THE INHABITANTS OF AFGHANISTAN.
Slaves in Kabul: prisoners of war and others. The frequent
rebellions. The different nationalities in Afghanistan. Origin of
the Afghan race. The Turk Sabaktakin. Mahmûd of Ghuzni. Buddhism
displaced by Mahomedanism: agglomeration of different strains.
Border Afghans. Duranis, Ghilzais. Founding of a Dynasty of
Afghan Kings. Ahmad Shah. Timûr Shah. Danger to the Empire. The
Sons of Timûr. Zaman Shah. The Afghan “Warwick.” Execution of
Paînda. Rebellion of the Shah’s brother. Mahmûd Shah. Another
brother rebels. Shujah-ul-Mulk crowned: deposed by the Barakzai
chief. Exile of Shujah. The Koh-i-nûr. The Puppet-king and the
Barakzai Wazir. Murder of the Wazir. The Wazir’s brother becomes
Amîr. The first Afghan War. Rule of Dôst Mahomed: A Standing Army
established. Accession of Shere Ali. Amîr Afzal Khan. Abdurrahman.
The Ghilzais: origin and customs. Border Pathans, Afridis,
Shinwarris. Possible origin of Barakzais. The Hazaras: their origin
and country: their language and government. Moral and physical
condition. Religion. Their outbreaks and the cause. Turkomans,
Usbàks: their uncouth nature. Other races. The Christian Church.
[Sidenote: Slaves in Kabul.]
The slaves of Kabul are those who have been kidnapped from Kaffristan,
or who are prisoners of war, taken when some tribe breaks out in
rebellion against the Amîr. When it is remembered that the Afghans,
though at present the dominant race, form only a part, and a minor
part, of the population, there being several other nations, of
different physical conformity, different language, religion, and
customs, inhabiting the country, the fact of frequent outbreaks and
rebellions is less inexplicable than it would otherwise be.
Of the Afghans, to commence with, there are three chief divisions:
the Durani or Afghan proper, of which race is the Amîr; the Ghilzai;
and the Pathan or border Afghan. Each of these is divided up into many
different tribes: the tribes into branches, and the branches into
families.
We gather valuable information concerning Afghanistan--Ariana--and the
peoples inhabiting it, from the ancient writers; but the Afghans, as a
distinct people, do not appear in history until the commencement of the
tenth century; and it was not until the eighteenth century that they
were established as an independent nation under a king of their own
race.
According to the most recent investigations, the Afghans, though they
assert themselves to be a Jewish nation descended from Saul, are a
conglomerate race, some tribes, or sections of tribes, having in
their veins strains of Persian, others of Indian, Greek, or Scythian
blood. Of the tribes at the present day some bear the very names and
occupy the same positions that Herodotus tells us of as existing in
the Persian satrapies of Darius, and others, the names of Macedonian
and Greek tribes, who were introduced after the conquest of Alexander.
Others again, especially in eastern Afghanistan, bear the names of
Rajput tribes renowned in Indian history.
[Sidenote: The First Afghan King.]
In the tenth century was the invasion by Tartar hordes headed by the
Turk Sabaktakin, who established himself in southern Afghanistan,
making Ghuzni his capital.
He and his son, Mahmûd of Ghuzni, founded a dynasty in Afghanistan.
They were recent converts to Islam, and destroying the then dominant
religion of the country, Buddhism, shrouded under the cloak of Mahomed
the strains of different nations that existed in the country. This wild
mixed race, called collectively Afghan, was at all times turbulent and
difficult to govern, and the tribes fought against each other without
the least scruple. Their present unsettled condition, therefore, can be
somewhat better understood when we consider that it has existed, and in
a far greater degree, from remote ages.
It would be tedious merely to enumerate the multitudinous divisions
into which the Afghan nation is divided, and I have grouped many
important tribes under the comprehensive term Border Afghans. These,
as the name implies, occupy the mountains on the Indian frontier, and
it is they who, by their raidings, thievings, and turbulence, cause so
much trouble to the Government of India.
From their position, it has been possible for investigators among the
Indian Frontier Officials to study the customs, laws, and descent of
these tribes more closely than those of the Afghans occupying the
interior of the country.
Of the latter, the Durani and the Ghilzai tribes are, from their
numerical superiority, the more important. In addition, the Durani
tribe has, from two of its branches, given to the country its Afghan
Kings.
It was in the last century, 1747, that Ahmad Khan, of the Suddozai
division of the Duranis, created himself Ahmad Shah and founded a
dynasty. It occurred in the following manner. Nadir Shah, a Turkoman
robber chief, invaded Persia, driving thence the Afghans, who had held
the country for some six or seven years. He placed himself on the
throne, and then proceeded to annex Afghanistan, seizing first Herat,
and after a nearly two years’ siege Kandahar, and finally Kabul.
He ruled with vigour and generosity, and in such a manner that he
completely won the hearts of the people, and was able to bring to
the assistance of his own troops large contingents of Afghan cavalry
recruited especially among the Duranis and the Ghilzais. The chiefs
of the tribes commanded the troops raised from their tribesmen. These
men accompanied the Turk Warrior in all his expeditions, sharing
his glory and his success. So much help did they give him that he
openly preferred them to his own troops, causing, thereby, great
jealousy among the Persian soldiers. Finally, when in 1747, Nadir was
assassinated, the Persians fell upon the Afghans with such fury that
the latter, greatly outnumbered, sought safety in flight. On their
return to their native country, the nobles of the Durani and Ghilzai
tribes met together to decide upon the best means of organizing a
Government for Afghanistan. Any union with the Persians was declared
henceforth impossible, and they determined to elect a chief from
among themselves. After much discussion, Ahmad Khan, the chief of the
Suddozai Duranis, was elected King of the nation, his only formidable
rival, the chief of the Barakzai Duranis, withdrawing in his favour.
Ahmad Khan was crowned in the Mosque at Kandahar in 1747, taking the
title of Shah. In the midst of the festivities there arrived a convoy
in Kandahar, bearing from the Punjab and Scinde the tribute due to
Nadir Shah. Ahmad Shah at once seized the convoy, which was of extreme
value, and wisely consolidated his power by distributing the contents
liberally among the soldiers, officers, and nobles of his newly-founded
kingdom.
[Sidenote: Downfall of the Empire imminent.]
This was the commencement of the Durani dynasty of Afghan Kings, and
Ahmad, by frequent invasions, extended his Empire from Mashad in Persia
to Lahore in India. He reigned twenty-six years, and was succeeded by
his son, Timûr Shah, a weak man, who, moving the seat of Government
from Kandahar to Kabul, employed his time, not in strengthening and
consolidating his father’s Empire, but in gratifying his senses. The
result was what might have been anticipated: Law became a dead letter;
no longer was any road safe from highway robbery; disorder and anarchy
once more spread over the country, and the downfall of the Empire was
imminent. The Persian provinces were lost; then followed the Punjab,
Scinde, and Beluchistan.
At the death of Timûr, in 1793, matters became even worse, for his
many sons, who were ruling singly or jointly over different provinces,
plotted and counterplotted against one another in the endeavour to
obtain the throne. Three of the sons came to the front. Zaman Shah,
who held the throne for a brief period; Shujah-ul-Mulk, his full
brother, who held Kandahar and plotted to obtain Kabul; and Mahmûd,
who ruled in Herat as an independent Prince, and declared himself Shah
of Afghanistan. At this time the most powerful and influential of all
the Sirdars was Paînda Khan, chief of the Barakzai Duranis, and son of
the man who withdrew his pretensions to the Afghan throne in favour of
Ahmad Shah.
Paînda, another “Warwick,” supported Zaman, and by his power
and influence placed him on the throne. The other brothers were
entrapped and kept in prison on a meagre diet till they acknowledged
his accession to the throne. Zaman Shah, his court in factions,
his brothers plotting against him, his Treasury empty, India as a
looting ground shut against him by the East India Company, and Persia
threatening on the west, endeavoured, nevertheless, to rule on the
autocratic principle, and though the Barakzais had hereditary right to
the great offices of the State, he presently degraded and then executed
the chief, Paînda Khan, to whom he owed the throne, and whose power and
intellect would have been invaluable to him.
At once the sons of Paînda fled and joined the King’s brother, Mahmûd,
at Herat. Him, after much solicitation, they persuaded to advance
against Zaman Shah. They were joined by the whole of the Barakzai
tribe, who, recognizing Fethi Khan, eldest son of Paînda as their
chief, at once placed themselves under his orders. After much fighting,
and some treachery, Zaman was deposed, and his eyes put out by order of
his brother. He had reigned four years.
It was in 1800 that Mahmûd became Shah. His throne was an uneasy one.
First, the Ghilzai tribe rebelled against him, and several encounters
were necessary before they were subdued. Then a most sanguinary
religious riot arose in Kabul between the two sects of Mahomedans--the
Sunnis and the Shiahs, and the Shah, by supporting the Shiahs,
alienated his own tribes, both the Suddozais and Barakzais, who are
Sunnis. This was the commencement of his downfall, for while Fethi Khan
was in Bamian subduing a rebellion of Hazaras, the other chiefs formed
a conspiracy and invited Shujah-ul-Mulk, the Shah’s younger brother, to
advance on Kabul, promising him their support. Shujah at once advanced,
Mahmûd fled to the Bala Hissar fort, and Shujah was placed on the
throne amid the greatest rejoicings.
[Sidenote: Shah Shujah deposed by the Barakzai Chief.]
The first act of the new Shah was to seize his brother, the ex-King,
and order his eyes to be put out. This order, however, he revoked,
owing to the influence of his new Wazîr or Prime Minister--one of the
chiefs who had invited him to seize the throne. He imprisoned the
ex-King, therefore, in the dungeons of Bala Hissar.
Fethi Khan returning from Bamian found Shujah King. He had, however, a
vendetta against the new Shah for the murder of his father, Paînda, by
the Shah’s full brother, Zaman.
Secretly, and with the help of his brother, he rescued Mahmûd from
prison, and again placed him on the throne in Kabul, himself taking his
hereditary post of Wazîr. Shah Shujah, routed by Fethi Khan, fled to
India, and sought the support of Runjit Singh, the Sikh Maharajah of
Lahore. But Runjit Singh held certain provinces formerly belonging to
Afghanistan, and he would do nothing for Shujah. He, however, extorted
from him a valuable diamond that Shujah had guarded through all his
adventures. This diamond had passed from Moghul to Turkoman, from
Turkoman to Afghan, and from Afghan has passed through the Sikh to
England. It is the Koh-i-Nûr. Shujah, in terror of his life, escaped
from the Sikh, and in 1815 threw himself on the mercy of the East India
Company, who gave him a pension and a residence in Ludhiana.
Meanwhile, in Kabul, Mahmûd gave way to every kind of sensual excess.
He was a puppet in the hands of his powerful minister, Fethi Khan,
under whose rule the country recovered some of its former prosperity.
Mahmûd’s son and heir, Kamran, jealous of the power and increasing
influence of Fethi Khan, succeeded in entrapping the minister, and,
with most atrocious tortures, he murdered him. The death of this master
spirit, warrior, and statesman was an irreparable loss to Afghanistan,
and anarchy once more spread over the country.
Mahmûd and Kamran fled to Herat, and the rest of the country was
divided among the brothers of the murdered Wazîr--Kabul, Jelalabad, and
Ghuzni falling to the share of Dôst Mahomed, the favourite brother of
Fethi Khan, and the most resolute and gifted.
The government of the country, therefore, with the exception of Herat,
which was still held by Mahmûd Khan, fell from the power of the Durani
Shah to that of the Durani Wazîr.
Dôst Mahomed took the title of Amîr of Kabul, or Military Commander,
and to him British envoys were sent on missions of commerce and
discovery.
At this time Russia was urging on Persia to take Herat, but as Herat
commands Kandahar, and thus is, as it were, the gate of India, the
British were compelled to make a counter-move. Then came the first
Afghan war--the disastrous endeavour on our part to revive the extinct
Suddozai Durani dynasty. Dôst Mahomed was taken prisoner to Calcutta;
Shah Shujah was put on the throne at Kabul; and Mahmûd, with his son
Kamran, as successor, acknowledged as Governor of Herat.
[Sidenote: The Rule of Dôst Mahomed: a Standing Army.]
The failure of the plan is a modern story. Shah Shujah was murdered
by the Afghans in 1842, and Dôst Mahomed was released and allowed to
find his way back to Kabul, where he was welcomed to the throne with
acclamations.
The rule of Dôst Mahomed, compared with what had gone before, was a
boon to Afghanistan; merchants and caravans could travel with some
amount of safety through his dominions. Trade recovered considerably,
and with its growth the revenues of the Amîr increased. For a long time
he made no attempt to extend his dominions, but contented himself in
rendering secure and prosperous those provinces he already possessed.
His brothers lacked the power, though not the wish, to compass his
overthrow, for though they were bold fighting men, they possessed
neither the capacity nor the resolution of the Amîr. The danger to
the sovereigns of Afghanistan had, hitherto, been the difficulty in
retaining the allegiance of the great Chiefs--the Barons--those men who
could call into the field the thousands of their clansmen to fight for
or against the King. Dôst Mahomed, though not lacking in generosity
towards them, nevertheless showed them that it would be both difficult
and dangerous to attempt to throw off their allegiance. As a check
to their power in the field he established, for the first time in
Afghanistan, a standing army. The Chiefs submitted, though at first
unwillingly, to the rule of the Amîr, for doubtless it seemed better to
yield to a monarch both just and generous than to attempt revolts, the
issue of which was in any case doubtful, and might place them under the
insecure and cruel despotism of the Suddozais. Of the extension of his
dominions to Kandahar, Herat, and Turkestan I will speak later.
Dôst Mahomed appointed a younger and favourite son, Shere Ali, to
succeed him, the only one of his sons whose mother was of Royal blood.
In 1868 Amîr Shere Ali was deposed by his elder brothers, Afzal Khan
and Azim Khan.
Amîr Afzal Khan, eldest son of Dôst Mahomed, reigned but five months
and died. He left one son only, the present Amîr, Abdurrahman.
He was succeeded by his brother, Azim Khan, who, however, was not
recognized as Amîr by the British, and in the following year Shere Ali
again obtained the throne. His estrangement with the British, their
advance, and the Amîr’s death in Mazar, I have spoken of. Yakûb, who
was Amîr when Cavagnari was assassinated, was son of Shere Ali. When
Yakûb was deposed Abdurrahman Khan was invited by the British to ascend
the throne.
Considering the line of men through whom he is descended, it is not so
surprising a thing that Amîr Abdurrahman has shown talent as a ruler,
politician, and general of so high an order. Dôst Mahomed and his
brother, Fethi Khan, their father and grandfather, Paînda and Jummal
Khan, were the type of men who change the course of history.
I have given this very curtailed sketch of what has been happening in
Afghanistan during the last hundred and fifty years, so that one may
see _who_ Amîr Abdurrahman is and why he is Amîr.
We may now go back to our former subject, the peoples inhabiting
Afghanistan.
[Sidenote: Origin of the Ghilzais.]
The Ghilzai Afghans are of doubtful origin: they are sometimes reckoned
as Pathan. Their language is Pukhtu, and their manners, customs,
and religion the same as those of the Duranis; but they are said to
have come into the country with the Turkoman Sabaktakin in the tenth
century, and to be the representatives of a Turk tribe from beyond the
Jaxartes, called Khilichi, “swordsmen.” More recent investigation seems
to point, however, to their being of Rajput (Scythian) descent; for the
clans into which the tribe is divided have mostly Indian names.
The Ghilzai is a very numerous and powerful tribe occupying that
part of the country which lies between the provinces of Kandahar and
Kabul. They are a race of fighting men, but have not given a ruler
to Afghanistan. One reason for their submission to the government of
the Duranis at Kabul, is the fact that a large portion of the tribe
is nomadic in its habits, moving from highlands to lowlands with the
seasons. They spend the summer among their villages on the uplands of
the Sufféd Kôh, Tobah, and Khôjah Amràn Mountains, and in the winter
packing their belongings on camels, asses, and bullocks, and driving
their flocks before them, they descend and camp on the warm plains.
Without their winter quarters on the plains they could not exist,
neither themselves nor their flocks.
Of the numerous tribes of Pathans or Border Afghans I will speak
only of the two to which I have already referred in the course of my
narrative: the Afridis, who occupy the mountains around Peshawur and
the east of the Khyber; and the Shinwaris, who occupy the western
extremity of the Khyber. The Afridis, who number about thirty thousand
families, say they were transplanted by Mahmûd of Ghuzni from the
Ghor country, which lies between Kabul and Herat, to their present
hills as military colonists for the defence of the Khyber Pass. Two
centuries later the colony was increased by fresh arrivals planted by
Shahabuddin Ghori. They are probably of Turkish descent. The Afridis
are partly cave dwellers, but live also in movable huts of matting and
wickerwork--a rough imitation of the Turkoman _Khirgar_. They have
few villages and no tents. They are described by Dr. Bellew (a keen
observer, who spent many years on the frontier in the study of the
Pathan) as a warlike and predatory people, “of lean wiry build, with
keen eyes and hungry features, and of light complexion, but not of fine
physique.”
Other of the Pathan tribes near them differ in physical conformity, for
they are tall and manly, being often as fair and as strongly built as
Englishmen.
The Shinwaris, whom I mentioned in the early part of my narrative
as being considered dangerous even by the Amîr’s troops, are by
some supposed to be of Albanian descent, and to have been placed by
Nadir Shah in their present position as a guard to the Khyber. They,
however, do not show a trace of such an origin, for their manners and
customs are Pathan and their language Pukhtu. Bellew considers them
as probably the Sanobari or Sinawàri Indians of Rajput descent. Their
“peaceful” occupation is that of muleteers, and they breed herds of
mules for the carrying trade.
One interesting point in the descent of the Amîr’s tribe, the Barakzai
Duranis, is called attention to by Bellew. He considers that they are
probably an offshoot of the Baraki mentioned by the Emperor Babar
as one of the principal tribes of Kabul in the early part of the
sixteenth century. These Barakis are considered a distinct race by
themselves, and are not claimed by Afghan or Pathan, Ghilzai or Hazara.
They use among themselves a dialect which appears to resemble a Hindi
language. Bellew identifies the Baraki tribe of Kabul with the Bàrkai
of Herodotus, who were recognized as Greeks by Alexander and his
followers. They were a colony of Greek exiles transported from Kyrènè
in Lybia, to the Logar Valley of Kabul, by Darius Hystaspes. This
valley is to-day their principal settlement. The Baraki have for ages
retained the reputation of being excellent and reliable soldiers, and
the Royal Barakzai Durani family have always entertained a body-guard
composed of Baraki. The separation of Baraki and Barakzai, with the
diminution in number of the one and the increase of the other, is
explained by the probable suggestion that the former reluctantly, and
the latter readily, accepted the religion of Islam in the early period
of its introduction.
[Sidenote: The Hazaras.]
Another nation, and in point of numbers the most important, occupying
Afghanistan, is the Hazara. They are mostly of the Tartar type, and
occupy the mountains of the west and north-west of Afghanistan. They,
like the Afghan, are a mixed race. Though chiefly Turk they have tribes
among them of Rajput, Kopt, Abyssinian, and Persian descent. The
Hazara proper, who inhabit the Ghor country, claim to be descendants
of military colonists planted in this country by Ghengis Khan, the
Turkestan chief, in 1200. Probably, however, the influx was slow,
extending over several generations, and was more the migration of a
nation than a purely military conquest. The language of the Hazaras
is an old dialect of Persian with some admixture of Turki words.
At the Kabul Hospital when a Hazara came for treatment I found his
language so difficult to understand, that in the absence of my Armenian
interpreter, I often had to call upon some one to translate for me into
modern Persian. With their high cheek-bones, small oblique eyes, and
scanty beards, they differ much in physiognomy from the Afghan, and
their form of government, manners, and morals are equally divergent.
The government of their chiefs is more despotic and less republican
than that of the Afghan chiefs. Though some tribes are said to be
nomadic, predatory, and the poorest and most barbarous of all the
races in Afghanistan, those I came in contact with seemed, compared
with the Afghans, a hard working peaceful people, unless they were
roused by cruelty and oppression; then, indeed, they fought with dogged
persistence. They seemed to have a certain simplicity of character
which contrasted strongly with the duplicity of the Afghan. Though
undersized, they are of great physical strength, and as slaves taken in
war, or servants for hire, they seemed to me to do all the hard work in
Kabul. In religion they are mostly Shiah Mahomedans, and therefore to
the Sunni Afghans they seem almost as much infidels as the Christians.
They make their own powder and rifles, are excellent shots, and, in
spite of the mountainous country in which they dwell, are excellent
horsemen. As a nation they have an intense love of liberty, and have
been more or less independent for generations. The last monarch who
subjugated them was Timûr Shah or Tamerlane. They have, however, paid
tribute to the present Amîr, though many a battle was fought before
they yielded.
[Sidenote: Cause of Hazara Rebellions.]
To this day the Hazaras are constantly breaking out in rebellion, but
from stories I heard in Kabul I gather they would willingly pay tribute
to the Amîr as King, but for the outrages and atrocious cruelties
practised upon them by His Highness’s troops.
In their day these Hazaras formed a very powerful sovereignty, which
extended from the Euphrates to the Ganges. They it was who supplanted
the Turk at Ghuzni, and who overthrew the Rajput dynasty, conquered
India, and established the Mahomedan religion in that country.
Further north, on the banks of the Oxus river, the border line that
divides Afghan from Russian Turkestan, are Turkoman and Usbàk tribes.
The Turkoman is, as the name implies, of Turk descent. This people
lived to the south of the Thian Shan or Celestial mountains, and in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries overran Bokhara, Armenia, and Georgia.
Physically they are immensely strong men, taller than the Hazara, of
rough manners and coarse fibre, seeming more or less insensible to pain
or sorrow: their cold insensible nature contrasting strongly with the
more amorous nature of Afghan and Persian.
I had a practical illustration of their rough manners one day in Mazar.
I was riding back from the Hospital, and at some little distance from
the city I met a troop of Turkoman cavalry. I was interested and rode
quietly on, never dreaming of getting out of their way, for I naturally
thought they would do as others had done, make way for a Distinguished
Foreigner. Not in the least. They just did not ride over me, but in a
moment I was in the midst of the troop, and as they rode carelessly
and rapidly by, one man brushed against me, ripped my boot, tore the
buttons off the leg of my breeches, and nearly twisted me out of the
saddle. Consider the iniquity of the act! The Amîr’s own Physician and
a common Turkoman! I was indignant; but decided to ride on and take no
notice; they are men of such exceedingly coarse fibre.
These people are nomads, living in tents, or, when they camp for a
longer period, in temporary huts, or oftener in a sort of wickerwork
wigwam, dome-shaped, and covered with felt called the “khirgar.” These
wigwams can be taken down and packed on a camel in less than an hour.
The Turkoman women are unveiled, and work in camp and field, and weave
the beautiful rugs that are so much in demand in Afghanistan and India.
The Usbàks are a confederation of many Turk and Tartar tribes, not
one race. They are flat faced, with scanty beard and slanting eyes.
They speak the same language as the Turkoman--Turki--and have the
same disposition, tastes, and ferocity. They do not, however, lead
a wandering life, but dwell in villages, and may be considered the
established and civilized inhabitants of Central Asia beyond the Oxus.
Their type is occasionally somewhat altered by intermarriage with the
Persians.
There are other prominent but less numerous races in Afghanistan:
for instance, the Kizilbashes, who are the better educated among the
townspeople. There is a colony of them in Kabul, at Chendawal, to this
day. They are Persianized Turks, who were brought to Afghanistan by
Nadir Shah in 1737. They speak pure Persian, and constitute chiefly
the merchants, physicians, traders, and scribes. His Highness’s chief
secretary, the Dabier-ul-Mulk, was a Kizilbachi. These men belong to
the Shiah sect of Mahomedans.
[Sidenote: The Christian Church.]
At one time there was a colony of Armenians in Kabul, brought from
Persia by Nadir Shah, and a Christian church was in existence, until it
was accidentally blown to pieces in the last Afghan war.
The Armenians, however, have drifted away to the large towns in India
and Persia, and only one family remains, that of my Interpreter.
I went one day to pay my respects to a Christian lady in Kabul, an
aged Armenian some ninety years old. She wept bitterly as she told me
of the church built by a Mahomedan King for their use and destroyed by
Christians.
Of other races in Kabul, there are Tajiks of Arab descent, Hindkis of
Hindu descent, and Kohestani and Pashai tribes, who are considered to
be the unconverted aborigines of the Kabul province.