HISTORY OF THE AFGHANS
BY J. P. FERRIER

Josephe-Pierre Ferrier (1811-86) was a French soldier and explorer lent to Persia, in whose army he served as an adjutant-general. He spent most of 1845 in Afghanistan. On the basis of both what he had both been told there and then, and the Afghan accounts he read, he wrote what essentially amounts to a primary-source narrative as regards the more recent Afghan history recounted. His unpublished manuscript was then translated by Captain William Jesse as History of the Afghans and published by John Murray in London in 1858. Presented here is everything therein of Greek love interest.

Chapter III

Explaining the establishment of the Sadozai Sultanate of Herat in what had been a part of Persia ruled by a governor, Zeman Khan, and was much later in the century to become part of Afghanistan.

A short time before this a branch of the Suddozye tribe had established itself in the neighbourhood of Sukkur, and their chief, Heyat Sultan, anxious to obtain certain favours from Zeman Khan, committed a most fearful outrage against his own son. Incredible as it may appear, he sent Assad Ullah, a young and beautiful lad, to this wretch in human shape for an infamous purpose. The crime accomplished, the unfortunate youth took the first opportunity of making his escape from the Persian camp, and, returning to his tribe, which shared with him the feelings of fury that animated their young chief, they determined upon taking a deep revenge. Assad’s first step was to seize his vile and unnatural parent and imprison him in a fortress, after which, accompanied by a few thousand horsemen, he started in pursuit of Zeman Khan, and such was the rapidity of his movements, that he surprised the Persian commander at midnight in the district of Zemindavar, before he had received the slightest intimation of his being in arms, attacked with great bravery and impetuosity the weary and sleeping troops, and put them nearly all to the sword. The villain who had so deeply injured him was the first that fell, and by the hand of Assad; after which the victorious youth marched on Herat, and, having obtained an entrance to the city, exterminated the few Persians he found there. After this he again took the field, and made himself, almost without opposition, master of the whole province, which, on the 26th of Ramazan,^[1] 1716, he constituted an independent principality. [pp. 35-6]

Chapter X

Explaining how Mahmood Mirza, who succeeded as ruler of Afghanistan in July 1801, came to be deposed in July 1803:

Mahmood Mirza had been the sovereign ruler of Afghanistan during two years and six months, when the city of Kabul became the scene of sanguinary disorders, originating in a religious schism between the Afghans, who are Soonees, and the Kuzzilbashes of the sect of Shiahs; these riots seriously compromised the power of Shah Mahmood, nevertheless he surmounted the difficulty, but the support he gave to the heretical Shiahs alienated the Afghans from him, and contributed greatly to his fall, which took place some short time after.

These disorders were occasioned by a circumstance arising out of the horrible inclination the Persians have for a vice which it would sully these pages to mention. Some of the Kuzzilbashes secreted for several days a young Afghan lad of great beauty in their house, during which time he was treated in the most infamous manner, and this not only from their depraved passions, but from their hatred to Soonees. Restored to liberty, the youth informed his parents of what had taken. place, when they immediately complained to Shah Mahmood ; but the king, not wishing to alienate the Kuzzilbashes, whose adhesion had been, and might be again, of great service to him, refused to legislate upon the matter, and forwarded it to the religious tribunal from which it came. The injured parties, although dissatisfied in that the Shah eluded their complaint, nevertheless conformed to his orders, and proceeded to the mosque to consult the Syud Mir Vaëz, a man highly venerated by the Afghans, and whose hostility to the Shah Mahmood was no secret to any one. When the complainants appeared, the Syud was preaching to an immense crowd of persons, and they interrupted him to make known their business with loud cries and rending their clothes. On learning the nature of it, Mir Vaëz at once gave them a fetvo authorising the extermination of all the Shiahs in Kabul, whom he held in detestation. [p. 132]

Chapter XIII

On what Kamran Mirza did following the death in 1829 of his father Shah Mahmood, the ruler of Herat, one of the states into which Afghanistan had become divided:

From the time of his father’s decease Kamran took the title of King; he then seemed to have lost all energy, and retired within the walls of the citadel of Herat, remaining almost a stranger to the affairs of govern-ment, the direction of which he gave up to his minister, the Serdar Attah Khan, Ali Kioouzye, who had given him many marks of his attachment, and in whom he had entire confidence ; after which, and following the example of his father, he commenced a life of drunkenness, opium-eating, and every Eastern vice. [p. 173]

Chapter XXIII

On what happened when Dost Mohamed, the emir of Afghanistan, was overthrown in August 1839 and fled to neighbouring Bokhara:

The Emir of Bokhara had received the fugitive Prince and his family in a suitable manner when he arrived in his capital, and allotted a daily sum for their maintenance, but from that conduct five or six days after, it became evident that his offer of an asylum was intended to draw them into a snare, for their allowance was stopped and the Dost was left to his own resources. This indifference to misfortune, so foreign to the Mussulman ideas of hospitality, was followed by aggravated insults.

The greater number of Dost Mohamed’s sons accompanied him to Bokhara, and the youngest, Sultan Djan, who was remarkable for his personal beauty and graceful and distinguished manners, attracted the attention of the Emir Nasser Ullah. This monster was addicted to the most horrible of Eastern propensities, and one day sent an officer to the Dost’s house to bring Sultan Djan to the palace. His father, however, well acquainted with the Uzbek Emir’s character, refused to let him go, and immediately ordered the lad, accompanied by his second son Akbar Khan and one hundred Afghan horse, to leave Bokhara. They did so, but were soon pursued, and after a desperate encounter near Larchy, in which the Afghans lost two-thirds of their party, the remainder were obliged to lay down their arms. The two brothers were then brought back prisoners to Bokhara, and it is unnecessary to say what was the fate of the youngest at the hands of Nasser Ullah.^[2] [p. 336]

Chapter XXVI

Dost Mohamed was restored as Emir of Afghanistan in 1842, and his troublesome son Akbar Khan became heir-presumptive. The former wanted to take revenge against the Emir of Bokhara for his mistreatment of him just described, and declared war on him. He therefore asked the Walee of the independent Uzbek state of Khulm to let him cross his territory to attack Bokharan territory, but the Walee refused.

The negotiations stood thus, and Dost Mohamed, who remembered the Walee’s kindness to him, was on the eve of withdrawing his proposition, when Akbar Khan, who also ought to have been grateful for the generous conduct of the Walee to himself, complicated the whole affair by committing an abduction, which, in the opinion of many Afghans, did him more honour than all his triumphs over the English. On leaving Khulm, Mohamed Akbar brought with him from thence a youth belonging to the Khan of that district for a purpose which shall be nameless. This fact was of sufficient importance to induce the Walee to declare war, and Akbar sent his brother, Akrem Khan, at the head of ten thousand horse against the Usbeks. Three battles were fought in 1845 and 1846, but without deciding the quarrel, nevertheless the Khan of Khulm became uneasy, for his rear was threatened by the Emir of Bokhara; he returned therefore to his capital and Akrem Khan to Kabul, where his brother continued to spend large sums of money upon the creature who had been the cause of the war. [p. 391]

^[1] 12 September in the Gregorian calendar.

 ^[2] A lengthier account of this story was given by the Hungarian traveller and Turkologist Ármin Vámbéry in his History of Bokhara (London, 1873) pp. 390-1, adding, for example, that Sultan Djan was fourteen years old.