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Kāfiristān or Kāfirstān (Persian: کافرستان) was a historic name of Nurestan (Nuristan), a province in the Hindukush region of Afghanistan and Pakistan. This historic region lies on, and mainly comprises, 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 Hindukush on the north, the city of Chitral in Pakistan to the east, the Kunar Valley in the south, and the Alishang River in the west.

Kafiristan takes its name from the inhabitants, the Kafirs, a fiercely independent people with distinctive culture, language and religion. In 1896 the country was conquered converted to Islam by the Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, who renamed the people as Nuristani ("Enlightened Ones" in Persian) and the land as Nuristan ("Land of the Enlightened"). It was only due to the location of three valleys notably, Birir, Bumburet and Rumbur that were located east of the Durand line under the administrative control of the British Raj and later Pakistan that this portion of Kafiristan was spared forced conversion. After declining population figures throughout the 70's, the region of Kafiristan in Pakistan has recently shown an increase in its population, much to the delight of historians and local philanthropists. The government of Greece has established several schools in the region and is actively involved in the improvement of the area.

Kafirstan means "Land of the infidels" in the Persian. It has been claimed that "Kafir" comes from the Arabic kafir, translated as "those that reject Islam."

Kafiristan was the setting for Rudyard Kipling's short story The Man Who Would Be King and the movie with the same title starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine.

Kipling's story apparently has a basis in history as documented in Ben MaCintyre's book, The Man Who Would Be King: The First American In Afghanistan (2004). Josiah Harlan, the object of Kipling's Dravot, an American from Chester County, Pennsylvania assisted Shah Shujah al-Moolk in attacking Dost Mohamed Khan in Afghanistan.

The cultural background for Kipling's story can be found in George Scott Robertson, Kafirs of the Hindu Kush (London, 1896), which came out a few years after Kipling's story. Robertson had spent a year living among the Kafirs before becoming British Agent in Gilgit.

Kafiristan is also the setting for the visit by G. I. Gurdjieff, to the legendary monastery of the World Brotherhood, in Meetings with Remarkable Men (pp. 228-231, 236-244.)

Kafiristan (and Nuristan) are the basis of Eric Newby's book - A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (1958).

Kefiristan is a mentioned in passing, from the Doom novels mini-series by Dafydd ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver, a mini-series based on the DOOM franchise.

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