In October 1747 a loya jirga ( grand council ) concluded near the city of Kandahar with Ahmad Shah Durrani being selected as the new leader of the Afghans, thus the Durrani dynasty was founded.

The Afghans remained in opposition after the death of Babar in 1530, but were defeated near Lucknow in the following year.

They accompanied a column under the command of MacPherson to come to the aid of a British force that had been surrounded by the Afghans near Char Asiab.

Raberi and Chandwar on the Yamuna River ; Koel in the Doab and Sambhal beyond the Ganges all of them near Agra had been retaken by the Afghans.

The Kandahar region in the south served as a buffer zone between the powerful Mughals and Safavids, and the native Afghans often switched support from one side to the other.

* 1709-Mirwais Hotak declares Afghanistan ( land of the Afghans ) an independent state and establishes the Hotaki dynasty at Kandahar.

In 1709, the Ghilzai Afghans of Kandahar, under their leader Mirwais, rebelled and successfully broke away from Safavid rule.

In 1747 when Ahmad Khān Abdālī seized control of Kandahar, Kabul, and Peshawar, and, as Ahmad Shah Durrani, was proclaimed Shah of the Afghans.

In July, Shuja Shah was narrowly defeated at Kandahar by the Afghans under Dost Mohammad Khan and fled.

It was conquered in 1717, along with the rest of Persia, by the Ghilzai Afghans from Kandahar and became part of the Hotaki dynasty.

Soon afterwards Nader waged a war against the Afghans and captured Kandahar.

He admitted the difficulties of this enterprise, but thought that a force of picked French troops, aided by Persians and Afghans, might under favorable conditions penetrate into India by way of Kandahar, or through Sindh, especially if the British were distracted by maritime attacks from Mauritius.

Nader Shah had driven out the remaining Ghilzai forces from Persia and began enlisting the Abdali Afghans of Farah and Kandahar in his military.

The 2004 presidential election was held on October 9, with over 10 million Afghans being registered to vote.

" Underscoring the delicate security situation in Afghanistan, British General David Richards, who commands NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said on October 8, " By this time next year I would understand if a lot of Afghans, down in the south in particular, said to us all, ' Listen, you're failing year after year at delivering the improvements which you have promised to us.

On 9 October the Lancers set off in pursuit of the Afghans, who had left Kabul during the night leaving their guns, tents and camp equipment.

He was Emir of Afghanistan from October 12, 1879 to May 31, 1880 and was also the leader of Afghans in the Second Anglo-Afghan War.

It was made independent in 1717 from the Safavid dynasty by the Afghans until 1736 when the Hotaki dynasty was defeated by the Afsharids, which finally became part of the Durrani Empire in 1747.

Nader Shah was accompanied by the young Ahmad Shah Durrani, founder of the modern state of Afghanistan, who would re-conquer the area in 1747 after becoming the new ruler of the Afghans.

Ahmad Shah Durrani, who commanded 4, 000 Abdali Afghans under Nader Shah, asserted Pashtun rule in 1747 and further expanded his new Afghan Empire.

After the death of Nader Shah in 1747, it was occupied by the Afghans.

After the death of Nader Shah in 1747, it was occupied by the Afghans.

Ahmad Shah invaded the remnants of the Mughal Empire a third time, and then a fourth, consolidating control over the Kashmir and Punjab regions, with Lahore being governed by Afghans.

Early skirmishes were followed by victory for the Afghans against the smaller Maratha garrisons in Northwest India and by 1759 Ahmad and his army had reached Lahore and were poised to confront the Marathas.

* 1761 – The Third Battle of Panipat is fought in India between the Afghans under Ahmad Shah Durrani and the Marhatas.

Top players, such as Aziz Ahmad, are often sponsored by wealthy Afghans.

The Nawab was plagued by fear of attack from the north by the Afghans under Ahmad Shah Durrani and from the west by the Marathas.

On June 2, 2004 in Badghis, Afghanistan Tynæs and four others ( Afghans Fasil Ahmad and Besmillah, Belgian Helene de Beir, and Dutchman Willem Kwint ) were killed in an ambush whilst working for the humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières.

Similarly Hafiz Rahmat bin Shah Alam in his Khulasat-ul-Ansab and Fareed-ud-Din Ahmad in Risala-i-Ansab-i-Afghana provide the history of the Afghans and deal with their genealogies.

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community wrote a book named Jesus in India where he argued that Afghans, Pashtuns and Pathans are descendants from the Tribes of Israel.

At the time of his arrival in Shahr-i Babak, a formal local governor was engaged in a campaign to drive out the Afghans from the city's citadel, and Hasan Ali Shah joined him in forcing the Afghans to surrender.

The Afghans captured Isfahan ( Safavid capital ) and Mahmud became the new Persian Shah, known after that as Shah Mahmud.

* Battle of Damghan: The Persians under Nadir Shah defeat the Afghans.

After the fall of the Safavids, Shiraz suffered a period of decline, worsened by the raids of the Afghans and the rebellion of its governor against Nader Shah ; the latter sent troops to suppress the revolt.

The national unity government would share power with the Pakistan-based government-in-exile, guerrilla commanders, Afghans living in exile, and the deposed king, Zahir Shah.

The Afghans resented the British presence and the rule of Shah Shuja.

Since the rise of Ahmed Shah Abdali, the Afghans had treated Balochistan as a vassal state until the Baloch-Afghan war of 1758, when both parties signed an agreement of " non-interference.

France on its side required the Shah to declare war against the United Kingdom, to expel all Britons from Persia, and to come to an understanding with the Afghans with a view to a joint Franco-Perso-Afghan invasion of India.

The Persians were defeated and the Afghans under Shah Mahmud became the masters of a greater part of Persia.

On the day of Eid ul-Fitr, Afghans will first offer their Eid prayers and then gather in their homes with their families, greeting one another by saying " Eid Mubarak " and usually adding " Eidet Mobarak Roza wa Namazet Qabool Dakhel Hajiha wa Ghaziha ," which means " Happy Eid to you ; may your fasting and prayers be accepted by God, and may you be counted among those who will go to the Hajj-pilgrimage.

This very soon became an inspirational story among the Afghans, with the disastrous retreat from Kabul and the Massacre of Elphinstone's army in the Kurd Kabul Pass following.

Ghani called his decision to accept an invitation to present his ideas to Karzai an example of the importance of cooperation among Afghans and with the international community for the country's progress.

Logar was known among Afghans as باب الجهاد ' Bab al-Jihad ', or ' the Gates of Jihad ' because it became a fierce theatre of war between Mujahideen groups and the Soviet army and it was the main supply route of Mujahideen coming from south and Pakistan and going towards Northern and Central Afghanistan.

The Islamic ideology solidified a strong base of opposition by January 1980, overriding ethnic, tribal, geographic and economic differences among Afghans willing to fight the Soviet invasion, which attracted Central Asian deserters.

Scholar Olivier Roy describes the background of the hundreds of global ( as opposed to local ) terrorists who were incarcerated or killed and for whom authorities have records, as being surprising for their Westernized background ; for the lack of Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghans " coming to avenge what is going on in their country "; their lack of religiosity before being " born again " in a foreign country ; the high percentage of converts to Islam among them ; their " de-territorialized backgrounds " – " For instance, they may be born in a country, then educated in another country, then go to fight in a third country and take refuge in a fourth country "; their nontraditional belief that jihad is permanent, global, and " not linked with a specific territory.

Aided by disunity among the Afghans, the Sikhs conquered the cities and provinces of Peshawar and Multan from them, and also incorporated the states of Jammu and Kashmir into their empire.

After the Battles of Plassey ( 1757 ) and Buxar ( 1764 ) which established British dominion over East India, the Anglo-Mysore wars ( 1766-1799 ), the Anglo-Maratha Wars ( 1775-1818 ), and finally the Anglo-Sikh Wars ( 1845-1849 ) consolidated the British claim over South Asia, resulting in the British Empire in India, though resistance among various groups such as the Afghans and the Burmese would last well into the 1880s.

In An Inquiry into the Algerian Massacres ( a book arguing that the GIA had become a tool of the state ) two survivors are quoted as reporting that the killers were dressed like " Afghans ", with turbans, covered faces, beards ( some false ), and uniforms, that the attackers were also cursing God throughout, and that among them were a few women, wearing hijab over a uniform.

Thus, Hemu became popular among the Hindus as well as Afghans.

So the presence of Bibles among Afghans show their Jewish origin .”

He has fan base that stretches from his native Afghanistan to Central Asia, Pakistan, and extending to the West among the Afghans.

According to Elphinstone, the Khilji, " though Turks by descent ... had so long settled among the Afghans that they had almost identified with that people.