Afghanistan: Pushtun tribesmen from Southeast Afganistan, 1857

The Pashtun people are an ethnic group with populations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, mainly in and around the tribal areas between the two countries. The Pashtun people are generally classified as Eastern Iranian who use Pashto language and follow Pashtunwali, which is a traditional set of ethics guiding individual and communal conduct. Their origin is unclear but historians have come across references to various ancient peoples called Pakthas (Pactyans) between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BCE, who may be the early ancestors of the Pashtun people. Often characterised as a warrior and martial race, their history is mostly spread amongst various countries of South and Central Asia, centred on their traditional seat of power in medieval Afghanistan.