ropeans they are known by tile appellation- of Affghâns, or
Uffghauijsj which was adopted from-the- Persians. Their
natiYircountry ill-a mountainous rëgïon of great extent in
thé nörth-eastërn quarter of Persia, consisting of high
terrasses and table-land, which stretch along the «southern
decliyity of th£ lofty Hindu-Khhsh, and the Paropamisan
chain, the westward continuation, or offSetf- of the great
Himalaya. - Affgbânistan is bounded to the eastward,' from
iiS%orthern é^remity, by-the channel of the Indfui| till
that river leaves the mountainous region and flows down
into thé'plain Of the Baluchesi - The upland connected! with
the- chain of Soliman, reaching further southward, still*
belongs' to the AffgMns, whose’ highlands'Oxtend atS 'far as
the d'eepi^valley of Bolan, which separates the- Affghâns
from Baluchistan. Towards the west, Afghanistan reaches
to the great desert of KhOrasan, andj to the plateau of
Kelat^ which forms a part öf it^ though" nearly' detached.
Almost the whole country of the-Afghans is Of g$(sniêb
elevation than the surrounding regions.* i
•Vague and improbable notions haVe'-heên?’ circulated ifi
Europe as to the origin of the Afghans.'*MSir William?
Jones, and other English writers,f fancied that they>a¥ë;th #
deScëndents 61“ the Ten Tribes óf thé^Traelites led into
captivity by Sennacherib, whom some persons SüppoS’é^'tô
have remained in the East when the body - of thé 'd’e’wiféh
nation returned into Palestine. Such a tradition is indeed
prevalent among the Affghâns, adopted by them,-as similar
fabulous Stories founded on the Old Testament have been
invented among other tribes converted to Islàm, and by not
•Outline of the physicalgeography^ Afghanistan, in the introduction,to
th e“ History of the Hon. Mountstuart Elpbinstone, who first made
known this remarkable country to Europe, and whose work will hereafter hold
a place in the same rank with Caesar’s account of the Gaulsj or the description
of Germany by Tacitus.
t On the ‘descent of the Affghâns from the Jews,- by Mr.. Yansittart, Àsiat.
Researches, vol. 2.
t See the Nachtrage zum ersten Theil des Mithridates, s. 252. Klaproth,
Ueber die Sprache und,der tJrsprung der Aghuan od-er. Afghanen. Archiv, fiir
Asiatischen Èlteratur, Geschidhte und Sprachkunde, St. Petersb.J8l6, und
besonders abgedruckt.
a few Christian nations. It must be classed, as Mr. Elphinstone
has15 shown, with the1 descent of the Homans and
B r i t o n s ; from Troy,;or that of the Irish from the Milesians
and the Brahmans. Some-late writers have pretended that
the Afghans* are the posterity of the. Albanians, expelled by
Tcfeinggis-Khan or one ofshis successors from their ancient
abodes in the Caucasus* and supposed to have settled in the
mountainous country near the Indus. This theory was
readily adapted,' by the traveller- Reineggs * «-The Afghans
have no written- history, and they, accordingly afford, as it
appears, a fair ob^e'c^of,peculation and, conjecture; but
something more than^conjecture must-be adduced before it
can be allowed,to be at all? probable, that so. numerous a
people jftrst gained possession of their ^present/ extensive
‘country since the Commencement of «history.
. The opposite-opinion has-, been maintained by M. Wilkin,
tie-author of a learned treatisehon the history of the
A%h6ns.t Wilkin has,«icollected,, many ancient* notices
whichr indicate that- the. Afghan' race, occupied,^n an early
period, the' sambrregion -which they now inhabit. The
oldest?'fee'afrfwhich. the traditions of the Durani recognise as
, ‘&eiabadeo>1^eir race, a tradition which Fesishta confirms,
was in Gur on Guristan, in the Paropamisas. From thence it
isprobable that early expeditions of the same people to the
•borders' of Ahn- Indus,> madetrthem known. tO.the Macedonians.
However-this may have been, fhereois little doubt
that thefAssecaiii, mentioned by Arrian, were the Affgh ans4
They are placed by that writer to the westward of the Indus,
and between that: stream and thejCpphenes^supposed to be
the river KaMl. Pliny terms the same people Aspagonae,
and tie describes their country, in ferms which leave no
room for doubt that it was Afghanistan. He says, it bears
vines^ laurel and « ‘box trees’* and abounds with all the same
* Reineggs, Reisen im Kaukasus. .
t Bt. Wilkin,^* Ufebei (kjj§Yerfassuhg, den Urprung und die Geschichte der
Afghanen Abhanlungen der Kon. Soc. der Wissonsch,,ili Berlin, 1818-1819.
Ritter, Erdk. vi»\s. 196.
-•$ The chief towns of the Assecani were, according to Arrian, Massaca, which
was their metropolis, and Peucela, not far from the Indus'. Arrian. Indie, p.
314, Ed. Gfonov. item, de Exped. Alexand., p. 221.