PUSHTUN

by hamiqi

Now adays, we often hear the word "Pushtun", that word was introduced from recordings of conversations between AF (an initial name) and LHI (an initial name) in the Meat Import Bribery Scandal,

What is Pushtun?

Pashtun
پښتانه
Paṣ̌tun

Pashtun people (Pashto: پښتانه‎ Pax̌tānə; also spelled Pushtun, Pakhtun or Pukhtun), also known as ethnic Afghans or Pathans are an Iranic ethnic group belonging to Afghanistan and Pakistan. They are typically characterised by the usage of the Eastern Iranian Pashto language and practice of Pashtunwali, which is a traditional set of ethnics guiding individual and communal conduct. Their origins are unclear but historians have come across references to various ancient peoples called Pakthas (Pactyans) between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC, inhabiting the region between the Hindu Kush and Indus River, who may be the early ancestors of the Pashtun people. Since the 3rd century AD onward, they have been referred to by the ethnonym "Afghan".

Pashtun Defined
Among historians, anthropologists, and the Pashtuns themselves, there is some debate as to who exactly qualifies as a Pashtun. The most prominent views are:

Pashtuns are predominantly an Eastern Iranian people, who use Pashto as their first language, and live in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the generally accepted academic view.
They are Sunni Muslims who follow Pashtunwali.
In accordance with the legend of Qais Abdur Rashid, the figure traditionally regarded as their progenitor, Pashtuns are those whose related patrilineal descent may be traced back to legendary times.

These three definitions may be described as the ethno-linguistic definition, the religious-cultural definition, and the patrilineal definition, respectively.

The ethno-linguistic definition is the most prominent and accepted view as to who is and is not a Pashtun. Generally, this most common view holds that Pashtuns are defined within the parameters of having mainly eastern Iranian ethnic origins, sharing a common language, culture and history, living in relatively close geographic proximity to each other, and acknowledging each other as kinsmen. Thus, tribes that speak disparate yet mutually intelligible dialects of Pashto acknowledge each other as ethnic Pashtuns and even subscribe to certain dialects as "proper", such as the Pukhto spoken by the Yousafzai in Peshawar and the Pashto spoken by the Durrani in Kandahar. These criteria tend to be used by most Pashtuns in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

What relation Pushtun with that case?

In the conversation of Meat Import Bribery Scandal, which was replayed to the court as AF testified at the trial of the alleged bribe-payers, he told LHI that his wives were already waiting for him.

“Which ones? The pustun ones or the Java Syarkiah ones?” LHI replied. LHI’s lawyer, M. Assegaf, said that LHI was referring to the Pashtun, the largest ethnic group in Pakistan.

He said that LHI said his wife as a Pashtun, referring to her beauty. “LHI was just joking with AF,” Assegaf told the Post.

Darin Mumtazah, a high school student thought to be LHI’s wife, Darin is an Indonesian of Arab descent, .fueling speculation that she might be married to LHI, who has implied that he had at least one wife of Middle East descent in a tapped phone conversation between him and the alleged middleman in the scandal, AF.

are you curious about Darin? Let's ceck this out:

and another Pushtun ladies :

besides the Beauty of Pushtun ladies, who has green / blue eyes, and white skin, They have a Beauty Architectural Heritage, that are spread all over the place their live, because they are a diaspora people.

Pushtun Diaspora

Native Pashtun areas in orange

The vast majority of Pashtuns are found in the traditional Pashtun homeland, located in an area south of the Oxus River in Afghanistan and west of the Indus River in Pakistan, which includes Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas(FATA) and part of Balochistan. Additional Pashtun communities are located in western and northern Afghanistan, the Gilgit–Baltistan and Kashmir regions and northwestern Punjab province of Pakistan, as well as in the Khorasan province of Iran. There are also sizeable Muslim communities in India, which are of largely Pashtun ancestry. Throughout the Indian subcontinent, excluding Pashtun-dominated regions, they are often referred to as Pathans. Smaller Pashtun communities are found in the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, Europe and the Americas, particularly in North America.

Pashtun diaspora

Total population

50 Million (2009)

Regions with significant populations

Pakistan	29,342,892 (2012)
Afghanistan	12,776,369 (2012)
UAE	338,315 (2009)
United States	138,554 (2010)
Iran	110,000 (2010)
United Kingdom	100,000 (2009)
Germany	37,800 (2012)
Canada	26,000 (2006)
India	11,086 (2001)
Russia	9,800 (2002)
Australia	8,154 (2006)
Malaysia	5,100 (2008)
Chile	4,500 (2008)
Tajikistan	4,000 (1970)

Languages

Pashto

Urdu, Dari, English and the languages spoken in the respective region of residence

Religion

Islam (Sunni Hanafi)

with small Shia community

Pushtun Architecture

The overwhelming majority of Pashtuns follow Sunni Islam, belonging to the Hanafi school of thought. Tiny Shi'a communities of Pashtuns exist in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan and in neighbouring northeastern section of Paktia province of Afghanistan. The Shias belong to the Turi tribe while the Bangash tribe is approximately 50% Shia and the rest Sunni, who live mainly in Kohat and the Orakzai Agency of FATA, Pakistan. In addition, there may be small number of Ahmadis in Pakistan.

soo.. mostly their heritage is mosque. this is a part of their architecture heritage,

AFGHANISTAN
- The Minaret of Jam

it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in western Afghanistan. It is located in the Shahrak District, Ghor Province, by the Hari River. The 62-metre high minaret, surrounded by mountains that reach up to 2400m, was built in the 1190s, entirely of baked-bricks. It is famous for its intricate brick, stucco and glazed tile decoration, which consists of alternating bands of kufic and naskhi calligraphy, geometric patterns, and verses from the Qur'an (the surat Maryam, relating to Mary, the mother of Jesus).

- Blue Mosque
The Shrine of Hazrat Ali, also known as the Blue Mosque, is a mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. It is one of the reputed burial places of Ali ibn Abi Talib, cousin and son-in law of Muhammad. The mazar is the building which gives the city in which it is located, Mazar-i-Sharif (meaning "Tomb of the Exalted") its name.

According to Shi'a Muslim belief, Ali was originally buried by his two sons, Hasan and Husayn in an undisclosed location, which was later made known by the great, grandson of Husayn and Sixth Shi'a Imam, Ja'far as-Sadiq - as the grave that is found within Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, Iraq.

Throughout Afghanistan, buildings with tall minarets, bulb-shaped domes, and colorfully painted tiles dot the landscape. Many are mosques and tombs built to honor religious figures and important Afghan heroes. The Blue Mosque, in Mazar-e-Sharif, has tiles that look like they are painted with flowers, but the floral patterns are actually made from tiles cut into different shapes and plastered together. (click this link for more pictures)

Blue Mosque

Blue Mosque

- Green Mosque (Balkh)

The main building displays a typical Timurid architectural style. However, today much of the building itself has suffered heavy from neglect and damage by waring factions during the soviet and afghan civil wars. The main courtyard has been well preserved allowing people to pray in the open spaces. To the back of the building however little care has been given to the paving and gardens. The minaret has either collapsed due to the age of the building or could have been the act of aggression during wartime by the communists. Much of the tile work has disappeared and the wooden doors are in dire need of repair.

Green Mosque

- The Jama Masjid of Herat

The Jama Masjid of Herat (مسجد جمعه هرات), also known as the Masjid-i Jami' of Herat, and the Great Mosque of Herat is a mosque in the city of Herat, in the Herat Province of north-western Afghanistan. It was built by the Timurids and extended by several rulers as Herat changed rulers down the centuries from the Timurids, to the Safavids, to the Mughals and the Uzbeks, all of whom supported the mosque. Though many of the glazed tiles have been replaced during subsequent periods, the Great Mosque in Herat was given its present form during the closing years of the fifteenth century.

Apart from numerous small neighborhood mosques for daily prayer, most communities in the Islamic world have a larger mosque, a congregational mosque for Friday services with a sermon. The Jama Masjid was not always the largest mosque in Herat; a much larger complex the Mosque and Madressa of Gawharshad, also built by the Timurids, was located in the northern part of the city. However, those architectural monuments were dynamited by officers of the British Indian Army in 1885, to prevent its use as a fortress if a Russian army tried to invade India.

(click this link for more pictures)

The Jama Masjid of Herat

The Jama Masjid of Herat

- Shrine of The Cloak Prophet Muhammad

The Shrine of the Cloak (Pashto: Kerqa Sharif) is located adjacent to the main mosque in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It contains the Kerqa, a cloak believed to have been worn by Islam's Prophet Muhammad. It is therefore widely held to be one of the holiest Islamic sites in Afghanistan, and even considered by some as the "heart of Afghanistan".

The building's exteriors are of green marble from Lashkar Gah, with tiled surfaces and gilded archways. The cloak itself is locked away inside the mosque and is rarely seen. It has been guarded by the same family for over 250 years. Its guardians have traditionally only shown the cloak to recognized leaders of Afghanistan, although in times of great crisis such as natural disasters, it has been publicly displayed as a means of reassurance. ( click this link for more description)

Stone in front of shrine of the Cloak of the Prophet

According to legend, this stone was taken along with the Prophet's cloak from the northern Afghanistan city of Badakhashan. Shrine of the Cloak of the Prophet.
Photo: Steve Inskeep, NPR

Shrine of the Cloak of the Prophet.
Photo: Steve Inskeep, NPR

Front of Shrine of Cloak

IRAN
- Sheikh Lutfalah Mosque, Isfahan

Sheikh Lutfollah Mosque (Persian: مسجد شیخ لطف الله‎ Masjed-e Sheikh Lotf-ollāh) is one of the architectural masterpieces of Safavid Iranian architecture, standing on the eastern side of Naghsh-i Jahan Square, Isfahan, Iran.

Construction of the mosque started in 1603 and was finished in 1618. It was built by the chief architect Shaykh Bahai, during the reigh of Shah Abbas I of the Safavid dynasty.

It is registered, along with the Naghsh-i Jahan Square, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site

(click this link for more picture)

Front view - as seen from the balcony of the Ali Qapu palace

Conclusion:
Let's conclude about the architectural heritage,

Pushtuns Architectural heritage in my humble opinion, always use a complicated geometric pattern, as in tile's motif.

The study of intelligible geometry leads to skill in the intellectual arts, because this science is one of the gates through which we move to the knowledge of the essence of the soul, and that is the root of all knowledge.

These tiles may have been used to generate a wide range of complex tiling patterns on medieval buildings, including mosques in Isfahan, Iran, and Bursa, Turkey; madrasahs in Baghdad; and shrines in Herat, Afghanistan, and Agra, India. This approach produces infinite patterns with decagonal symmetry that never repeat.

Discussions about that i have wrote in Islamic Architecture Series:

1. GRIDS an invisible role in Islamic geometrical design

2. MUQARNAS an architectural device unique from Islamic architecture

3. FIVE FOLD GEOMETRY

4. POLYGONS

5. Islamic geometric designs
6. Geeks Rule: Quasicrystalline Patterns in Mediaeval Islamic Architecture