Afghanistan: The Rabatak Inscription, Surkh Kotal, c. 2nd century CE

The Rabatak inscription is an inscription written on a rock in the Bactrian language and the Greek script, which was found in 1993 at the site of Rabatak, near Surkh Kotal in Afghanistan. The inscription relates to the rule of the Kushan emperor Kanishka, and gives remarkable clues on the genealogy of the Kushan dynasty.

The Bactrian language is an extinct Eastern Iranian language which was spoken in the Central Asian region of Bactria. Linguistically, it is classified as belonging to the middle period of the Northeastern Iranian branch.

Because Bactrian was written predominantly with the Greek alphabet, Bactrian is sometimes referred to as 'Greco-Bactrian', 'Kushan' or 'Kushano-Bactrian'.

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