[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.s3.34 # Twilight of the Sultanate c19.s3.34 Twilight of the Sultanate c19.s3.34 - **Language:** English ### [c19.s3.34](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.lal-1963.c19.s3.34) A word may here be said about the Pathans who live particularly in eastern Afghanistan and the country of Roh. Roh is an Indian (southern Punjabī) word for mountain, used by the Punjabīs and Jāts of Multan "seeing the Western-Mountain-Wall of the Sulaimans from their plains".²⁵ The Sulaiman ranges extend northwards from the Bugti country in Sindh up to Ghaznī in the west and Peshawar in the east. According to the geneology discussed above, the word Pehtan (used by the Prophet for Qais) changed into Pathan in course of time. But the Durrānīs believe that while they are pure Afghans, the Ghaljīs, Yūsufzaīs, Kākars, Afrīdīs, etc. are Pathans, that the Pathans are Afghans only by adoption and that they have not descended from Qais.²⁶ It is significant that neither Ibn Battūta nor Bābur mention the word Pathan. Bābur gives names of many Pathan tribes, but nowhere does he mention Pathans, Pakhtuns or Pashtuns. He calls the people only Afghan and their language Afghānī.²⁷ But his negative evidence does not prove that the Pathans are not Afghans. Both Bellew and Longworth Dames consider the two terms as appellations of a common people.²⁸ There is thus no racial difference as such between the two, but the word Afghan is applied to the people of Afghanistan proper while Pathan is commonly applied to the dwellers of Roh. - [Previous: c19.s3.33](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.lal-1963.c19.s3.33) - [Next: c19.s3.35](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.lal-1963.c19.s3.35) - [Up: c19.s3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.lal-1963.c19.s3) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.lal-1963.c19.s3.34](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.lal-1963.c19.s3.34) · Pramāṇa