Hi, I am late to this party, but if you'd like to read an early European account of the Afghan people, more specifically the Pashtuns, Sir John William Kaye, a Bengal Cavalry officer and veteran of the First Anglo-Afghan War, illustrated the spirit and diversity of Afghanistan in the early 19 century, stating:

"The physical character of the country had stamped itself on the moral conformation of its inhabitants. Brave, independent, but of a turbulent vindictive character, their very existence seemed to depend upon a constant succession of internal feuds… They knew no happiness in anything but strife. It was their delight to live in a state of chronic warfare. Among such a people civil war has a natural tendency to perpetuate itself. Blood is always crying aloud for blood. Revenge was a virtue among them; the heritage of retribution passed from father to son”

He wrote A History of the War in Afghanistan in 1851. This is obviously after the Muslim Arabs swept through the country, but it is interesting incite from an outsider.