the late 19th century, the native religion was outlawed, temples destroyed or converted, and the population forcibly converted to Islam.Gregorian, Vartan. (1969). The Emergence of Modern Afghanistan: Politics of Reform and Modernization, 1880–1946. Stanford University Press. Today, the Kafirs are mostly Sunni Muslims, but traces of their old beliefs linger in folklore and cultural practices.The province is now known as Nuristan and the people as Nuristanis. However, among the rural population many old customs and beliefs like occasional production of wine have continued.
Nuristanis were formerly classified into "Siah-Posh" ( black-robed) and "Safed-Posh" ( white-robed) / "Lall-Posh" ( red-robed). Timur fought with and was humbled by the Siah-Posh.Majumdar, Dr Ramesh Chandra; Pusalker, Achut Dattatraya; Majumdar, Asoke Kumar. "Tuzak-i-Timuri", in The History and Culture of the Indian People, Vol VI. 1977. p 117. Babur advised not to tangle with them. Genghis Khan passed by them.
In 1014, Mahmud of Ghazni attacked them:
Timur does not boast of any killings or imprisonment of the Siah-Poshes as he does for the Katirs and numerous other communities of India proper. He gives no further details of his conflict with the Siah-Poshes in Tuzak-i-Timuri after this encounter, which suggests the outcome of the fight against the Siah-Poshes was very costly and shameful for Timur.Ref: Tuzak-i-Timuri, pp 401-08.History & Culture of Indian People, Vol VI, p 117, R. C. Majumdar, A. D. Pusalkar, K. M. Munshi.
Other references to these Kafirs are made in the fifteenth and later in sixteenth century during the Mughal period.
In 1839, the Kafirs sent a deputation to Sir William Macnaghten in Jalalabad claiming relationship with the fair skinned British troops who had invaded the country.Memoir of William Watts McNair - J. E. Howard, 2003, A Visit to Kafiristan on Internet Archive, Evening Meeting, 10 December 1883, Processing of the Royal Geographical Society .
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 Shekhani dialect.
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 people of the neighbouring Chitral region in Pakistan.
The Siah-Posh tribe was divided into Siah-posh Katirs or Kamtoz, Siah-posh or Madugals, Siah-posh Kashtoz or Kashtan, Siah-posh Gourdesh or Istrat, and Siah-posh Kams or Kamoze. The Siah-posh 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 Afghanistan frontier.Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh, 1977 edition, p 127, John Biddulph; An Inquiry into the Ethnography of Afghanistan, 1891, p 146, Henry Walter Bellew; The Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush, 1896, pp 71, 74 sqq., George Scott Robertson, Arthur David McCormick.
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.The Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush, 1896, pp 74, 76 George Scott Robertson, Arthur David McCormick. Nicholas Barrington et al. reported that the Waigulis and Presungulis referred to all Siah-posh Kafirs as Katirs.A passage to Nuristan: exploring the mysterious Afghan hinterland, 2006, p 80, Nicholas Barrington, Joseph T. Kendrick, Reinhard Schlagintweit, Sandy (FRW) Gall.
While the Kamtoz of the lower Bashgul valley were the most numerous, the Kam of the upper Bashgul valley were the most intractable and fierce and dreaded for their military prowess.The Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush, 1896, pp 2,3, 76, George Scott Robertson, Arthur David McCormick - Nuristan.
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.
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. Bryant, Edwin. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate. Oxford University Press. pp. 98–103.
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.
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.Barth, F. (1956). Ecologic relationships of ethnic groups in Swat, North Pakistan. American Anthropologist, Vol. 58, pp. 1079–1089.
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.Barfield, Thomas. (2010). Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History. Princeton University Press. pp. 154–158.
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.Kakar, M. H. (1979). Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response. University of California Press. pp. 9–15.
The Nuristani do not have a formal tribal structure as the Pashtuns do, however they do designate themselves by the names of the local regions they are from.
In total, there are 35 such designations: five from the north–south valleys and 30 from the east–west valley.
Some of these tribes include:
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History
In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great encountered them and finally defeated them after they put up a stubborn and prolonged resistance, describing them as being distinct culturally and religiously from other peoples of the region.
Timur's encounter with Katirs/Kators
The first reference to Siah-Posh Kafirs occurs in Timur's invasion of Afghanistan in 1398 CE. Timur's autobiography (Tuzak-i-Timuri) amply attests that he had battled both with the Katirs as well as the Kam sections of the Siah-Posh (black-robed) Kafirs of the Hindu Kush mountains. Timur invaded Afghanistan in March 1398. On the basis of local complaints of ill-treatment and extortions filed by the against the , Timur personally attacked the Kators of the Siah-Posh group located north-east of Kabul in eastern Afghanistan. The Kators left their fort Najil and took refuge at the top of the hill. Timur razed the fort to ground, burnt their houses and surrounded the hill where the Kator had collected for shelter. The relic of the historic fort is said to still exist a little north to Najil in the form of a structure known as Timur Hissar (Timur's Fort). After a tough fight, some of the Kators were defeated and were instantly put to death while the others held out against heavy odds for three days. Timur offered them death or Islam. They chose the latter, but soon recanted and attacked the regiment of Muslim soldiers during night. The latter being on guard, fought back, killed numerous Kators and took 150 as prisoners and put them to death afterwards.
Next day, Timur ordered his to advance on all four sides to kill all men, enslave the women and children and plunder or lay waste all their property. In Tuzak-i-Timuri, Timur proudly boasts of the towers of the skulls of the Kators which he built on the mountain in the auspicious month of Ramazan A.H. 800 (1300 CE)'See: Tuzak-i-Timuri, III, pp 400.
Timur's encounter with Kam Kafirs
Again, according to Timur's autobiography (Tuzak-i-Timuri), a military division of ten thousand Muslim soldiers was sent against the Siah-Posh (Kam) Kafirs under the command of General Aglan Khan to either slay these infidels or else to convert them into Islam. Tuzak-i-Timuri frankly admits that the regiment was badly routed by a small number of Siah-Posh Kafirs. The Muslim forces had to flee from the battle-field leaving their horses and armour. Another detachment had to be sent under Muhammad Azad which fought gallantly and recovered the horses and the armour lost by General Aglan and came back home, leaving the Siah-Posh alone.History & Culture of Indian People, Vol VI, p 117, R. C. Majumdar, A. D. Pusalkar, K. M. Munshi.
Settlement in Chitral
At the time of the Afghan conquest of Kafiristan, a small number of Kom and Kati Kafirs fled east to Chitral District (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.
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 Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush, 1896, p 74 sqq., George Scott Robertson, Arthur David McCormick. The later three groups of the Kafirs used to be collectively known as Sped-Posh Kafirs.
Origin hypotheses
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. Historical records and oral traditions suggest frequent exchanges of goods, rituals, and even kinship ties across these boundaries.
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.Gregorian, Vartan. (1969). The Emergence of Modern Afghanistan: Politics of Reform and Modernization, 1880–1946. Stanford University Press. pp. 132–138, 212–216.
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 Koms 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 Province, Nangarhar, Badakhshan, and Panjshir Valley. 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.
Genetics
In a 2012 research on Y-chromosomes of five Nuristani samples, three were found to belong to the Haplogroup R1a, and one each in R2a and J2a.
Tribes
Most Nuristanis are from the Kata Family and Janaderi Branch. However, there are other Nuristani tribes as well, some of the Kata of Janaderi people live in Ozhor (now Karimabad), Gobor, Buburat, Ayun, Broze and Mastuj. There is a very popular rock associated with this tribe located in Karimabad (Juwara) called kata bont (Kata is the name of the tribe; bont meaning "stone" in the Chitrali language).
See also
Notes
Bibliography
Further reading
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