ri 3 - -r g — t THE LIFE OF | | T THE LIFE OF ABDUR RAHMAN AMIR OF AFGHANISTAN f // 1 //ur // '!,,,/, , / . ~l/r//i/> ti i.i/t' /i THE LIFE OF ABDUR RAHMAN AMIR OF AFGHANISTAN G.C.B., G. C.S.I. EDITED BY MIR MUNSHI SULTAN MAHOMED KHAN ADVANCED STUDENT OF CHKIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE SECRETARY OF STATE OF AFGHANISTAN; BARRISTER-AT-LAW WITH PORTRAIT, MAPS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS IN TWO VOLUMES VOL I LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1900 /U>1973 NOTE BY THE PUBLISHER This record of the Life and Policy of the Amir Abdur Eahman has been entrusted to me by his former State secretary (or Mir Munshi) Sultan Mahomed Khan. The first eleven chapters, containing the narrative his life of the vicissitudes of early ; strange through he had to of his successes which pass ; adventures, failures of his eleven or rather and ; years' residence, imprisonment, in Russian Turkestan, and, finally, of his accession to the Afghan throne, are written by himself. The MS. was brought to England from Kabul by Miss Lillias Hamilton, M.D., and translated from the Persian original by Sultan Mahomed Khan. The remaining chapters, consisting of an account of the work which he has achieved in consolidating and developing the powers and resources of his of his domestic and of country ; foreign policy ; his personal life and occupations, and of his advice to, and aspirations for, his successors, were taken down at different times by Sultan Mahomed Khan from the Amir's own words. Sultan Mahomed Khan was recalled to Kabul by the Amir before the MS. of this book could be placed in the printer's hands, and the responsibility of revising the proofs, and seeing the whole work through the press, has devolved upon me. I am, of course, in no way re- sponsible for any statement contained in the book, as vi NOTE BY THE PUBLISHES I have no direct knowledge of the facts. My work has been confined to the task of verifying names and places, which has been an exceedingly difficult one, and in the circumstances I must ask for the kind indulgence of readers and critics. To attain to complete and syste- matic uniformity in the spelling of Oriental names is : has been to leave as practically impossible my aim little doubt as may be concerning the identity of the persons and places referred to in the text. It would hardly have been possible to do it at all without the invaluable assistance of Mrs Sutton Marshall, who acted as Sultan Mahomed Khan's secre- tary for some time while he was at Cambridge, and who had consequently derived an intimate knowledge of his intentions and wishes in regard to the book. Miss Lillias Hamiltou, M.D., who was for some years the Amir's medical adviser in Kabul, has also been most kind in answering various questions wdiich her personal knowledge of the country and its inhabitants enabled her to do with authority. For this assistance I beg; to offer Mrs Marshall and Miss Hamilton my sincere thanks. I also beg to thank Colonel St George Gore, E.E., Chief of the Indian Survey, for permission to reproduce a part of the Government map of Afghanistan. JOHN MURRAY. 50 Albemarle Street. October 1900. PREFACE BY THE EDITOE, SULTAN MAHOMED KHAN, MIR MUNSHI TO THE AMIR I DO not think it necessary to waste time in trying to prove that the Amir Abdur Rahman Khan is one of the greatest men now living. All the European Statesmen who have come in personal contact with him have formed this opinion, and his remarkable achievement in turning Afghanistan, which before his time was a mere barren piece of land full of barbarous tribes, into a consolidated Muslim King- dom and centre of manufactures and modern inven- tions, speaks for itself, and shows his marvellous genius. The Amir himself, conscious of the interest and value which attach to his experiences, considers it politic to leave behind him a written guide of instructions for his sons and successors as well as for his countrymen to follow, and this record I have had the honour now to render into English in the interest of the public. A portion of the book was written by the Amir viii PKEFACE himself, and I am depositing in the British Museum, Oriental Reading-room, a copy of the original. The rest was written in my handwriting from the Amir's dictation, during the time of my holding the office of Mir Munshi. The Amir's criticisms on some points and some persons are rather severe, but I did not think it wise — to leave them out firstly, because his views are T w ell known to many English ladies and gentlemen who have had opportunities of speaking to the Amir, and, moreover, have formed the subject of various articles in journals and periodicals, and, I did not like to conceal consequently, them ; secondly, because the object in putting this book before the public is to benefit them by communicating the Amir's views without the least flattery. The Amir is a very witty and humorous genius, and is in the habit of quoting stories with every question that he touches. These Eastern stories are an object of special interest to the European mind. I have therefore left them in the book as they were written or dictated. I have translated every word of the Amir's own narrative of his early years, because some writers have stated that the early part of the Amir's life is entirely in the dark, and unknown to the world at large. PREFACE ix There are many proverbs in Arabic and Persian books which express the same sense as English words. proverbs, often in almost the same Many of these proverbs have found a place in these volumes, but to show that they have not been borrowed from English books, I have in most cases appended in the foot-notes the name of the Arabic and Persian works from which they are taken. The only alteration that I have made in transla- ting the book from Persian into English is that I have given different titles to the chapters from those given by the Amir. The change, however, does " not affect the book itself, or its real Matlab." One of the chief features of the book is that since the time of the great Mogul Emperors—Timur, Babar, and Akbar, etc., no Muslim sovereign has written his autobiography in such an explicit, inter- esting, and lucid manner as the Amir has done, and the book is specially a novelty for the following reasons : —In addition to its being a book of great political significance, it is like a chapter of the "Arabian Nights," for the reader cannot help being interested to notice that a monarch like the Amir, setting aside the idea of boasting, should condescend to make a clear statement of how he was a prisonor in fetters at one time, and a cook at another a at one and a ; Viceroy time, subject x PKEFACE of the at another a at one Viceroy ; general time, and under the command of the at another an general ; engineer and blacksmith at one time, and a ruler at another. In one place he paints himself as a gardener and a peasant, and in another place men- tions the grand reception accorded to him by the Russian, British, Persian, and Bokhara Governments. At one time he places his uncle, Amir Azim, on the throne, and at another he is shown to have been forced by him to leave Kabul. Once a ruler, and then a subject without even a loaf of bread to eat, and so on. The one thing which will puzzle the mind of many European readers of the book will be the fact of such an acknowledged experienced traveller and statesman writing in his book his religious beliefs and superstitions. He says he was crowned the in his dreams that he by prophet ; gained his victories by the help of an old flag which he secured from the tomb of a certain saint of Herat called Ahrar that he himself Khwaja ; protected from the injuries of swords, guns, and rifles through wears his arm that the effect of a charm he round ; he learned reading and writing through the love of a girl who was engaged to him. Being unable to read her letters, he remained unhappy till he was helped by the hidden mysteries of Heaven to read them. PREFACE xi Lastly, I must record my hearty thanks to Professor William Knight, of St Andrews, and Drs Peile and Kenny, of Cambridge, for the kind assistance they have rendered to me in carrying out this work. Last, but not the least, my warmest thanks are due to Mr John Murray for encouraging me to put this book into his hand for publication. SULTAN MAHOMED KHAN. CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I EARLY YEARS ..... .1 CHAPTER II FLIGHT FROM BALKH TO BOKHARA . .42 CHAPTER III STRUGGLE WITH SHERE ALI . .62 CHAPTER IV — STRUGGLE WITH SHERE ALI {continued) AMIR AZIM . 84 CHAPTER V IN . SAMARKAND . .144 CHAPTER VI IN . BADAKSHAN . .163 CHAPTER VII MY ACCESSION TO THE THRONE . .185 CHAPTER VIII ADMINISTRATION ...... 200 xiv CONTENTS CHAPTER IX PAGE THE ANNEXATION OF HERAT ..... 210 CHAPTER X CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY AT THE TIME OF MY ACCESSION . 220 CHAPTER XI WARS DURING MY REIGN ..... 233 CHAPTER XII REFUGEES AND EXILES . .293 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PORTRAIT OF THE AMIR ABDUR RAHMAN, TAKEN WHILE HE WAS IN RUSSIAN TERRITORY {from a photograph by Messrs Fry of Lurknow and Pontefract) ....