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Today marks the 101st independence day of Afghanistan. The kings of the ancient world believed Afghanistan region was the very centre of the world. Allama Mohammed Iqbal described Afghanistan as ‘the heart of Asia’, while Lord Curzon called Afghanistan ‘the cockpit of Asia’.
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Afghanistan's geo-strategic location on the crossroads between Iran, the Arabian Sea and India and between Central Asia and South Asia has given its territory and mountain passes a significance since the earliest Aryan migrations 6,000 years ago.
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Afghanistan's rough, rugged, deserted and arid terrain has produced some of the best fighters the world has ever seen, while its stunning scenery of gaunt mountains and lush green valleys with fruit-laden trees have proved to be an inspiration to poets.
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This was a land where the first ancient religions of Zoroastrianism, Manichaeanism and Buddhism flourished. Balkh, the ruins of which are still visible a few miles from Mazar-e-Sharif, is according to UNESCO one of the oldest cities in the world.
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Balkh was a thriving centre of Buddhist, Persian and Turkic arts and architecture. It was through Afghanistan that pilgrims and traders working the ancient Silk Route carried Buddhism to China and Japan.
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The southern Pashtuns formed the modern state of Afghanistan at the historical conjuncture when the Persian Safavid dynasty in the west, the Moguls in India and the Uzbek Janid dynasty were all in a period of decline in the eighteenth century.
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The Pashtun tribes were divided into two major sections, the Ghilzai and Abdali who later called themselves Durrani, which frequently competed against each other. The Pashtuns trace their genealogy to Qais, a companion of the Prophet Mohammed PBUH.
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The Durranis claim descent from Qais's eldest son Sarbanar while the Ghilzais claim descent from his second son. Qais's third son is said to be the ancestor of other diverse Pashtun tribes such as the Kakars in Kandahar and the Safis around Peshawar.
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Chaudhry Rehmat Ali who coined Pakistan's name and was the earliest proponents of the creation of Pakistan gave a proposal that Pakistan should create a confederation with Afghanistan, Iran and Turkharistan after independence.
