International Society for Iranian Studies

State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan: The Reign of Amir Dost Muhammad
Khan (1826-1863) by Christine Noelle
Review by: M. Jamil Hanifi
Iranian Studies, Vol. 33, No. 3/4 (Summer - Autumn, 2000), pp. 488-492
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of International Society for Iranian Studies
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488 Reviews

South Asian and East Asian historianssuch as ParthaChatterjee,Gyan Prakash,

and PrasenjitDuara,which one would have preferredto have been more directly
engaged in the body of the text. The influence of these scholars of non-Western
nationalism is unmistakable however. Following their assumptions Kashani-
Sabet argues for a theory of nationalismthat challenges a rigid, monolithic, and
primordial interpretationof nationalism (in Iran and elsewhere) and instead
arguesfor a theory of the nation as a dynamic,contingent,and contestedcultural
form. At the same time she avoids the pitfalls of a crude constructionismor a
mechanical and eurocentric notion of "modularity"in the Andersoniansense.
Avoiding these extremes Kashani-Sabethas produceda brilliantnew work that
unlike any previous monograph on Iranian nationalism combines a depth of
historical detail with sophisticated and well-informed theorizing. In this way
FrontierFictions brings Iranianhistory out of the insularitiesof area studies and
nationalisthistoriographyand instead places Iranianhistory within a global and
comparative context. For all of us similarly engaged Kashani-Sabethas pro-
duced a welcomed if imposing standard.

AfshinMarashi
Universityof Redlands

State and Tribe in Nineteenth-CenturyAfghanistan: The Reign of Amir Dost

Muhammad Khan (1826-1863), Christine Noelle, Surrey, England: Curzon,
1997, ISBN 0-7007-0629-1, xxiv + 439 pp. (glossary, appendices [maps, gene-
alogical charts],bibliography,index), hardback,$75.00.

Eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuryAfghanistan has attracteda good deal of

attention from Europeanand local writers. Unfortunately,and notwithstanding
the signal contributions by Ashraf Ghani, Vartan Gregorian, Shah Mahmoud
Hanifi, M. Hasan Kakar,and Robert D. McChesney, the political economy of
the country during this crucial period essentially remains a black hole. Our
knowledge of society and state relations, relations of production, how these
structures and processes were configured in Afghanistan, and how they in
general and in local versions adapted to the increasing incorporationof the
country into the global system, chiefly through penetration by European
colonialism and capital,remainlimited and a matterof guesswork.It was during
these two centuries that major transformations involving class and ethnic
relations,ethnic identity, urbanization,articulationof intra/inter-tribaland state-
tribe relations took place. Yet much of what has been printedabout the country
for this period contains descriptive accounts of local affairs skewed by
fascinationwith individualsand with social arrangementsthat, for the European
and European-inspiredwriters, revolve around notions of "king," "kingdom,"
"coronation,""royalty,"and "court."
The book, a revised version of a 1995 dissertation, is a laborious biblio-
graphic essay attemptingto collate and, in some instances, summarizeand syn-

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 Reviews489

thesize a voluminous body of historical and ethnographicliterature(19 pages of

bibliography, 1,488 numberednotes in 70 pages, an average of 5 notes per each
page of text) dealing with nineteenth- and twentieth-centuryAfghanistan. The
subtitle of the book is in error for it glosses over Dost Muhammad's absence
from Kabul, initially his escape to Bokhara and his subsequent expulsion to
India by the British during 1839-43. Chapter1 consists of a brief review of per-
son-centeredevents leading to the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-42). Chapter
2 includes sketches of Uzbak ethnography and political events of northern
Afghanistan in the first three quartersof the nineteenth century. In chapter 3
Noelle provides a descriptive survey of Western ethnographic writings about
Paxtuns with focus on the concept of tribe and tribal leadership. Chapter4 is
devoted to the second term of Dost Muhammadup to the incorporationof Qan-
dahar(and short of his captureof Heratbefore his death in 1863) and an account
of his administration.
The authorclaims three objectives in this work: 1) to reconstruct"the politi-
cal setting in Afghanistanduringthe reign of . .. Dost Muhammad,"2) "to pro-
vide a fuller picture concerning the relationshipsof power prevailing in all the
provinces makingup (Dost's) realm,"and 3) "to place the discussion concerning
the interactionbetween state and tribe in nineteenth-centuryAfghanistan on a
firmer footing." These are indeed ambitious goals. Attempts at the first two,
with varying degrees of depth, have been made both by local and Western writ-
ers. For the third goal, Noelle attempts to read the past with the ethnographic
present and history with anthropological concepts. She force-feeds twentieth
century Paxtun tribal ethnographyto her view of person-drivenevents in nine-
teenth-centuryAfghanistan. Had a reverse tracking with the view that the past
causes and folds into the present, a sharper and unclutteredunderstandingof
importantanthropologicalconcepts such as "tribe,""state,""segmentaryline-
age," "peasantry,"etc. been successfully implemented, the work might have
been a closer approximationof her objectives. The authorfails to integrateeth-
nographic descriptions with historical data. Although anthropologicalconcepts
of lineage, clan, tribe, and confederacy are alluded to, her understandingand
attempted application of them remain inadequate and superficial. No fresh
ground about nineteenth-centuryAfghanistanis broken. The book does not say
anything untried about the Durranidomination in Afghanistan. It says nothing
about class relations in eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuryAfghanistan. The
importance of the colonial construction of Muhammadzai governments in
Afghanistanis lost in the detailed accountsof fraternalconflicts and descriptions
of undertakingsby individualsof prominence.Had the author'sfusion of history
and ethnography been minimally successful she would have explicitly and
"naturally"attemptedto ask and answer at least these crucial questions:What is
Paxtun about the Muhammadzaisand their rule in Afghanistan?What is Paxtun
about Dost Muhammadas an amir of Afghanistan?Would an ethnographically
informedunderstandingof paxtuinwaltenhanceanswersto these questions?
Let me illustratehow an ethnographically-taskedprocedurewould have
improved our understanding of lineage and clan in contemporary and nine-
teenth-century Afghanistan. A lineage is a small unilineal descent group in

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490 Reviews

which membershipcan be both stipulatedand demonstrated.Dependingon gen-

ealogical depth, size, and extent of localization, we can speak of minimal and
maximal lineages. Occasionally maximal lineages resemble clans. A clan is a
large, unilineal descent group membershipwhich is putative (often totemic) and
entails jural obligations. A clan is not necessarily a transition to tribal com-
plexity and it is not, even in its specialized "conical"form, found among Pax-
tuns. Among them maximal lineages-large, dispersed (often territorial)aggre-
gations-with extensive genealogical depth leading to an actual common
ancestor, are sometimes found. Now, if we carefully track the history of tribe-
state encounters startingin the sixteenth century, gradually some of these seg-
ments, usually minimal lineages, fuse into powerful maximal lineages we have
come to know as the Ghalzi JabarKhayl, BabakarKhayl, Hotak, and Tokhi and
the DurraniPopalzai, and Muhammadzai.The historical record shows that, in
their interactionwith state and marketdynamics, these groupings fluctuatedin
numbers,places, or expressions of hierarchy.Likewise, we can locate and trace
fusion into larger (e. g. the Ghalzi Sulayman Khayls) units and fission into
smaller units (e. g. the Ghalzi Hut Khayl, the DurraniNurzai). Thus, tracked
over time, the "tribe" among Paxtuns appears as a unilineal descent group
(tracingdescent from a common putativehumanancestor)composed of shifting
numbers and hierarchiesof minimal and maximal lineages vis 'a vis structures
and dynamics of state, trade, and market.In orderto understandcorrectly"rela-
tions of power" in Afghanistan we need a "bug's-eye view" for all levels and
locations where and when states,markets,and tribesconverge.
Noelle's undisciplined"bird's-eyeview" and undisguisedDurranisympa-
thies and antipathytowards the Ghalzi distorts importantcultural features and
historical texts as we will see in the following examples. The author,like many
of her Europeanpredecessors, constructs a romantic image of Paxtuns that is
unsupportableby ethnographicdata and the secondary sources on the authority
of which she offers this portrait. She states that they "are as 'rugged' as the
mountainsthey inhabit"(123). The sources she cites state: "they inhabitedrug-
ged mountainousterrain,""Afghan tribes are renowned as hardy, independent,
warlike mountaineers,"a Paxtun "leads a wild, free, active life in the rugged
fastness of his mountains." In her construction of this romantic imagery she
overlooks, for example, Durrani inhabited flatlands in Western Afghanistan.
Even if such distortionsare relegatedto functions of literarylicense or narrative
style, they remainbad academichabits.
The author,apparentlymystifiedby dynasticprivilege,insists on elevating
Dost Muhammadto a level of "royalty"which neitherhe himself sought nor is
assigned to him by the literatureshe cites. To modify the notion that there were
doubts about Dost Muhammad's"stature"and how the Sadozai looked down on
the Muhammadzai,Noelle states that his Sadozai wife addressed him "by the
diminutive nickname 'Dosto"' (17). The source she cites (Harlan[a commander
in Dost's army] 1842: 137), states that "her (Dost's Sadozai wife whom he had
forcefully married)high blood even now, althoughshe has several children,will
never let her speak of the Ameer by any other title than 'Dosoo,' a familiar
nicknamewhich the great apply to their slaves who may have chance to have the

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 Reviews491

cognomen 'Dost,' . . . [h]er person is quite diminutive" (emphasis added). Fami-

liarity with the ethnographyof Afghanistan indicates that "Dosto" is a literate,
complimentary, and affective nickname while "Dosoo" (especially among
Kabuli Farsi speakers) is kachagt, vulgar, and deprecating. The diminutive of
"Dost" is dostak not "Dosto". Elsewhere (15) she concludes that Dost
Muhammad"studiously avoided using or maintaining edifices reminiscent of
Sadozai rule. Some buildings, including the former daftar-khanah (record
office), were even ordered to be torn down." Of the two references for this
assertion, one does not deal with this subject; the second, states that Dost
Muhammadhad "pulledit (recordsoffice) down, intendingwith its materialsto
construct a garden house" (Masson 1842, II: 256). Citing no political or ideo-
logical reasons, Masson merely mentions the practical consideration that Dost
Muhammad"has no need for public offices, and his ministerswrite at their own
houses, and carry their records and papers about with them in their pockets"
(ibid). This tendency to misreadand the habit of imposing whimsical interpreta-
tions on historicaldatais a recurringfeatureof this book.
In discussing Dost Muhammad's"coronation"Noelle tells us that the "sel-
ection of the title 'Amir' also avoided any association with the previous Sadozai
rulers, all of whom had carried the title 'Shah"' (15). This baseless claim is
contradictedby her own words and the sources she cites: "The Sardarwas not
altogether disinclined to assume royalty; but the want of means to keep up the
title, and the unanimous disapproval of his relations, prevented him from
adopting the name of the king" (Lal 1978 I: 169). The author's own sources
mention "fear"(Ghobar 1967:517) and "opposition"(Reshtia 1957: 61) of his
brothersas the reasonsfor this decision.
In many ways the book producesa Muhammadzaicourthistory.It seizes
every opportunityto discredit the Sadozais before them and to depreciate the
Ghalzi in general and their rule and rulersin Afghanistanin particular.Its author
flippantly casts aspersion on the Ghalzi by stating, without an explanation,that
their claim to Paxtunidentity is based on a "less distinct link" (123). Her disdain
extends to withholdingthe titles "Shah"and "His Majesty"from the Ghalzi rul-
ers of Qandaharand Isfahan.These titles are regularlyaccordedthem by Afghan
(including Siraj al-Tawartkh) and Europeansources. In another such instance
she suggests revision in the political history of the Ghalzi. On the authorityof
'Abd al-Ghafur Ravan Farhadi, a well known contemporarynon-Paxtun high
ranking official in the last Muhammadzaigovernment of Afghanistan, Noelle
raises doubts aboutthe exile of large numbersof Ghalzi by Nadir Shah Afsharto
Persia in 1738 (347, n. 10). Without explanation she states that Farhadi, in a
passage dealing with the Ghalzi in Jahangushii-yiNddiri, reads the word muqar-
rar (designated,ordered)as Muqur(a town about 120 miles northeastof Qanda-
har). This might be understandableif the phrasein which muqarrarappearshad
no context. Here is my "close to Farsi"translationof the phrasein context: After
the fall of QandaharNadir Shah "gave Nadirabad(Qandahar)and environments
to the Abdali residents of Nishaburand other districts of Khurasanand ordered
(muqarrardishtand) that the Abdalis should settle in Nadirabadand the Hotaki
Ghalzi move to their (the Abdalis') lands and reside in Nishaburand that group

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492 Reviews

(Hotakis),on the 24th of the month,crossed the Arghandab(river)and were sent

to the designated (muqarrardashtand) locality." In the syntacticalconstruction
of this Farsi text, muqarrar dashtand and muqarrar sakhtand convey similar
meanings. But Farhadi, one of Noelle's thesis supervisors, the "king's
intellectual" (my phrase), must have his reasons for proposing Muqur as the
destinationfor the Hotakis. Why are these reasons not sharedwith us? All four
references that Noelle cites for this issue (343, n. 457), confirm the exile of
Hotakis to Persia. But mysteriously, Noelle persists in her ambiguity by
inserting"atleast temporarily"(208) withoutexplanation.
The book is marredby craftynarrative,unwarrantedassertions,sloppy doc-
umentation, and by the unusual, at times flippant (e. g. "the 'Dil' brothers")
mannerin which data is handled. Virtually every page of the narrativecontains
irritatinglycontradictoryand contestable informationand text. The work could
have used an editorial sweeping for numeroustechnical and substantiveerrors.
Nonetheless, and given the generally austere status of Afghan historiography,
the mere allusion to the idea of fertilizing history with ethnographyas an meth-
odological alternative,is a step in a positive direction and a credit to Christine
Noelle. The value of the sizeable amount of unwoven raw information,useful
maps, and genealogical tables in the volume will not be lost on a researchlibrary
housing materialon Afghanistan.

M. Jamil Hanifi
MichiganState University

For God, Mammon and Country: A Nineteenth-Century Persian Merchant,

Haj Mohammad Hasan Amin al-Zarb (1834-1898), Shireen Mahdavi,
Boulder,CO: Westview Press, 1999.

In general, biographiesof Iranianpersonalities are rare and rarerstill are those

which reach the standardof fairness and objectivity that Shireen Mahdavi has
achieved. For God Mammonand Countryis the accountof the life and times of
Haj Mohammad Hasan Amin al-Zarb, the most successful and prominent
merchantof nineteenth-centuryIran.
As Shireen Mahdavi explains, her aim is to separate the reality from the
myth which surroundsMohammadHasan Amin al-Zarb,a man who rose from
poverty and obscurity to become rich and powerful. For years he was close to
the most importantpersonalitiesof his age, including the Sadr-i Azam Amin al-
Sultan and the shah himself. His great success and wealth also incurred the
enmity of his rivals, he fell into disfavor and was dishonored,but was reinstated
again, a fate which was not so unusualin QajarIran.
Shireen Mahdavi has based her research on the unpublished Mahdavil
archive, which is unique in its scope and importanceas it spans the period from
1865 to 1910 and contains not only economic and financial material, but also
much social and political information. She has included the unfinished

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