::I really doubt you're an Afghan historian, and you must be really clueless if you think the Medes are 'recent'.  Iranian does not mean Persian AND the Avestan itself may have been written in Afghanistan. As for 'Indian' influence, lol, you mean ancient Indo-Aryan before they went to India. They were not Indian as we know it then. Talk about stupid. Culturally Indian? How do you know that? Because Indian religious books write about them? Hinduism was still in its early stages AND Buddhism is India's main contribution, religiously, not Hinduism. Indian culture dominated over these? So the Pashtuns must be new then? And if they're 'Indian' (which means nothing here as you are clearly confusing Indo-Aryan, probably before they even moved to India, with Indian. The Greeks called it White India? What does that mean? Is that what this is about? Race theory? Let's see the reference to that and since the term India was applied originally by the PERSIANS to a small part of the Punjab I doubt your point is valid. Mughals/Muslims were in conflict with the Afghans. Ever hear of Khushal Khan Khattak? While the Mughals favored Persian, Khattak and the Pashtuns didn't and there was conflict. Lastly, it's beyond idiotic to say that it was not until Nadir Shah that the Iranian influence took hold. The Safavids came in more than 100 years before. Lastly, Iranian civilization as in Germanic civilization is what is meant by that. Both Pashto and Dari are Iranian languages, the people bear many similar customs, and Afghanistan is much more easily accessible from Iran than it is from India, although western Pakistan is basically also part of historic Afghanistan. It is not an extension of ancient Indian civilization, but a passing point for it. The inscriptions found there, including during the brief Ashokan and Mauryan period are written in Greek, Aramaic, and Persian. Now why is that if Afghanistan's Iranian past is recent? You need to go back and hit the books and stop quoting Indo-centric history and stop pretending to be an Afghan historian since clearly you're not.