http://www.gandhara.com.au/afghan_table.html

From Gandhara Galleries comes a fine historical chronology from 50,000 BCE - 2001 CE -- here's the first intriguing entry:

50,000 BCE-20,000 BCE --

Archaeologists have identified evidence of stone age technology in Aq Kupruk, and Hazar Sum.  Plant remains at the foothill of the Hindu Kush mountains indicate, that North Afghanistan was one of the earliest places to domestic plants and animals together with Iraq.

Moving forward thousands of years, the thoughtless brutality and far-reaching consequences of this item struck me:

1219-1221 -- Invasion of Afghanistan by Genghis Khan and the destruction of Irrigation systems, which turned fertile soil into permanent deserts.

Here you'll find excellent e-text chapters from Louis Dupree's book, Afghanistan (1980).  More recent history isn't included online, but the earlier chapters are impressive.  The site is trapped in frames so, unfortuately, I can't give you specific URLs to the pages that most attracted me.  Here, however, is a list of online chapter headings -- this is a great place in which to browse:  The Land: Introduction; Geographic Zones; Water; Domesticated Plants; Domesticated Animals; Fauna; Medicinal Plants; Calenders used; The People: Introduction; Ethnic Groups; Languages; Religious non-literacy; Folklore & folk music [Note: I did find a direct link to this category -- it's in my "Folklore & Proverbs" section]; Folk music & instruments; Settlement patterns: City, Town, Village; Life cycle: Birth & Childhood, Marriage, Death & Inheritance, Sports & Games, Diet, Dress & Ornaments; The Past: Pre-historic sequence....

This is an excellent look at Afghanistan's prehistoric human species, tools, domestication of plants, habitation, and much more.  Using the work of Louis Dupree and others, a tantilizing picture is created of many aspects of prehistoric life: for example, after discussing finds at one site, the author adds:

...Another extremely interesting phenomenon was encountered in the Darra-i-Kur Neolithic. Three intentional burials of domesticated goats, one in association with fragments from two or three children's skulls, were uncovered. Here must be evidence of ritual; of a concern for the mysteries of death and what follows. It was not a unique find for Darra-i-Kur. The Neanderthal child of Teshik Tash in the Soviet Union only 150 miles to the north was encircled by seven pairs of goat horns. Nor is it a phenomenon related solely to the prehistoric. Countless shrines and graves in Afghanistan today are adorned with goat horns, symbols of strength, virility and grace....

There are many other fascinating details (and several images) on this page as well.  Let me give one more example from a later period because it ties in so well to the following link on my own page -- it's about ancient trade routes connecting Afghanistan with the Near East:

...One of the more popular luxury items carried along this route was lapis lazuli from the mines of Badakhshan which are still being worked today. The two main periods of intensive lapis trade date from ca. 2300 B.c. and 1350 B.c.....

Whenever you see lapis-lazuli in Egyptian or Mesopotamian art, you can be certain that the prized blue stones originated in Afghanistan and reached the ancient jewelers of the Near East through complex trade routes.   This illustrated page looks briefly at the fabled stone:

Lapis lazuli is named from the Persian 'lashward' meaning blue, and its uniquely intense colour has been a source of delight for over 6000 years. For many centuries the only known deposits were those at Sar-i-Sang, in a remote mountain valley in Badakhshan, Afghanistan. From here it was exported to the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Sumer (Ira), and later traded throughout the East and into Europe....

This is a brief but interesting overview, "Aryans & Achaemenids (c. 1500 B.C. - 330 B.C.)"  The focus is on the northwestern region known as Balkh, or Bactria, a region where Zoroaster once lived (and where he died in a nomadic attack)

A pastoral, cityless, people led by heroic warriors riding two-horsed chariots came out of the north to shatter the great Cities of the Indus Valley.  In the sacerdotal writings of the Vedic Aryans, the Rigveda, we read of the Kubha (Kabul) River and know of their passage through Afghanistan sometime around 1500 B.C. In the related Persian hymns of the Avesta, we read of Bakhdi (Balkh) "the beautiful, crowned with banners" and of Zarathustra Spitama (Zoroaster), the great politico-religious leader who lived in Balkh sometime between 1000 and 600 B.C.

...Zoroaster...advised his followers to develop agriculture in addition to herding if they wished to remain independent and grow strong. The fertile plains of Bactria blossomed and the land prospered....

[If you're interested in a more scholarly approach to early Zoroastrianism, this site from the University of London is good: http://www.cais-soas.co.uk/zoroastrianism_under_achaemenids.htm]

From Afghan Network comes another page on Bactria -- the lengthy, detailed (but unreferenced) "History of Old Balkh" by Rameen Javid Moshref:

Paktra; the classical writers named it Bactria, and after the conquests of Islam it has come to be called Balkh; a northern province of modern Afghanistan, which boarders to the north, the river Oxus and the former USSR. Not much has been known about this empire, only some coins and a little bit of writing and occasional archaeological artifacts. Much of the work on excavations of Bactrian artifacts has been done by French Archaeologists. Historians find remote references in other people's records about the kingdom....

The author mentions Zoroaster but he also adds interesting data on an ancient goddess worshipped in Bactria:

...Bactria is now known as Afghan Turkistan. It was from Bactria that came prophet Zarathustra (Zardasht). Another source of spiritual home that made Bactria sacred was a great temple of the ancient goddess Anahid, or Anailtis- Tanata in Persian and Ananita in the Avesta hymns. The temple was so rich that often it attracted the needy Syrian kings who sat out to plunder it. In her name and honor, in Armemia, girls prostituted themselves. Anaitis was a Scythian goddess, but she is identified also as Assyrian Mylitta, the Arabian Alytta and the Greek Venus Urania. Artaxerxes Mnemon of the Sassanids was among her devotees. She is also associated with the Persian Mithra. Her association with Zoroaster adds to her popularity....

Although I enjoyed this paper, I should point out that I'm not a Central Asian expert so it's difficult for me to judge its accuracy.  My sense is that the author sometimes mixes speculation and local legends into his history, without distinguishing between them.  For example:

...The original population of Bactria were largely Scythian (non Aryans). Apparently the Aryans who came over and took control, formed a military aristocracy over a technologically less developed people....

As far as I know, the original population of Bactria isn't known, the Scythians' relationship with the "Aryans" is far from clear, and their own "military aristocracy" and technological skills were first-rate.  So, although I find Moshref's work excellent for its sense of the dramatic sweep of Bactrian history, be a bit cautious and double check his facts elsewhere....

.......On the other hand, and continuing with this topic of Bactria and the Scythians: "The Ethnic of the Sakas (Scythians)," by I. P’iankovby (at the University of London's Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies) is thorough, academically solid and documented from ancient sources.  Unfortunately, the page isn't formatted for Netscape and thus is too wide for my screen.  Continual horizontal scrolling down a lengthy paper is so distracting that I finally stopped reading the material.  For those seeking an in-depth look, however, the extra effort will be worth it.

[Note: for another site with rich, carefully footnoted data on the Scythians and related peoples, see this chapter by Valery Pavlovich Alexeev on the Iron Age in Eurasia: http://www.alekseevmanuscript.com/ChapterVIII.html.]

From England's Hutchinson Family Encyclopedia comes a good overview of Afghanistan's history:

...Part of the ancient Persian Empire, the region was used by Darius I and Alexander the Great as a path to India; Islamic conquerors arrived in the 7th century, then the Mongol leaders Genghis Khan and Tamerlane in the 13th and 14th centuries respectively. Afghanistan first became an independent emirate in 1747 under Ahmed Shah Durrani....

The summary of more recent history offers good detail without getting too lengthy.  If you're unfamiliar with the country, this is a good place to start.  There are four clickable photos taken in 1974 (I've used these on my site as well).

This is a lengthy 1994 U.S. Department of State overview, of interest for its details, especially the historical ones.  Here's a brief sample:

...Afghanistan, often called the crossroads of Central Asia,
has had a turbulent history.  In 328 BC, Alexander the
Great entered the territory of present-day Afghanistan,
then part of the Persian Empire, to capture Bactria
(present-day Balkh).  Invasions by the Scythians, White
Huns, and Turks followed in succeeding centuries.  In AD
642, Arabs invaded the entire region and introduced
Islam....

The site includes a wide range of useful historical (early & modern), political, and societal data.

Silver Coin: Hercules on the front, Zeus on the reverse side:
minted in 323 BCE, the year of Alexander the Great's death.
(From the Toronto-based Afghan Network)

From a numismatics firm in Brussels comes a brief page on the tangled and bloody history of Bactria starting from the period of Alexander's conquests:

Bactria is geographically located in the north of the actual Afghanistan and in the South of the modern republics of Uzbekistan and Tadjikistan. It corresponds to the North-East part of Alexander the Great's empire....

...Due to the lack of ancient texts, our knowledge of the history of Bactria is rather poor for that period. However, the coinage of Bactria, by its quantity as well as its high artistic qualities proves the power and the wealth of the region. That coinage also allows the modern collector and the historians to have an idea what the different rulers looked like....

At the bottom of the page, the site includes face and reverse sides of two silver Indo-Greek coins.  In between, 4 large bitmap images won't load automatically so just ignore the empty spaces (I downloaded one and it turned out to be a blurry map).

..... Again on coins, this handsomely presented site explores ancient coins -- huge numbers of them, with access to enlarged images of both sides.  The author writes:

Containing information and scans of over 1500 coins, these pages are to be a resource for students of Near Eastern, Persian, Indian, Central Asian and Chinese history from 600 BC to 1600 AD.  Permanent exhibits with emphasis on Sasanian, Hunnic, Indian and Islamic coinages....

If you love looking at ancient coins and imagining their history (as I do), don't miss this one.

Finally, on the topic of ancient coins, this is a far more modest but nice little site offering several coins and artifacts found in Afghanistan.

Immediately after Alexander's death, his kingdom was divided among his own successors and then split further when India's Buddhist Mauryans traded elephants and a princess for the southern provinces of Afghanistan (what happens to the bartered princess isn't mentioned).  This website, "Mauryans & Graeco-Bactrians: c. 305 B.C. - 48 B.C.," looks at this period:

...Seleucus, inheritor of Alexander's eastern conquests, came to establish his authority in Bactria (305 B.C.), but south of the Hindu Kush he lost the Kabul-Kandahar area to the Indian Mauryan Dynasty, which had united the plethora of petty kingdoms in India under their strong and able rule after Alexander left. Having received the southern provinces of Afghanistan from Seleucus in return for 500 elephants and a princess, the Mauryans confirmed local chieftains in their satrapies but continued to regard them with a keen sense of benevolent responsibility, especially during the rule of King Ashoka, the dynasty's renowned ruler who reigned from 268-233 B.C....

...[King Ashoka's] Ashokan Rock and Pillar Edicts which spell out his precepts for a life devoted to charity and compassion toward both man and beast, are well known in India, but these Kandahar Edicts [discovered in 1967 -- the page offers a translation] are the western-most Edicts to have been found and they are the only ones to use Greek. As such they are an exciting additional illustration of Afghanistan's traditional role in bringing together east and west....

Because of Ashoka's humanitarian reforms in Afghan regions south of the Hindu Kush, that region now tastes a rare period of serenity.  Bactria, on the other hand, remains stormy.  The author comments that prior to Alexander --

... the Achaemenids [Persians] are known to have deported politically dissident Greeks to Bactria....

Many more Greeks arrived during and after Alexander's time.  These Graeco-Bactrians soon chaffed under Seleucid rule:

 In the north, Bactria also prospered but here the cultural orientation was toward the west and the times were turbulent instead of tranquil. A local Bactrian governor eventually declared complete independence from Seleucid rule in 250 B.C. and his successors ultimately expanded Bactrian authority below the Hindu Kush to Kabul and to the cities of the Punjab where Mauryan power had steadily declined since the death of Ashoka....

Although full documentation isn't provided, I like the fact that this page touches on various archaeological discoveries made in these regions.  Overall, the page is well done.

Other changes took place as Alexander's empire crumbled further.  Portions of Afghanistan and many other lands in this region now became part of the Persian empire of Parthia:

...The Parthian Empire is a fascinating period of Persian history closely connected to Greece and Rome. Ruling from 247 B.C. to A.D. 228 in ancient Persia (Iran), the Parthians defeated Alexander the Great's successors, the Seleucids, conquered most of the Middle East and southwest Asia, and built Parthia into an Eastern superpower. The Parthian empire revived the greatness of the Achaemenid empire and counterbalanced Rome's hegemony in the West. Parthia at one time occupied areas now in Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaidzhan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Israel....

This site looks at the region as a whole and doesn't devote any space to the region of Afghanistan, per se.  Nevertheless, the site gives fascinating data on a much earlier historical layer.  In today's terms, Afghanistan and many of her neighbors once belonged to Iran, still obviously a major power in the region.

Terracotta head of a female figure
Pre-Gandharian, Silk Road region
(From Gandhara Galleries -- see below)

Next comes the Kushan period running from c. 135 B.C. - 241 A.D.  This is when trade along the Silk Road was at its height and the ancient world basked in exotic luxuries from India and the Far East.  Afghanistan was at the hub of this far-flung traderoute -- and nomadic Kushans were now her rulers:

Restless nomadic tribes living in Central Asia had long been of concern to the rulers of Bactria and their relentless encroachments into the settled areas fill the pages of the area's early history. Real nomadic political power in Afghanistan was, however, first established by the Yueh-chih who, forced from their grazing lands on the Chinese border, enter this story as a loose confederation of five clans.  United under the banner of one, the Kushan, they wrote one of history's most brilliant and exciting chapters in Afghanistan.

 ...The rise to world prominence had wrought great changes on the nomadic Kushans. Having no traditions on which to build a settled way of life, they adapted what they found in ways best suited to their own personality. What emerged was a vibrant and indigenous culture born of the fusion of western-oriented Bactrian ideals with those from eastern-oriented India, interpreted by the forceful, free character born on the steppes of Central Asia. The result was vital and dynamic....

Of special interest in this period is the emergence of a new hybrid art under the leadership of Kanishka (c. 130 A.D.), a powerful and eclectic Kushan king.  The art is known as Gandhara, a merger of Hellenistic and Indian elements:

The revival of the ancient religion of Buddhism by Kanishka and the attendant emergence of Gandhara art are enduring manifestations of Kushan culture. A new school of Buddhist thought stressing the miraculous life and personality of the Buddha was officially sanctioned at a great council called by Kanishka. This humanization of the Buddha led directly to a desire for a representative figure of the Buddha who had, until this time, been depicted by such symbols as a wheel, an empty throne, a riderless horse, or a foot print. East and West joined in the creation of the familiar Buddha figure and adapted it to fit Indian philosophical ideals.

This is a fine page about a lively, rich, hopeful period in Afghanistan's often tragic history.

From New York City's Metropolitan Museum comes another page on the Kushan Empire's history and art.  It's a fine little site, offering clickable images, maps, good overviews, and hypertext to related pages (e.g., the Silk Road).  Here are two brief excerpts:

...The name Kushan derives from the Chinese term Guishang, used in historical writings to describe one branch of the Yuezhi — a loose confederation of Indo-European people who had been living in northwestern China until they were driven west by another group, the Xiongnu, in 176–160 B.C. The Yuezhi reached Bactria (northwest Afghanistan and Tajikistan) around 135 B.C. ....

...The melding of peoples produced an eclectic culture, vividly expressed in the visual arts produced during the Kushan period.  Themes derived from Greek and Roman mythologies were common initially, while later, Buddhist imagery dominated: some of the first representations of the Buddha in human form date to the Kushan era, as do the earliest depictions of bodhisattvas.

......Continuing with Kushan and Gandhara art, the Gandhara Galleries in Australia has created a handsome series of pages filled with rich art from this period in Afghanistan.  The collection's emphasis, not surprisingly, is on heads of the Buddha, since Gandhara art is famous for being the first to depict the Buddha in human form.  The collection also includes a few sculptures of merchants, women, and Hindu deities (see above for pre-Gandhara head of a European-featured woman).

Herat's Friday Mosque
Islamic Arts & Architecture Organization  [see directly below]

http://islamicart.com/

Note: since many of the sites I've already annotated offer pages on the later Arab, Mongol, Turk, etc conquests and history, I'm not going to continue looking at each period individually.  TIP: if you've found pages on specific periods whose content you like, try clicking on their home page link (if it's offered) -- from there you can look for their index.  If there isn't a home page link, try peeling back their URL from right to left, stripping away the finely-tuned address (a / marks when one part ends and another begins) until you get back to the basic URL (or until you reach a site map or index).  Sometimes as you peel, access will be denied to a particular page -- just ignore this and keep peeling back.  This strategy doesn't always work but I've found some great pages this way.

Although, as just noted, I'm not annoting specific Islamic history sites, I do wish to offer a site with a great overview of the Islamic world in general.  This is from the Islamic Arts & Architecture Organization -- a stunning site focused on Islamic architecture, calligraphy, coins, and rugs.  Each section offers well-written, thoughtful historical articles as well as lovely galleries of art.  In looking at the "Decor" page under Architecture, I discovered that if one runs one's mouse over each image, a description will appear; the images are clickable for stunning enlargements (see above for Herat's famous "Friday Mosque"). Note: these pages cover the entire Islamic world, not just Afghanistan.

Finally, this is "The 'Other' in 'Afghan' Identity: Medieval Jewish community of Afghanistan."  This carefully researched and footnoted page from Afghanistan Online is by Guy Matalon Ph.D. (the article was first published in Mardom Nama-e Bakhter, an Afghan scientific journal).  In addition to his post-modern "Other" framework (which I'm afraid I found somewhat burdensome in an otherwise nicely focused historical paper), the author considers intriguing evidence from medieval tombstones.  Here is an introductory excerpt:

...Most of the literature about the Jews of Afghanistan and Iran is inaccessible to most of the scholars who concentrate on this geographical area. Most of the recent studies about the history of the Jews in Afghanistan are in Hebrew.  Furthermore, the majority of the material is saturated with folklore and little concrete, archaeological evidence. However, there are some things that are known about the Jewish community in Afghanistan....

...There are a handful of articles that investigate the Jewish community in the Middle Ages. Due to the Mongol invasion, very few records survived in order for give researchers the opportunity to study these communities. Therefore, what I am able to offer is an introductory study of the Jews of Afghanistan in the Middle Ages.

Most Jewish communities throughout the area which is part of modern day Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the surrounding area speak of their beginning by referring to the Assyrian Exile (720 BCE) and the Bablyonian Exile (560 BCE). It is difficult to refute, or supply evidence for this. There are no archaelogical remains that allow one to argue so. However, there is a mention in the Bible of the exile of a large community to the river Gozan (2). It would seem that the myth of the establishment of the Jewish community in the Fertile Crescent has some historical basis since the Exile did occur. And furthermore, there was a continuous Jewish presence in the area until the modern age.

Of the Jews living in Afghanistan, we hear nothing until the 8th century of the common era....

It's an interesting paper about the little-known presence of Jews in an unexpected setting.

[Note: the portal page on history from Afghanistan Online offers links to other aspects of Afghan history not covered on my website; these include various 20th century constitutions: http://www.afghan-web.com/history/.]

AFGHANISTAN'S LOST
CULTURAL HERITAGE

Ancient Goddess Figures from Baluchistan in Southern Afghanistan
[Undated, but probably prehistoric as these resemble Indus Valley work]
("These figurines are made out of baked clay.
The one on the left is 6 cm tall and the one on the right is 5.5 cm. ")
Kabul Museum: Gallery B, #1
[See directly below -- permission pending]
20 October 2001Addendum: in annotating a page on Afghan prehistory today, I came across more goddess images closely resembling these and dated to the 3rd millennium BCE; it seems likely that these two also date from that same prehistoric period.  See: http://www.afghanan.net/afghanistan/sites/prehistory.htm

This is a series of pages on the Kabul Museum in Afghanistan.  The website is especially poignant because the museum's treasures have either been bombed, looted, or destroyed by the Taliban.  There are three galleries here, each with a dozen or so black & white photos of lost art  (I have tinted the two appearing on my page).  Here's an excerpt from the introduction:

For thousands of years, Afghanistan was a crossroad for trade from India, Iran, and Central Asia. As a result, many treasures and artifacts have been discovered and collected. The Kabul Museum, housed the most comprehensive record of Central Asian history. Many of its pieces have been dated as far back as pre-historic times....

...These treasures and many other were tragically lost when the Kabul Museum was bombed in 1993. At first, only the upper galleries suffered losses and looting. The remaining artifacts, were transfered to lower leveled, steel doored vaults. In 1994, the United Nations attempted to stop the looting by repairing the doors, and bricking up the windows.  Dissapointingly, these attempts failed, and looters continued to plunder 90% of the museum's collections.

Both private collectors and antique dealers from as far away as Tokyo, have purchased stolen museum pieces. Looted artifacts have shown up all over the world, and they bring in large sums of money to the criminals.  Despite President Rabbani's attempts to retrieve the stolen artifacts, only 52 pieces have been recovered. Sadly, with the current war between Rabbani's government and the Taliban, the recovery of these pieces has taken a back seat....

Two doves holding a string of pearls
[Undated -- & I have no idea even of an approximate period -- I just love the composition]
("This clay dish from Bamiyan is 38 cm in diameter....")
Kabul Museum: Gallery B, #7
[See directly above -- permission pending]

http://www.afghan-web.com/kabul-museum/intro.html

...Continuing, this time from Afghanstan Online, here's a sad update from March 2001 on the Kabul Museum:

...In early March 2001, the Taliban decided to destroy all pre-Islamic statues and objects in Afghanistan, after an edict was announced by their leader Mullah Omar in late February.  The Taliban destroyed numerous statues in the museum which survived the previous looting and destruction as a result of war.  The Taliban also destroyed the two giant Buddhas from the 5th century in Bamiyan, and other ancient historical statues in Ghazni. One of the Buddhas in Bamiyan was the world's tallest standing Buddha.

The purpose of this page, is to help others enjoy the contents of the Kabul Museum prior to its destruction. It is important to remember our rich cultural heritage. We feel that Afghans need to have a  link to their past. It is our deepest hope that the beautiful treasures of our country can one day be found  and returned to their rightful home....

The site includes a B&W photo of the destroyed museum along with a video of the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban.  My computer can't handle videos but I couldn't bear to watch it anyway.  I have spent my life encouraging creativity: to watch it destroyed through ignorance would only throw me into a fierce Irish rage.  Oppressive humans can be intolerably stupid.  When they die, well, hopefully, they'll be re-born and learn from their mistakes.  When art is destroyed, it's gone forever.

If you want further details of Taliban idiocy where art is concerned, this page, "Enemies of the Afghan Heritage," comes from the passionate Revolutionary Association of the Women of  Afghanistan (RAWA).  It looks at the Taliban's destruction of ancient art -- gigantic Buddhist sculpture as well as the contents of the Kabul Museum.  It offers many hard-hitting, detailed essays (some with photos).

From Archaeology, April 20, 1998, comes "Museum Under Siege" by Nancy Hatch Dupree, senior consultant at the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief in Peshawar, Pakistan, and vice-chairperson of the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan's Cultural Heritage; from 1966 to 1974 she participated in prehistoric excavations in Afghanistan conducted by her late husband Louis Dupree (see link to his work below).  This is a detailed and very depressing account of the destruction of Afghanistan's Kabul Museum.  Here is her introduction to this lengthy page:

When Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan in 1988, all but the capital of Kabul had fallen to the resistance, known as the mujahideen. When Kabul itself was taken in April 1992, ending the 14-year rule of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA), mujahideen factions began warring among themselves for control of the city. Attacks were often launched from the south, and the National Museum in Darulaman, six miles south of Kabul, was often on the front line. Each time a new faction triumphed, it would loot the ruins....

In addition to a detailed, gripping, sad history, the page has a link to exact data on artifacts stolen, sold on the black market, lost, or destroyed.

From Yahoo comes a good collection of links to Afghanistan's Buddhist cultural heritage.  Some sites include photos of Greco-Buddhist art from the Kabul Museum (before the Taliban destroyed it).  Other links look in more detail at the Taliban's role in the destruction of this art.

AFGHAN FOLK MUSIC

 © Haamed-Naweed
(From Afghan Magazine -- used with permission)

http://www.afghanmagazine.com/july99/music/

From Afghan Magazine comes a 1999 page with several links to the contemporary Afghan music scene.  I found especially moving a description of a 1999 concert in Dallas, Texas performed by a visiting group of middle-aged male musicians from Afghanistan.  After annotating a link (below) on the blood-sport of buzkashi a few minutes ago (7:30pm, 10/10/01), I felt a sense of distaste for these nomadic males and their brutal traditions.  But now, reading about their music, I'm melting again. Simplistic distinctions and judgments are difficult to sustain when it comes to Central Asia:

Afghan folk music is the essence and spirit of the people and their culture. Listening to Afghan folk music is enjoyable, but listening to it live is a distinct and unforgettable experience.

On May 8, 1999, the Afghan community of Dallas, Texas was blessed to have a talented Afghan folklore band perform live. The concert lasted over five hours...a rare feat compared to most concerts held by Afghan performers in the US.

Without a doubt, the audience enjoyed the performance and sang along to the traditional dou-bayeeti (poetic couplets).  Many of the poems and lyrics which were sung of various distinct places in Afghanistan had been altered. The new lyrics consisted of images of the present war and the description of the ruins of cities, towns, villages and sites of past beauty.

It brought tears to the eyes of many older audience members revealing a vivid sign of the concealed and secret pains and feelings that many Afghans feel but do not normally express in public....

(Note: music download links don't work.)

This is a lovely little page (illustrated in B&W) from Afghan Magazine: "Ancient Musical Instruments of Afghanistan" by Nabi Kohzad:

In ancient Afghanistan(Ariana), there were three distinct types of musical instruments: dandweehi, wanaa, and yunaa. The windowed instrument, dandweehi, is the present toula (flute), the string, wanaa, is the current tar, and the bass, yunaa, is the modern dowl. All three instruments were heard in the prominent court of Yama (the first king of Ariana) four thousand years ago....

...In time, these unique, three instruments evolved into other forms and migrated to different parts of the world. The tar evolved to diverse, distinct forms: dutar, sitar, shashtar, tambour, and later made its way to the West as the guitar. The ancient flute (toula) of ancient Baakhtar (northern ancient Afghanistan) reached China via the silk roads. It is said that the ancient mountains passes and valleys of Afghanistan were once filled with tunes of these rhythmic instruments, and if you listen to the wind at night in an Afghan valley, you can hear the ancient, harmonious melodies played out in the breezes that blow.

You'll find interesting B&W photos (taken from Louis Depree's work -- see above) of various traditional Afghan instruments here: Daira, Drums, Dhol, Rubab, Richak, Sarinda, Tambur, Tula, Waj or Wunz, and Zerbaghali.  The only text is this:

Here are some of the musical instruments used in Afghanistan. The instruments are traditional instruments which are mostly used in folklore music but also utilized in modern Afghan music today as well...

From Afghanistan Online comes another selection of B&W photos of Afghan instruments: Daira, Dhamboura, Dol, Dolak, Rebab, Richak, Sarani, Sarinda, Shashtar, Surnai, Tambur, Tula, Waj, Zerbagli. (Note: these all seem to come from Louis Dupree but not all offer the same instruments and some of the photos are of better quality than others.)

I fell in love with what used to be called "belly dance" music, when I was studying in a small midwestern Catholic college in the late '50's.  That was a period when I was also in love with a tall, moody, young linguist who was teaching me Hebrew, Arabic, and Turkish all at the same time.  My beginner's knowledge of the languages faded, as did my passion when I learned my friend was gay.  But my intoxication with the music remains.

From Afghanistan Online comes "Traditional Pashto Music."  This is the ethnic group to which the Taliban belong.  How can men who so despise women, who so brutally oppress and destroy whatever is different, nevertheless sing such gorgeous music?  I can't fathom it.....except by analogy.  Christians, whose Gregorian chant also melts my soul, were butchering Moslems at the same time some of them were singing that chant.  Sad paradox and irony.

This Afghan site of "belly dance" music offers Real Audio clips of the following: "Taranay Watan" sung by Ustad Awalmir; love songs sung by Salam Logari, Kheyal Mohammad, Shawali; and "a deep poem" sung by Ustad Sarahung.  The links all work (as of 6pm, 10/19/01), the pieces run from 3 minutes to over 8, and if you don't have Real Audio, there's a link you can click on to install it.  Enjoy -- it's lovely!

Again from Afghanistan Online come five more Real Audio clips, this time sung by Ahmad Zahir, who is famous in Afghan circles, and whose music sometimes sounds more "pop" than the selections on the previous page.  The clips hover in the 4-5 minute range (again, all the links work).  Here are the selections: Gaa dar aghoooshe een (Either in his arms); Dewana-am Dewana-am (I am crazy -- I am crazy); Maadarem (My mother); Deldaar raseeda (My love has come); and Zindagee (life).

This is the New York Folklore Society's Newsletter, Winter/Spring 1998: "The Queens Folklorist: Reflections on a Folk Arts Program" by Ilana Harlow.  This is a gentle, yet lively, piece, as much about New York City's multi-ethnicity as about Afghan immigrants.  Afghans, in fact, are only a small piece in the overall tapestry here:

...Neighboring nationalities also recognize and enjoy the cultural continuities between each other’s music; Queens’ Afghan community hires Bukharan and Persian artists to perform at musical events just as they would in their home country.

...Thus far I have organized a festival of Greek, Turkish, and Armenian traditions, as well as a concert of Uzbek, Afghan, and Persian music.  The concert, "Musical Bridges: Jewish and Muslim Traditions of Asia," was the most significant of the projects I have done. The program explored Jewish-Muslim relations through the music of Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Iran and aimed to sensitize the audience to the varieties of Jewish and Muslim traditions and historical experience. (e.g. Jews were the court musicians for Bukharan Muslim amirs). The concert also highlighted continuities between the music and poetry traditions of the three countries in general. Fortuitously, the Afghan and Bukharan singers featured in the concert used to perform together when they visited each other’s countries as part of government-sponsored tours....

I found it an interesting essay, full of hints of deeper issues (e.g., multi-ethnic cemeteries).

FOLKLORE & PROVERBS

Boy riding a donkey laden with fodder in front of market stalls in Ghazni province, Afghanistan in 1974.  Donkeys are a practical and traditional form of local transport in this mountainous country.
(Hutchinson Family Encyclopedia/Image © Ric Ergenbright/Corbis)

He is riding the donkey, but has lost the donkey.

[My sense of what this means is that if we don't stay grounded and aware of what we have, it may already be slipping away from us; alternately: in the midst of life, we may already have lost it.]

http://charsi1.homestead.com/pro.html [10/4/01: temporarily offline -- keep trying!]

Proverbs are a subcategory under the general field of "Folklore."  Thus, I was pleased to find several collections from Afghanistan.

This is a small group of twenty proverbs.  The interpretive "Meanings" assigned to each one sometimes feel off track to me (as if the author were too self-consciously trying to relate the Afghan proverb to an English one), but it's still an interesting little site.

This is a much larger collection -- 100 proverbs.  There is also a graceful introduction -- here's an excerpt:

Proverbs enter into the real flow of life and they express the vibrant culture of the people. They deal with friendships, hospitality, and the homespun wisdom of family life. The people of Asia are extremly fond of proverbs, and the Afghans are not exceptions. If a person who is learning the language can quote a proverb suitable to the occasion, the response evoked is surprisingly appreciative, and at times even results in applause....

Both this site as well as the preceding take much of their material from, according to the author, "...the booklet written by J. Christy Wilson, Jr. , who had been to Afghanistan."  I enjoyed browsing here -- and offer one final proverb for these troubled times:

In the ditch where water has flowed, it will flow again.
       (Meaning:  Previous prosperity will follow disaster.)

From Afghanistan Online comes yet another collection of 32 proverbs, for those who prefer a medium-sized collection....

...and for those who just want a taste of Afghan proverbs, here's a tiny site with only seven.

Along with proverbs, folk superstitutions are also included in the general category of "Folklore."  Here are a handful from Afghanistan.

Mythic Sun Rising over Mountains and Birds
Detail from a rug woven in Afghan Refugee camps
(From Afghan Magazine -- used with permission)

This scholarly work (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991) by Margaret A. Mills comes out of a 1975 storytelling evening in which Mills was the only woman in an otherwise all male audience.  The page is from Barnes & Noble: it has an assortment of small but interesting reviews.  Here are several excerpts:

...The storytellers wittily integrated themes of sense and nonsense, gender and sexuality, religion and public and private social control in thirteen recorded stories, here translated in full. In interpreting texts, Margaret A. Mills argues for a rhetorical sophistication among adept traditional performers which enables them to mount performances of traditional materials which are highly, and in this case slyly, sensitive to the political and social identities of self and audience....

...Mills is a professional folklorist with a good knowledge of  Afghan and Iranian Persian and considerable experience in Afghanistan....

...The exotic character of the stories themselves will intrigue tale lovers. The first chapter--an academic's delight--concerns the key theoretical issues of contemporary social science field studies. The backdrop (not to be forgotten) is the looming invasion by the Soviets....

This is "Folklore & Folk Music" from Louis Dupree's 1980 AFGHANISTAN (also see above).  Note: despite the mention of "Folk Music" in the title of this page, I found no evidence of folk music in the article itself:

AFGHAN folklore and legend often intimately relate to Islam, although much of the corpus definitely preceded Islam. Of course, all religions, however sophisticated, build on neighboring earlier faiths and adapt existing legends to fit new needs. Folktales and folk songs in Afghanistan, as in other non-literate and pre-literate societies, are group reinforcing, and psychologically satisfying to the individual....

...I have collected hundreds of folktales in Afghanistan, and have reached some tentative conclusions concerning the patterns and functions of folklore in non-literate Afghan society. Several are discussed here....

...I have divided the folktales of Afghanistan into five, somewhat overlapping, categories: religion, history and legend, love and jealousy, virtue and morality, and, for lack of a better term, jokes.

This is a lengthy, no-frills, quick-loading page with great examples of fascinating lore mixed with local traditions.

This is a two-page collection filled with delicious "trickster" teaching-stories about Mullah Nasruddin (familiar to many of us in the West through the Sufi books of Idries Shah):

Mullah Nasruddin: The name that every Afghan remembers hearing about in childhood. Here is few of the thousands of humurous and thoughtful stories about Him. His identity is being claimed by three countries. Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey....

From Afghanistan Online comes more humor of Mullah Nasruddin.  There are six good examples here.

From Afghanistan Online come four "Short Afghan Wisdom Stories."  Like the preceding, they have the droll wit of Sufi humor.

FOLK ARTS & TRADITIONS

Soviet Jets, helicopters, and Armored Vehicles Attacking Afghanistan
Details from a rug woven in Afghan Refugee camps (see directly below)
(From Afghan Magazine -- used with permission)
[One has to wonder how the USA's bombing will be woven into future Afghan rugs.]

http://www.afghanmagazine.com/oct99/visualarts/askiwarrugs/index.html

From Afghan Magazine comes an eerie article, "Woven Icons of War" by Charles Lewis, Ph.D., Oct.-Dec. 1999:

The incorporation of war imagery into a recognizable rug design has been an unusual outgrowth of the Afghan-Soviet War (1979-1989). The flow of these war rugs or war aksi (smaller size carpets with a predominance of war iconography) from Afghanistan and the refugee camps to the West has been documented in several articles in the Oriental Rug Review (O'Callaghan, 1997; O'Connell, 1997).

Expert opinion has been able to trace the origins of these rugs (refugee camps in either Iran or Pakistan, or Afghanistan itself) based on details of their construction or from details of weaponry that fit a specific theater of combat (verified by Russian veterans of the conflict). Personally, I have favored certain subsets of these carpets. These rarer cases either hide minimal war imagery in the overall rug design or most fascinating of all, appear to tell a story of terrible struggle in a sequence of images in the rug much like some primitive silent movie, but rich with colors. These rugs stimulate my imagination and I would like to take a few moments to try and pass this fascination on to those who are the inheritors of the proud traditions of Afghanistan and perhaps of the War itself....

The author then looks in detail at such "war-rugs," including images of the jets, helicopters, and tanks depicted above.

Horse Man
(From Afghan Magazine -- used with permission)
[see directly below]

http://www.afghanmagazine.com/july2000/visualarts/rugs/index.html

This is "Examination of a Mythical Afghan Rug," again by Charles Lewis, Ph.D., for the excellent Afghan Magazine, July - December 2000.  The page discusses a rug depicting horsemen, a somber figure wrapped in a flayed lionskin, a bull, and the lion who has slaughtered the bull (two hypertext links will take you to a full view + a detail):

The Afghan-Soviet war has produced changes throughout Afghan culture and this extends to carpet weaving. Refugees in Iran and Pakistan have continued weaving rugs, often producing non-traditional designs, perhaps to appeal to Western consumers.   A subset of these are pictorial rugs including the popular "war-rugs", but others may show images with more subtle hints about the psychological struggles confronting them as refugees of war.  One such pictorial rug that is new is collected by a Pakistani exporter from Afghan weavers in the Peshawar area....

With sensitivity and psychological insight, the author then explores the implications in this "Horse Man" rug.  Here's the moving conclusion:

...Without knowing whether the Afghan rug weaver was literate or not, he or she was probably aware of the emotional consequences of war. Such timeless archetypes may form an unconscious reservoir in the psyche of war's survivors that is operative alongside feelings of terror and retaliatory anger. I believe that these symbols can emerge in the iconography of a contemporary Afghan weaver, an observer and perhaps a victim of war and its aftermath. Yet, the final outcome of such a psychological struggle with elemental anger, of the man wrapped and immobilized except for a grimace, remains uncertain.

From Larry B. Lambert comes another view of horses, this time in buzkashi, the disturbing, fierce blood-sport whose roots extend far back into antiquity.  The author's introduction explains:

The ancient game of bozkushi is part of Afghan life and [this essay] is offered as a primer to that end. It has little to do with politics but much to do with the spirit of the place.

Bozkushi is a game that dates itself into Afghan antiquity. The name bozkushi, literally translated means "goat killing" suggest it was derived from hunting mountain goats by champions on horseback.  Today the rider (or team) who is able to pitch a dead calf across a goal line first wins. The game may last as long as a week and is as free-wheeling as the Afghan spirit.

Legend has it bozkushi was played for the first time in the Oxus basin. The turkik peoples and others who migrated from the steppes to Afghanistan domisticated the horse and used to as a mobile weapons platform for combat....

...Horsemanship in Afghanistan was customary during the Vedic times. The people in the Oxus basin domisticated the horse in order to defend their homeland against the marauding cavalry of enemy tribes while herding their flocks....

...Horsemen are frequently carried away and in their excitement they will bump, hit and jar opponents.  When they return, they are usually bruised or have a broken limb. Sometimes, they choose a site for pitch near a river and a few horsemen conspire to drown their opponents. The Afghans play for very high stakes and take the game very seriously. It is not uncommon for riders to continue in the game with cracked ribs, broken limbs and various head injuries.

I'm deliberately leaving out graphic details about what's done to the little calf (or goat, if there's no calf available).

This is "Traditional Costumes of Afghanistan," a very brief, general survey.  There is a good opening illustration of a man and woman but neither their region nor ethnicity is identified, which is somewhat frustrating.  Still, if you just want a quick overview, the page is useful.

From Afghanistan Online comes another page on traditional clothing.  It offers four colorful photos of items of clothing -- dress, coat, hat, turban.  Unfortunately, there's no text and, again, no regional or ethnic identification.

You can learn a good deal about a people by knowing what they like to eat.  This is "Afghan Cooking," offering more than 3 dozen traditional recipes.  I wish these recipes offered some of the lore or history behind these dishes, but they don't.  For those who like to cook, this won't matter.  Here are a handful of dishes: Afghan Kadu Bouranee (Sweet Pumpkins); Afghan Spice Rub; Afghani Lamb; Aush (Noodles); Bichak; Bonjan Salad (Spicy Eggplant Salad); Boolawnee (Fried Leek Pastries); Bouranee Baunjan (Eggplant w/ Yogurt); Chatni Gashneez (Coriander Chutney).  There are many more on this site.

From Afghanistan Online comes another page of recipes but, as of 10/12/01, it's temporarily under construction so I haven't been able to see if lore is included with the recipes.  Keep checking the site if you're interested in foods.

ARTISTS, FINE ARTS,
&
POETS, POETRY

Afghan Girl in Pakistan Refugee Camp
© by Saida Ahmadi
(July-Sept. 98 cover: Afghan Magazine -- used with permission)

http://www.afghanmagazine.com/july2000/visualarts/artshow/index.html

From Afghan Magazine comes a lengthy page of contemporary Afghan fine arts from an exhibit sponsored by the Afghan Student Association of Washington, D.C.  in  June, 2000.  The many clickable thumbnails load somewhat slowly, but I found it worth the wait -- there's much of value and interest here (I have used several images from Afghan Magazine on my page).

Again from Afghan Magazine is a page of fine arts from a 1999 exhibit.  There is some beautiful, haunting work here.

If you'd like to spend time browsing through back issues of this excellent magazine, go to this link.  The issues run from April-June 2000 back to July September 1997.  There are a wide variety of topics covered in each issue -- fine arts, music, Afghan society, poetry, literature, and much more.  What I saw here, I loved -- rich, moving, humane.  Two links follow...

Woman in Traditional Dress (Province of Balkh -- ancient Bactria)
© by A. Shokour Khesrawi (see directly below)
(January-March 1998 Issue: Afghan Magazine -- used with permission)

http://www.afghanmagazine.com/janmarch98/arts/shokor/vol1.html

This is a heartbreaking page because the pain of this artist is so deep, and his work is so good.  He is A. Shokour Khesrawi and this page offers some of his paintings (see directly above).  Here are his words from the January - March 1998 issue of Afghan Magazine (Lemar-Aftaab) -- lest this site ever vanish, I'm quoting him in full:

I always had a passion for painting. From a child to now, I'll always enjoy and treasure it. After graduating from art school, I wanted to work in an artistic related environment to achieve my goals and dreams.  Unfortunately, it did not happen.

I was not able to work on my paintings because the price of art supplies were too expensive and scarce. Therefore, many of my artwork has been created on cheap paper or canvases that are not graded for painting purposes.

The war against the Soviet invasion was intensifying. The famine, scarcity and homicides were evident in every corner and alley. I, just like the other hundred of thousands of Afghans remained astonished and lost in not knowing what to do and where to go.

The political and economic situation in Kabul and around the country was getting worse every day. The danger was growing every moment. People's dead bodies were left on the streets, on the sidewalks and the terror was filling the air. The members of my family and me decided to leave our beloved country and go to Pakistan.

Now that my family and I are living as refugees in Pakistan, we are facing cultural, financial and communication difficulties. I cannot afford to rent a studio with a working table to paint. I sit on the floor. This makes it difficult to paint because I am not able to bend my leg.

The recent political situation between Afghans and Pakistanis has not been stable. I pray and hope this nightmare will end. I am not able to freely express my thoughts through my work. I am hoping to achieve freedom so that I would be able to create artwork without being persecuted.

An artist's duty and mission is to tell the truth, to reflect the pain and suffering of mankind and the realities through his work.  The artist must dedicate and sacrifice his life to his art.

                                                 With all due respect,
                                                 A. Shokour Khesrawi

From Afghanistan Online comes a wide-ranging collection of poetry from early as well as contemporary poets.

Again from Afghan Magazine comes a poem about the death of a beloved, "My Journey and My Prayer," by Zaheda Ghani (from the July-Sept. 1998 issue).  Here is how it begins:

                                  it was the face of truth,
                                which came shining through,
                                 causing the tears to drop,
                                      one by one,
                                       like pearls,
                                each pregnant with a wish,
                                      like a child,
                                  i know God did smile,
                                     and so i prayed,
                                     not for sadness,
                                     but for beauty.

..."and so i prayed, not for sadness, but for beauty" -- if only we could remember such wisdom in these troubled times and not forget the beauty, the wonder, the promise, the humanity.

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Copyright © 2001 by Kathleen Jenks, Ph.D.

Designed during the wee hours of 15-16 September 2001;
16 September 2001, 4:25am:  still under construction and not yet "officially" on line;
some 13 hours later: 16 September 2001, 5:22pm: it's now online "officially"
but it's still a work-in-progress for at least another week.
Updates: 17-21 September 2001; 22/23 September 2001;
1-2 October 2001 (annotated 3 more links); 4-5 October 2001 (annotated more links);
9-10 & 10-11 October 2001 (added & annotated more links); 12 & 13 October 2001 (ditto);
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