AFGHÁN
n.p. P.—H— Afghān . The most general name of the predominant portion of the congeries of tribes beyond the N.W. frontier of India, whose country is called from them Afghānistān . In England one often hears the country called Afguníst-un , which is a mispronunciation painful to an Anglo-Indian ear, and even Af'gann , which is a still more excruciating solecism. [The common local pronunciation of the name is Aoghān , which accounts for some of the forms below. Bellew insists on the distinction between the Afghān and the Pathān ( PUTTAN ). "The Afghan is a Pathan merely because he inhabits a Pathan country, and has to a great extent mixed with its people and adopted their language" ( Races of Af. , p. 25). The name represents Skt. asvaka in the sense of a 'cavalier,' and this reappears scarcely modified in the Assakani or Assakeni of the historians of the expedition of Alexander.]
Historical Citations (9)
"... Afgháns and Khiljis...."—'Utbi in Elliot, ii. 24; see also 50, 114.
"He also repaired the fort of Jalálí, which he garrisoned with Afgháns."—Táríkh-i-Fírozsháhí in do. iii. 106. 14th cent.—The Afghans are named by the continuator of Rashiduddin among the tribes in the vicinity of Herat (see N. & E. xiv. 494).
"The Afghans, when they are reduced to extremities in war, come into the presence of their enemy with grass between their teeth; being as much as to say, 'I am your ox.'"[25]—Baber, 159.
"He was afraid of the Afgháns."—Sidi 'Ali, in J. As., 1st S., ix. 201.
"Agwans and Potans."—W. Finch, in Purchas, i. 521.
"Such are those petty Sovereigns, who are seated on the Frontiers of Persia, who almost never pay him anything, no more than they do to the King of Persia. As also the Balouches and Augans, and other Mountaineers, of whom the greatest part pay him but a small matter, and even care but little for him: witness the Affront they did him, when they stopped his whole Army by cutting off the Water ... when he passed from Atek on the River Indus to Caboul to lay siege to Kandahar...."—Bernier, E. T. 64 [ed. Constable, 205].
"The people called Augans who inhabit from Candahar to Caboul ... a sturdy sort of people, and great robbers in the night-time."—Tavernier, E. T. ii. 44; [ed. Ball, i. 92].
"Our final sentiments are that we have no occasion to take any measures against the Afghans' King if it should appear he comes only to raise contributions, but if he proceeds to the eastward of Delhi to make an attack on your allies, or threatens the peace of Bengal, you will concert such measures with Sujah Dowla as may appear best adapted for your mutual defence."—Court's Letter, Nov. 20. In Long, 486; also see ROHILLA.
"Professor Dorn ... discusses severally the theories that have been maintained of the descent of the Afghauns: 1st, from the Copts; 2nd, the Jews; 3rd, the Georgians; 4th, the Toorks; 5th, the Moguls; 6th, the Armenians: and he mentions more cursorily the opinion that they are descended from the Indo-Scythians, Medians, Sogdians, Persians, and Indians: on considering all which, he comes to the rational conclusion, that they cannot be traced to any tribe or country beyond their present seats and the adjoining mountains."—Elphinstone's Caubool, ed. 1839, i. 209.
From Hobson-Jobson by Yule & Burnell, 1886.