“Kafiristan” was inhabited by what Islam refers to as “kafirs”, meaning infidels, such people as were unbelievers in Islam. Very few people indeed are aware of the history of Kafiristan. It now forms a province and is a part of Afghanistan. The inhabitants there down the centuries were idol, polytheistic and ancestor worshippers till 1896 in which year the Emir of Afghanistan destroyed their temples, broke their idols, killed their priests, and ensured that they were converted to Islam. Kafiristan, in 1896, was also renamed as “Nurestan” (meaning the land of the enlightened; nur or noor means light).