  islam is the official state religion of afghanistan, with approximately 99.7% of the afghan population being muslim. about 80-90% practice sunni islam, belonging to the hanafi islamic law school, while 10-20% are shias.  majority of the shiites belong to the twelver branch and only a smaller number follow ismailism. ==history== ===early history===   during the 7th century, the umayyad arabs entered modern-day afghanistan after decisively defeating the sassanian persians in nihawand. following this colossal defeat, the last sassanid emperor, yazdegerd iii, who became a hunted fugitive, fled eastward deep into central asia. in pursuing yazdegerd, the route the arabs selected to enter the area was from north-eastern iranarabic as a minority language by jonathan owens, pg. 181 and thereafter into herat, where they stationed a large portion of their army before advancing toward northern afghanistan. the arabs exerted considerable efforts toward propagating islam amongst the locals. a large number of the inhabitants of n
Islam_in_Afghanistan