New learnings each day

I just finished reading "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseni. I had read his Kite Runner a couple of years ago, but this one is a masterpiece. For a few days after I have finished reading a book, I still linger on with the plot,the story and the characters of the book. And so this time, I have been doing a post novel reading on Afghanistan. I started with wikipedia and was surprised to learn this -
 

The name Afghānistān, comes from the Sanskrit word Upaganasthan meaning 'land of the allied tribes'. It was a Hindu kingdom until the 11th century A.D. Source
 

So what I thought of as an islamic nation till now, has its roots in Hindu Civilization, Indus Valley to be precise. I sometimes cannot help but pity my limited general knowledge.