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— CH. 1 · INTRODUCTION —

Muslim conquests of Afghanistan

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  • The Muslim conquests of Afghanistan were not a single campaign or a clean sweep. They stretched across more than a thousand years, from the 7th century through the 19th, and they were repeatedly interrupted by revolts, treaties, and the withdrawal of Arab armies. Fifteen years after the decisive battle of Nahavand in 642 AD, the Arabs had seized all the territories of the Sasanian empire except in Afghanistan. What held them back? What made this land so difficult to absorb? The answers lie in the geography of the place, the fierce independence of its rulers, and the remarkable diversity of religions that flourished there before Islam arrived. Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and ancient folk traditions each had deep roots. Some regions yielded quickly; others held out for centuries. The Zunbils of Zabulistan turned back Arab army after Arab army for nearly two hundred years. The Kafir people of Kafiristan were not finally converted until 1895-1896, under Afghan Amir Abdul Rahman Khan. This is the story of how a vast and mountainous land was brought, unevenly and painfully, into the orbit of Islam.

  • In 23 AH, which corresponds to 643-644 AD, the Arab commanders Asim bin Amr and Abdallah ibn Amir crossed into the region then called Sijistan and besieged Zaranj, its principal city. The Sistanis agreed to a treaty requiring payment of the kharaj, a form of land tax. That first submission was not the end of the story, but the beginning of a grinding cycle of conquest, revolt, and reconquest that would define Arab rule in the east.

    The fate of the last Sasanian king, Yazdegerd III, played out across this landscape. Cash-strapped and politically isolated, he had fled Kerman to Sistan after angering local officials, and lost the support of the region's governor by demanding taxes. He ultimately fled toward Merv. The Arab commander Rabi ibn Ziyad al-Harithi followed him into Sistan by crossing the desert between Kerman and the frontier, arriving at the fortress of Zilaq within five farsangs of the Sistan border. One by one, fortresses surrendered, including the fortress of Karkuya, whose fire temple is mentioned in the anonymously authored Tarikh-e-Sistan.

    When the marzban Aparviz of Zaranj finally came before Rabi to negotiate terms, he found the Arab general seated on a chair made from two dead soldiers. His entourage had been instructed to make seats and bolsters in the same gruesome fashion. Aparviz was reportedly terrified into submission. The peace treaty that followed required one million dirhams annually, plus a thousand slave boys each carrying a gold vessel. Two years later, the people of Zaranj expelled the Arab garrison and killed the lieutenant left behind. Abdallah ibn Amir sent Abd ar-Rahman ibn Samura to retake the city, and after the marzban again surrendered, the tribute was doubled to two million dirhams and two thousand slaves.

    The pattern repeated across the first civil war in the Arab caliphate, from 656 to 661. Arab bandits raided remote towns to enslave people. Sistan's governor was imprisoned by rebels. Authority collapsed and was restored multiple times. Historian Cameron A. Petrie notes that while Arab expansion had both social and religious motives, the extraction of taxes from subjugated populations invited most of the rebellions that followed.

  • Arabic sources broadly agree that the conquest of Khorasan began under Caliph Uthman with Abdallah ibn Amir, though al-Tabari places Ahnaf ibn Qais's early campaigns as far back as 643. Ahnaf received 12,000 men from Kufa and Basra from Caliph Umar to pursue Yazdegerd, who had fled toward Merv and was now sending ambassadors to the ruler of Soghd, the Khakan of the Turks, and the Chinese emperor, seeking allies.

    Yazdegerd did find an army. The Khaqan of the Turks assembled troops from Ferghana and crossed the Oxus, joining Yazdegerd for a march on Balkh with a force reportedly comprising 50,000 cavalry from Soghd, Turkestan, Balkh, and Tokharistan. Ahnaf, with only 20,000 men, fought them from morning until evening for two months at a place called Deir al-Ahnaf. One night, having learned of a Turkic chief inspecting the Arab outposts, Ahnaf personally went out and killed three Turkic chiefs in succession during their inspection rounds. When the Khakan heard of their deaths, he withdrew to Balkh and then across the river into Turkestan. Yazdegerd's officials eventually handed over his treasures to Ahnaf and dispersed.

    The permanent pacification of Khorasan proved to be a protracted affair. Local potentates repeatedly appealed to outside powers for help: the Hephthalites, the Western Turks, the Turgesh, the Sogdians, and imperial China all claimed degrees of suzerainty over Central Asia. In the aftermath of Yazdegerd's death, a notable named Qarin assembled a reported army of 40,000 insurgents against the Arabs in Quhistan, drawing supporters from Tabasayn, Herat, and Badghis. The Arabs launched a surprise attack, killing him and taking many captives. Chinese sources record attempts to restore Yazdegerd's son Peroz to power with Tokharistan's army, though Arab sources do not mention Peroz by name. He eventually returned to the Tang capital and was given a grandiose title, along with permission to build a fire temple there in 677.

  • Tokharistan, roughly the ancient region of Bactria, straddles what is today divided between Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Its major city, Balkh, sat at a crossroads of trade routes leading in many directions, making its conquest strategically essential. From historical evidence, scholars regard Tokharistan as the only area heavily colonized by Arabs where Buddhism had flourished, and the only incorporated region where Sanskrit studies had been pursued up to the moment of conquest.

    Qutayba ibn Muslim led the final conquest of Balkh. His army assembled in the spring of 705 and marched through Marw al-Rudh and Taloqan. One account in Tarikh al-Tabari describes the city as surrendering peacefully; another version speaks of a revolt among the residents, and Tabari's description of the city as ruined four years later suggests the second version is more likely. During the war, the wife of Barmak, a physician of Balkh, was taken captive and given to Qutayba's brother. She was later returned to her husband. Their son Khalid was born in 706, and Abdallah accepted the implications of paternity without disturbing Barmak's conventional responsibilities or affecting the child's upbringing. Khalid's grandson later became vizier of the Arab empire and took personal interest in Sanskrit works and Indian religions.

    The eighth-century Korean traveller Hui'Chao visited Balkh around 726 and recorded that Hinayanist Buddhists still lived there under Arab rule. He also noted that the true king of Balkh was alive and in exile. Among the city's Buddhist monasteries, the largest was Nava Vihara, which was later Persianized to Naw Bahara. Whether it survived as a place of worship after the conquest is disputed. Al-Baladhuri claims its stupa-vihara complex was destroyed under Mu'awiya in the 650s, but Tabari, describing the same expedition, mentions no tension around the temple. The tenth-century geographical treatise Hudud al-'Alam describes remaining royal buildings and Naw Bahara's decorations, including painted images and what were probably fresco murals on the walls, suggesting some of these structures survived into its author's time.

  • In the pre-Saffarid period, the Zunbils ruled Zabulistan and Zamindawar, the territory stretching between Ghazni and Bost. Zamindawar was home to a shrine dedicated to the god Zun, which scholars have linked to the Hindu god Aditya at Multan, pre-Buddhist religious practices of Tibet, and Shaivism. Arab sources called the Zunbils' followers "Turks," applying that term broadly to their eastern enemies. The kingdom of Zabulistan, with its capital at Ghazni, is mentioned in Chinese sources under the suzerainty of the Jabghu of Turkestan.

    In 653-654, Abd al-Rahman ibn Samura led a force of 6,000 Arabs to the shrine of Zun. He broke off a hand from the idol and plucked out the rubies used as its eyes, demonstrating to the marzban of Sistan that the idol could neither harm nor help anyone. "My intention was to show you that this idol can do neither any harm nor good," Samura reportedly explained. Bost and Zabul submitted by treaty in 656, but the Muslims lost these territories during the First Civil War.

    The Arab expedition of 698, called the Army of Destruction, or Jaish al-Fana, became one of the most complete military disasters in the entire campaign. Al-Hajjaj, governor of Iraq and the East, instructed the commander Ubaidallah to destroy the Zunbils' strongholds, kill their fighting men, and enslave their progeny. The Zunbils, while retreating, devastated the countryside and lured the Arab army into a barren, foodless valley. Ubaidallah eventually offered 500,000 or 700,000 dirhams and three of his own sons as hostages just to secure a withdrawal. Many Arabs who made it back to Bust died from gorging themselves on the food brought to relieve them. Only 5,000 of the original force returned, the rest having perished in what sources call the Desert of Bust, most likely the Registan Desert.

    The subsequent Army of Peacocks, 40,000 troops sent by al-Hajjaj in 699, also ended in failure. The force, which included the most distinguished leaders of Iraq, was actually a disguised forced deportation of elements that al-Hajjaj found troublesome in the Iraqi cities. Its commander Ibn al-Ash'ath eventually made a private agreement with the Zunbils: if he lost the war, the Zunbil would shelter him from al-Hajjaj. The troops mutinied and returned to Iraq, were crushed by Syrian forces, and fled back east. Ibn al-Ash'ath died in 704. The Zunbils continued demanding tribute and defying Arab governors until the Saffarid ruler Ya'qub ibn al-Layth finally killed the last Zunbil in 865.

  • Kabul and Zabulistan housed Buddhism and other Indian religions and offered stiff resistance to the Arab advance from the very beginning. The area was initially ruled by the Nezak Huns, and after the defeat of their last king, Ghar-ilchi, a Turkic ruler named Barha Tegin seized power, eventually splitting his dynasty into two kingdoms around 680 AD. The Buddhist Turk Shahi were later followed by a Hindu dynasty shortly before the Saffarid conquest in 870.

    Samura's campaigns against Kabul in the 660s illustrate the city's resilience. Per one account, he besieged the city and on capturing it massacred the soldiers while enslaving their families. He ordered the king Ghar-ilchi beheaded but spared him when he converted. The historian Firishta records that during the capture of Kabul in 664 AD, Samura made converts of some 12,000 people. The city then rebelled. Samura was forced to retake it. The new king Barha Tegin and the Zunbil recaptured Kabul, Zabulistan, and Rukhkhaj after Samura's departure.

    Caliph Al-Ma'mun, who reigned from 813 to 833 AD, mounted the last Arab campaign against Kabul. The king of Kabul submitted to taxation, was captured, and converted to Islam. When the Shah submitted, he reportedly sent his crown and bejeweled throne to the caliph, later seen by the Meccan historian al-Azraqi. Al-Ma'mun praised his subordinate Fadl for curbing polytheists, breaking idols, and killing the refractory. The Arab caliphate dissolved before any permanent control over Kabul could be consolidated. The Hindu Shahi dynasty that eventually inherited the region was not defeated until Mahmud of Ghazni, who reigned from 998 to 1030, expelled them from Gandhara and encouraged mass conversions in Afghanistan and India. The 14th-century scholar Ibn Battuta described the Hindu Kush as meaning the slayer of Indians, because large numbers of Indian slaves brought northward died in the mountains' harsh weather.

  • Full Islamization of Afghanistan was not achieved until the period between the 10th and 12th centuries, under the Ghaznavid and Ghurid dynasties, both of which actively patronized Muslim religious institutions. No permanent Arab control had ever been established in Ghur, and its Islamization came only through Ghaznavid raids. By the time of the ruler Bahram-Shah, Ghur was both converted and politically unified.

    The pre-Ghaznavid royal dynasty of Ghazni were the Lawiks. Afghan historian Abd al-Hayy Habibi Qandahari examined a manuscript in 1957 containing tales about the miracles of a 12th-century saint, which recorded the history of Ghazni through a text by the Indian lexicographer Radi ad-Din Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Saghani, who died in 1252. According to it, a great mosque at Ghazni had earlier been a great idol-temple built in honor of the Rutbils and Kabul-Shahs by Wujwir Lawik. When his son Khanan converted to Islam, the Kabul-Shah wrote to him in verse warning him not to follow the Arabs' religion, promising to send his own army. Khanan later reconverted. His grandson Aflah eventually demolished the idol-temple and built a mosque in its place.

    The Pashtun habitat during their conquest by Mahmud was located in the Sulaiman Mountains in the south of Afghanistan. Prior to Pashtun settlement in the Kabul River valley, Tajiks had formed the dominant population of Kabul, Nangarhar, the Logar Valley, and Laghman in east Afghanistan. The Pashtuns later began moving westward from the Sulaiman Mountains, displacing or subjugating indigenous populations including Tajiks, Hazaras, Farsiwanis, Nuristanis, and Pashayi people, a process that unfolded before or during the 16th and 17th centuries. The Nuristanis, or Kafir people of Kafiristan, practiced a form of ancient Hinduism infused with locally developed accretions before their conversion. They remained politically independent until Afghan Amir Abdul Rahman Khan conquered and converted them in 1895-1896, marking the final chapter of a process that had begun more than twelve hundred years earlier.

Common questions

When did the Muslim conquests of Afghanistan begin?

The Muslim conquests of Afghanistan began in the 7th century, accelerating after the battle of Nahavand in 642 AD. Fifteen years after that battle, Arab forces controlled all Sasanian domains except parts of Afghanistan, Tabaristan, and Makran. Full Islamization was not achieved until the 10th-12th centuries under the Ghaznavid and Ghurid dynasties.

Who were the Zunbils and why did they resist Arab rule for so long?

The Zunbils were rulers of Zabulistan and Zamindawar, the region stretching between Ghazni and Bost. They acted as a barrier against Muslim expansion for nearly two centuries by using the inhospitable terrain to trap Arab armies, luring invaders into barren valleys and cutting off their food supplies. The last Zunbil was killed by Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar in 865.

What was the Army of Destruction sent against the Zunbils?

The Army of Destruction, known as Jaish al-Fana, was an Arab force dispatched in 698 by al-Hajjaj, governor of Iraq and the East, with orders to destroy the Zunbils' strongholds and enslave their progeny. The campaign ended in catastrophic defeat; only 5,000 soldiers survived, the rest perishing in what sources call the Desert of Bust, most likely the Registan Desert.

What religions existed in Afghanistan before the Muslim conquest?

Buddhism, Hinduism, and Zoroastrianism all flourished in the region before the Muslim conquest, alongside locally developed traditions. Tokharistan (Bactria) was the only area conquered by Arabs where Buddhism had heavily flourished. Kabul and Zabulistan housed Buddhism and other Indian religions, while the Zunbils of Zamindawar maintained a shrine to the god Zun linked to Hindu and Tibetan religious practices.

When was Kabul finally converted to Islam?

Kabul's decisive conversion came in stages over several centuries. Caliph Al-Ma'mun (r. 813-833 AD) mounted the last Arab campaign against Kabul, capturing its king and converting him to Islam. The Hindu Shahi dynasty that subsequently controlled the area was defeated by Mahmud of Ghazni, who reigned from 998 to 1030 and encouraged mass conversions in Afghanistan and India.

Who were the last people to be converted to Islam during the Muslim conquests of Afghanistan?

The Nuristanis, known as the Kafir people of Kafiristan, were the last to be converted. They practiced a form of ancient Hinduism infused with locally developed accretions and remained politically independent until Afghan Amir Abdul Rahman Khan conquered and converted them in 1895-1896.

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  127. 128BookThe Ghaznavids: Their empire in Afghanistan and eastern Iran, 994 – 1040C.E. Bosworth — Edinburgh University Press
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  134. 135BookThe Hindu Sahis of Afghanistan and the Punjab, A.D. 865-1026: A Phase of Islamic Advance Into IndiaYogendra Mishra — Vaishali Bhavan — 1972
  135. 136BookHistory of India, Volume 2K. A. Nilakanta Sastri — Viswanathan
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  139. 140BookIndia: A History. Revised and UpdatedJohn Keay — Grove/Atlantic Inc. — 2011-04-12
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  141. 142BookA History of Afghanistan: Volumes 1 and 2Percy Sykes — Routledge — 2014-07-10
  142. 143BookThe Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 4Richard N. Frye — Cambridge University Press — 1975-06-26
  143. 144BookThe Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 5Cambridge University Press — 1968
  144. 145BookWarfare in Pre-British India – 1500BCE to 1740CEKaushik Roy — Routledge — 2015-06-03
  145. 146BookAdvanced Study in the History of Medieval India, Volume 1Jaswant Lal Mehta — Sterling Publishers — 1979
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  147. 148BookCulture and Political History of Kashmir, Volume 1Prithivi Nath Kaul Bamzai — M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd. — 1994
  148. 149JournalJanjuas: The Sahis of Udabhanda (Hund)Husain Khan — Area Study Centre (Central Asia), University of Peshawar — 1988
  149. 150BookHistory of Ancient IndiaRama Shankar Tripathi — Motilal Banarsidass — 1967
  150. 151BookSomanatha: The Many Voices of a HistoryRomila Thapar — Verso — 2005
  151. 152BookEurasian Slavery, Ransom and Abolition in World History, 1200–1860Christoph Witzenrath — Routledge — 2016
  152. 153BookThe Travels of Ibn Battuta: in the Near East, Asia and Africa, 1325–1354Courier Corporation — 2013
  153. 154Page 161 from "E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913–1936"
  154. 155BookHistory of Civilizations of Central Asia – Volume IV, Part IMotilal Banarsidass — 1992
  155. 156BookA Comprehensive History of India: The Delhi Sultanat, A.D. 1206–1526Orient Longmans — 1970
  156. 157BookMedieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals-Delhi Sultanat (1206–1526) – Part OneSatish Chandra — Har-Anand Publishers — 2004
  157. 158BookPolitics and Society During the Early Medieval Period: Collected Works of Professor Mohammad HabibClifford Edmund Bosworth — People's Publishing House — 1977
  158. 159BookA Comprehensive History of India: Volume Five – The Delhi Sultanat (A.D. 1206–1526)People's Publishing House
  159. 160BookGovernment and Society in Afghanistan: The Reign of Amir 'Abd Al-Rahman KhanHasun Kawun Kakar — University of Texas Press — 2011-01-15
  160. 161BookThe transformation of Afghan tribal society: Tribal expansion, Mughal imperialism and the Roshaniyya insurrection, 1450-1600Joseph Theodore Arlinghaus, Duke University Dept. of History — Duke University — 1988
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  163. 164BookAfghan Modern: The History of a Global NationRobert D. Crews — Harvard university Press — 2015
  164. 165BookState and Tribe in Nineteenth-century Afghanistan: The Reign of Amir Dost Muhammad Khan (1826–1863)Christine Noelle — Psychology Press — 1997
  165. 166BookA History of Afghanistan: Volumes 1 and 2Percy Sykes — Routledge — 2014-07-10
  166. 167Studies in Asian History: ProceedingsIndian Council for Cultural Relations — Asia Publishing House for Indian Council for Cultural Relations — March 21, 1969
  167. 168BookThe transformation of Afghan tribal society: tribal expansion, Mughal imperialism and the Roshaniyya insurrection, 1450-1600Joseph Theodore Arlinghaus — Duke University
  168. 169BookState and Tribe in Nineteenth-century Afghanistan: The Reign of Amir Dost Muhammad Khan (1826–1863)Christine Noelle — Psychology Press — 1997
  169. 170Richard Strand's Nuristân Site: Peoples and Languages of NuristanRichard F. Strand — 31 December 2005
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  171. 172BookAn Historical Geography of IranVasily Bartold — Princeton University Press — 2014-07-14
  172. 173JournalFence of Peristan - The Islamization of the "Kafirs" and Their DomesticationAlberto M. Cacopardo — Società Italiana di Antropologia e Etnologia — 2016
  173. 174BookHistorical and Political Gazetteer of Afghanistan, Volume 6Ludwig W. Adamec — Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt Graz — 1985
  174. 175JournalThe Genesis of the Royal TitleDr. Hussain Khan — Centre for the Study of the Civilizations of Central Asia, Quaid-i-Azam University
  175. 176BookThe Shahis of Afghanistan and the PunjabDeena Bandhu Pandey — Historical Research Institute; Oriental Publishers — 1973
  176. 177BookA Comprehensive History of IndiaRam Sharan Sharma — Orient Longmans
  177. 178BookPolitics and Society During the Early Medieval Period: Collected Works of Professor Mohammad Habib, Volume 2Mohammad Habib — People's Publishing House
  178. 179BookThe Life and Times of Sultan Mahmud of GhaznaMuhmmad Nazim — Cambridge University Press — 2014-08-13
  179. 180JournalIdentification of 'Naraina': A famous politicalRichard N. Frye — Indian History Congress
  180. 181BookStudies in Medieval Indian HistorySri Ram Sharma — Dayanand College — 2006
  181. 182BookAl-Hind: The Slavic Kings and the Islamic conquest, 11th-13th centuriesAndré Wink — Brill — 2002
  182. 183BookThe Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 4Richard N. Frye — Cambridge University Press — 1975-06-26
  183. 184BookThe History and Culture of the Indian People: The Delhi SultanateR.C. Majumdar — Allen & Unwin — 1951
  184. 185BookAn Historical Geography of IranVasily Bartold — Princeton University Press — 2014-07-14
  185. 186JournalBolor – A Contribution to the Political and Ethnic Geography of PakistanKarl Jettmar — Centre for the Study of the Civilizations of Central Asia, Quaid-i-Azam University — 1979
  186. 187BookProceedings of the Second International Hindukush Cultural ConferenceOxford University Press — 1996
  187. 188BookThe Garden of the Eight Paradises: Bābur and the Culture of Empire in Central Asia, Afghanistan and India (1483-1530)Stephen Frederic Dale — Brill — 2004
  188. 189JournalĞihād in Afghanistan and Muslim IndiaC. E. Bosworth — Tel Aviv University
  189. 190BookGates of Peristan: history, religion and society in the Hindu KushAlberto M. Cacopardo, Augusto S. Cacopardo — Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente
  190. 191JournalFence of Peristan – The Islamization of the "Kafirs" and Their DomesticationAlberto M. Cacopardo — Società Italiana di Antropologia e Etnologia — 2016
  191. 192BookGovernment and Society in Afghanistan: The Reign of Amir 'Abd Al-Rahman KhanHasun Kawun Kakar — University of Texas Press — 2011-01-15
  192. 193BookGovernment and Society in Afghanistan: The Reign of Amir 'Abd Al-Rahman KhanHasun Kawun Kakar — University of Texas Press — 2011-01-15
  193. 194BookGovernment and Society in Afghanistan: The Reign of Amir 'Abd Al-Rahman KhanHasun Kawun Kakar — University of Texas Press — 2011-01-15
  194. 195BookAn Historical Geography of IranVasily Bartold — Princeton University Press — 2013-10-17
  195. 196BookA History of Afghanistan: Volumes 1 and 2, Volume 1Percy Sykes — Routledge — 2014-07-10
  196. 197BookAfghanistan's Islam: From Conversion to the TalibanNile Green — University of California Press — 2017
  197. 198BookGovernment and Society in Afghanistan: The Reign of Amir 'Abd Al-Rahman KhanHasun Kawun Kakar — University of Texas Press — 2011-01-15