Afghani Women Fashion Gold Jewelry Collection 43

Afghani Fashion Gold Jewelry Collection.

By Farzana Aamir.

Main article: Name of Afghanistan

"Land of the Afghans" in Persian (افغانستان, Afğânestân), attested since at least the 16th century in Baburnama.[1] The name of Afghanistan is believed to be as old as the ethnonym Afghan, which is documented in a 10th-century geography book called Hudud ul-'alam focusing on territories south of the Hindu Kush.[2][3] The root name "Afghan" has been used historically in reference to the Pashtun people and the ending suffix "-stan" means "place of" in the local languages. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to the "place of Afghans" or "land of the Afghans" in the nation's official languages, Pashto and Dari (Persian).[4][5][6] Until the 19th century, it was used for the traditional Pashtun tribal territories between the Hindu Kush and the Indus River. The name "Afghanistan" began appearing in treaties since 1801[7] and in many written works by historians, particularly by British Indians. The nation's constitution later clarified that this was the official name of the state.[8]

Kabul or Caboul, a former name: "Land of Kabul", a city probably deriving its name from the nearby Kabul River which was known in Sanskrit as the Kubhā,[9] possibly from Scythian ku ("water").[10] Although the city has only been attested at its present site since the 8th century, after the Muslim invasions made it preferable to the less defensible Bagram,[11] it has been linked to the Kabolitae (Ancient Greek: Καβωλῖται, Kabōlîtai)[12] and Cabura (Κάβουρα, Káboura)[13] found in some versions of Ptolemy,[14] which in turn has been claimed to have originally been a "Kambojapura" derived from Kamboja above and -pura (Sanskrit: पुर, "city").[15][verification needed]