The Pre-Mongol History of the Khalaj in Eastern Afghanistan

Presented by Prof. Minoru Inana, April 14th, 2025 @ 4:30 PM

The Khalaj are a people considered to be a branch of Turkish tribes. They live in West Asia, and, if we believe Vladimir Minorsky’s hypothesis, some of them have assimilated amongst the Afghans and live there as the Ghilzay. It was also Minorsky who published surviving Turkish dialects of the Khalaj in 1940. Since then, the study on the Khalaj has mainly revolved around linguistic issues. Their earliest appearance in historical literature was in the 9th century. However, recent research revealed an aspect of the early activity of them. In this talk, Professor Inaba will introduce the pre-Islamic kingdoms established by the Khalaj in eastern Afghanistan and their descendants.

Speaker Bio: Minoru Inaba is a Professor of the Department of Oriental Studies, Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University. He received his Ph.D. from Kyoto University on Asian History. He is specialized in the pre- and early Islamic history of Central Asia, especially of Afghanistan and adjacent regions. Besides the articles published in Japanese and English, he authored a Japanese monograph Islam no higasi, Chuka no nishi: 7-8 seiki no Chuou Asia wo megutte (Between the Islamic and Chinese Worlds: Central Asia in the 7th and 8th Centuries, 2022, Kyoto: Rinsen). He also has co-edited Wu-kong’s travel to the Five Indic Region (1994, Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University, in Japanese), Coins, Art, and Chronology II: the First Millennium CE of the Indo-Iranian Borderlands (2013, Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences), and The History and Culture of Iran and Central Asia: From Pre-Islamic to the Islamic Period (2022, South Bend: University of Notre Dame Press, 2022).