Kāfiristān or Kāfirstān (Persian: کافرستان‎) was a historic name of Nurestan (Nuristan); it was also referred to as "Afica", but this was changed because of its close similarity with the name of the continent "Africa". A province in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan and what is now Pakistan, prior to 1896. This historic region lies on, and mainly comprises, the basins of the rivers Alingar, Pech (Kamah), Landai Sin, and Kunar, and the intervening mountain ranges. It is bounded by the main range of the Pamirs on the north, the city of Chitral in what is now Pakistan to the east, the Kunar Valley in the south, and the Alishang River in the west. Kafiristan took its name because the inhabitants of the region were non-Muslims and were thus known to the surrounding Muslim population as Kafirs, meaning "infidels". They are closely related to the Kalash people, a fiercely independent people with a distinctive culture, language and religion.

Kafiristan or Kafirstan is normally taken to mean land of the infidels in Persian, where the name "Kafir" is derived from the Arabic Kafir, commonly translated into English as "infidels" or "idolaters". Kafiristan then would be "The Land of the Infidels," as the area was inhabited by a non-Islamic polytheistic culture before en-masse conversion to Islam began. This explanation would also justify the renaming of the country after its Islamization.

The Kalasha (Kalasha: Kaĺaśa, Nuristani: Kasivo) or Kalash, are indigenous people residing in the Chitral District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. They speak the Kalasha language, from the Dardic family of the Indo-Iranian languages, and are considered a unique tribe among the Indo-Aryan peoples of Pakistan.

They are related to the Nuristani people of the adjacent Nuristan (historically known as Kafiristan) province of Afghanistan. An autochthonous and polytheistic group like the Kalasha of Chitral, the Nuristani were forcibly converted to Islam by the 'Iron Amir' Abdur Rahman Khan in the late 19th century, while the Kalasha of Chitral maintain their own separate cultural traditions.

According to the linguist Richard Strand, the people of Chitral apparently adopted the name of the former Kafiristan Kalasha, who at some unknown time extended their influence into Chitral.^{[citation needed]}

Israr Ahmed (Urdu: اسرار احمد; April 26, 1932 – April 14, 2010) was a Pakistani Islamic theologian followed particularly in South Asia and also among the South Asian diaspora in the Middle East, Western Europe, and North America. Born in Hissar, (today's Haryana) in India, the second son of a government servant, he is the founder of the Tanzeem-e-islami, an off-shoot of the Jamaat-e-Islami.He has spent more than 50 years preaching Quraan.He hosted a daily show on Peace TV, a 24 hours Islamic channel broadcast internationally, and until recently^[when?] on ARY Qtv.

Ahmad was born on April 26, 1932 in Hisar (a district of East Punjab, now a part of Haryana) in India, the second son of a government servant. He graduated from King Edward Medical College (Lahore) in 1954 and later received his Master's degree in Islamic Studies from the University of Karachi in 1965. He came under the influence of 'Abul Ala Maududi' as a young student, worked briefly for Muslim Student's Federation in the Independence Movement and, following the creation of Pakistan in 1947, for the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba and then for the Jamaat-e-Islami. Ahmad resigned from the Jama`at in April 1957 because of its involvement in the electoral politics, which he believed was irreconcilable with the revolutionary methodology adopted by the Jama'at in the pre-1947 period.

John Zorn (born September 2, 1953 in New York City) is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer. He has had experience with a variety of genres including jazz, rock, hardcore punk, classical, extreme metal, klezmer, film, cartoon, popular, and improvised music. Zorn brings these styles to his work, which he refers to with the label avant-garde/experimental.

Zorn has stated: "All the various styles are organically connected to one another. I'm an additive person - the entire storehouse of my knowledge informs everything I do. People are so obsessed with the surface that they can't see the connections, but they are there."

Zorn has led the punk jazz band Naked City and the klezmer-influenced quartet Masada, composed Masada Songbooks (written concert music for classical ensembles), and has produced music for film and documentary.

Zorn established himself within the New York City downtown music movement in the mid 1970s and has since composed and performed with a wide range of musicians working in diverse musical areas. By the early 1990s Zorn was working extensively in Japan, attracted by that culture's openness about borrowing and remixing ingredients from elsewhere, before returning to New York as a permanent base in the mid-1990s. Zorn has undertaken many tours of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, often performing at festivals with varying ensembles to display his diverse output.

Jesse Harris (born 1969) is a Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter. He has collaborated with several musical artists including Norah Jones, Melody Gardot, Madeleine Peyroux, Nikki Yanofsky, and Lizz Wright.

Harris was born in New York City, along with his fraternal twin sister. He graduated from Cornell University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, in English.

Harris gave guitar lessons and performed in "various musical groups" before he formed the duo Once Blue with singer/songwriter Rebecca Martin.Once Blue released its self-titled debut on EMI Records in 1995 and nine additional songs were included in the album's re-release in 2003.

Harris became a songwriter for Sony Publishing for a time and then created three self-released recordings with his new band, the Ferdinandos consisting of Harris, Tony Scherr, Tim Luntzel, and Kenny Wollesen. The band released two more albums on Verve Records and Harris later recorded three solo albums Mineral, Feel, and Watching the Sky on his own label, Secret Sun Recordings. In 2003 he was awarded a Grammy Award for Song of the Year for "Don't Know Why," performed by Norah Jones.