Jellalabad

“ The Fakir hinted to me to suggest some other mode to supersede that of the Sikhs holding possession of Jellalabad. I observed that it now rested with the Maharajah to suggest any plan that might have occurred to his mind. After some further conversation, Runjeet Singh said that an annual tribute of two lakhs of rupees from Shah Soojah would satisfy him for the non-possession of Jellalabad; and this granted, he was willing to co-operate for the restoration of the Shah. The British agents objected to the payment of tribute, as it would be an acknowledgment of inferiority on the part of the Shah ”

“ It was a very foolish attempt, for there was no news of consequence to send; and rousing the Sirdar's suspicion is not the way to make him kind to us.
15th.—Firing of heavy guns distinctly heard to-day; supposed to be a salute at Jellalabad. Shah Shoojah is said to be still in the Bala Hissar; and Zeman Shah Khan with Amenoollah Khan in the city. They are said to be raising a force to be sent by the former against Jellalabad; which force is to be commanded by his son Futteh Jung. To-day we hear that our horses are not to be taken away from us ”

“ The mural crown, a device which is associated with the name of Jellalabad, was given to this regiment in token of its fine work in the first Afghan War, when not only a human but a natural foe cast about, in vain, to bring it defeat. We are alluding to the crafty Afghans and the appalling earthquakes which rent the walls and buildings of Jellalabad whilst Robert Sale was in command.
The battle honours are: Gibraltar, 1704-5; Dettingen ”

“ From what I hear the Sepoys at Peshawur are almost in a state of mutiny. The Sikhs have sapped their loyalty, and have assured them that they will never be able to force the pass; and when they do move forward they cannot be depended upon to stand by the British troops so that your danger may be as great one way as another. However, Jellalabad is your choice and not mine. The citadel there is strong, and when the town is captured, as it certainly will be soon, the troops can retire there, and may hold out until they make terms and are allowed to return to India. ”

“ Captain Skinner, summoned by Akbar, brought back a message that General Elphinstone should visit him to take part in a conference, and that Brigadier Shelton and Captain Johnson should be given over as hostages for the evacuation of Jellalabad. Compliance was held to be imperative, and the temporary command was entrusted to Brigadier Anquetil. ”

“ The British troops that marched out on that 6th January numbered 4500 fighting men, of whom 700 were Europeans, and about 12,000 camp followers. [88] Of this force two men reached Jellalabad alive, one of whom died on the following day. The married officers and their wives, with all the women and children, and a few of the wounded, were on the third day of the retreat placed in the care of Akbar Khan, who, to give him such credit as is his due, for once kept his word when he promised to treat them honourably and well ”

“ The province of Jalalabad is about 80 m. in length by 35 in width, and includes the large district of Laghman north of the Kabul river, as well as that on the south called Ningrahar. The climate of Jalalabad is similar to that of Peshawar. As a strategical centre Jalalabad is one of the most important positions in Afghanistan, for it dominates the entrances to the Laghman and the Kunar valleys; commanding routes to Chitral or India north of the Khyber, as well as the Kabul-Peshawar road. ”

“ Ismailians to follow his example. Belief seems to have been given to these assurances, for when his wife and mother went on a pilgrimage to Mecca they were received with distinction at Bagdad and the party of pilgrims who marched under the banner of the Alamut ruler preceded all others. He lived only twelve years after coming to the throne but during those years he built mosques, established schools and called in learned men to teach his people the true faith. Some historians consider Jelal ud din a shrewd politician rather than a reformer and assert that he remained an apostle of atheism. ”

“ Wherever it can be irrigated from the Kabul river it is delightfully fertile, but everywhere else it is hot barren desert. The climate of Jelalabad is much more tropical than that of Kabul—more resembling the climate of Central India; and in the winter the nomadic Afghans of the hills in the Kabul province pack their belongings on donkeys or bullocks, and with their whole families move down to Jelalabad, so that the winter population of the town is enormously greater than that of the summer. ”

“ The Palace was semi-European in its internal decoration. It was unfinished at this time. There was a large central hall with a domed roof, and smaller rooms at the side: a separate enclosure was built for the ladies of the harem: near by were kitchens, rooms for the Afghan bath, and a Guest house or pavilion in a garden of its own.
Jelalabad.
The town of Jelalabad is between ninety and a hundred miles from the Indian frontier town Peshawur, and contains, in the summer, a population of from three to four thousand inhabitants. There is one chief bazaar or street with shops. ”

“ So far as I could see there was but one place to which the phrase used by the Sheikh Al-Abbas could be applied. That was a few miles to the east of Jelalabad, where the Chitral and Kabul rivers mingle together and flow down to the great lakes.
"I made my way up to Peshawar, and in the disguise of an Afghan hillman crossed the border. At Lalpura I fell in with a travelling merchant, who was in much fear of being waylaid by robbers. 'Two,' said he, 'are better company than one.' And together we set out on the road to Jelalabad. ”

“ The shorter marches are over bad mountain tracts, which tire the horses quite as much as a longer journey over fairly level country. The sixth day’s journey to Jelalabad is over ground which slopes down gradually from the foot hills, but almost the whole of it is through sand mixed with small stones in which the horses’ feet sink deeply, and makes the going hard and tiring. ”

“ Jelalabad stands on the Kabul River, about half-way between Kabul and the Khaiber Pass. It was the scene of the stubborn defence by Sir Robert Sale in 1842, referred to elsewhere. It has a floating population of about three thousand souls. Our engraving is taken from the south and west. The stream in the west is the Kabul River. The Jati gate in the south wall is the exit from the Hindu quarter. The Kabul exit is on the west, while the road to Peshawur commences at the gate of that name on the east wall of the city. ”

“ After the birth of Sultān Veled at Larenda, Jelāl’s father was invited to Qonya by the Seljūqi king, ‘Alā’u-’d-Dīn Kayqubād, where he founded a college, and where he died in A.D. 1231. The king built a marble mausoleum over his grave, with this date inscribed on it. The king himself died, five years later, in A.D. 1236.
At his father’s death, Jelāl went to Aleppo and Damascus for several years to study, and then returned to Qonya, where he was appointed professor of four separate colleges. ”

“ On reaching the base of the hills where the Wady Kelt debouches into the Jordan Valley, we find ourselves in the immediate presence of four ancient sites. Three of these are the sites of three different Jerichos, and one is the site of Gilgal. It is certain that the Jewish, the Roman, and the Byzantine Crusaders' Jericho occupied three different positions. The first has been identified with tolerable certainty as having existed where mounds of rubble mark its site, near the spring called in old times the Fountain of Elijah, and known now as the Ain es-Sultan. ”

“ The generals insisted so firmly that Jelal had to yield to them.
Khelat was given up for a time to the army; for three days and nights did wild, savage men work their will on it. A great many people expired under torture inflicted to force them to tell where their treasures were hidden. Women and children were saved for captivity. The Georgian wife of Prince Ashraf was taken by Jelal, who made her his concubine.
Two younger brothers, Yakub and Abbas, fell into the power of the conqueror also. The Sultan now had the walls of the city repaired, and gave land in that region to his generals. ”

“ A company of black-habited ones (Christian priests or monks) chanced to meet Jelāl one day, as they came from a distant place. When his disciples espied them afar off, they expressed their aversion from them by exclaiming: “O the dark-looking, disagreeable things!”
Jelāl remarked: “In the whole world, none are more generous than they are. They have given over to us, in this life, the faith of Islām, purity, cleanliness, and the various modes of worshipping God ”

“ Therefore, thus saith Jahveh of hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever."
The command, "Go and speak to the men of Judah," etc., shows that it was not in the chamber of the temple, in presence of the Rechabites, but probably in one of the temple fore-courts, that Jeremiah addressed the following word of the Lord to the people assembled there. In order to shame the Jews thoroughly, he shows them the faithfulness with which the Rechabites observe the ordinances of their ancestor Jonadab. ”

“ The mountains on the eastern side of the Jordan are more lofty than those which skirt the Vale of Jericho, being not less than 2000 feet in height. From the summit of a towering peak, which the traveller still delights to recognise, Moses was permitted to behold the promised inheritance, stretching towards the west, the south, and the north,—"All the land of Gilead unto Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah unto the utmost sea, and the south, and the plain of the Valley of Jericho, the city of palm-trees, unto Zoar. ”

“ Jelāl was five years old when they left Balkh. By way of Bagdād they went to Mekka, thence to Damascus, and next toix Erzinjān, in Armenia; thence to Larenda, in Asia Minor. Jelāl’s mother was still with the party. He was now eighteen years old; and was married, at Larenda, to a lady named Gevher (Pearl) , daughter of a certain Lala Sherefu-’d-Dīn of Samarqand, in A.D. 1226.2 She bore him two sons there, ‘Alā’u-’d-Dīn (afterwards killed in a tumult at Qonya) and Bahā’u-’d-Dīn Sultān Veled, through whom the succession of the house was continued. She appears to have died rather young ”

“ Why strive to make us doubt our eyes? By the God of heaven and earth, he was with us in person, habited in the very dress he now wears, when we all assumed the pilgrim garb at Mekka. He performed with us all the ceremonies of the pilgrimage, there and at ‘Arafāt.15 He visited with us the tomb of the Prophet at Medīna; though he never once ate or drank with us. Now he pretends that he does not know us or we know him.”
On hearing this declaration, Jelāl’s disciples were transported with joy, a musical festival ensued, and all those pilgrims became disciples. ”

“ The mother of Es-Sarakhsī was descended from the Caliph ‘Alī; and Jelāl’s paternal grandmother was a daughter of the King of Kh’ārezm, who resided at Balkh.
Jelāl’s paternal great-great-grandmother, also, the mother of Ahmed, El-Khatībī, grandfather of Jelāl’s father, was a daughter of a king of Balkh. These particulars establish that Jelāl was well descended on both sides, in a mundane and in a spiritual sense. The well-known proverb—
“Hereditary disposition ever insinuates itself,”
proved fully true in his most illustrious case. ”

“ South of the Yarmuk the black basalt of the Jaulan yields to the light limestone of the west-Jordan. The entire territory of Gilead more closely resembles the western hills of Palestine than does any other part of the east-Jordan region. On the broad rolling uplands of eastern Gilead there are large [59] grain fields and the soil is cultivated at many other points. In the Roman period great cities, of which Gerasa (44) was the chief, testified to the rich productivity of this region, but for the most part it is the paradise of the herdsmen and the shepherd. ”

“ Chelebī Emīr ‘Ārif related that his father, Sultan Veled, told him that one day, as a trial and test, Shemsu-’d-Dīn requested Jelāl to make him a present of a slave. Jelāl instantly went and fetched his own wife, Kirā Khātūn, who was as extremely beautiful as virtuous and saintlike, offering her to him.
To this act of renunciation Shemsu-’d-Dīn replied: “She is my most esteemed sister. What I want is a youth to wait on me.” ”

“ The road from Jenin passed near the base of Mount Gilboa, and as our friends followed the ridge on which their track lay they found themselves on the water-shed between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean. They passed the village of Zerin, the ancient Jezreel, where Jezebel was thrown to the dogs, and where Ahab's palace is supposed to have stood. To the east of the village is the spring of Harod and the fountain of Jezreel, where Saul's army made its last camp. ”

“ In the name Jebeil we may perhaps recognise the Gebal of this tradition; and in that case the “monument of the tribes” would be the traditional altar of Joshua in Ebal. If this be so, the southern peak must be the early Christian Gerizim; but the name is apparently lost.{212}
The neighbourhood of Jericho has been a favourite retreat for hermits since the fourth century. In the twelfth it was full of monasteries, and the ruins of no less than seven of these buildings remain, without counting the chapels on Kŭrŭntŭl, or the Templars’ church in the fortress on the summit of the same mountain. ”