T. L. Pennell

“ If the ghazi succeeds in escaping, he will earn undying fame, and if he is slain or caught and hung, he makes forthmth a glorious entrance into the joys of Paradise, and the bards will voice his praises in odes to be sung all over the country-side for many a long day to come. ”

“ To forsake Islam is a capital offence, and there is no doubt that even if the court did not inflict the extreme penalty, the vox populi would demand it.
There have been cases where mullahs of learning and distinction have undergone the extreme penalty of Mohammedan law, that of being stoned to death, merely because they have held and taught doctrines considered heretical by the Ecclesiastical Court. A remarkable instance occurred some years ago, when one of the most distinguished mullahs of Kabul was stoned to death for having become a disciple of the Messiah of Qadian, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. ”

“ Just as some chiefs have risen to widely extended power and influence through personal force of character, so some mullahs have attained extraordinary ascendancy over the people, so much so that thousands are ready to flock to their standards when the tocsin of jihad, or religious war, is sounded ; in fact, in the numerous frontier outbreaks and wars, the mullahs have generally taken a more prominent position than the chiefs. They stand to gain more, at least in fame, and to lose less in the event of failure. ”

“ Yet their religious ignorance is on a par with their fanaticism, and though every little village has its mullah and its mosque, yet the mass of the people know only the most elementary facts of their religion. ”

“ These people remember what they have heard and learnt, and thus there are probably few villages in Eastern Afghanistan which do not possess some such quondam patients, who not only retail to their fellow villagers the teaching they have received, but often take back with them copies of the Gospel in Persian and Pashtu, and by what they have learnt of Christian love and sympathy, break down prejudice and prepare a welcome for the missionary himself. ”

“ This college has received the most liberal support from khans on both sides of the frontier, and it is hoped that some of the Trans-frontier chiefs may be induced to send their sons to it.
Among the independent tribes, the only attempt at education is that given by some of the mullahs in their mosques. They teach the Koran by rote, and sometimes a little Persian and theology. Arithmetic and general knowledge are altogether beyond their pale, and English is tabooed. Even in the large towns of Afghanistan, it is exceedingly rare to meet any one able to converse in the English language. ”

“ At all the hospitals at least one, but generally several Gospel addresses are given daily to the out-patients, while those in the wards have the benefit of regular services and systematic teaching, not to speak of the atmosphere of Christian sympathy and service by which they are surrounded. Among both in and out-patients are numerous Afghans who have come from Afghanistan itself, either specially for medical and surgical treatment, or in the ordinary course of trade and travel. ”

“ From what has been said above, it is clear that Afghanistan is one of the most impregnable strongholds of Islam. Among the Pathan tribes, power is divided between the mullahs and the khans, or chiefs; in some parts the secular arm being more powerful, in others, the ecclesiastical, according to the personality^ and power of the leading men on either side. ”

“ The earliest mission on the frontier was at Peshawar, and this was inaugurated in the year 1854 by some distinguished frontier officers, among whom Sir Herbert Edwardes and General Rannell Taylor may be mentioned. There have been some remarkable converts, and there are little Christian congregations at many stations along the frontier. Some of the converts have given their lives for their faith. More than one has been martyred in Afghanistan, preferring a cruel death to a denial of his faith. ”

“ Incited by this belief, and usually primed, too, with the intoxicating charas and Indian hemp, the young ghazi, for he is seldom more than a youth, will recklesslly throw his own life away in the murder, when he might have accomplished his object with less danger, though with less daring publicity. ”

“ The Hazaras are a race of Mongolian origin and profess the Shiah faith, and have consequently been frequently and remorselessly persecuted by the Sunni rulers of the country, and oppressed by their more powerful and numerous Sunni neighbours. ”

“ A long stick with a flag is tied to the tree, and the branches are covered with little bits of white or coloured cloth which have been tied there by pilgrims. Men and women perform long journeys to these zyarats in order to beg some favour from, or offer a prayer to the saint whose bones consecrate the spot. ”

“ This is probably the onl}' occasion on which a Christian missionary has ever preached in the bazaar of Kabul. After the war of 1839-40, the attitude of the Afghan people towards the British, and strangers in general, underwent a great change, and whereas before that war they were politely if not cordially received, afterwards it was as much as any man's life was worth to enter Afghanistan, whether in disguise or not. ”