Why Did Ibn Battuta call Afghans a tribe of Persians?

[Afghanfootball]

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[Forreigner]

"We travelled on to Kabul, formerly a vast town, the site of which is now occupied by a village inhabited by a tribe of Persians called Afghans. They hold mountains and defiles and possess considerable strength, and are mostly highwaymen. Their principal mountain is called Kuh Sulayman. It is told that the prophet Sulayman [Solomon] ascended this mountain and having looked out over India, which was then covered with darkness, returned without entering it." — Ibn Battuta, 1333

Very strange that he would call Afghans a tribe of Persians while at the same stating their principle mountain is the Sulaiman mts.

Anybody got any explanations.

Because what we call Afghanistan today was for a great amount oh of history several satrapies/provinses of several empires which had its capital in Pars. The capital changed several times though. Each saptrapy/provinces had their own Kings and rulers bit they were all united one banner. Hence why Cyrus the great held the title "King of Kings" ...hence why Ibn Battuta probably wrote Afghans (Afghans in this sense ~ Pashtuns/Pakhtuns/Paktuns) as a tribe of Persia. But this is western narrative. The empire itself did not name it self Persia. Pars was just capital though, not a self designated name for the entire empire. Similar to Ancient Greece with Athenians, Spartans, Olympians, etc.

[Aryana]

I also came across this quote by Ibn Battutta. He most likely was mistaken that Afghans were a "tribe of Persians" because Persians themselves (afaik) didnt have any "tribes".

[Shapur]

Ibn Batuta most likely read Arabic translation of Greek books so he called Afghans a tribe of Persians because the Greeks referred to all Iranian/Aryan tribes as Persians. I think what Ibn Batuta meant was an Iranian tribe not persian because persians are just one of the many Iranian tribes such as Kurds, Lors, Pasthuns/Afghans etc. I think that is where the confusion arises from. Here by Iranian I am not reffering to present day Islamic republic or Iran.

[Shapur]

When have Greeks called other Aryan tribes Persians? To me it seems they made a clear distinction between Persians and East Iranics such as Bactrians and Pactyans.

Calling Pashtuns, Tajiks, Kurds etc is more of a scholarly thing. I dont think its ever been actually used as a classification in the past.

I don't have a reference off the top of my head but the Greeks did refer to all Iranian tribes as sub tribes of Persians, so Bactrians, Parthians etc were Persian tribes to them. That is because the Acheminids, the first Persian rulers were from Fars province and the greeks started to refer to all sub tribes collectively as Persians. Ofcourse the Iranian tribes themselves knew the difference.

from wikipedia

The Greeks (who tended earlier to use names related to "Median") began in the 5th century to use adjectives such as Perses, Persica or Persis for Cyrus the Great's empire,[42] which is where the word Persian in English comes from.

Persian people - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia