Jesus In India — Page 118
118 J e s u s i n I n d i a On page 64, the same author says that reliable records like Taarikh-i-Afghani, Taarikh-i-Ghori, etc. , contain the assertion that the Afghans are mostly Beni Israel and some of them are of Coptic origin. Moreover, Abul Fazl also states that some Afghans regard themselves as of Egyptian origin, the reason given by them being that when the Beni Israel returned to Egypt from Jerusalem, this tribe, namely, the Afghans migrated to India. On page 64 Farid-ud-Din Ahmad writes about the title ‘Afghan’ that some writers are on record having said that after exile (from Syria) they used always to ‘bewail and cry’ in remembrance of their home. That is why they were named Afghans. 71 Sir John Malcolm is also of the same opinion; vide History of Persia, Vol. I, page 101. On page 63, is given Mahabat Khan’s statement that: ‘As they are the followers and relations of Solomon, they are, therefore, styled Sulaimanis by the Arabs’. On page 65, it is written that investigations of almost all oriental historians show that the Afghan people’s own view is that they are of Jewish origin. Some of the present day historians have adopted the same view and regard it as true or very nearly true…. The translator Bernard Dorn’s contention that the adoption of Jewish names by Afghans is due to their having accepted Islam is not sustained by evidence. In north western and western Punjab, there are tribes of Hindu origin who have become Muslims but whose names are not after the names of the Jewish people, which clearly shows 71 Meaning that the title ‘Afghan’ is a combination of two Persian words ‘Aah’ (lament) and ‘Faghan’ (cry of pain). (Translator)