Kafiristan

Kāfiristān or Kāfirstān (PerB|کافرستان) was a historic name of Nurestan (Nuristan), a province in the Hindukush region of Afghanistan and Pakistan. This historic region lies on, and mainly comprises, basins of the rivers Alingar, Pech (Kamah), Landai Sin, and Kunar, and the intervening mountain ranges. It is bounded by the main range of the Hindukush on the north, the city of Chitral in Pakistan to the east, the Kunar Valley in the south, and the Alishang River in the west.

Kafiristan takes its name from the inhabitants, the Kafirs, a fiercely independent people with distinctive culture, language and religion. They were called Kafir ("infidel") because they were not Muslim. In 1896 Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, who conquered the region for Islam by sword [Tanner, Stephen. Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2002. Page 64] , renamed the people as Nuristani ("Enlightened Ones" in Persian) and the land as Nuristan ("Land of the Enlightened"). Only three valleys, Birir, Bumburet and Rumbur, escaped because they were located east of the Durand line, under the administrative control of the British Raj and later Pakistan. After declining population figures throughout the 70's, the region of Kafiristan in Pakistan has recently shown an increase in its population, much to the delight of historians and local philanthropists.

Etymology

Kafirstan means "Land of the infidels" in the Persian."Kafir" is a religious term. It comes from the Arabic "kafir", translated as "those that reject Islam".

Trivia

Kafiristan is where the famous Kipling story "The Man Who Would Be King" takes place. The story was made into a film starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine.

References

ee also

* Hindu Kush
* Nurestan
* Nuristani people
* Nuristani languages