Under the absolute Amir

by Frank A. Martin

When the 1903 outbreak occurred, the present Amir, following his father’s example, sent off furniture, carpets, etc., to Paghman at once, intending to follow them himself the next day; but in the mean time the Governor of the city, hearing of his intention, went to him and frankly told him that if he left the city, the prevailing dissatisfaction was so great that the soldiers and people would rise, and he would never be able to return to it. So the Amir, who accepted the Governor’s view of the situation, had to remain in his palace in Arak, and here he confined himself to two rooms, and allowed only some half-dozen favourite courtiers and attendants to see him, but he would not allow those who saw him to leave the palace, for fear of bringing the infection back with them. Sirdar Nasrullah Khan, who was, of course, obliged to remain in his city palace since the Amir did not go away into the country, spent most of his time on his prayer-carpet, so I was told by those who were with him; and when his favourite wife got cholera and died, he was described as being almost mad with grief at her loss and fear of the disease attacking him next.

The prince’s fear, as also that of the Amir, had a reason, however, which intensified their usual dread of the disease, and it came about in this way. One of the chief and most influential of the moullahs in the country started on the Haj (holy pilgrimage to Mecca) in the beginning of that year, and while going down through India, on his way to the sea-port where he intended embarking for Medina, he heard of a holy man who preached the second coming of Christ—one who said that he, like another St. John, had been sent on to prepare the way, and make Christ’s coming known. The moullah went to see this man, of whom many and wonderful things were told by the natives about, and the words of the self-styled prophet were so convincing that the moullah was converted, and came to believe in the man being what he said he was. One day, it being known that the moullah was going on the Haj, the “prophet” took him into an inner room, and there, the moullah afterwards stated, the two together visited Mecca, and he saw himself one of the multitude of pilgrims at the holy shrine, and visited the inner court, and saw all there was to see, and said all the prayers prescribed in the different places before reaching the inner sanctuary. Whether mesmeric, or other influence, would account for this hallucination of the moullah is a matter for conjecture, but even death could not shake the moullah’s belief that he had been to Mecca, and that his guide was a true prophet. The Mohammedans believe that the religion preached by various prophets (Moses, Christ, Mohammed) are the true religions for the time being, and that God inspires a new religion as it becomes necessary to the advanced needs of mankind, and that, therefore, the Jewish religion was the true religion until Christ came, and the religion Christ preached was the true religion until Mohammed came. This new man, therefore, if his preaching was listened to, would upset Mohammedanism, and as he preached that Mussulmans must regard Christians as brothers, and not as infidels, this would render useless the Amir’s chief weapon, Jihad (religious war), in case of English or Russian aggression. So the Amir, when he heard of all this, sent word to the moullah to return, and the moullah did so, preaching the new religion as he came, and as soon as he was well within the boundaries of the country, he was made prisoner and brought to Kabul. Here he was examined by the Amir, but the Amir could find in the moullah’s clever replies nothing against the true religion which would make him an infidel, and therefore worthy of death, for a Mussulman, according to the Koran, who becomes an apostate, must be stoned to death. He was then sent for examination to Sirdar Nasrullah Khan, who is regarded as more than a moullah in knowledge of his religion, but the prince could not convict the man out of his own mouth, and so a jury of twelve of the most learned moullahs was convened, and even their examination of the accused could elicit nothing on which the man might be killed, and they reported this to the Amir. But the Amir said the man must be convicted, and so he was again sent to the moullahs, who were told that they must sign a paper, saying the man was an apostate and worthy of death. Again the majority of the moullahs made affirmation that he was innocent of anything against their religion, but two of the moullahs, who were friends of Sirdar Nasrullah Khan, and had been talked over by him, gave their verdict for death, and on the finding of these two moullahs the man was condemned by the Amir and stoned to death. Before being led away from the Amir’s presence to be killed, the moullah prophesied that a great calamity would overtake the country, and that both the Amir and the Sirdar would suffer. About nine o’clock at night the day the moullah was killed, a great storm of wind suddenly rose and raged with violence for half an hour, and then stopped as suddenly as it came. Such a wind at night was altogether unusual, so the people said that this was the passing of the soul of the moullah. Then cholera came, and, according to former outbreaks, another visitation was not due for four years to come, and this was also regarded as part of the fulfilment of the moullah’s prophecy, and hence the great fear of the Amir and the prince, who thought they saw in all this their own death, and it accounts also for the prince losing control of himself when his favourite wife died. The murdered moullah was a man with a large and powerful following, and the two moullahs who gave the verdict for his death lived in constant fear of the retaliation of his followers, who had sworn to avenge him. One of them got cholera, and almost died of it.

During the summer months I used to put a tent on the roof and sleep there. It was much fresher and cooler than in the house, for the nights in summer are hot, and there is little or no wind. As the roofs of the houses are flat and walled round they are generally used by the people for such purposes and to sit on in the evenings, and also the women use them for exercise and to get fresh air, as they are not allowed to go outside, and very few houses, and those only of the wealthy, have gardens attached to them which can be given for the sole use of women, because gardens to be of use to women must be walled round so high that they cannot be overlooked by neighbouring houses. It is also for this reason that houses are built in the form of a square with an inner courtyard where the women are free from the observation of neighbours; but the courtyards are usually small and dirty, and the smell from rotten refuse thrown there makes them unfit for places of recreation. During the spring, on my return in the evening from the workshops or elsewhere—for working hours are from early morning till evening—I used to spend a good deal of time on the roof attending to seedlings which were planted in boxes and kept up there, where they had less chance of being uprooted, until they were ready for transplanting; and I put the seeds in at the earliest possible time so that I might get salads and other things without having to wait until they were in the market. On the roof, too, I sometimes amused myself, and any amusement was welcome, in flying different sorts of kites, and in this I was soon imitated by those living near, but the house being close to the pass between the Sher Darwasa and Asman Heights I lost several of them through the sudden gusts of wind which sweep along the gorge there.

For those who like such things Kabul affords a good field for the collection of old curios, swords, knives, shields, matchlocks, chain armour, etc., some of which are extremely ancient, and from the Arabic on many of the swords one might imagine them having been used against the Crusaders of old. Coins which date back to the time when Alexander the Great left his governors at different places on the route when he set out to conquer India can also be obtained, but a good knowledge of such is required, as they are counterfeited and sold there. Hindoos, of whom there are a few hundred resident in Kabul, usually have the stocks of curios, but they are afraid to bring them themselves to the Europeans because of the sepoys, who make them disgorge a good deal of their profits on leaving the house, and they cannot very well refuse to give anything when the sepoys threaten to make up a case against them, and report that they were carrying information to the Feringhee, as I have overheard them say.

On great festivals it was usual for the Europeans to attend durbar to salaam the Amir and afterwards do the same to the princes. On these occasions the durbar wore a different aspect to what it did at other times, for now all present, including the Amir, were merry and joking, and pleasantry was the order of the day. Some of the officials and others would be sitting on the floor playing chess, and the Amir would bet on one or the other of the players, and occasionally give advice as to the move to be made, for the Amir was a great chess player, and there were few in his court who could compete with him. The jester of the court would be in great form, and raise many a laugh with story and joke. It was on these occasions that the late Amir would mostly indulge in reminiscences of his career and talk of the places and men he had seen in Russia. One, who was a Russian merchant, the Amir always spoke of with feeling when relating the good turns this merchant had done him, for the merchant had on one occasion saved him from a good deal of embarrassment by a timely loan of money. The Amir once told me that he had worked for a watchmaker for some time in order to learn that trade, having little else to do to amuse himself, and he related various amusing stories of the clockmaker’s wife, who seemed to have ruled her husband in a very strict manner; but the Amir’s conception of humour was too broad for the stories to bear repetition.

The present Amir’s court on days of festival lacks the noise and fun of his father’s, for at all times he exacts the strictest order and decorum from those in his court, and he never unbends except to those of his relations with whom he is intimate, or unless there are but a few present. He was much more approachable before he became Amir, but he was never fond of noisy merriment, and cared little for the rude jokes of the court jesters. He is fond of that which will amuse him in a quiet manner and help time to pass, and is always interested in the magic lantern he has, and when that is being worked he will look for hours at the different pictures projected on to the screen.

Europeans in Kabul are not looked upon as amenable to the laws which govern the people there, but should they do anything which seriously violated any one of the laws which are common to all countries they would no doubt be deported to India, but so far no European resident has offended against any such law. The late Amir was chary of doing anything which another country could call in question, and once when an Afghan petitioned him to help him recover his dues from the Indian Government for supplies made to their army during the English occupation of 1879-81, the Amir thought the best way to do justice to the man, without committing himself to any decision, was to appoint six persons chosen from among the leading merchants in Kabul, together with myself, to go into the case, but the man’s papers, which were in English, showed nothing but a full settlement of all dues. Another case in which I was appointed as one of the jury was that of a Continental merchant who came to Kabul to settle his affairs, who claimed the full amount of salary specified in the agreement, alleging that although the amount of business done was less than that agreed upon in the contract, which made the salary contingent upon a fixed amount of business done annually, he was not responsible for the falling off, for the business entrusted to him was less than agreed upon, and the annual salary stated in the agreement should therefore be paid him, as he had done the best he could, and had always been faithful to his contract and to the Government. Letters which he had written to one of the officials, and which had been stopped in the post and opened by the Amir’s order, were, however, produced, which showed that he, in writing at least, thought little of the Amir’s promises, and the letters also gave his opinion of the Amir in a rather bald manner. The Amir therefore contended that, on the face of those letters, he could not entrust business to a man who doubted his promises and had a far from exalted opinion of himself, and so my presence, together with Mrs. Daly’s, was considered necessary on the jury, more to shame the merchant before other Europeans than anything else. I must, however, say that the letters showed that the merchant had thoroughly grasped the character of the Amir’s officials.

In the matter of letters, it used to be a very common thing for letters to the English in Kabul to be stopped and read by the appointed Government spies, and generally, after being read, they were not sent on—an Englishman’s private letter being a trivial matter in the eyes of the officials concerned. Opening letters to and from the English in Kabul was, of course, to find out if there was any spying or reporting going on between them and the Indian Government, but in the present Amir’s time this was stopped a good deal, and more of the letters sent to and from reached their destination safely. Post letters, however, are never looked upon as very sacred among the Afghans, and before all post letters were enclosed in a bag and sealed, with a list of the letters enclosed, and orders had been given to the postmasters that the letters of one post were not to exceed a certain weight, the postrunners used to open the parcel of letters and throw many down the mountain-side, in order to lighten the burden they carried.

I was told of a case which concerned an important letter. It was from the British Agent to his Government, and the Amir wanted it, so orders were given and the post-carrier at a certain place on the road was killed, and all the letters he was carrying were taken back to Kabul. The murder and theft was blamed upon the tribes of the district where the crime was committed, and this seems to show that neither letters nor life are held sacred. However, the Amir got the letter he wanted, and nothing was said that could reflect upon his integrity.

Letters are carried by men on five-mile relays, laid between Kabul and Peshawar; each man running (not walking) backwards and forwards over his own five miles, carrying outward letters one way and in-coming letters the other. In this way letters are carried between the two places in three days. The postage is fourpence per miskal, which is about one-sixth of an ounce, and stamps have to be affixed to the letters; but the outgoing letters have the stamps taken off them by the Amir’s postmaster in Peshawar before being put in the Indian post. Afghanistan is not in the postal union, and, therefore, letters to Kabul must have the postage paid on them in Peshawar or else be paid by the addressee.