Ghazni

“ In summer the heat is not like that of Kandahar or Kabul, but the radiation from the bare heights renders the nights oppressive, and constant dust-storms occur. It is evident that the present restricted walls cannot have contained the vaunted city of Mahmud. Probably the existing site formed the citadel only of his city. The remarks of Ibn Batuta (c. 1332) already suggest the present state of things, viz. a small town occupied, a large space of ruin; for a considerable area to the N.E. is covered with ruins, or rather with a vast extent of shapeless mounds, which are pointed out as Old Ghazni. ”

“ Of the approach to Ghazni by the Tochi we know that it is easy enough, for we have made it so, as far as Sheranni, and thence onward to the Katanni Kotal very difficult, steep and broken; but we know practically nothing of the road between the head of the Katanni Pass and Ghazni. Of the Gomal route, so far as Domandi and Wana is familiar enough, but we would give much to know more than we do of the country beyond.
Physically the Wazirs are tall and muscular, and they are also courageous, while, though poor, they are hospitable. ”

“ In 977 another Turk slave, Sabuktagin, who had married the daughter of his master Alptagin, obtained rule in Ghazni. He made himself lord of nearly all the present territory of Afghanistan and of the Punjab. In 997 Mahmud, son of Sabuktagin, succeeded to the government, and with his name Ghazni and the Ghaznevid dynasty have become perpetually associated. Issuing forth year after year from that capital, Mahmud (q.v.) carried fully seventeen expeditions of devastation through northern India and Gujarat, as well as others to the north and west. ”

“ Sir Donald Stewart’s march upon Ghazni was uneventful as far as Shahjui, the limit of the Candahar province, but from that point a change took place; it began to be understood that opposition was likely to occur before Ghazni was reached. At Shahjui the Taraki country begins, and the moollahs had been so active in preaching & jehad that several thousand men had collected on the hills to the east. ”

“ This is a good sign, and proves that Hashim Khan has really no party worthy of the name in this district. To have reached within one march of Ghazni without a sign of opposition of any kind must convince even the greatest alarmist that the effect upon the Afghan mind of Ayub’s victory has been purely local. The whole country about Candahar may be up in arms, but there is no corresponding movement among the warlike population between Cabul and Ghazni.
The troops are improving in health daily, and in spite of long and trying marching there is the best spirit among all ranks. ”

“ He was, however, far from being appeased himself, and determined at once upon quitting Ghazni. Returning home he tore up the draughts of some thousands of verses which he had composed and threw them in the fire, and repairing to the grand mosque of Ghazni he wrote upon the walls, at the place where the sultan was in the habit of praying, the following lines:—
“The auspicious court of Mahmud, king of Zabulistan, is like a sea. What a sea! One cannot see its shore. ”

“ The three regiments at Ghazni are reported to be only five miles out of that place, while four days ago our force from Candahar was at Makr, four long marches from Ghazni. The enemy has been extremely well informed of all our movements, though their source of information cannot be absolutely fixed upon. Regular news was probably given by some of the Amir’s retainers, who see all that goes on in our camp.
The political situation shows no development; the Amir coinciding in all that is done, now that the flight of the mutineers has removed his apprehension of Cabul being sacked. ”

“ Jangis Khan, during his terrific career, in the fourteenth year of slaughter, devastation, and conquest, fell upon the empire of Kharism and Ghazni. Muhammed of the Seljuks was driven from all his possessions, and died a fugitive. He had before divided his empire between his four sons, to one of whom Jelál eddin, he had assigned Kharizm, Khorassan, Mazinderan, Ghazni, Bamian, Ghor, Bost Takanad, Zamigdand, and all the Indian provinces. This prince, retiring before superior forces towards Ghazni, gained two battles over the Moghuls, but was at last obliged to fly to the banks of the Indus. ”

“ The column arrived at Ghazni on 22 July, and Outram did good service by leading the Shah's horse against a large force of the enemy, who had taken up a position on the hills to the southward of and commanding the British camp. He put them to flight, capturing their banner. Ghazni fell the following day. On arriving at Haidar Khel on 3 Aug., Outram was appointed to command an expedition for the capture of Dost Muhammad Khan, who had fled towards Bamian. The force consisted of two thousand of the shah's Afghan horse and one hundred of British Indian cavalry. ”

“ Trade does not extend largely between Afghanistan and India by the Tochi route, being locally confined to the valley and the districts at its head, yet this is the shortest and most direct route between Ghazni and the frontier, and in the palmy days of Ghazni raiding was the road by which the great robber Mahmud occasionally descended on to the Indus plains. ”

“ Their fanaticism would have carried them into the midst of the soldiers; for what resistance can be made to madmen who desire death, and have thrown all thoughts of retreat to the winds? Only a few weeks after the dispersion of Mahomed Jan’s army from before Sherpur, absurd alarmist telegrams were circulated in India and England of a gathering of 20,000 ghazis on the Ghazni Road, only fifty miles from Cabul, and another disaster was foretold by every croaker, who found as much comfort in the awful word “ghazi” as did the old woman in many-syllabled Mesopotamia. ”

“ The winter has come down upon us with a suddenness that we little expected from the mildness of the last season; and 20° of frost have warned us that bivouacking out would be nearly impossible for well-clad soldiers, and would be certain death to hundreds of camp-followers. The news of the disturbances on the Ghazni Road may, perhaps, call forth the remark, that after Cabul had been captured, and the country around cowed into order, a rapid march to Ghazni should have been ordered. ”

“ Up to Ghazni the march was forced in order to get over the worst part of the journey before the middle of December, when the heavy falls of snow usually commence, for the table-land which has to be crossed before reaching Ghazni is well known to those who travel that way, and many have been overtaken by snow and perished there. Consequently each day’s march was a fairly long one, and one day was close on forty miles, which for a Shahzada is looked upon as a good distance. ”

“ They are a fine, manly race of people, and it is from some of their most influential clans (Suliman Khel, Nasir Khel, Kharotis, etc.) that the main body of Povindah merchants is derived. These frontier commercial travellers trade between Ghazni and the plains of India, bringing down their heavily-laden kafilas at the commencement of the cold weather and retiring again to the hills ere the summer heat sets in. ”

“ Broadfoot still stands for our authority in all that pertains to the central Afghan tribes-people—chiefly the Suliman Khel clan of Ghilzais—who 475 occupy the Highlands between Waziristan and Ghazni. Under the iron heel of the late Amir of Afghanistan no doubt much of their turbulent and feud-loving propensities has been repressed, and with its repression has followed a development of agriculture, and a general improvement throughout the favoured districts of Kattawaz and the Ghazni plain. ”

“ Central Afghanistan is open to invasion from the north, west, and south, but not directly from the east. The invasion of Ghur from Ghazni, for instance, must have been directed by Kalat-i-Gilzai, Kariut, and Musa Kila (in Zamindawar) , to Yaman, which lies a little to the east of Ghur (or Taiwara) . So far as we know there are no passes leading due west from Ghazni to the heart of the Taimani country. ”

“ Mahmud died at Ghazni in 1030, the year following his expedition to Persia. He is conspicuous for his military ardour, his ambition, strong will, perseverance, watchfulness and energy, combined with great courage and unbounded self-reliance. But his tastes were not exclusively military. His love of literature brought men of learning to Ghazni, and his acquaintance with Moslem theology was recognized by the learned doctors. ”

“ This route passes well to the north-east of Kandahar, which was apparently of little account in Idrisi's days. Although there are extensive ruins at Kushk-i-Nakhud, indicated by a huge artificial mound half-way between Girishk and Kandahar, there is nothing in Idrisi's writings by which they can be identified.
Ghazni was then a large town "surrounded by mud walls and a ditch. There are many houses and permanent markets in Ghazni; much business is done there. It is one of the 'entrepots' of India. Kabul is nine days' journey from it." ”

“ The local clans would have felt that, if a powerful combination, such as that which had gathered about the Ghazni priest, had failed to drive back the British army, they themselves were powerless to do so. But once the vast host of 50,000 men had occupied Cabul and the Bala Hissar, and had made it impossible for the garrison of Sherpur to move beyond its defences, the Ghilzais felt that the appeal to their fanaticism was a safe lead to follow, and they began to muster in strength. ”

“ The prisoners taken after the fight were dealt with by Major Euan Smith, Political Officer, all the wounded being treated by our surgeons and taken onwards towards Ghazni. Two ghazis only had to be shot; they were fanatics of too exalted minds to accept mercy, and when promised liberty in return for an undertaking to go quietly to their homes, they simply cursed all Kafirs, and swore to kill a Feringhi the instant they should be released. In justice to our men, their lives had to be taken, as Candahar experience has shown that such fanatics always keep their word. ”

“ Roza is directly in front; while in the distance, over a mass of vegetation, rises the Ghazni citadel, the town itself not being visible. The Sher-i-Dahan could scarcely be held against any large force, as it can be turned on either hand, all the hills being accessible to infantry and mountain guns. There are no positions such as can be held by a few hundred men, as in the Khyber, Shutargardan, and Jugdulluck Passes; only sloping sides of hills, many of which horsemen can ride up. These hills are as bare and barren as Afghan hills generally are, not a tree being seen for miles. ”

“ From Ghazni westward, all along the valleys of the Tarnak and the Helmand, down to the basin of Sistan, the whole country is covered with the ruins of former cities, obliterated canals, and deserted cultivation—all assigned to the devastation of the Tartars under Changhiz and Tymúr in the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.
The country has never recovered the havoc created by these curses of the human race. Since the destruction of the Arab rule overthrown by them, the country has known no stable government, and has been a stranger to peace, order, and prosperity alike. ”

“ Our news from Ghazni still shows that there is energy left in Mahomed Jan, and that he has held his own against the Jagri and Besud Hazaras, who have tried to drive him from the neighbourhood. His latest plan to collect a new army is very ingenious. He has placed Musa Jan solemnly before his followers, and made the child repeat after him an oath upon the Koran, by which all true Mahomedans who join in another attack upon Sherpur shall be exempt from taxation for three years. The bait is a tempting one to indigent tribesmen ”

“ Darkness alone prevented the complete destruction of the enemy's infantry. Shamsh-ud-dín fled to Ghazni.
On 5 Sept. Nott was before Ghazni, and during the night commenced the construction of batteries on the hill to the north-east; but at daylight on the 6th it was found that the Afghans had evacuated the city, the walls and gates of which, with its citadel, were destroyed so far as the means available and two days' time would permit. ”

“ After the dynasty had existed about a century, Sabuktagin, a Tûrkish slave belonging to a general of one of the last of the Samanian kings, rendered himself also independent of his master, and established himself in Ghazni, of which he was governor, founding the well-known dynasty of Ghaznavides. His successor, Mahmúd, A.D. 977-1030, is one of the best-known kings in Indian history owing to his brilliant campaigns in India, and more especially that in which he destroyed the celebrated temple of Somnath. ”

“ What their course of behaviour may be hereafter, in case the Ghazni malcontents are able to raise a second jehad of importance, we cannot tell; but they have been given clearly to understand that our forbearance does not arise from any fear of our own strength to crush them, but simply because we desire rather to live on peacablepeacable terms with the people, than to be continually harrying them for their misdeeds. ”

“ The population fluctuates according to the season and the amount of trade passing into India. It seldom rises above 8000 people nor falls much below 3000 people. The inhabitants are largely drawn from the Nasir, Suliman Khel and other Ghilzai clans, who are concerned with the through caravan trade viâ the Gomul, together with a certain proportion of Duranis and Tajiks. There are, also, 250 families of Hazara labourers and perhaps 200 Hindu shopkeepers, bankers and traders. The community in Ghazni is very mixed, ignorant, superstitious and, if the Hindu element is excepted, without wealth. ”