Conquest of Kafiristan
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changes Kafiristan incorporated into the Emirate of Afghanistan and renamed to Nuristan
| Conquest of Kafiristan | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Emirate of Afghanistan | Kafiristan | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Abdur Rahman Khan Mohammad Ali Khan Ghulam Haidar Khan Charkhi General Katal Khan Fayz Mohammad Charkhi | No centralised leadership | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Unknown |
Heavy Many executed or displaced | ||||||||
In the winter of 1895, Emir Abdur Rahman Khan of Afghanistan conquered Kafiristan as part of his campaign to consolidate Afghan territorial control. The region was later renamed "Nuristan (Land of Light)" to reflect the population's conversion to Islam. Pre-Islamic shrines, idols, and ritual structures were destroyed, and religious leaders were either executed, marginalised, or co-opted.[1]
George Scott Robertson, medical officer during the Second Anglo-Afghan War and later British political officer in the princely state of Chitral, was given permission to explore the country of the Kafirs in 1890–91. He was the last outsider to visit the area and observe these people's polytheistic culture before their conversion to Islam. Robertson's 1896 account was entitled The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush. Though some sub-groups such as the Kom paid tribute to Chitral, the majority of Kafiristan was left on the Afghan side of the frontier in 1893, when large areas of tribal lands between Afghanistan and British India were divided into zones of control by the Durand Line.
The territory between Afghanistan and British India was demarcated between 1894 and 1896. Part of the frontier lying between Nawa Kotal in the outskirts of Mohmand country and Bashgal Valley on the outskirts of Kafiristan was demarcated by 1895 in an agreement reached on 9 April 1895.[2] Emir Abdur Rahman Khan wanted to force every community and tribal confederation to accept his single interpretation of Islam due to it being the only uniting factor. After the subjugation of Hazaras in 1892–93, Kafiristan was the last remaining autonomous part.[3]