Durrani
Durrani (
Persian: درانی) or
Abdali (
Persian: ابدالی) tribe is one of the two largest
Pashtun tribes of
Afghanistan and is also found in large numbers in western
Pakistan. They are estimated to be roughly 20% of the population of Afghanistan and number around 7 million there with another 1-2 million found in Pakistan and hundreds of thousands also live in northeast
Iran. The Durrani are the most "Persianized" of
Pashtun tribes, often bilingual in
Dari (or Afghan
Persian), as well as arguably being among the most urbanized and educated of the Pashtuns in Afghanistan.
The Durrani have been prominent leaders, as the royal family of Afghanistan is derived from the tribe, and a substantial number of Durrani are bureaucrats and public officials, as well as businessmen and merchants. The particular dialect of
Pashto favored by the Durrani tends to be tinged with a slight Persian inflection and is considered the more genteel and urbane dialect, often viewed by Pashtuns overall as the more 'proper' dialect, as opposed to the rougher
Pukhtu version favored in the north and by most of the Pashtuns of Pakistan. In addition, some Durrani even prefer speaking Dari and will either speak Pashto as a second language or not at all and yet still consider themselves both Pashtun and Durrani rather than
Tajik who are the main speakers of Dari in Afghanistan. The Durrani, like most other Pashtuns, are
Muslim and are mostly of the
Hanafi Sunni Islamic sect and, like most Pashtuns, continue to follow the Pashtun honor code known as
Pashtunwali.
The Durrani are, like other Pashtuns, primarily descendents of
Aryan invaders of the
Iranian variant (as well as the various invaders, such as the
Greeks, and migrants who have passed through Afghanistan over the centuries) and probably arose in what is today southern Afghanistan near the
Suleiman Mountains at some point between 2000 BCE to 1500 BCE. The Durrani were known as the Abdali since Islamic times and frequently lived under
Persian rule in ancient times. They emerged near the city of
Kandahar and were most likely
Buddhist and
Zoroastrian in religion prior to the coming of Muslim
Arabs who began the conversion of the local population to
Islam. The Abdalis appear to have begun to spread out during the early
Middle Ages along with other Pashtun tribes and came to inhabit most of what is today Afghanistan by 1000 CE at the latest. Often affiliated with the Persians of
Iran, some rose to upper ranks of the Persian military during the reign of the
Safavids and gained particular prominence under the rule of
Nadir Shah. One of his prominent generals was a young Pashtun Abdali chieftain named
Ahmad Shah Abdali who would later make himself the king of Afghanistan.
The name 'Durrani' or 'Durr-i-Durran' means the '
pearl of pearls' in Persian and was given to the Abdali tribe in 1747 when Ahmad Shah Abdali united the Pashtun tribes following a
loya jirga and changed his own name to
Ahmad Shah Durrani when he became the king of Afghanistan and founded the
Durrani Empire. Since this period, the kings of Afghanistan have been of Durrani extraction. The Durrani were the most divided Pashtun tribe during the rule of the
Ghilzai-dominated
Taliban, with some having openly opposed them. The Durrani are the politically dominant Pashtun group in Afghanistan as the current President of Afghanistan is
Hamid Karzai who is of the Durrani sub-group known as the
Popalzay and has close ties to the former king of Afghanistan
Zahir Shah, another member of the Durrani tribe.
Like most Pashtun groups, the Durrani can be sub-divided into smaller clans and subtribes (such as the aforementioned Popalzai) which will still acknowledge each other as kinsmen. The literacy rate of the Durrani is the highest of all of the Pashtun tribes in Afghanistan and hovers around 25%. Perhaps the most liberal of the Pashtun groups, the Durrani are currently at the forefront of rebuilding war-torn Afghanistan and are quickly filling the ranks of the military and are valued as city officials and policemen in cities such as
Kandahar and
Kabul. The Durrani in Pakistan are largely refugees, but many have become prominent merchants in
Quetta and
Peshawar. The Durrani continue to live in close proximity to other Afghans and culturally overlap in many ways with the Tajiks with whom they often share more cultural and socio-economic traits in comparison to the more tribal Pashtuns such as the
Ghilzai, who are the other major Pashtun group in Afghanistan. The Durrani are part of
Sarbans, a Pashtun tribal group.
*
Pashtunistan*
Pashtun*
Sarbans*
Iranian peoples*
Iranian languages
