Pashto

This photo of is from the photography site

TrekEarth

and was taken by Hadi Zaheer in Bamian, Afghanistan.

The language Pashto is written like this: پښتو

and is also called: paʂto, Afghan, Pathan, Pushto, Pashtoe, Pashtu, Pushtu, and Pukhto. It's the language spoken by the Pashtun people in Afghanistan and the western provinces of Pakistan.

It is thought that about 45% of people in Afghanistan speak Pashtu, although it's hard to know exactly how many because Pathans are nomadic and tribal have a habit of secluding their women.

It is speculated that Pashtu originated in the south of Afghanistan in what is now Kandahar province. Kandahar is, maybe, originally 'Alexandria' since the capital was founded by Alexander the Great around 400 BC.



Kandahar is known for its pomegranates, grapes, and Taliban warlords. Oddly, there is a Kandahar in Sasketchewan, Canada by Big Quill Lake.

Wikipedia says, "Some believe its name is derived from Gandhara, a nearby kingdom along the Kashmir Afghanistan border or even Gandar the seventh satrapy of the Persian Aechminid Empire." And who would argue?

This Central Asian trading center, no matter what it's called, has been a strategic plum to a colorful stream of invaders: Abbasids, Turks, Muslims (although conversion didn't completely take and many Pashtun tribes still live by pre-Islamic codes), Arabs, Turks again, but different ones, Genghis Khan, Babur the Mughal, whose son lost it to Persia, but whose grandson won it back, the Sikhs, the Brits a couple of times with grim consequences, the Soviets, the Taliban, and now....the Afghanis?