People in Afghanistan

The Afghan national identity is drawn from the founding of the Durrani Empire in the seventeen hundreds. Between 1747 and 1823 Ahmed Shah Durrani and his offspring held the Empires monarchy. These men were Afghanistans first Pashtun rulers and the country actually started to take shape under the leadership of Ahmad Shah. Because of centuries of fragmentation and exploitation the Afghan population is divided in several ethnic groups, each of whom having its own history. Nationalism in this country is very much related to the Pashtun culture and it is wise to say that there is no Afghan national identity as the entire nation is actually a multiethnic entity. On top of this issue there is the fact that a bigger population of Pashtuns is now located on the territory of Pakistan and that is why the term Afghanistani has started to gain in popularity denoting the inhabitants of modern Afghanistan. Thus, there were a lot of populations who lived on the territory of the country without being ethnic Afgans, but constituting the Afghan identity.
The Pashtuns - are mainly residing in the southern and eastern region of Afghanistan and also in western Pakistan. There is also quite a few Pashtuns in Iran. The culture of this population comes from ancient times and a large part of it has not been recorded in modern times yet. The origin of this people is quite controversial, but it is clear that the Afghan identity begun to develop as Pashtun identity under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Durrani who unified all Pashtun chiefdoms into what is now known as Afghanistan in the middle of the 18th century. Under the rule of nadir Shah the government was centralized and until the modern state was established in the 20th century, the words Afghan and Pashtun had been synonymous.
Tajiks, Farsiwans, and Qizilbash - The Tajiks people is related to the Persians from Iran and are some of the oldest inhabitants of the area. Tajiks are traceable back to the ancient times when the original Eastern Iranians settled in central Asia. The Tajiks are also the major population in Tajikistan and are found in large numbers in many other countries in Asia. In Afghanistan there are another two peoples related to Tajiks, the Farsiwans and the Qizilbashs. However, there is quite an important difference between the Tajikis and these other two sub-groups as the former belongs to the Shia sect, while the latter belongs to the Sunni.
The Hazaras this people have Turkic-Mongolian origins and has throughout the centuries mixed with indigenous groups. As far as the language is concerned, they speak a variant of Persian that is sprinkled with quite a few Mongolian words. Many Afghan people are of the opinion that the Hazaras are the offspring of Genghis Khan's army that settled in this area sometime in the 12th century. Others believe that the Hazara people is of Turkic origin, descendants of the Turkic invaders. This population of Afghanistan belongs to the Shia sect, thing that isolated them from their neighbors.
The Uzbeks are settled in the northern areas of the country and they represent the main Turkic population in Afghanistan. They are believed to have migrated together with the Turkic invaders and mingled with the local tribes. In the 16th century they reached Afghanistan together with Muhammad Shaybani conquerors. Uzbeks belong to the Sunni sect and they are related to the Turkmen, another Turkic population that lives in Afghanistan.
The Baluchs are an Iranian ethnic group that is also spread in southern Afghanistan, numbering about 200 thousand on the countrys territory. They are believed to be the offspring of Kurds and they probably settled in Afghanistan between the 11th and 14th centuries. They also belong to the Sunni Muslim sect.
The Nuristani is an Indo-Iranian people and they represent the third branch independent of the Iranian and Indo-Aryan groups. They are settled in dispersed region in the North-East of Afghanistan and also in Pakistan. They were obligated to convert to Islam during Amir Abdur Rahmans reign. Many of them believe they are descendants of the Greek warriors who fought under Alexander the Great, but there is almost no evidence to prove this theory. Most of these people belong to the Sunni Muslim sect.