Content area
Full Text
(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.)
Introduction
Throughout history the Khyber Pass has served as a corridor connecting the Indo-Pak Subcontinent with Afghanistan and Central Asia. The strategic importance and location of this Pass has given the people of Khyber and their land worldwide fame and recognition. It has always remained the focus of attention for historians, writers, strategic analysts and tourists. Through this Pass travelled trade caravans carrying trade between the Indian Sub-continent and Central Asia, as well as the invading armies of conquerors from Darius to Ahmad Shah Abdali.
The Khyber Pass is a historic passage through the Safed Koh Mountains which are a far southeastern extension of the Hindu Kush Range. Going northwest from the eastern end in Pakistan, the pass starts from a village called Shâdi Bagiar (Bagiarai) near Jamrud (15 km west of Peshawar) and ends west of Torkham in Afghanistan, a winding road of 48 kilometres (29.81 miles).1 The section of the Pass situated in Pakistan is 36 kilometres (22!4 miles) in length from Jamrud to Torkham, from where the Pass exits at Haft Chah onto the Dakka Plain in Afghanistan. The actual pass is 5 kilometres inside Pakistan at Landi Kotal. It connects the northern frontier of Pakistan with Afghanistan and is one of the most famous mountain passes in the world, crowned as 'Monarch of the Passes' by Major General A.C. Robertson2 and the 'most historic of all the passes of the world' by James W. Spain.3
Ironically, this world famous pass bears a name which is of obscure and uncertain origin. Some believe the word Khyber has a Semitic origin. Others relate it to the Khyber of Arabia. A recent research conducted by an American sociologist and anthropologist, Gene D. Matlock, reverses the earlier views about its origin and claims exactly the opposite of the old theories about the origin of the word Khyber. We will try to analyze all the available information including the old classical works of history and the new research conducted by people like Matlock to try and reach a conclusion about the etymology of the word Khyber, the name of the most historic and world famous pass and now part of a political agency on the western frontier of Pakistan.
The...