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The Durrani (Persian: درانی) or Abdali (Persian: ابدالی) tribe is one of the Pashtun tribes, and is also found in large numbers in western Pakistan. They are estimated to be roughly 20% of the population of Afghanistan and number around 7 million there with another 1-2 million found in Pakistan and hundreds of thousands also live in northeast Iran. The Durrani are bilingual in Dari and Pashto, and are arguably being among the most urbanized and educated of the Pashtuns in Afghanistan.

The Durrani have been prominent leaders, as the royal family of Afghanistan is derived from the tribe, and a substantial number of Durrani are bureaucrats and public officials, as well as businessmen and merchants. The particular dialect of Pashto favored by the Durrani tends to be tinged with a slight Persian inflection and is considered the more genteel and urbane dialect, often viewed by Pashtuns overall as the more 'proper' dialect, as opposed to the rougher "Pukhtu" version favored in the north and by most of the Pashtuns of Pakistan. The Durrani, like most other Pashtuns, are Muslim and are mostly of the Hanafi Sunni Islamic sect and, like most Pashtuns, continue to follow the Pashtun honor code known as Pashtunwali.

The first biggest tribe in Pashton is Durrani, secondly Kakar.

The Durrani are, like other Pashtuns and neighbouring peoples, Iranian-speaking and are believed to be descendants of Iranian peoples. They probably arose in what is today southern Afghanistan^{[citation needed]} near the Suleiman Mountains at some point between 2000 BCE to 1500 BCE. The Durrani were known as the Abdali from approximately the 7th century until the 18th century. They frequently lived under Persian rule prior to the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan. They emerged near the city of Kandahar and were most likely following the same religion as their neighbors who were Zoroastrians, Jews, Buddhists, and Hindus. The Abdalis appear to have begun to spread out during the early Middle Ages along with other Pashtun tribes and came to inhabit most of what is today Afghanistan by 1000 CE at the latest. One of the most prominent generals of the Persian empire, was a young Pashtun Abdali chieftain named Ahmad Shah Abdali who would later make himself King of Afghanistan.

The name 'Durrani' or 'Durr-i-Durran' means the 'pearl of pearls' in Persian and was given to the Abdali tribe in 1747 when Ahmad Shah Abdali united the Pashtun tribes following a loya jirga and changed his own name to Ahmad Shah Durrani when he became the king of Afghanistan and founded the Durrani Empire. Since this period, the kings of Afghanistan have been of Durrani extraction. The Durrani were the most divided Pashtun tribe during the rule of the Ghilzai-dominated Taliban, with some having openly opposed them. The Durrani are the politically dominant Pashtun group in Afghanistan as the current President of Afghanistan is Hamid Karzai, who is of the Durrani sub-group known as the Popalzai and has close ties to the former king of Afghanistan Zahir Shah, another member of the Durrani tribe.

Like most Pashtun groups, the Durrani can be sub-divided into smaller clans and subtribes (such as the aforementioned Popalzai) which will still acknowledge each other as kinsmen. The literacy rate of the Durrani is the highest of all of the Pashtun tribes in Afghanistan and hovers around 25%. Perhaps the most liberal of the Pashtun groups, the Durrani are currently at the forefront of rebuilding war-torn Afghanistan and are quickly filling the ranks of the military and are valued as city officials and policemen in cities such as Kandahar and Kabul. ] The Durrani continue to live in close proximity to other Afghans and culturally overlap in many ways with the Tajiks with whom they often share more cultural and socio-economic traits in comparison to the more tribal Pashtuns such as the Ghilzai, who are the other major Pashtun group in Afghanistan. The Durrani are part of Sarbans, a Pashtun tribal group.

In Pakistan Durranis have achieved high positions within the country's establishment. Lt Gen Asad Durrani was the Director General of the ISI while ,the current Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States is Mahmud Ali Durrani, of the Durrani tribe as is Pakistan's Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting is Mohammad Ali Durrani. The current serving Chief Secretary of Sindh Province(Pakistan)is Shakeel Durrani. One of the most prominent Durranis (Popalzays) in Pakistan are direct descendants of the aforementioned Ahmed Shah Abdali, the family of Brig. Sardar Abdur Raheem Durrani, a highly decorated officer in the Pakistan Army who served as the first commandant of the Special Services Group (SSG: the elite commando wing of the Pakistan Army) during the 60's and the 70's, and later became the Governor of the Province of Balochistan. He has recently passed away leaving his legacy to his eldest son Colonel (retd) Sardar Aamjad Naeem Durrani, also a decorated war veteran and a retired civil servant, based in Islamabad.

• Kakar
• Pashtun
• Sarbans
• Iranian languages