Bactrian language
In the early modern period, the Abdali tribe of Pashtuns was first explicitly mentioned in Mughal and Safavid sources. For example, in the 1595 Mughal account "Ain-i-Akbari", the Abdali were mentioned as one of the "Afghan "ulūs"" (Pashtun tribal confederacies) settled in Kandahar area, along with "Tarīn", "Paṇī", and "Kākaṛ". Some scholars have postulated that the Abdali descended from Hephthalite tribes, who settled in present-day Afghanistan in ancient times and were known as ηβοδαλο ("Ebodalo") in Bactrian language.