Races of Afghanistan | by Surgeon-Major H. W. Bellew
The manuscript of the following brief account of the races of Afghanistan was written at Kabul, for the most part, after the duties of the day were over, and at odd intervals of leisure from official business, with the view to its transmission to England for publication; but falling ill as it drew to a close, and being obliged on that account to leave Kabul for India on sick leave, my purpose could not be carried out.
Title | Races of Afghanistan |
Author | Surgeon-Major H. W. Bellew |
Publisher | Thacker, Spink, And Co. |
Year | 1880 |
Copyright | 1880, Thacker, Spink, And Co. |
Amazon | Races of Afghanistan |
The Races Of Afghanistan, Being A Brief Account Of The Principal Nations Inhabiting That Country.
Preface- The manuscript of the following brief account of the races of Afghanistan was written at Kabul, for the most part, after the duties of the day were over, and at odd intervals of leisure from official ...
Chapter I. Introductory- Now that our armies are in possession of Kandahar and Kabul - the earlier and later capitals, respectively, of the lapsed Duirani Empire, and, as regards the latter, the seat of government of the succ...
Introductory. Continued- For the purposes of this enquiry it will suffice to consider as Afghanistan all that region which is bounded on the north by the Oxus, and on the south by Balochistan; on the east by the middle course...
Chapter II. The Afghan- The traditions of this people refer them to Syria as the country of their residence at the time they were carried away into captivity by Bukhtunasar (Nebuchadnezzar), and planted as colonists in diffe...
The Afghan. Part 2- It is probable that, in the course of the repeated military expeditions carried by the Arabs from the side of Persia against Sind, a variety of new races were brought into the country forming the sout...
The Afghan. Part 3- How the Afghan genealogy-mongers came to adopt the name Saraban will be understood, if we refer to the anterior history of the country in which that people settled as conquerors. It was stated in a pr...
The Afghan. Part 4- By Muhammadans of Asia Minor and the Western countries the Afghan is usually called Sulemani, apparently from the supposition that he dwells on the Suleman range of mountains. If so, the name is misap...
Chapter III. History Of The Afghans- At the beginning of the last century Afghanistan, at that time known as Khurasan (a Persian word signifying the East or the Levant of the Persians) was divided pretty equally between the Mughal and th...
History Of The Afghans. Part 2- Ahmad Khan was crowned king in 1747 as Ahmad Shah, Durri Durran, or Pearl of Pearls, and the title is said to have been adopted from the distinctive custom of the Abdtili tribe of wearing a small pe...
History Of The Afghans. Part 3- At this juncture Payanda Khan, the prime minister, finding the moment opportune for dethroning the puppet whom he found less flexible than he had reckoned, entered into a league with Shuja-ul-Mulk (th...
History Of The Afghans. Part 4- And so it was that the Durrani Empire sunk and disappeared, but not so the Durrani rule. This merely passed from one family of the race to another - from the Saddozai to the Barakzai. With this transf...
Chapter IV. British Relations With Afghanistan- In the first days of 1839, Shuja-ul-Mulk joined the army of the Indus under Sir John (afterwards Lord) Keane, and arriving at Kandahar, after a victorious march by the Bolan, was there crowned Shah, a...
British Relations With Afghanistan. Continued- We need not follow the confused course of family jealousies and contests between Kabul, Kandahar, and Herat, nor need we stop to inquire into the reasons that induced Dost Muhammad to march to Attock ...
Chapter V. Sher Ali- Sher Ali, having performed the funeral rites of his father at Herat, left the place in charge of his son Yacub, and set out for Kabul On the march commenced the entangled chain of intrigues, plots, an...
Sher Ali. Part 2- The growing confidence and freer communications which were the first results of the salutary influence effected by Lord Mayo's most successful treatment of the fickle Afghan, were at once nipped in th...
Sher Ali. Part 3- Yacub Khan, on the 26th May, 1879, signed the Gandumak Treaty. On the 24th July he received the British Envoy, and installed him in the embassy assigned for his residence in the Bala Hissar of the cit...
Chapter VI. The Pathan- This term has a very wide application as used by the people of India, and a very restricted one as used by the Pathans themselves In the former case it is applied indiscriminately to all the peoples i...
The Pathan. Part 2- The Gandarians - the Gandhari of the natives, the Gan-darn, or, including kindred tribes, the Gandaridae of the Greeks - formerly occupied the tract of country enclosed between the Kabul and Indus riv...
The Pathan. Part 3- The ousted tribes then moved away bodily together with their cattle and flocks and tents, for at that time they were almost entirely nomadic in their mode of life What induced them to make direct for ...
Chapter VII. The Yusufzai- The Yusufzai, after six years of constant warfare, drove the Dalazak across the Indus into Chach and Pakli, and thus acquired full possession of the plain country which now bears their name, and lies ...
The Yusufzai. Part 2- It is curious to note the character of the warfare by which these returned Gandhari recovered possession of their fatherland from their unrecognized kindled, who, retaining still their ancient creed a...
The Yusufzai. Part 3- Jumping to conclusions from mere names-, however, is not a safe course, but in this instance the corroborating circumstances favour the notion that the localities derived their names from the animals ...
Chapter VIII. The Afridi- The Afridi (or Afridai in the singular) are without doubt the present representatives of the Aparytae of Herodotus, Both the names and the positions are identically the same. The extent of the ancient...
The Afridi. Continued- It would thus appear that the Afridi of to-day holds but a small portion of the territory assigned above as the possession of his ancient progenitors, the Aparytae mentioned by Herodotus'. The norther...
Chapter IX. The Khattak- The Sattagydae of Herodotus are identified in the Saitak, Sattak, Shattak, and Khattak of modern native writers. The two last forms are merely the western and eastern modes, respectively, of Pushtu. p...
The Khattak. Continued- The story goes that one day four brothers (it does not say of what tube) went out for a stroll or to hunt on the plain (locality not specified), and as they went on they saw, as they knew by their dre...
Chapter X. The Dadicae- The Dadic are the last of the four Indian nations mentioned by Herodotus as forming a single Satrapy on the extreme eastern frontier of the Empire of Darius. There has been some difference of op...
The Dadicae. Continued- The Kakar country on the Indus frontier is about a hundred miles square, and extends from the Waziri border on the north to the Baloch border on the south The country is traversed from north to south ...
Chapter XI. The Ghilji- The Ghiljai (plural Ghilji) as he calls himself - Ghilzai, as strangers call him - is a numerous and widespread people, extending from Jalalabad in the east to Kalati Ghilji in the west, and occupying...
The Ghilji. Part 2- Besides the sons already mentioned, Bibi Matto is said by the Afghan accounts to have borne Shah Husen a number of other sons, viz, Turan, Tolar, Buran, and Polar. Here are names of quite a different ...
The Ghilji. Part 3- The Ghilji of Afghanistan first come prominently into notice in the reign of Mahmud of Ghazni, who employed them largely as soldiers in his numerous invasions of India for the conversion of the land t...
The Ghilji. Part 4- Of the history of the Ghilji as a distinct people in Afghanistan little or nothing is known till the beginning of last century, when they revolted against the Persian Governor of Kandahar. The Persian...
Chapter XII. The Tajik- The Tajik, or, as he is frequently called, the Parsiwan, constitute numerous and widely spread portion of the inhabitants of Afghanistan, from whom they differ in language, internal government, and ma...
Chapter XIII. The Hazarah- This people differ entirely from all the other races of Afghanistan, and occupy a very extensive area of country, extending from the borders of Kabul and Ghazni to those of Herat in one direction, and...