Turks in pre-Islamic Afghanistan

[Temüjin]

so i came across the mention of Turk-Shahis and a Khurasan Tegin Shah when browsing this website: pro.geo.univie.ac.at/projects/khm/showcases/showcase12?language=en (check also in particular showcases 13 and 14). i know from Bosworth's books on the Ghaznavids that at the time Mahmud of Ghazni seized power there were already Turks living in the area and specifically mentions Qarluqs and Khalaj. though i didn't knew they apparently also formed the ruling elite of the local principalities and seem to have been Zunbils and Buddhists, maybe even Hindus? anyone got any more information about this?

according to the maps and info in Yuri Bregel's Atlas of Central Asia, the Göktürk Khanate only controlled the northern part of Afghanistan (Tokharistan), but the principalities in question would be centered in Zabulistan and Kabul(istan) in eastern Afghanistan.

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

Yes the Turk-Shahis are an interesting and rather obscure topic.

[Druzhina]

Very interesting.

From p119 Grousset, Walford (Translator) The Empire of the Steppes, 1970
"The same is true of the Turkic Buddhist dynasty of the Shahi, which reigned over Kapsia (Ki-pin in T'ang Chinese) in the Kabul valley; Chinese patents were conferred here in 705, 720 and 745.⁹⁵

95. T'ang Shu in Chavannes, Documents, pp. 132, 166; Tch'e fou yuan kouei, ibid., pp. 209, 213."


The showcase links are to the German version, adding ?language=en to the URL gives the English version.

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

[Temüjin]

yes this is highly fascinating, but informations for them seem to be very scarce...