Pashtun clue to lost tribes of Israel

[Shah-i-Kot]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...tribes-pashtun

Pashtun clue to lost tribes of Israel

Genetic study sets out to uncover if there is a 2,700-year-old link to Afghanistan and Pakistan

• Rory McCarthy, Jerusalem
• The Observer, Sunday 17 January 2010

Israel is to fund a rare genetic study to determine whether there is a link between the lost tribes of Israel and the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan.
Historical and anecdotal evidence strongly suggests a connection, but definitive scientific proof has never been found. Some leading Israeli anthropologists believe that, of all the many groups in the world who claim a connection to the 10 lost tribes, the Pashtuns, or Pathans, have the most compelling case. Paradoxically it is from the Pashtuns that the ultra-conservative Islamic Taliban movement in Afghanistan emerged. Pashtuns themselves sometimes talk of their Israelite connection, but show few signs of sympathy with, or any wish to migrate to, the modern Israeli state.
Now an Indian researcher has collected blood samples from members of the Afridi tribe of Pashtuns who today live in Malihabad, near Lucknow, in northern India. Shahnaz Ali, from the National Institute of Immuno*haematology in Mumbai, is to spend several months studying her findings at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa. A previous genetic study in the same area did not provide proof one way or the other.
The Assyrians conquered the kingdom of Israel some 2,730 years ago, scattering 10 of the 12 tribes into exile, supposedly beyond the mythical Sambation river. The two remaining tribes, Benjamin and Judah, became the modern-day Jewish people, according to Jewish history, and the search for the lost tribes has continued ever since. Some have claimed to have found traces of them in modern day China, Burma, Nigeria, Central Asia, Ethiopia and even in the West.
But it is believed that the tribes were dispersed in an area around modern-day northern Iraq and Afghanistan, which makes the Pashtun connection the strongest.
"Of all the groups, there is more convincing evidence about the Pathans than anybody else, but the Pathans are the ones who would reject Israel most ferociously. That is the sweet irony," said Shalva Weil, an anthropologist and senior researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The Pashtuns have a proud oral history that talks of descending from the Israelites.
Their tribal groupings have similar names, including Yusufzai, which means sons of Joseph; and Afridi, thought by some to come from Ephraim. Some customs and practices are said to be similar to Jewish traditions: lighting candles on the sabbath, refraining from eating certain foods, using a canopy during a wedding ceremony and some similarities in garments.
Weil cautioned, however, that this is not proof of any genetic connection. DNA might be able to determine which area of the world the Pashtuns originated from, but it is not at all certain that it could identify a specific genetic link to the Jewish people.
So far Shahnaz Ali has been cautious. "The theory has been a matter of curiosity since long ago, and now I hope a scientific analysis will provide us with some answers about the Israelite origin of Afridi Pathans. We still don't know what the truth is, but efforts will certainly give us a direction," she told the Times of India last year.
Some are more certain, among them Navras Aafreedi, an academic at Luck*now University, himself a Pashtun from the Afridi tribe. His family trace their roots back to Pathans from the Khyber Agency of what is today north-west Pakistan, but he believes they stretch back further to the tribe of Ephraim.
"Pathans, or Pashtuns, are the only people in the world whose probable descent from the lost tribes of Israel finds mention in a number of texts from the 10th century to the present day, written by Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars alike, both religious as well as secularists," Aafreedi said.
The implications of any find are uncertain. Other groups that claim *Israelite descent, including those known as the Bnei Menashe in India and some in Ethiopia, have migrated to Israel. That is unlikely with the Pashtuns.
But Weil said the work was absorbing, well beyond questions of immigration. "I find a myth that has been so persistent for so long, for 2,000 years, really fascinating," she said.

[Shah-i-Kot]

http://mydailyclarity.com/2010/01/pa...ibe-of-israel/

Pashtun Taliban – the Lost Tribe of Israel?



There would be a certain irony – others might see the hand of cosmic humor – in the latest DNA research that seeks to demonstrate that the Pashtun may be one of the ten “Lost Tribes of Israel”. There are more than 40 million Pashtuns around the world including around 10 million in Afghanistan and nearly 30 million in Pakistani.
There is some circumstantial historical evidence to support the claim. Many Pashtuns have grown up with stories of their people being “Children of Israel”. Tribal lore has it that they are descended from the Ephraim tribe which was driven out of Israel by the Assyrian invasion in 700BC. Archeological evidence shows an ancient Jewish settlement close to Afghanistan’s border with Iran, including where a graveyard with tombs carved in Hebrew. Kabul also has an ancient synagogue long abandoned. If there is a God, He would have a wicked sense of humor if the research proves this correct.

Experts at Mumbai’s National Institute of Immunohaematology believe Pashtuns could be one of the ten “Lost Tribes of Israel”.
The Israeli government is funding a genetic study to establish if there is any proof of the link.
An Indian geneticist has taken blood samples from the Pashtun Afridi tribe in Lucknow, Northern India, to Israel where she will spend the next 12 months comparing DNA with samples with those of Israeli Jews.
The samples were taken in Lucknow’s Malihabad area because it was regarded as the only place safe enough to conduct such a controversial project for Muslims.
Shanaz Ali a senior research fellow, will lead the study at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Tel Aviv…
Navras Aafreedi, a leading researcher on the Lost Tribes of Israel, said the DNA investigation could have major modern repercussions.
“It could be seen as scientific validation of traditional belief about the Israelite origin of [Pashtuns] and can have interesting ramifications for Muslim-Jew relations in particular and the world at large,” he said.
Taliban may be descended from Jews – Telegraph

[Shah-i-Kot]

http://www.dangoor.com/74069.html

The Israeli Source of the Pathan Tribes


From the book, Lost Tribes from Assyria, by A Avihail and A Brin, 1978, in Hebrew
by Issachar Katzir

As children, we heard from our parents, who come from Afghanistan, stories about the Ten Tribes who were lost during the destruction of the Temple, about meetings with the country people with whom they had contact in trade matters, about Jewish customs and names – and it all sounded inconceivable and fascinating. Like all children, we enjoyed hearing about tribes of Israel preserving their forefathers’ tradition, bearing arms and awaiting the day of redemption.

From Mr Yisrael Mishal, who lived in Afulah and was formerly President of the Afghanistan Jewish community, I often heard unusually fascinating quotations and stories uttered repeatedly and Mr Mishal gave live examples of his meetings with Pathans who dwell on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Who are the Pathans? They are also called Afghans or Pishtus after their language. They identify themselves with their former name ‘sons of Israel’, even though nowadays they live as Muslims. In Afghanistan they are said to number six to seven million, and in Pakistan seven to eight million. Two million of them live as beduins. Outwardly, the Pathans are similar to the Jews.

From their ancient customs, one can point to a connection between the Pathans and the Jewish people. They make up about half of the population of Afghanistan, in the region called Pushtunistan, on the eastern border of Afghanistan. Over ninety per cent of the inhabitants are Sunni Muslims. Later modernisation has penetrated into this State, and even less in the hilly areas near the border. In these places, the Pathans continue to live in the tribal framework as their fathers and forefathers did. The legal system operates according to the Pashtunwali," the Pashtun Laws, parts of which are similar to the laws of the Torah.

The Pathans are known for their physical strength. They are tall, light-coloured and handsome, good soldiers and for the most part bear arms from a young age. They are diligent and intelligent, faithful to an exemplary degree and are known in the world as outstanding hosts.

What is the Ethnic Origin of the Panthim?

The Panthim are not similar in their outward appearance or in their character to any of the ethnic groups which populate this environment: the Indian group-Iranians, Mongolians, Turks or Persians. Most of the researchers are of the opinion that the origin of the Pathans is indeed Israeli. The aliyah to Israel of Afghanistan Jews and the volume of evidence heard from them on this subject about the customs of the Pathans corroborate this idea.

Relationship to the Tribes of Israel

There is interesting evidence about the preservation among the tribes of family trees on their origin, and on their relationship to the fathers of the Israeli people. These family trees are well preserved. Some of them are penned in golden lettering on deerskin. The names of the tribes speak for themselves: the tribe of Harabni (in the Afghan tongue) is the tribe of Reuben, the shinwari is Shimeon, the Levani – Levi, Daftani – Naftali, Jaji – Gad, Ashuri – Asher, Yusuf Su, sons of Josef, Afridi – Ephraim, and so on.

The former monarchy in Afghanistan has a widely-spread tradition according to which their origin was from the tribe of Benjamin and the family of King Saul. According to this tradition, Saul had a son called Jeremia and he in turn had a son called Afghana. Jeremia died at about the same time as Saul and the son Afghana was raised by King David and remained in the royal palace during the reign of Solomon too. About 400 years later, in the days of Nebuchadnezer, the Afghana family fled to the Gur region (Jat in our times). This is in central Afghanistan and here the family settled down and traded with the people of the area. In the year 622, with the appearance of Islam, Muhammed sent Khaled ibn Waleed to the ‘sons of Ishrail’ to spread the word of Islam among the Afghanistan tribes. He succeeded in his mission, returned to Muhammed with seven representatives of the residents of Afghanistan and with 76 supporters. The leader of these people was ‘Kish’ (the name of the father of Solomon). According to the tradition, the emissaries succeeded in their assignment and Muhammed praised them for this.

The Place of the Assyrian Exile

According to the Bible (the second Book of Kings, Chronicles 1 and 2), the ten tribes were exiled to Halah and Havor and the river Gozan and to the cities of Maday. According to the tradition of the Jews of Afghanistan, the river gozan is ‘rod jichan’ (river in Persian is rod), one of the tributaries of the Emo-daria, which descends in the vicinity of the town of Maimane. The city of Havor is, they say, peh-Shauor (Pash-Havor’) which means ‘Over Havor’ in Afghanistan, and today serves as the centre of the Pathans on the Pakistan that the whole area populated the ancient Assyrian Exile. There are researchers who claim that all the Jews living in southern U.S.S.R. along the Emor-daria’ are the descendants of the ten tribes - the Bucharins, Georgians, etc. As we know, a group of ‘‘B’nei Yisrael’ some of whom settled in Israel, is also found in India and Afghanistan. The existence of the Pathan tribes is therefore in the heart of the area in which the ten tribes are found.

The Similarity of the Pathans to the Jews

The British, who ruled Afghanistan for a long time, found it difficult to distinguish between the Pathans and the Jews, and called the Pathans ‘Juz’ - Jews. The Jews, too found it hard to distinguish between themselves and the Pathans when the latter are not wearing traditional dress. Afghanistan has about 21 peoples and languages and only the Pathans, apart from the Jews, look clearly Semitic; their countenance is lighter than that of other peoples and their nose is long. Some of them also have blue eyes. Since most of them grow beards and sidelocks like Jews, this also adds difficulty to an attempt to distinguish between them and the Jews.

Jewish Customs

Even though the Pathans accepted Islam voluntarily and forcibly, they maintain Jewish customs preserved from the recesses of their past. The book contains considerable evidence taken from Jews of Afghanistan who lived in the neighbourhoods of the Pathans and had contact with them. The evidence doesn’t relate to all the Pathans or to all the tribes and places. However, it does prove the existence of Jewish customs among the Pathans. The research on this subject still requires completion, both quantitative and qualitative. Let us note the customs in headline form only: sidelock, circumcision within eight days, a Talith (prayer shawl) and four fringes (Tsitsit), a Jewish wedding (Hupah and ring), women’s customs (immersion in a river or spring), levirate marriage (Yibum), honouring the father, forbidden foods (horse and camel food), refraining from cooking meat and milk, a tradition of clean and unclean poultry, the Shabbat (preparation of 12 Hallah loaves, refraining from work), lighting a candle in honour of the Shabbat, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) prayer (some of them pray turned in the direction of Jerusalem), blood on the threshold and on the two Mezzuzot (in times of plague or trouble), a scapegoat, curing the ill with the help of the Book of Psalms (placing the Book under the patient’s head), a Hebrew amulet (Kamia), Hebrew names (also. for neighbourhoods and villages), Holy Books (they especially honour ‘the Law of Sharif’ which is the Law of Moses), and rising when the name of Moshe is mentioned.

As for the Pathan law, they have laws similar to the Jewish law. The Magen David symbol is found in almost every Pathan house on an island in the Pehshauor district. The rich make it of expensive metals, the poor from simple wood. The Magen David can be seen on the towers of schools and on tools and ornaments.

Archaeological and Other Evidence

Apart from synagogues, Sifrei Torah, Hebrew placenames and tribal family trees, there also exists evidence on important archeological finds: near the town of Herat in Tchcharan, old graves were found on which the writing was in Persian and in the Hebrew language. The graves date from the 11th to the 13th centuries. In an opposite fashion, so it seems, there are a number of inscriptions engraved on rocks in ancient Hebrew script near the town of Netchaset.

In the ‘Dar el amman’ museum in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, there is a black stone found in Kandahar, on which is written in Hebrew.

It would be appropriate to end this article with one of the pieces of evidence. Mr Chiya Zorov of Tel Aviv notes: When the Bolsheviks rose to power in Russia, they divided the large area of the southern part of central Russia into smaller districts such as Tanjekistan, Turkemanistan, Kazchastan, etc. In Tanjekistan, which is in northern Afghanistan, there was a village by the name of Dushme. When Stalin gained power, he called the village in his name, Stalinabad. It started to develop and grow and many Jews then began to stream into Tangekistan. They found that the Tanyakis light candles on Friday evening. When the Jews went to visit them, they revealed that they eat a dish made of meat stuffed with rice called Pacha, which is characteristic of the Bucharian Jews and is eaten on Friday night. When they asked them what it was, the Tajiks replied that this is an ancient traditional food of theirs and its name is Pacha. They also said that they have a tradition that they were once Jews.

Rabbi Saadia Gaon discussed at length with the Hacham Hivay Habalchi and in the opinion of the speaker, in that period (10th century) the Jews were inclined to assimilate into Islam and it was about this that they were arguing.

The scholar Ibn Sina, born in Buchara, also lived at the time. The teacher Tajiki said that he, too, belongs to the Jews who were forced to convert, assimilated into Islam and are called Tchale. As recounted, the meaning of his name is Even Sina – son of sinal (and up to this day in many languages, and also in Hebrew, the words are similarly pronounced – Sinai, Sin Sina) and perhaps this is why he called himself Ben Sinai, in other words, son of the Torah which came forth from Sinai.

The Maharaja of Mardan was a scholar who completed his studies at the University of London and would often visit the converts of Mishhad who lived in Pehshaurf. He also visited a Jew called Carmeli, who told Mr Hiya Zorov that the Maharaja always said the day would come when they would learn to distinguish the origins of all people and then they would know that all the peoples in the vicinity of Afghanistan were once Jews. The Maharaja published a book in English and wrote of this in the introduction to the book. But the book was lost. There was a time when the author Hiya Zorov, with late President Ben-Tsvi, who considered it of great importance, tried to find the book, but in vain.

Some of the Bucharian Jews have a tradition that they are among the people of the First Temple possibly from the Ten Tribes, but he doesn’t know about this and afterwards they were joined by Jews from the Second Temple Exile.

Scribe:
Pakistani Cricketer Imran Khan who married Jemima Goldsmith is a Pathan.

[Shah-i-Kot]

Any other sources discussing this. The Israeli government is currently conducting research on this. In any case, the findings of this research is very important for confirmation purposes as well as long term reasons.

Pashtuns will have a right to Israel and all of the land stolen from the Palestinians.

Once the truth is confirmed, then by all means, the land does not belong to a bunch of Khazar European immigrant Jews who have no ties to the tribes of Israel.

[Apollyon]

[ډګروال]

keep dreaming



alexander was agreat fag and an invader who got his faggot ass handed to him.
go home gayreek.

[Apollyon]

keep dreaming alexander was agreat fag and an invader who got his faggot ass handed to him.
go home gayreek.

destruction had been on account of the rebellion of the King of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Zoar. It was four kings against five. Scripture relates that the battle was to take place in "the vale of Siddim". '

Genesis 14:11
"And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way."

http://www.israel-a-history-of.com/abraham-and-lot.html

There is no evidence in Greek or Macedonian history that says Alexander loved men but the sodomizers first came from Israel near Sodom and Gomor the dead Sea.


Sorry I couldn't resist.

[Shah-i-Kot]

Looks like this dudes feelings r hurt...that he is now becoming more mad....LOL

You know it indeed is really amusing that for such a long time you got these EUROPEAN historians claiming to know the history of other people like Pashtuns...and talking about Kandahar (Gandahar(a) )

people that defeated them on the battlefield.....so they try to rob their history......

WOW....man.....

[Kushan Prince]

Pashtuns are not Israelis!

[Khostai]

And since when we must trust Israely govermnet on that???
Maybe some smal minority have some roots whith Israel, becuase we all know that Afghans are generaly really mixed peopel. But this is not the evidence that we all are from Israel....
And if they proof that we are Israely than Israely goverment would claim Afghanistan and not the other way around LOL.

[Khostai]

destruction had been on account of the rebellion of the King of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Zoar. It was four kings against five. Scripture relates that the battle was to take place in "the vale of Siddim". '

Genesis 14:11
"And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way."

http://www.israel-a-history-of.com/abraham-and-lot.html

There is no evidence in Greek or Macedonian history that says Alexander loved men but the sodomizers first came from Israel near Sodom and Gomor the dead Sea.


Sorry I couldn't resist.

Maybe that explains the bacha-bazi stuff and mullhahs who do sandwiches LOL

[torkham]

Wallah only yesterday i was sitting with friends from afghanistan and the discussion led us from karzai, to dostum to of all the urban myths - the irony of ironies, the miracle of the muddled up, the epiphanny of ignorance - the lost israeli tribes being the present day pashtuns.

I find it hard to accept the evidence of this claim. DNA evidence is always being instigated according to papers, like above claim by the british paper, or the earlier claim that israeli academics are to begin research, both supposedly began in 2010. I have not seen any results of these studies, yet claim are abound - with out the DNA results.
It was the foreigners who saw the connection of aquiline features (eagle like), sharp long, hooked noses, sharp cheek bones and chiselled jowls of some mashar back in the days, wearing the pashtun kali, and the english(who else?) saw in their brainwashed ideas the image of bani-israel in looks and dress and pondered over a port and instead of speculating, made a claim that pashtuns indeed are the descendents of the lost 10.
Secondly, during Suri's time, there was a rivalry between mughals and pashtun that lead to malicious labelling, a strawman concept, of Pashtuns as, basically, yahud, that way the moghuls having an upmanship, again ironic as the moghuls were sons of many former hindu rani's, but thats another story.
Then came the nasiri book that continued the myth, you know how it, **** sticks!!! Or shall i say it in more decent words, fantastic "pop" fallacies remain popular and those who are into fantastic pop culture require miracles to be convinced of thier misconception, human nature.

Beside the much anticipated DNA results, since the inception of the research in 2010, their isn't any linguistic similarity, even if there are any common words, it is more like these words migrated through arabic via the spread of Islam, arabic being a semetic language and has commonalities with Hebrew, perhaps not exact words but cognates (words stemming from common root), despite israeli efforts to make hebrew sound different from arabic, which is another political story.

Another step farther, it is well documented that jewish communities across the world (diaspora) have kept their faith and identity against incredible odds of prejudice/ racism/killings, right from ancient history when jews jumped to their deaths of the mountain rather than capture, to the german killings, to their current resilience in propagating their ancestral rights to canaan, they have not converted so easily, and if they have then their religious matrilinial descendence has always been maintained. my question is that if you look at even the anecdotal evidence, it is hard to conceive jews becoming staunch muslims, giving up their culture, language after years in the wilderness. Pashtuns are staunch muslims, their language is pashto with no known semetic connection, even the jewish kepi (little cap) cannot be adequately related to the pashtun kholi in any stretch of imagination.

All a big myth, unless the DNA evidence is produced and with multiple unbiased verification.

[ډګروال]

Wallah only yesterday i was sitting with friends from afghanistan and the discussion led us from karzai, to dostum to of all the urban myths - the irony of ironies, the miracle of the muddled up, the epiphanny of ignorance - the lost israeli tribes being the present day pashtuns.

I find it hard to accept the evidence of this claim. DNA evidence is always being instigated according to papers, like above claim by the british paper, or the earlier claim that israeli academics are to begin research, both supposedly began in 2010. I have not seen any results of these studies, yet claim are abound - with out the DNA results.

comparing DNA of Pashtuns to who?the modern day israelis?
this is based more on pashtuns customs,their looks and historical records.


It was the foreigners who saw the connection of aquiline features (eagle like), sharp long, hooked noses, sharp cheek bones and chiselled jowls of some mashar back in the days, wearing the pashtun kali, and the english(who else?) saw in their brainwashed ideas the image of bani-israel in looks and dress and pondered over a port and instead of speculating, made a claim that pashtuns indeed are the descendents of the lost 10.


Not really wrora
it isnt based on english accounts but the accounts of muslims and also the findings of stone tablets with aramaic inscriptions both found in Afghanistan and pukhtunkhwa.so the claim isnt made by the british but by muslim historians and hadeeth and archeological findings.the westerners claim is that of the arian origin like this greek loser does here.


Secondly, during Suri's time, there was a rivalry between mughals and pashtun that lead to malicious labelling, a strawman concept, of Pashtuns as, basically, yahud, that way the moghuls having an upmanship, again ironic as the moghuls were sons of many former hindu rani's, but thats another story.
Then came the nasiri book that continued the myth, you know how it, **** sticks!!! Or shall i say it in more decent words, fantastic "pop" fallacies remain popular and those who are into fantastic pop culture require miracles to be convinced of thier misconception, human nature.
wrora i dont knwo what the problem is with you guys.
you want to balme it either on mughuls or british to avoid historical facts about pashtuns.
offcourse one can have his own desperate desires to be classified arian or whatever.
and nowhere were pashtuns mentioned as yahud,but bani israel.
the thing is most try to cover historical facts because they want to be connected to white arian civilisation and because this fact will reveal that pashtuns were worshipping the one true god way before.
they feel threatend because their deislamisation tactic only will work on the weak minded if they tell them that before islam they had a great
civilisation.which in this case would be again believing in Allah.

Beside the much anticipated DNA results, since the inception of the research in 2010, their isn't any linguistic similarity, even if there are any common words, it is more like these words migrated through arabic via the spread of Islam, arabic being a semetic language and has commonalities with Hebrew, perhaps not exact words but cognates (words stemming from common root), despite israeli efforts to make hebrew sound different from arabic, which is another political story.
than again we should look at all of this from pashtun side and not modern dauy israel or jewish side.We should look at what they have that compares to pashtuns not the other way around.

Another step farther, it is well documented that jewish communities across the world (diaspora) have kept their faith and identity against incredible odds of prejudice/ racism/killings, right from ancient history when jews jumped to their deaths of the mountain rather than capture, to the german killings, to their current resilience in propagating their ancestral rights to canaan, they have not converted so easily, and if they have then their religious matrilinial descendence has always been maintained. my question is that if you look at even the anecdotal evidence, it is hard to conceive jews becoming staunch muslims, giving up their culture, language after years in the wilderness. Pashtuns are staunch muslims, their language is pashto with no known semetic connection, even the jewish kepi (little cap) cannot be adequately related to the pashtun kholi in any stretch of imagination.
thats exactly how pashtuns are and they fought against the muslim armies for over 100 years to defend their heritage which they believed was the truth.
than they converted to islam because they saw the truth about one and only Allah(swt).remember the israelites were muslims and not jews,jews come form the tribe of yahuda.
even though the cap is not relevant hier in this picture the Afghan fighters against british raj are wearing such caps.

this picture was taken at KHYBER<---- doesnt ring a bell?
the ancient israelites also wore tubans and had patoo
All a big myth, unless the DNA evidence is produced and with multiple unbiased verification.

this is not a myth but facts which most pashtuns try to shove under the carpet because they want to be related to arians.
more about this will be uncovered in the future Inshallah.
this isnt only about the ten lost tribes but before that there was also a migration of Abraham(a.s)'s children to the east.
stay tuned

[ډګروال]

Maybe that explains the bacha-bazi stuff and mullhahs who do sandwiches LOL

you failed at being a human.
but you can always be hanuman.

[ډګروال]

Sorry I couldn't resist.

looks like apollyon stuck to pashtuns shoes.
it doesnt work,nobody walks with poep such as you attached to them.