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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Afghanistan
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Afghanistan

Author: A. Hamilton

Release date: March 24, 2024 [eBook #73258]

Language: English

Original publication: London: William Heinemann, 1906

Credits: Carol Brown, Peter Becker and the Online Distributed


Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file
was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK


AFGHANISTAN ***
AFGHANISTAN
BOOKS OF TRAVEL
THROUGH FIVE REPUBLICS (OF SOUTH AMERICA).
A Critical Description of Argentina, Brazil, Chile,
Uruguay, and Venezuela in 1905. By Percy F.
Martin, F.R.G.S. With 128 Illustrations and 3 Maps. In
one vol., demy 8vo, price 21s. net.
GRANADA. Memories, Adventures, Studies, and
Impressions. By Leonard Williams. Post 8vo,
illustrated, price 7s. 6d. net.
IN THE COUNTRY OF JESUS. By Matilde Serao. In
one vol., crown 8vo, illustrated, price 6s. net.
CARTHAGE OF THE PHŒNICIANS. By Mabel Moore.
With numerous illustrations and coloured frontispiece.
One vol., crown 8vo, price 6s.
KOREA. By Angus Hamilton. With a map and many
illustrations. In one vol., demy 8vo, price 15s. net.

London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN


lord curzon of kedleston
AFGHANISTAN

BY
ANGUS HAMILTON
fellow of the royal geographical society
author of “korea,” “the siege of
mafeking,” etc.

WITH A MAP AND NUMEROUS

ILLUSTRATIONS

london
WILLIAM HEINEMANN
1906
Copyright 1906 by William Heinemann

All rights reserved


PREFACE
Since 1871, when Sir Charles MacGregor drew up a very exhaustive
précis of information on Afghanistan for the use of the Government
of India, no book dealing with our buffer state in a general manner
has been issued. The thirty-five years which have intervened have
not been without important contributions to our knowledge of
Afghanistan, but those works which have appeared cannot
altogether be described as presenting a single comprehensive study
of contemporary conditions in the country. In 1886 Lieutenant A. C.
Yate, and in 1888 Major C. E. Yate, C.S.I., C.M.G., described in two
very interesting volumes the proceedings of the Afghan Boundary
Commission. Ten years elapsed before anything of importance
appeared, when, by a rare coincidence, two books dealing with
Afghanistan saw the light in 1895: Mr. Stephen Wheeler’s admirable
account of The Amir Abdur Rahman, and that most entertaining and
graphic volume, My Residence at the Court of the Amir, by the late
Amir’s private physician, Dr. A. J. Gray. In 1900 Sultan Mahomed
Khan, Mir Munshi to Abdur Rahman, presented to the public his
remarkable production, The Life of Abdur Rahman, as well as a
treatise on The Constitution and Laws of Afghanistan. In the
following year, 1901, Colonel Sir Thomas Holdich embodied in The
Indian Borderland many graceful descriptions of scenery and various
centres in Afghanistan while, in 1905, in a series of articles in the
Wide World Magazine, Mrs. Kate Daly, physician to Habib Ullah’s
harem and the Government of Afghanistan, illustrated with many
delightful touches a sojourn of Eight Years Among the Afghans.
These few works practically exhaust contemporary literature on
Afghanistan, and it is in an endeavour to provide a more complete
record of the subject than has hitherto existed that the author of
Korea has compiled this little book. Mistakes are those of his own
making; reflections and criticisms arise from his own opinions; but, in
hoping that his critics may find something of value in the results of
two years’ toil, the author wishes to say that if good qualities exist in
it, they are attributable to the encouragement and gracious
assistance which he has received and here wishes to acknowledge.
With a view to the careful preparation of this volume the author,
after returning to London from the war in Manchuria, visited Central
Asia, his travels terminating abruptly in an attack of small-pox
contracted from the natives, while he was wandering in the region of
the Pamirs. Descending viâ Gilgit to India from the Taghdumbash,
twelve months have been spent in the labour of writing, in the
examination of a number of works, and in reference to those
authorities who are so justly distinguished for their knowledge of the
heart of Mid-Asia. In this direction it is perhaps of interest to point out
that in order to establish a standard of accuracy, certain chapters
have been submitted in page proof to the criticism of this little group
of Central Asian experts, and their corrections embodied in its final
form. The author very warmly appreciates the help which has in this
way been given him, and to Colonel de la Poer Beresford and
Captain Charles Bancroft in connection with chaps. i., ii., iii.; to
Colonel Sir Thomas Holdich, K.C.I.E., K.C.M.G., C.B., in chap. iv.; to
Colonel C. E. Yate, C.S.I., C.M.G., in chaps. v. and vi.; to Colonel Sir
Henry McMahon, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., in chap. ix.; to Dr. A. J. Gray, Mrs.
Kate Daly, and Major Cleveland, I.M.S., in chaps. xiv. and xv. he is
very much indebted, as the indulgent manner in which his inquiries
have been received has materially assisted the conclusion of his
task.
In other quarters similar help has been given, and the author
desires to express his deep obligation to the Secretary of State for
India, Mr. Morley, to Mr. John E. Ellis, Parliamentary Under-Secretary
of State for India, to Sir William Lee-Warner, and to Mr. Thomas, of
the Political Department, India Office, for the considerate way in
which services have been rendered him. The very pleasant
hospitality bestowed upon the author by Mr. George Macartney,
C.S.I., the representative of the Government of India in Kashgar,
Chinese Turkestan; by Mr. L. G. Fraser, the editor of The Times of
India; by Mr. C. F. Meyer, Standard Oil Company’s Agent in Bombay;
by Major Cleveland, in Poona; and by Mr. Ivor Heron-Maxwell, late of
Baku in that centre, has provided him with many haunting memories
which, in a later volume, will be more suitably described. To Dr.
Chalmers Mitchell, Secretary of the Zoological Society of London,
and to Mr. J. Bryant Sowerby, Secretary of the Royal Botanic
Society, the author is indebted for assistance in compiling the tables
of species which illustrate chap. xii.; while to the Librarian of the
India Office, and to the Librarian of the Royal Geographical Society,
he would express his grateful thanks.
As correspondent to The Pall Mall Gazette, and to The Times of
India from Central Asia, it is the pleasant duty of the author to
acknowledge the permission of Sir Douglas Straight and Mr. L. G.
Fraser to make use of certain articles which, although entirely altered
and greatly amplified since their original appearance, were first
presented in the respective columns of these organs. These
extracts, a few brief paragraphs on various pages, are confined
solely to the first six chapters of the book. Acknowledgments are
also due to the proprietors of that esteemed Indian journal The
Pioneer, whose London staff permitted the files of their well-known
paper to be inspected; to the proprietors of The Daily Graphic for
permission to reproduce the block of the Amir’s proclamation, and
accompanying translation, appearing on pages 370, 371; to Messrs.
Macmillan for the right to reproduce their copper engraving of Dr. A.
J. Gray’s painting of the Amir Abdur Rahman; to Baron Herbert de
Reuter, Managing Director of Reuter’s Telegram Company, for
courteous assistance; to Mr. J. D. Holmes, an Indian photographer of
renown, whose unique photographs of the Khyber Pass illustrate
chaps. xvi. and xvii.; to Lieutenant Stewart, whose photographs
appear in chap. ix.; to Lieutenant Olufsen for the right to reproduce
certain interesting photographs from that informative work Through
the Unknown Pamirs; to Colonel Sir Thomas Holdich for authority to
base upon his original sketches enlarged drawings of Herat and
Kandahar, by Mr. Percy Home; to Major Cleveland, I.M.S., to whose
great credit very many of the illustrations in this volume must be
placed; to Major Molesworth Sykes, H.B.M. Consul at Meshed, for
photographs appearing in chap. vii.; to Professor Victor Marsden, of
Moscow University, for general courtesies; to Captain Charles
Bancroft for assistance in translating extracts from papers placed at
the author’s disposal by his Excellency Prince Khilkoff, Russian
Minister of Railways; to that well-known military novelist, Mr. Horace
Wyndham, who has been good enough to assist the author in the
revision of his proofs; and to Mr. Thomas Bumpus, of Messrs. J. and
E. Bumpus, Limited.
The final, but by no means the least gratifying, duty now remains
to be fulfilled. It is concerned with the dedication of this volume
which, by special permission, is inscribed:
to him

who,

by the splendour of his gifts


and

the wisdom of his rule,


has left
an indelible and memorable

impression
upon india:

LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON,

G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., P.C.

ETC. ETC. ETC.


A U T H O R I T I E S C O N S U LT E D
The works consulted in the preparation of this volume, including
references to the Encyclopædia Britannica, embrace most of the
well-known writers on Asiatic Russia, Persia, Afghanistan, and the
Indian Frontier. Among those of less recent date are the books of
Bellew, Connelly, Elphinstone, Ferrier, Lansdell, MacGregor, Marvin,
Pottinger, Rawlinson, Vambéry, Wood and Yule.
Contemporary authorities, to which the author is more especially
indebted, are as follows:
Bruce, R. I. The Forward Policy and its Results.
Chirol, Valentine The Middle Eastern Question.
Curzon, Lord Russia in Central Asia.
” ” Persia and the Persian Question.
” ” The Pamirs and the Source of the Oxus.
Daly, Mrs. Kate Eight Years among the Afghans.
Gray, Dr. A. J. My Residence at the Court of the Amir.
Holdich, Colonel Sir T. H. The Indian Borderland.
Keane, A. H. Asia.
Lansdell, H. Russia in Central Asia.
Olufsen, O. Through the Unknown Pamirs.
Roberts, Field Marshal Lord Forty-one Years in India.
Ronaldshay, Earl of Sport and Politics under an Eastern Sky.
” ” ” On the Outskirts of Empire in Asia.
Shoemaker, M. M. The Heart of the Orient.
Skrine, F. H., and Ross, E. D. The Heart of Asia.
Sultan Mahomed Khan Laws and Constitution of Afghanistan.
” ” ” The Life of Abdur Rahman, Amir of Afghanistan.
Thorburn, S. S. The Punjab in Peace and War.
Yate, A. C. England and Russia Face to Face.
Yate, C. E. Kurasan and Seistan.
” ” Northern Afghanistan.

Together with scientific papers, lectures and articles by:


Colonel de la Poer Beresford.
Major Cleveland.
Major-General Sir Edwin Collen.
Mrs. Kate Daly.
Major-General Sir Edmond Elles.
Sir Lepel Griffin.
Miss Lillias Hamilton.
Colonel Sir Thomas Holdich.
Colonel Sir Henry MacMahon.

And including all Parliamentary, Consular, and other official


publications, the files of The Times, Morning Post, Standard, Daily
Chronicle in England; and The Pioneer, Times of India, and Indian
Daily News in India; besides the more prominent Continental organs.
Royal Societies Club, St. James’s
June 1, 1906.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. The Orenburg-Tashkent Railway 1
II. The Khanate of Bokhara, the Province of Samarkand, the
Districts of Tashkent and Merv 25
III. From Tashkent to Merv 58
IV. The Northern Border and the Oxus River: its Character,
Tributaries and Fords 81
V. The Murghab Valley Railway 110
VI. The Murghab Valley 131
VII. Herat and the Western Border 147
VIII. Kandahar 178
IX. Seistan and the McMahon Mission 211
X. Provinces and District Centres, Ethnographical and
Orological Distribution 242
XI. Administration, Laws and Revenue 269
XII. Trade: Industries and Products 288
XIII. Army, Forts and Communications 308
XIV. Kabul: its Palaces and Court Life 342
XV. Kabul and its Bazaars 376
XVI. Anglo-Afghan Relations 400
XVII. Anglo-Afghan Relations (continued) 427

APPENDICES
I. Names of Stations on the Orenburg-Tashkent Railway 461
II. (A) List of Stations from Tashkent to Merv, with Distances
from Krasnovodsk and Tashkent 463
II. (B) Murghab Valley Railway: List of Stations from Merv to
Kushkinski Post, with Distances from Krasnovodsk and
Merv 464
III. Table of Measurements 465
IV. The Treaty of Gandamak, etc. etc. 466
V. Time Tables of the Oxus Flotilla 519
VI. Return of Articles Exported from Russia to Khorassan 522
during the Period March 21, 1903, to March 20, 1904,
compared with 1900-03
VII. Return of Articles Exported from Khorassan to Russia
during the Period March 21, 1903, to March 20, 1904,
compared with 1900-03 526
VIII. Return of Articles Exported from Afghanistan to
Khorassan and Seistan during the Period March 21,
1903, to March 20, 1904, compared with 1900-03 529
IX. Return of Articles Exported from Khorassan and Seistan
to Afghanistan during the Period March 21, 1903, to
March 20, 1904, compared with 1900-03 531
X. Return of Articles Exported from India to Khorassan viâ
the Seistan Route during the Period March 21, 1903, to
March 20, 1904 534
XI. Return of Articles Exported from Khorassan to India viâ
the Seistan Route during the Period March 21, 1903, to
March 20, 1904 535
XII. Trade Value of the Seistan Route compared with
Competing Routes 536
XIII. Agreement between the United Kingdom and Japan 537
XIV. Chronological Sketch of Afghan History 540
Index 547
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Lord Curzon of Kedleston Frontispiece
Market-cart, Orenburg 1
Tomb in the Market-place, Samarkand 3
Palace of the Governor, Baku 5
The Picturesque Camel 6
The Shir Dar Medresse, Samarkand 7
On the Road in Asia 9
Kirghiz Elders 17
Kirghiz Women 19
Native Quarter, Tashkent 21
Shir Dar, Samarkand 25
The Amir of Bokhara on Palace Steps 27
The Gates of Bokhara 31
The Prison, Bokhara 35
The Minar Kalan, Bokhara 36
The Ark, Bokhara 37
The Tomb of Tamerlane, Samarkand 41
Samarkand—the Hour of Prayer 44
Samarkand—a Bird’s-eye View 45
Sobornaya Boulevard in Tashkent 47
Bazaar Scene 51
Breaking Camp on Manœuvres, Tashkent 53
Native Quarter, Tashkent 58
Koran Stand, Samarkand 58
Peasants from the Golodnaya Steppe 60
The Column of Tamerlane, Samarkand 63
The Registan, Samarkand 65
Throne-Room—Palace of the Amir of Bokhara 68
Amir’s Palace, Bokhara 70
The Dervishes of Bokhara 72
The Kara Kum—Black Sands 76
Mosque at Bairam Ali 77
The Gur Amir 78

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