afghanistan
Early Arab sources record a substantial Jewish community in Maimana,
which they called al-Yahudiyyan. There was also a sizeable Jewish commu-
nity in the Jam region of Ghur province from around the tenth century,
which survived well into the thirteenth century. A recent cache of early
Jewish documents written in Persian but utilizing the Hebrew script
appears to have been part of the archive of a medieval Jewish community.
Until the 1930s several hundred Jews lived in Balkh, Herat and Kabul, and
there were synagogues in Kabul and Herat. However, due to racial and
religious prejudice as well as political factors, all Afghanistan’s Jews have
left. A single rabbi remains in Kabul, as caretaker of the synagogue and
its Torah scrolls. Formerly there were hundreds of Hindus, mostly from
Shikapur, living in many towns of Afghanistan but their numbers today
are greatly reduced. The main Hindu and Sikh communities today are in
Kabul, Jalalabad, Kandahar and Herat, where they trade in textiles and
act as money-changers. There is at least one Hindu temple and one Sikh
Gurdwara in Kabul.
Afghanistan’s pre-Islamic heritage, however, still exerts an influence on
popular culture. Pilgrims circumambulate shrines just as Buddhists once
did, and the flags and banners that are commonplace at ziyarats derive
from Buddhist and Hindu tradition. Indeed, some shrines are built on, or
adjacent to, Buddhist or other pre-Islamic sacred places. The ordeal of the
chehela khana, during which a Sufi is confined for forty days in a sealed
room or cave lit by a single candle, and with barely any food or water, is
probably derived from Buddhist tradition too.
Kabul, Afghanistan’s
last functional
synagogue. The rabbi is
the last of Afghanistan’s
once large, indigenous
Jewish community.
He is seen here with
the Torah scroll and
prayer book.