tion of the Bazar in Kabul as a retributive measure calculated to restore
lost prestige, was completely neutralized by spectacles that everywhere
met the eye of travellers along the dreary mountain track from Ganda-
mak to the end of the defile of the Khurd Kabul, where the remains of
brave men, helpless camp followers (16,000 souls) lay thick ; in some
places paving the narrow way between the steep hillsides that
formed the defiles. In the cool and dry climate of this region, the
melancholy evidence of the greatest blow that England had ever
experienced to her honour and prestige, endured for years ; and only
very slowly were they resolved into their elemental dust. Succeeding
generations of Afghans were able to gloat over the proof (from their
point of view) of the success that had crowned the efforts of the



SADOZAIS DEPRIVED OF HERAT. 1 49

Ghazis, and of Akbai* Khan, over the hated foreigners whom Providence
had delivered into the hands of the holy warriors of Islam. The
destruction of the bazar in Kabul faded from the minds of all, but its
peaceful occupants, who had been friendly to our presence ; but every
Afghan, who traversed this route — one of the high roads of the country
— could not help but feel his national pride and religious fanaticism
stimulated, as his heavily shod foot, or the hooves of his ponies
or mules, crushed the bones with which the path was strewn, and which
were to him a testimony of national prowess, and the fulfilment of the
ancient prediction of the saintly Ako, the Pir of the Alizais.

The disaster at Kabul terminated the career of the debauched
Prince Kamran, whom the astute Vazier had allowed to retain a sem-
blance of authority, as long as he thought the puppet was likely to be of
any use. Yar Muhammad had been intriguing with all his neighbours —
he Persians at his gates, the British in Kandahar, and even with the
ulers of the remote Khanates along the Oxus. When, however, he
found that no more money was to be obtained from the British
authorities (who had disbursed some ;^2oo,ooo in Herat), he turned
Major Todd out of the city\ As soon as it became quite certain that
no effort would be made on behalf of Prince Kamran by the allies
of the Sadozais, he seized him and his sons, and the Prince was sent
away to Kuhsan, where lands had been assigned for his support.
The presence of the Sadozai Prince was, however, inconvenient, and
the Vazier despatched two of his creatures — the Alakozais Taj and
Daud — to put an end to Prince Kamran at Kuhsan. Kamran's sons
who were quite worthless, found an asylum in Persia. These
degenerate descendants of the great Ahmad Shah, were Jahangir,
Seif-ul-Muluk, Saadat Muluk, Alamgir, Nadir, Ahmad Ali, Jalaludin,
Sikandar, and Shihab. The doles which they received from the Shah
enabled them to lead lives given up to low pleasures, and the
indulgence of their depraved appetites. Alamgir and Ahmad Ali are
said to have made their way eventually to India.
The Sadozais disappeared from History.



^ Major Todd's proceedings at Herat were disapproved by Lord Auckland.
He WHS remanded to his reg-iment (Bengal Artillery) and was killed in the battle
of Firuzshah CSikh War).



CHAPTER XVI,



The Amir Dost Muhammad, Muhammadzai, Bakakzai. —
Consolidation of his government in Afghanistan.

1'^HE Sadozai Princelets having proved failures, the Amir Dost
Muhammad was allowed to return to his country, and
while the army of retribution was returning- through the
Punjab to take part in the pageant at Ferozepur, Dost
Muhammad was passing through that Province bound for Kabul.
The Barakzai Chiefs, who had possessed Kandahar, emerged from
their obscure retreat in Persian territory and took possession
of that city again. Even the change-loving Afghans may have had
a surfeit of alterations of fortune, and a stable government may not
have been unwelcome to allow them to recover their breath after the
violent excitement of the past three or four years. Dost Muhammad
held only a fourth part of Afghanistan after his return to Kabul. The
petty Chiefs to the north of the Hindu-Kush were independent, or
under the influence of the Ruler of Bokhara. The Barakzai Sardars
were independent Rulers of Kandahar, and the Vazier Yar Muhammad
held the Province of Herat. The Amir of Kabul had enough to do
to reorganise the government of his small territory, and for some time
he was unable to enter into disputes with the Kandahar Chiefs or the
Ruler of Herat. His task was materially helped by his relations with
the Indian Government. His residence at the seat of Government
in Calcutta, had probably a very much greater effect on him than his
Afghan pride would allow him to acknowledge ; and the experience he
had gained of the resources and real strength of that government,
undoubtedly influenced his conduct at a time when his attitude towards
the Indian Government had become a matter of very great importance.
His native ability could not have failed to appreciate all that he
saw during his short term of exile, for in 1843 ^® ^^^ back in
Kabul.



PARENTAGE OF THE AMIR DOST MUHAMMAD. I5I

Of the four parties, who were concerned in the late war, he
alone had benefited. Shah Shuja was dead. The British Government
had poured out blood and treasure, and the loss to its prestige barely
had been recovered by the achievements of the avenging- army. His
old enemy Ranjit Sing, was dead, and his Stale was on the verge of
destruction. With Yar Muhammad in Herat and his own brethren in
Kandahar, Dost Muhammad was quite able to deal ; and the Ruler of
Bokhara was of no account. From the Persians he had nothing to
fear. The intervention of the Shah's government, his alliance with the
Indian government, had rendered impossible. The quality of the
Persian troops placed their government in the position of an enemy
which the Afghans might well despise.

Dost Muhammad is said to have been the twentieth son of Sardar
Sarfaraz Khan Barakzai, and with the exception of the eldest Fateh
Khan ; and the next in seniority, Sardar Azim Khan, he was the
ablest and most capable member of the family. The unambitious
character of Nawab Jabbar Khan, rendered him an invaluable coun-
seller to his younger brother the Amir, who was said to have highly
appreciated the Nawab's ability, foresight and prudence. The mother
of Dost Muhammad belonged to the Siah Mansur, one of the tribes of
Tajik or Persian origin, near Kandahar, and the wisdom and intellect of
her famous son was probably inherited from her. Although on account
of her Tajik origm, her co-wives very likely looked down on her, she
was said to have been the favourite of her husband ; and to have always
accompanied him on his expeditions. Her son's education, probably
for this reason, seems to have been neglected, for he is said to have
only learnt to read the Koran at a comparatively late age. After the
execution of Sarfaraz Khan, a cousin of the Sardar, Abdul Majid
Khan, asserted his right, according to the well known Afghan custom,
by which the nearest relation can claim to marry a widow of a
deceased kinsman, and married the mother of the future Amir. A
brother of Majid Khan married one of Dost Muhammad's sisters at
the same time. After the remarriage of his mother. Dost Muhammad
lived in Maruf, or the Toba plateau, in one of the forts belonging to
his step-father. The eldest sister of Dost Muhammad married Shah
Shuja, to whom she bore several children, her only son is said to
have died while the Shah was in Kabul. A third sister was a
widow at the time of the occupation of Kabul. She obtained per-
mission to remain with her sister in Kabul, when the Amir's family
was deported to India. She became a very active canvasser m her
brother's interests, and was said to have gained many adherents to her



152 THE KINGDOM OK AFGHANISTAN.

brother's cause in Bamian and the Kohistan. She successfully evaded
all attempts made to seize her, and finally escaped to Jalalabad, and
thence to Peshawar. As the youngest but one of a large family of
brothers, the Amir was brought up in a hard school, his elder brothers
making use of his services very freely. He got his chance at last
when Sardar Azim Khan was unable to leave Kashmir at a moment's
notice, to -avenge the cruelties practised on the Vazier Fath
Khan, and he was obliged to send Dost Muhammad to seize
Kabul.

Dost Muhammad appears to have had none of the morose, and
fanatical qualities ot the Afghan nature in his composition. The
strain of Persian blood inherited from his mother modified very greatly
the rude Afghan temperament in her son. He is said to have possessed
an equable and good temper, a lively imagination and ready speech.
He is said to have been gifted with an extraordinary taste for music
and to have attained to great proficiency as a performer on the Rabab
(a description of the guitar). At social gatherings he unbent freely,
and entertained his friends with songs — ballads of his native land or
the more elaborate odes of Persian Poetry. Even after he returned
from exile, his favorite resort was the picturesque village of Nanachi,
near the capital, surrounded by vineyards, and gardens, and pleasantly
situated on the banks of a small lake. He used to repair to this
place with his intimate associates and pass the time with music and
songs, while flasks of the famous Kabul wine (made by the Armenians
settled there) circulated, and warmed the hearts of the company and
diverted their minds from the cares and recurring problems of state
craft. It is not to be wondered at, if as it was said, the bounds of
moderation were sometimes exceeded in these assemblies even at the
risk of offending his gloomy and bigotted subjects. His frank and
courageous bearing, and his accessibility endeared him to his subjects,
and it is said that any man might stop him when he rode abroad,
and demand redress for wrongs or speak his mind freely to the Amir
without incurring any risk of offending him. '

^ The title of Amir which is still used by the Barakzai Rulers of Kabul,
has a peculiar significance. It denotes the possessor of delegated authoritj'.
Sultan from an Arabic root also, which signifies predominance, denotes a
ruler who holds that position by right of conquest. The Sultan of Turkey owes
his presence in Europe to the conquests of h s ancestors. Shah on the other
hand signifies a despotic sovereign ruling by virtue of Divine Right, an autocrat.
The Sadozais by virtue of the prediction relating to their ancestor Asadullah
claimed this right ; but it was established by the great Ahmad Shah at great risk
of offending his turbulent nobility ; whom his successful foreign campaigns alone
rendered complaisant. It implies a power over the persons and property of th^
subject, repugnant to the character of the Afghan people.



CHARACTER OF THE AMIr's GOVERNMENT. I53

Within his jurisdiction, roads were safer than they had been in
former days. Two and a half per cent, was the duty levied on merchan-
dise passing through his territory, and in the later period of his govern-
ment after the war, M. Ferrier was informed in Kandahar, and Herat,
that even including illegal gratifications to venal officials, the duty was
not more than four per cent. This brought in revenue (according to the
notorious Mohan Lall, who professes to have obtained the figures from
Mirza Samiullah the Amir's Minister), estimated at 4, 15,500 Kabuli
rupees, or about ;^40,ooo at that time. The whole revenue at the
Amir's disposal from the territory that acknowledged his authority was
25 lakhs of Kabuli rupees, said to have been equivalent to 24 lakhs of
the East India Company's rupees, or to about ^^226, 000 at exchange
of that period. As the Amir is said to have expended 21 lakhs on his
army, there was not much money available for other purposes. The
Amir was obliged to have recourse to arbitrary measures to find the
means to meet his expenditure — forced loans which rarely or never were
repaid. Notwithstanding the security of the roads, and low transit
dues, owing to these irregular demands trade had declined below what it
had been during the troubled reign of Shah Mahmud. Even during the
second period of his reign, before he took Kandahar from his brothers,
the revenue at the disposal of Amir Dost Muhammad was esti-
mated at a little more than 32 lakhs, and the assistance he received
from the Government of India was vitally necessary to the
maintenance of his administration — a necessity which has not
disappeared in the days of his successors. The revenue of Kabul
had fallen below the amount realized in the 17th century by the
Moghul Emperors, but the decrease was due very largely to the loss
of districts in the time of the Amir Dost Muhammad, which in the
earlier period had been part of the Province of Kabul.

The decrease in the revenues of the Kandahar Province under the
rapacious Barakzai Sardars was still greater. In the 17th century, the
revenue under the Moghul administration had been 15 lakhs of rupees.
At the end of the i8th century, when the traveller Forster passed
through the country during the reign of Shah Timur, Sadozai, 18
lakhs was the revenue of the Province. Under the Barakzai Sardars
only 80,000 rupees were realized. Holding as they were supposed,
nine-tenths of the land round Kandahar, they acted in a most arbitrary
manner in their dealings with the more peaceful section of their
subjects. In several of the districts the power of the tribes were too
great to allow the Sardars to oppress them ; but wherever it could be
done with impunity the country was taxed according to the pleasure of



â–  54 THE KINGDOM OF AFGHANISTAN.

the rulers. The revenue was farmed, and the contractors with the aid
of soldiers extracted all they could get from the people. After these
demands had been satisfied "shoals of hungry soldiers and followers
of Chiefs are let loose on the villages to gather for themselves what
they can pick up."'

After the Amir Dost Muhammad had taken possession of Kandahar,
his lieir Ghulam Haidar Khan governed the Province, but under him
the cultivator found no relief. In the height of the summer "when
water to the cultivator is worth any money, the Sardar frequently puts
all the water in a canal up to auction, and has been known to realize as
much as 70 rupees (Kandahari) for one day's supply of water to a
promising vinery." ^

These exactions fell on the Tajik section of the population. "The
result is, that in the immediate vicinity of towns, and close to the
ruler the agriculturist continues to till the land ; but in many parts of
the country you approach large and apparently flourishing villages,
enter them, and no human voice greets or curses you there, as the case
may be. Once rich vineyards are dried up, and all around is desolation.
This is especially the case in the Kandahar district, where every fresh
change of rulers has only brought increased taxation, until the popula-
tion has been decimated and tax gatherers, enraged at not being able
to squeeze money out of mud walls, have seized and sold into
slavery the last wretched inhabitant of a once prosperous and
influential village. "3

The revenues at the disposal of Ahmad Shah, according to the
Mizan-ul-Mamalik, of Muiz-ullah Mohmandi, of Peshawar, who
prepared it for the Minister Shah Wali Khan, is said to have been, or
was estimated, at a little more than thirteen crores and thirteen lakhs.
Kashmir contributed, it is stated, 29,90,800 rupees (of Ahmad Shah's
period), and Sind, about 26 lakhs. Nothing is mentioned of any
revenue from the Persian territory held by that monarch, nor from
Herat or Kandahar. In those days, the Sutlej and the Indus formed
the eastern limits of the Afghan Kingdom, but the Durani monarch
also held districts on the left bank of the Sutlej, governed by his
representative in Sirhind. The greater part of the land on the
Kandahar and Herat Provinces was probably held by the great Afghan
clans, who gave in return their services in the field ; and who were

^ Mission to Kandahar, 1857.
â– ' Ibid.
' Ibid.



REVENUE OF AFGHANISTAN. 1 55

too powerful to be meddled with. The burden in those times also
of the taxes, fell on the peaceful Tajik and Indian sections of the
subjects of Ahmad Shah.' As Province after Province was lopped off
during the lifetime of Ahmad Shah's degenerate successors, and as the
tribute from Sin J declined to what the Suzerain was able to take,
the revenues of the Sadozais fell away, but even in the disturbed reign of
the indolent voluptuary, Shah Mahmud, the revenue of his kingdom
is said to have amounted to ninety-six lakhs of rupees or just short
of ;^i,ooo,ooo sterling ; what part remained in the hands of the Vazier
of course no one ever was rash enough to ask ; but if Fath Khan was
able as he is said to have been to disburse ninety-six lakhs in advances,
before the ill-fated expedition to Herat, and his brother to have left
property valued at three crores of rupees (over ^3,000,000) the office
of Vazier must have been very lucrative, and it accounts for the
eagerness with which it was sought."

The western Ghilzais, after a fruitless struggle for years against
the authority of Amir Dost Muhammad, at last were forced to
submit, and their leader Muhammad Shah Khan was living in 1857,
a prisoner at large in Kabul, but under strict surveillance. His
contemporary, Malik Shahdad, another of the same clan, held out in
the fastnesses of Tagao where he found shelter and continued to defy
the Amir, who was unable to capture him or restrain his raids, though
the nephew and rival of the outlaw had been put into possession by
the Amir of his uncle's lands and chiefship.3

About August 1855 Amir Dost Muhammad deprived his brothers
and their sons of Kandahar ; and Sardar Rahmdil Khan with the Amir's
consent retired to Persia.

The Kandahar Sardars were of the lower type of Afghan
character, but Yar Muhammad, the Alakozai, who had taken posses-
sion of Herat, was quite a different person, and showed great ability
in governing his Province. He summoned his clansmen to Herat and
gave them lands in the districts which were under his sway. He
styled himself Vazir-i-Kabir, the Grand Vazier. He put down dis-
orders with a firm hand. The year after he assumed the government,
he invaded Ghor, and extended his authority as far as Tizli and Karz

* Moorcroft, Ihe famous traveller, estimated the value of the shawl manu-
facture, for which Kashmir was famous, at as much as 300,000 ;^ in the earlier
part of the I'lSt century (1822).

^ The Punjab had been the most valuable portion oftheDurani kingdom,
and its importance to the sovereign of Afghanistan accounts for the frantic
efforts of Shah Zaman to regain possession of at least some portion of it.

' Mission to Kandahar.



15C) THE KINGDOM OF AFGHANISTAN.

districts of the Zamindawar. He brought the Hazara Zaidnats to
his feet, and having reinstated their chief Karimdad Khan as his
governor, and fixed an annual tribute on the tribe, he returned to
Herat. At the close of the winter he set out to add Maimanah to his
possessions ; but for several reasons he decided to return to Herat
(1846), and the next year he sent Mir Hashim Khan, the Alakozai
Chief, to subdue Hikmat Khan, the Chief of Maimanah. The reason of
Yar Muhammad's return to Herat was his desire to arrange for the
departure of his daughter to Kabul, where she was to be married to
the famous Akbar Khan, second son of the Amir.

The Chief of Ghor had given shelter to two of Prince Kamran's
sons, and one of these Chiefs, Din Muhammad, had visited Kandahar
and had tried to induce Major Rawlinson to take up Kamran's feud
w-ith the Vazier. The outbreak at Kabul had just taken place, and it
was out of the question to undertake fresh adventures in the direction
of Herat. Yar Muhammad remembered this, and by the end of 1846
he had the Chiefs of Ghor under his heel. The death of Muhammad
Akbar, in 1847, gave him cause for anxiety, but he was re-assured by
the news that his daughter had been given in marriage to Sardar
Ghulam Haidar, another son of the Amir.

Yar Muhammad sought the friendship of the Persians with great
ardour, but the Shah regarded the Vazier with a virulent personal
dislike, and decided to encourage the Barakzais in their design
against Herat. The death of Shah Muhammad Shah, on the
4th of September 1848, owing to which the army destined to
co-operate with the Sardars of Kandahar was disbanded, saved Yar
Muhammad any further anxiety on this account. 1 he latter had
been in person aiding Prince Hamza Mirza, who was blockaded
in Meshed, which had been beseiged by the son of the late Asaf-
ud-Daulah with the help of the Turkomans of Merv, after he had
rebelled against the Shah. The city continued to hold out against
the attacks of the beseigers who numbered 8,000 men. When
the news of the Shah's death arrived and became known, two batta-
lions which had garrisoned the citadel, joined the beseigers ; the former,
however, were suffering from the effects of a famine which was raging,
and the assaults of the enemy increased their sufferings. Yar
Muhammad marched the Persian Army into his own territory, and
entertained them with the greatest hospitality for the whole of the
winter. Prince Hamza was recalled to Tehran in the beginning of
1849. Before he left Kuhsan, where the Persian troops had wintered, he
presented Yar Muhammad with four pieces of cannon as some return



RELATIONS BETWEEN THE RULERS OF HERAT AND PERSLA. 157

for the entertainment of his troops. Shah Nasir-ud-din, after he
ascended the throne in the summer of that year, presented Yar
Muhammad with a richly jewelled sabre, and a patent of nobility, with
the title of Zahir-udaulah. The Vazier also depatched offerings
to the Court of the Shah ; and a collossal elephant (the remains
perhaps of the Regal Paraphernalia of the Sadozais), presented by
him to the Shah might be seen (wrote M. Ferrier), promenading the
streets of Tehran. Towards the north Yar Muhammad annexed
Andikhui, and Shibarghan, to his territories ; and his authority was
acknowledged almost up to Balkh. He transplanted 7,000 families
of Taimunis from Ghor, and also Hazaras from Kala-i-Nuh to replace
those inhabitants of the Herat valley who had perished or been forced
to emigrate during the siege of 1838. Trade was encouraged, and
an unskilful attempt was made to work silver and iron ores existing
near Herat ; and it was even said that he was desirous of establish-
ing machinery to work the raw produce of wool and cotton raised
in his territory. He was a most exacting ruler, and his stern measures
created enemies, who revenged themselves by accusing him of barter-
ing his subjects to the Turkomans — five men in exchange for one
Turkoman horse valued at lOO tomans.

In 1851 he marched to Lash and reduced the fort at that place,
the chieftafn of which had been coquetting with the Sardars of
Kandahar. Sardar Sher Ali, son of Mihrdil Khan, was at Lash ; an
army from Kandahar designed to frighten Yar Muhammad had
advanced to Girishk, while Muhammad Sidik Khan, son of Sardar
Kohandil Khan, had taken possession of Chakansur in Seistan. Yar
Muhammad, however, was not dismayed, and he pointed out to the
Kandahar Sardars that it would be unadvisable for him and for them
to fall out, who had a common enemy in Kabul, and that he was
going to punish Ahmad Khan, brother of Salu Khan, the Ishakzai
chieftain of Lash. The Kandahar Sardars hesitated ; and the Ruler
of Herat brought the rebellious chief to his senses. He had been
unwell when he started from Herat, and as his indisposition grew on
him, Yar Muhammad left his son. Said Muhammad, to march the
troops back, while he hurried on to reach Herat. He died on the
way, at the Rabat of Mir Mirhulah, on the ist June iSsi.'^ His corpse
was carried to Herat ; and buried on the south side of the shrine of
Jam'i. Yar Muhammad reigned for eleven years as an independent
Ruler.

^ Sir Clements Markham, in his History of Persia, p. 498, says, 8th of June 1851.
The date in the text is from the Tarikh-i-bultani.



I.SS THK KINGDOM OF AFGHANISTAN.

His son and successor Said Khan was a worthless person, and
tainted morever with insanity. The Chiefs put up with him for some
time, till at last his Naib or Deputy, Isa Khan, a Bardurani, invited a
grandson of Haji Prince Firuz-ud-din, Sadozai, to Herat, and put him
in possessioa of the seat of authority on the 15th September 1855.
Said Khan was murdered at once without an effort on the part ot
any one, but Haji Khairullah, an Alakozai headman, to defend him.