Nuristan Province

Nuristan, also spelled Nurestan or Nooristan, (Nuristani/Pashto: نورستان) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. It is divided into seven districts and has a population of about 140,900.Parun serves as the provincial capital.

It was formerly known as Kafiristan (کافرستان, "land of the infidels") until the inhabitants were converted to Islam in 1895, and thence the region has become known as Nuristan ("land of light").

The primary occupations are agriculture, animal husbandry, and day labor. Located on the southern slopes of the Hindu Kush mountains in the northeastern part of the country, Nuristan spans the basins of the Alingar, Pech, Landai Sin, and Kunar rivers. Nuristan is bordered on the south by Laghman and Kunar provinces, on the north by Badakhshan province, on the west by Panjshir province, and on the east by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

History

Early history

The surrounding area fell to Alexander the Great in 330 B.C. It later fell to Chandragupta Maurya. The Mauryas introduced Hinduism and Buddhism to the region, and were attempting to expand their empire to Central Asia until they faced local Greco-Bactrian forces. Seleucus is said to have reach a peace treaty with Chandragupta by given control of the territory south of the Hindu Kush to the Mauryas upon intermarriage and 500 elephants.

Names of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

The Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pashto: خیبر پښتونخوا‎, Urdu: خیبر پختونخوا‎) has been known by a number of names throughout its history. In addition to North-West Frontier Province, the official name by which it was known from 1901 to 2010, other names used or proposed for the province include Gandhara, Afghania, Pakhtunistan, Pashtunistan, Pathanistan, Sarhad, Abasin, Khyber, or a combination of these and other names.

North-West Frontier Province

For over a hundred years from its founding as a province of British India in 1901, it was known as the North-West Frontier Province (Pashto: شمال مغربی سرحدی صوبہ‎ Śhumāl maġribī sarhadī sūbha). Unofficially, it was known as Sarhad (Urdu: سرحد‎), derived from the province's Urdu name which means "frontier".

Pakhtunkhwa

Pakhtunkhwa, Pakhtoonkhwa, Pukhtunkhwa, or Pashtunkhwa (Pashto: پښتونخوا‎) has often been the name used by the Pashtun people for the Pashtunized and Pashtun-dominated areas of Pakistan. More recently it was used by Pashtun nationalists in Pakistan as the name by which they wanted to rename the former North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), where they are the ethnic majority.