Afghanistan. A History from 1260 to the Present - Jonathan L. Lee (2018)

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