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AFGHANISTAN Fayż Muhammaḍ Kātib Hazārah’S Sirāj Al-Tawārīkh PREVIEW The History of AFGHANISTAN Fayż Muhammaḍ Kātib Hazārah’s Sirāj al-tawārīkh VOLUME 3 CONCLUSION (TATIMMAH) AND VOLUME 4 PARTS 1 - 5 EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY R.D. MC CHESNEY AND M.M. KHORRAMI The History of Afghanistan, Volume 4 (5 vol. set) Fayẓ Muḥammad Kātib Hazārah’s Sirāj al-tawārīkh Edited and translated by R.D. McChesney, New York University (emeritus), and M.M. Khorrami, New York University • brill.com · March 2016 · ISBN 978 90 04 30757 5 · Hardback (approx. 535; 602; 720; 686; 530 pp.) · List price EUR 990 / US$ 1,280 The Sirāj al-tawārīkh is the most important history of Afghanistan ever written. It was commissioned as an official national history by Habib Allah Khan (reigned 1901-1919). Volume Four of this monumental work includes the conclusion to the original volume three and the complete volume four. These volumes were written in final form in the mid-1920s. Unlike the earlier three volumes, they were subject to no official oversight. As a consequence, they are much more candid about life and politics in Afghanistan between 1896 and 1919 than the previous volumes. Volume Four of The History of Afghanistan is published as a five-volume set and completes the previously published six-volume set. The work is of unparalleled significance to anyone studying the social, political, and economic history of Afghanistan as well as its relations with British India, Qajar Iran, Tsarist Central Asia, and the emirate of Bukhara. READERSHIP: The work is of unparalleled significance to anyone studying the social, political, and economic history of Afghanistan, as well as modern Afghan society and its roots in tribe and state relations, the rule of law, gender issues, the economy. Complete 5 Vol. Set Table of Contents Preview Table of Contents* Volume 3 Conclusion (Tatimmah) 4 Preface and Acknowledgements and Volume 4, Part One 8 Vol. 4, Part 2: Paras 8-9 Introduction 13 Vol. 4, Part 3: Para 1 September 1896–July 1898 17 Vol. 4, Part 3: Para 17 Volume 4, Part Two 21 Vol. 4, Part 4: Para 3 July 1898–October 1901 Volume 4, Part Three October 1901–July 1905 Volume 4, Part Four August 1905–February 1919 Volume 4, Part Five Appendices, Glossary, Index, Bibliography * This booklet is a preview of the major reference work The History of Afghanistan, Volume 4. The pages in this preview are excerpts from the complete reference work. The texts in this preview might differ from the final publication. The History of Afghanistan, Volume 4 (5 vol. set) Fayẓ Muḥammad Kātib Hazārah’s Sirāj al-tawārīkh Edited and Translated by R.D. McChesney and M.M. Khorrami preface and acknowledgements clearly done in some haste and without digital images of the unicum man- uscripts of the tatimmah (137 pages) and volume four (1,467 pages) much PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS would have been lost or misinterpreted in the translation. In comparing the images of each page with the print edition we found more than a In 2008, the Arshīf-i Millī (National Archives) of Afghanistan purchased thousand errors in the print edition, some fairly minor but some not so two manuscripts by Fayz Muhammad Katib Hazarah, author of the incom- minor. Whole lines and, on two or three occasions, whole pages from the pletely published three-volume history of Afghanistan, Sirāj al-tawārīkh manuscript are missing from the edited volumes. By using both sources, (Kabul, 1331–1333/1913–1915). Those two manuscripts, one of 137 and the the print edition and the manuscript images, we feel we have been able to other of 1,467 pages, were respectively labeled the tatimmah (conclusion) produce a translation closer to Fayz Muhammad’s intent. By and large we of volume three on the reign of Amir ʿAbd al-Rahman Khan (r. 1880–1901) have used end notes to document the omissions, the typographical errors, and volume four, originally intended to be devoted to the reign of that and the uncalled for emendations. When lines or pages are missing from amir’s son and successor, Amir Habib Allah Khan (r. 1901–1919). However, the print edition we note that in footnotes and indicate in the translation the mass of material remaining unpublished for ʿAbd al-Rahman Khan’s the missing portion by bracketing it with asterisks. For the digital images reign and the comparative paucity of material from Habib Allah Khan’s of the manuscript pages, without which this translation would have sim- regime compelled Fayz Muhammad to reconfigure his volumes. Under ply compounded the deficiencies of the print edition, we are enormously some pressure to maintain a reasonably sized volume three, the tatimmah grateful to Reza Kateb of Kabul who photographed the pages and to the only covers the last eight months of the Hijri year 1314/from September National Archives for permitting it. On the other hand, without the print 1896 to May 1897. The final four and one-half years of ʿAbd al-Rahman edition we could not have done the project at all. We recognize and com- Khan’s reign then forms nearly one-third of the fourth volume all of which mend the effort made by Dr. Mawla⁠ʾi to undertake this extraordinary task. Fayz Muhammad had originally intended to be devoted to the reign of his As in the 2013 edition, we used parentheses to indicate our interpola- own patron Amir Habib Allah Khan. tions. In most cases these involved clarifying Fayz Muhammad’s tendency The translators were aware of the existence of the manuscript purchase to use pronouns without clear antecedents. Very rarely does Fayz Muham- and the 2011 publication of an edition of both the tatimmah and volume mad himself use parentheses. In those cases we have used square brackets four in Kabul but it was then far too late to incorporate it in the publica- to indicate his parentheses. tion of the first three volumes (Leiden: Brill, 2013). Indeed, our general feel- As in the 2013 publication, we have keyed our translation to the text, ing was that perhaps someone else should have the pleasure of translating in this case to both texts, the manuscript version and the print edition, it. But several factors led us to reconsider. One was the need for closure. for the convenience of the reader of Persian who wishes to consult either We felt the importance of the work for the historiography of Afghanistan the original or the print edition. Within the translation, the page breaks was such that we could not leave it half-finished, as it now had become. of both the print edition and the manuscript are indicated in the follow- Secondly, the possibility of grant support that would free the one of us ing ways. The page number of both the manuscript appears in bold in the still gainfully employed to devote full-time to the project and since we margins with a vertical line in the text indicating the break. The index is believed we now had a good grasp of Fayz Muhammad’s style made it keyed to this number. The page breaks of the print edition of the tatimmah appear more likely that we could complete the translation in a reasonable are indicated by the bold Arabic numerals 293–463 (the first 292 pages are period. We certainly would not have been able to undertake this proj- the editor’s introduction) separated from the text by back slashes (e.g., ect if the manuscripts had not been published in a four-volume typeset /314/). The three parts of the print edition of volume four are indicated edition by Dr. Muhammad Sarwar Mawla⁠ʾi (Mawlāyī) (Sirāj al-tawārīkh: by the numbers 1:1–767 for part one, 2:1–722 for part two, and 3:1–714 for Tārīkh-i Afghānistān, the tatimmah in one volume and volume four in part three, also separated from the rest of the text by back slashes. The three volumes Kabul: Intishārāt-i Amīrī, 1390/2011). To that editor we owe page breaks of the print edition are found in the translation text itself. We a debt of acknowledgement and gratitude. However, the publication was recognize that few people will be able to access the manuscript but it was x 4 i-xii_McCHESNEY_F1.indd 9 9/4/2015 8:40:59i-xii_McCHESNEY_F1.indd PM 10 9/4/2015 8:41:00 PM preface and acknowledgements clearly done in some haste and without digital images of the unicum man- uscripts of the tatimmah (137 pages) and volume four (1,467 pages) much PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS would have been lost or misinterpreted in the translation. In comparing the images of each page with the print edition we found more than a In 2008, the Arshīf-i Millī (National Archives) of Afghanistan purchased thousand errors in the print edition, some fairly minor but some not so two manuscripts by Fayz Muhammad Katib Hazarah, author of the incom- minor. Whole lines and, on two or three occasions, whole pages from the pletely published three-volume history of Afghanistan, Sirāj al-tawārīkh manuscript are missing from the edited volumes. By using both sources, (Kabul, 1331–1333/1913–1915). Those two manuscripts, one of 137 and the the print edition and the manuscript images, we feel we have been able to other of 1,467 pages, were respectively labeled the tatimmah (conclusion) produce a translation closer to Fayz Muhammad’s intent. By and large we of volume three on the reign of Amir ʿAbd al-Rahman Khan (r. 1880–1901) have used end notes to document the omissions, the typographical errors, and volume four, originally intended to be devoted to the reign of that and the uncalled for emendations.
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