Background and Exile from ancient Israel

According to the Bible (Kings 02:17:06, Kings 02:18:11, Chronicles 01:05:26), the ten tribes were exiled to Halah and Havor and the river Gozan and to the cities of Maday (Media). According to the tradition of the Jews of Afghanistan, the river Gozan is 'rod jichan' (river in Persian is rod), one of the tributaries of the Emo-daria, which descends in the vicinity of the town of Maimane (current day Afghanistan). The city of Havor is, as they say, peh-Shauor (Pash-Havor') which means 'Over Havor', and today serves as the centre of the Pathans of Pakistan. This whole area populated the ancient Assyrian Exile.

There are researchers who claim that all the Jews living in southern Russia and Central Asian states, along the Emor-daria' are the descendants of the ten tribes - the Bucharins, etc.
As we know, a group of ''B'nei Yisrael' some of whom settled in Israel, is also found in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The existence of the Pathan tribes is therefore in the heart of the area in which the ten tribes are found.

• [http://av1611.com/kjbp/]
• [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saadia_Gaon]
• [Lost Tribes from Assyria" by A Avihail and A Brin, 1978]

Around 722 BC, Israeli civil war and changing strategic interests forced Assyria to deport ten tribes to the east, towards Persia (Iran). A hundred years later, the Babylonians deported the remaining tribe of Yehudah and some Benjaminites to Babylon (Iraq). The Yehudah returned to Israel with the help of Cyrus the great of Persia, but the other ten tribes never retuned.
The search for the “T en tribes of Israel” is a very controversial issue because their descendants lost most of their Israelite traditions and do not possess the T almud (Oral T orah similar to the hadith of the Muslims). Perhaps the focal point which has dissuaded Israelites from searching openly for their brethren is the Israelite civil war after King Solomon’s reign, which pitted Yehudah (Judah) against all the other tribes and eventually brought their collective downfall. Hence the descendants of the “Lost Tribes” have lived and spread in the lands east of Israel which are now known as Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, India, Burma and even western China.

• [Bani Israel in Pakistan; The Israeli History of the Pathan Tribes by Qazi Fazli Azeem.]

Conclusion

• The biblical places of the refuge and exile of the Ten Lost Tribes in Media and Arachosia are therefore the regions which lie between Herat, Peshawar and the Oxus River.
• Hara is Herat
• Gozan is the river Oxus or Jehoon
• Havor or Habor is Pesh-Havor or Peshawar.

These are exactly the ares which i modern day Afghanistan and Pakistan are the home and heartland of the Afghan (Pashtun/Pukhtun) people.