At the Court of the Amîr: A Narrative

by John Alfred Gray

CHAPTER XII.
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.

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.

The First Afghan King.