introduction
In the late first century bce the Kushans (see Table 1), Yuezhi pastor-
alists from the Gansu region of China, displaced the Graeco-Bactrians
and established their own north Indian empire. Under the patron-
age of the Kushans, Buddhism spread throughout eastern, central and
northern Afghanistan. Christianity too established itself in the region,
traditionally brought by St Thomas, the ‘doubting’ disciple. The Kushan
TABLE 1: Principal pre-Islamic Dynasties of Afghanistan, 555 bce–1001 ce
Dynasty Dates (ruling
Afghanistan)
Capital(s) Regions ruled (in
Afghanistan)
Ethnicity; comments
Achaemenid 555–330 bce Persepolis
(Iran)
Herat (Aeria);
Balkh (Bactria);
Kandahar
(Arachosia)
Persian (Elamite?);
Zoroastrianism
Alexandrian 330–323 bce Babylon
(intended)
all Afghanistan
except the Pamirs
and Hindu Kush
overthrows Achae-
menids; introduced
Hellenistic deities
and Greek script
Seleucid 313–250 bce Selucia (Iraq) Aria, Bactrian
frontier with India
on Hindu Kush
Hellenistic
Graeco-
Bactrian
250–125 bce Bactra; Ai
Khanum (?)
Afghanistan,
excluding the
Pamirs and
Nuristan
Hellenistic with
Persian and Indian
cultic and cultural
influences
Mauryan 321–185 bce Pataliputa (N.
India)
S. Afghanistan;
Helmand, Kan-
dahar, Kabul,
Jalalabad
N. Indian; Hindu
then under Ashoka
(268–232 bce) Bud-
dhist; emergence of
Gandharan culture
Kushan c. 30 ce–240 ce Purushapara
(Peshawar);
Taxila (winter
capital);
Mathura
all Afghanistan;
Kushan dynastic
centres at Surkh
Kotal and Rabatak
Turkic nomads
from Gansu, China;
patrons of Bud-
dhism, state cults
included Iranian,
Indian and Meso-
potamian deities;
heyday of Gandharan
culture
Kushano-
Sasanian
230–459 ce Bagram all Afghanistan Persian, Zoroastrian
Hephthalite c. 459–670 ce Badian
(Qunduz);
Balkh
N. Afghanistan;
Badghis; Herat;
Kandahar; Kabul
E. Iranian or
Turco-Mongolian;
White Huns (?)
Sasanian 496–650 ce Estakhr;
Ctesiphon
W. and N.W.
Afghanistan
Persian; last Shah
defeated by Arab
Muslim invasion
Turki and
Hindu Shahi
5th century to
1001 ce
Kapisa then
Kabul
Kabul; S.E.
Afghanistan
Buddhist, Hindu;
overthrown by
Ghaznavids