[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [Twilight of the Sultanate](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.lal-1963) › c19.s3.23 # Twilight of the Sultanate c19.s3.23 Twilight of the Sultanate c19.s3.23 - **Language:** English ### [c19.s3.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.lal-1963.c19.s3.23) As we proceed from the mythical to the historical accounts we find that "Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier of Pakistan have seen perhaps more invasions (and migrations) than any other country in Asia, or indeed the world''.¹⁶ Between 550 B.C. and the fourth century A. D., Achaemenian (Iranian), Macedonian (in the wake of Alexander), Mauryan (Indian), Saka, Indo-Parthian, Kushān and Sassanian (all Iranian) dynasties invaded and ruled over eastern Afghanistan.¹⁷ And all the invaders, with the single exception of Alexander, had enrolled Iranians either from the central country itself or from nomadic peoples dwelling on the fringe of the Iranian world. Influence of Iranian language on Pakhtu is palpable and Olaf Caroe gives many words common in Pakhtu and Persian.¹⁸ Similarly N. B. Roy mentions many place names in Afghanistan which can be traced to as far back as the \*Zenda Vesta\* itself.¹⁹ In view of this Ibn Battūta's statement that "\*Kabul\* is inhabited by a people from Persia called Afghans",²⁰ gathers special significance. The Moorish traveller was a great observer and a great inquirer and he must have written after ascertaining what he saw. Even after the fourth century many more invasions of Afghanistan followed. The White Huns \*alias\* Ephthalite or Haytal (Turkish), Sassanian (Iranian), Kabul Shāhī and Zunbil (Turco-Iranian), Safavid (Iranian Muslim) and Hindu Shāhiya (Indian) ruled it by turns from the fifth to the eleventh centuries.²¹ - [Previous: c19.s3.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.lal-1963.c19.s3.22) - [Next: c19.s3.24](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.lal-1963.c19.s3.24) - [Up: c19.s3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.lal-1963.c19.s3) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.lal-1963.c19.s3.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.lal-1963.c19.s3.23) · Pramāṇa