Pashtunwal - the Code of the Pashtuns In the Pashto language,
"-wal" is a suffix that most strongly resembles "-ness" in
English. Pashtunwal, sometimes jokingly translated as
"Pashtunity", is the traditional code of ethics and behavior for
ethnic Pashtuns. The Pashtuns have a dubious and likely
impenetrable ancient history. Oral tradition post-Islam is that
the Pashtuns are a lost tribe of Israel, and will compose the
most important part of the Mahdi army during the end times.
Interestingly enough, there are a few shreds of genetic evidence
to support the claim, but nothing conclusive. Scattered accounts
of various tribes of the region in the histories of Herodotus
and his predecessors seem to indicate that the ancestors of
today's Pashtuns have existed largely unchanged for thousands
and thousands of years. It should be no surprise then, that an
extremely tribal society based on the ideal of the warrior-poet
should not fail to produce a fairly consistent and rigid code of
behavior, even without the advantage