Given the level of anti-Jewish prejudice that exists among Muslims and vice versa, it is quite interesting to note that Pathan Muslims possibly have Jewish ancestry.
In this context, I would request readers to have a look at this video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mKaKZOUefE (it also brings out the fact for those prejudiced against Islam as a belief system that the Old Testament criminal laws were much more harsh than the real Islamic laws, though fortunately, modern-day Israel, the only Jewish state, really doesn’t follow the former today, though the tribal customs of the Pathans practised by the Taliban resembled the Old Testament laws more!) and this article on an Indian Pathan Muslim who is a lover of Israel and studying there, who alludes to the possibility of this theory being accurate – http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/122084#.U0WyZpw3H-G, and here’s a video on him too - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNFe2BHBfCU. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the theory of Pashtun descent from Israelites is traced to Maghzan-e-Afghani, a history compiled for Khan-e-Jehan Lodhi in the reign of Mughal Emperor Jehangir in the 16th century (much before the modern state of Israel came into being). The Maghzan-e-Afghani’s Bani-Israel theory has been discounted by modern authorities, due to numerous historical and linguistic inconsistencies.
In his universal history Mirat-ul-Alam – The Mirror of the World – Bukhtawar Khan describes the journeys of the Afghans from the Holy Land to Ghor, Ghazni, and Kabul. Similarly, 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.
Two of the most famous historical works on the subject are Tarikh-i-Afghana – History of the Afghans – by Nimat Allah al-Harawi, which was translated by Bernard Dorn in 1829, and Tarikh-i-Hafiz Rahmatkhani, by Muhammad Zadeek which he wrote in 1770.”Tawarikh-e-Hafiz Rehmat khani”was later translated and provided with foot notes by Khan Roshan khan. These books deal with the early history of the Afghans, their origin and wanderings in general. They particularly discuss the Yusuf Zyes (the Yusefzai, “Sons of Joseph”) and their occupation of Kabul, Bajoor, Swat, and Peshawar.
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