Poetic Politics: Are the Afghans one of the lost tribes of Israel?

Some Affghauns claim a descent from Israel. According to them, Affghaun was the nephew of Asaph, the son of Berachia, who built the temple of Solomon.

Photo: adishakti.org

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: News Time | Opinion
By Lyndall Beddy | February 19, 2011

It was in the nineteenth century …that the West began to take a more serious interest in the countries of the Far East, and reports began to filter in from several Western explorers describing their astonishment at encountering tribes all over the north-west of India who were clearly of Jewish descent.

The missionary doctor Joseph Wolff, for example, reported:

All the Jews of Turkistan assert that the Turkomauns are the descendents of Togarmah, one of the sons of Gomar, mentioned in Genesis 10:3…..but in the reign of Gheghis Khan they lost all their written accounts…..

Some Affghauns claim a descent from Israel. According to them, Affghaun was the nephew of Asaph, the son of Berachia, who built the temple of Solomon. The descendents of Afhhaunn, being Jews, were carried into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, from whence they were removed to the mountain of Ghoree in Affghanistan, but in the time of Mohammed turned Mohammedans.


G. T. Vigne, a French travelling scholar and member of the Royal Geographical Society…wrote:

The father of Ermiah was the father of the Afghans. He was a contempory of Nebuchadnezzar, called himself Beni Israel and had forty sons. But a descendant in the thirty-fourth generation was called Kys, and he was a contemporary of the prophet Mohammed.

One of the most important contributions is The Lost Tribes by Dr George Moore, who found many Hebrew inscriptions on archaeological sites in India. Quite close to Taxila, now in Sirkap, Pakistan, a stone was dug up that bears an inscription in Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke.

The eleventh century Arab historian Biruani wrote that at that time no foreigners were being allowed into Kashmir, other than Hebrews.

The inhabitants of Kashmir are different from the other peoples of India in every respect. Their way of life, their behaviour, their morals, their character, their clothing, their language, customs and habits are all of a type that might be described as typically Israelite. Like present day Israelis, the Kashmirs do not use fat for frying and baking, they only use oil. Most Kashmirs like boiled fish, called fari, eaten in remembrance of the time before their Exodus from Egypt (We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt: Numbers 11:5)

Butchers knives in Kashmir are made in the half-moon shape typical of the Israelites and even the rudders of the boat people (Hanjis) are of a similar heart shape.

The men wear distinctive caps on their heads. The clothing of the old women of Kashmir is very similar to that of Jewish women, and like them they also wear headscarves and laces. Like young Jewish girls, the girls of Kashmir dance in two facing columns with linked arms, moving together forwards and backwards to the rhythm. They call their songs rof.

After bearing a child, a woman in Kashmir observes forty days seclusion for purification; this too is a Jewish custom. Many of the older graves in Kashmir are aligned in an east-west orientation, whereas Islamic graves usually point north-south.

Note: The above is quoted from the book Jesus Lived in India by Holger Kersten, who agrees with Laurence Gardner that the disciple Thomas went to India, but claims that Jesus went with Thomas.

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