The language of the majority of the inhabitants of Afghan cities—except for Kandahar—is Persian.”
Author: Mohaiuddin Mahdi, politician and researcher
The term “farsivan" is a compound word of the type “noun + suffix = noun”: forsivon and forsibon («فارسی + وان»; «پارسی + بان»). The first form is common in spoken usage, while the second is more frequent in written language.
The word “فارسی” (Persian) in this construction is used in two senses: as a language and as a territory. That is, a person associated with this designation either speaks the Persian language or originates from the land of Pars (Persia). Most often, both meanings coincide in one individual.
The suffixes “bon” («بان») or “von” («وان») are widely used in Persian in the sense of “possessing,” “guardian,” or “having a right or a quality.” For example: mehrabān (kind-hearted), negahbān (guard), sāyebān (canopy), as well as words such as motreb-vān, gādi-vān (driver), āsiyābān (miller), darvāze-bān / darbān (gatekeeper).
[The suffixes «وان» and «بان» fully correspond to the Indian suffix “wala” («والا»): noun + wala = noun; for example, pistol-wala (owner of a pistol), gari-wala (cart driver).]
The earliest source in which the compound “پارسیوان” (parsi-van) appears is Elphinstone’s book An Account of the Kingdom of Cabul. He writes:
“The name ‘Tajik’ has a relatively broad usage. It is sometimes applied to all those who are mixed with Turks or Afghans but do not belong to their tribes or whose origin is uncertain. In a more precise sense, however, it is applied to the Persian-speaking population of regions where Turkic or Pashto is spoken. The names ‘Tajik’ and ‘Persian-speaking’ are used as synonyms, both in Afghanistan and in Turkestan, and carry the same meaning.” (The Afghans, p. 288. In a note on the same page Elphinstone adds: “Afghans also call the Tajiks dehqans.”)
Elphinstone regards Persian-speakers as Tajiks “mixed with Afghans” and adds that “those among them who possess independent communities live in remote and hard-to-reach areas and differ from others in many respects.” He then describes the first group as follows:
“The first group to be mentioned are called the Kuhistanis, who inhabit the mountainous region of Kabul… Kuhistan consists of three long valleys: Nijrab, Panjshir, and Ghorband…” (p. 290).
Describing the situation of the Tajiks at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Elphinstone also lists other groups:
Baraki Tajiks (in Butkhak, Logar, Kamari, and Chakari of Kabul),
Formuli Tajiks (in Logar, Urgun, and Kabul),
Sardis (Ghazni),
Sistanis (about whom Sher Muhammad Khan Gandapuri wrote: “almost the entire population of Sistan are Tajiks”),
Dehqans (Kunar, Laghman, Gardez, Swat, Peshawar, Duaba),
Shalmanis (around Bannu),
Swatis (the Swat Valley, Banir, and Bajaur; Gandapuri writes: “some regard the Swatis as dehqans of Indian origin, whereas they themselves consider themselves Tajik-dehqans”),
and Qizilbash (who are also explicitly called “Persians”).
These were the Tajiks and Persian-speakers living within the territory of the Sadozai state in the early nineteenth century—a state that Elphinstone was the first to call Afghanistan. He does not mention the Tajiks of Badakhshan, Tokharistan, Balkh and Turkestan, Ghor, or Herat (the Aimaqs), which lay outside that state.
Muhammad Hayat Khan, who wrote his book during the second reign of Shir Ali Khan, makes general reference to the Tajiks and Persian-speakers of Afghanistan of that century. He notes that at that time Tajik principalities in Khiva, Karategin, Badakhshan, and Darvaz still existed. He writes:
“Sometimes Tajiks are also called Farsivans, but the indigenous Persian-speaking population of Afghanistan consists precisely of the Tajiks.” (Afghan Life, Pashto translation, p. 459).
Under the heading “Other Tajiks,” Muhammad Hayat Khan describes the Khinjan group as follows:
“Khinjan is the name of a long, very beautiful, green valley with a pleasant climate. Because of the abundance and density of trees, the entire valley resembles a garden, in which mulberry trees constitute a particularly large share. In this valley lives a group of Tajiks called the Khinjanis, whose number is estimated at about ten thousand families. In spring and summer the valley is very lively and attractive.” (p. 463).
Sher Muhammad Khan Gandapuri Ibrahimzai, the author of The History of the Sun of the World, written at the end of the nineteenth century, supplementing the accounts of Elphinstone and Muhammad Hayat Khan, writes:
“In addition to the aforementioned distinctions, many other Tajiks live in Nangarhar, Gardez, Galolku, and Laghman… These people are known as Sunnis. This population is also numerous in northern Baluchistan, especially in Herat and its surrounding areas.” (p. 312).
Mahmud Kitabdar, author of Bahr al-Asrar, refers to the Persian-speaking population of the Balkh region (from Sigan and Kahmard to the border of Guzganan) and of the “Four Wilayats” (Maymana, Sar-e Pol, Andkhoy, and Sheberghan) as Waimak and Wuymak—tribes known collectively as the Aimaqs. In his view, the original form of the word was “makh” («ماخ»), which over time became “vamaq” («وماق») and “vaymaq” («ویماق»), while Babur used the form “Aimaq” («ایماق») as a collective designation, similar to “Turks,” “Arabs,” and “Kurds.” Today, the names “makh” and “maq” still survive in Gharjistan, Ghor, and Hazarajat
(Siraj al-Tawarikh, vol. 3, part 1, pp. 681 and 769).
Mulla Fayz-Muhammad Katib also relates an account concerning the Tajiks of Gizab, and its inclusion would not be inappropriate.
“Meanwhile, two hundred families of Afghan settlers [at that time the term ‘Afghans’ referred to those who came from the other side of the Durand Line, from British India, with the purpose of acquiring land; by contrast, navakil referred to people whom the emir dispatched to obtain land, especially in Qataghan and Balkh] entered the territory of the Gizab district and decided to seize Gizab…”
The inhabitants of Gizab, who had rendered services to the state during the uprisings and rebellions of the Hazaras and who possessed documents confirming their service—bearing the signatures of senior military and civil officials and four tughras of royal decrees—appeared before Aziz al-Rahman Khan, the governor of Gizab, and demanded justice.
He [reported to Abdur Rahman Khan] that “the people of Gizab possess four tughras of resplendent royal grants, in which His Highness has commanded and recorded that their lands shall not be given to anyone.” Moreover, since the time of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni—may God illumine his proof—their mosque has existed and flourished in the very town of Gizab; they possess confirmations of their services, they do not belong to the Hazara tribe, and they are Tajiks.
“Despite all this, through the intrigues of Agha Dost Muhammad Khan [the official responsible for distributing the lands of Hazaras and Tajiks among Afghans], he intends to hand over the lands of Gizab to Afghan settlers.”
His Highness issued a decree: “Let the people of Gizab present those very decrees to Dost Muhammad Khan, the overseer of the settlers. He is obliged to act in accordance with them, and if he has any objections, let him state his arguments in writing and submit a petition, so that after consideration, a response may be issued.”
However, despite the issuance of this ruling and despite the decrees held by the people of Gizab, Dost Muhammad Khan granted the fields, pastures, lands, and places of residence of the people of Gizab to Afghan settlers (Siraj al-Tawarikh, vol. 4, part 1, p. 651).
Mawlawi Muhammad Husayn, an Afghan from India, arrived in Kabul during the reign of Emir Habibullah Khan and, by his order, was admitted into the Ministry of Education, where he eventually rose to the position of head of instructional affairs. He was fluent in Urdu, Persian, Pashto, and English, and authored and edited many textbooks for primary and secondary schools of his time.
During the reign of King Amanullah, he fell into disgrace and was placed under surveillance for a period. When Nadir Khan came to power, he became one of his supporters and wrote, in Urdu, the book The Revolution of Afghanistan, directed against King Amanullah.
He regarded the intervention of the royal government apparatus in matters concerning the Persian language as one of the causes of popular discontent and as one of the factors contributing to revolutionary sentiment against the monarch.
Enumerating the greatness and merits of the Persian language, he wrote:
“The language of the majority of the inhabitants of the cities of Afghanistan—except for Kandahar—is Persian.”
Mawlawi Husayn, who by temperament was an opponent of Emir Habibullah Kalakani and referred to him with coarse and derogatory epithets—calling him a thief and “the son of a water carrier”—nevertheless could not refrain from acknowledging the fact that Kalakani belonged to the Tajik group and that this group constituted more than one third of the country’s total population (The Revolution of Afghanistan, pp. 141 and 153).
