At the Court of the Amîr: A Narrative

by John Alfred Gray

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.

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.

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.