Afghan (ethnonym)

The ethnonym Afghan (افغان Afġān) has been used in the past to denote a member of the Pashtuns, and that usage still persists in some places in Afghanistan. The name Afghanistan (افغانستان Afġānistān; Afghan + -stan) is a derivation from the ethnonym Afghan, originally in the loose meaning "land of the Pashtuns" and referred to the Pashtun tribal areas south of the Hindu Kush mountains.

In the 3rd century, the Sassanids mentioned an eastern tribe called Abgân, which is attested in its Arabic form Afġān in the 10th century Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam. Through the nineteenth century, the term "Afghan" was used by various writers as a synonym for "Pashtun", but such usage now is rare in English.

Since the Afghan Constitution of 1964, "Afghan" officially refers to every citizen of the state of Afghanistan, regardless which ethnic group the individual belongs to.

The earliest mention of the name Afghan (Abgân) is by Shapur I of the Sassanid Empire during the 3rd century CE, which is later recorded in the 6th century in the form of "Avagāṇa" (अवगाण) by the Indian astronomer Varāha Mihira in his Brihat-samhita.

The Encyclopædia Iranica explains:

"From a more limited, ethnological point of view, "Afġān" is the term by which the Persian-speakers of Afghanistan (and the non-Paštō-speaking ethnic groups generally) designate the Paštūn. The equation [of] Afġān [and] Paštūn has been propagated all the more, both in and beyond Afghanistan, because the Paštūn tribal confederation is by far the most important in the country, numerically and politically. The term "Afġān" has probably designated the Paštūn since ancient times. Under the form Avagānā, this ethnic group is first mentioned by the Indian astronomer Varāha Mihira in the beginning of the 6th century in his Brhat-samhita."

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