The Kite Runner - Context

The Kite runner - Context

We learn in the first few opening chapters of The Kite Runner, that Amir and Hassan are both Musilm, but from two different groups. Amir is a Pashtun, where as Hassan is an Hazara. From what I've researched, Pashtuns are made up of mostly Sunni Muslims. The Pashtuns also make up a near majority of Afghanistan, so the Hazara's are the minority. This will be one of the reasons that Amir cannot find much history about the Hazara's, as Afghanistan has been populated by mainly Pashtun's. Sunni Muslims are the largest denomination of Islam, where as Shi'a are the second largest group. The Shi'a Muslims do not believe in caliphate, where as Sunni muslims do. I had never heard of the term caliphate before, so did some research, and the definition for the word caliph is "A leader of Islamic policy, regarded as a successor of Muhammed and by tradition always male." and the definition of Caliphate is "The office or jurisdiction of Caliph.". This is one of the things that they disagree on, but they are also from different origins, the Hazara Muslims are from Asian or Caucasian decent, and some can look very chinese or mongolian, as Hassan has been described by Amir - "A face like a chinese doll chiselled from hardwood.". The Pashtuns however, are largely Caucasian.

The definition of a Pashtun Muslim is  "A member of the predominant ethnic group of Afghanistan and parts of western Pakistan".

The definition of an Hazara Muslim is "A minority ethnice group making up about 19 percent of Afghanistan's population".