Kabul

“ As the key of northern India, Kabul has been a city of vast importance for countless ages. It commands all the passes which here debouch from the north through the Hindu Kush, and from the west through Kandahar; and through it passed successive invasions of India by Alexander the Great, Mahmud of Ghazni, Jenghiz Khan, Baber, Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah. Indeed from the time of Baber to that of Nadir Shah (1526-1738) Kabul was part of the empire of Delhi. It is now some 160 m. from the British frontier post of Jamrud near Peshawar. ”

“ There are many gardens of a sort in Kabul; and each is thronged by people, who sit about the pathways bartering for bunches of fruit and trays of sweetmeats, or loll with rapt attention around the perch of some singing-bird. Every man of consequence is attended by slaves bearing his pipe, the cage of his pet songster, sweetmeats and fruit, the party coming to a halt in some secluded spot where, lying at ease, receiving and returning the salutations of his friends, he listens to the notes of his favourite bird. ”

“ The city of Kabul, 5,780 feet above the sea, lies then at the foot of the bare and rocky mountains forming the west boundary of the Kabul valley, just at the triangular gorge made by the Kabul river. Through this gorge runs the high road to Turkestan and Ghuzni. An ancient brick wall, high, though somewhat ruined, with towers at intervals, leads up on each side of the gorge to the summit of the Asmai and Shere Derwaza mountains, along the latter to the Bala Hissar spur, where it joins the fort. From the Asmai a line of hills extends west to the Paghman range. ”

“ He has taken toll of the North and the South—his glory reacheth far,
And they tell the tale of his charity from Balkh to Kandahar.
Before the old Peshawur Gate, where Kurd and Kaffir meet,
The Governor of Kabul dealt the Justice of the Street,
And that was strait as running noose and swift as plunging knife,
Tho’ he who held the longer purse might hold the longer life. ”

“ The slaves of Kabul are those who have been kidnapped from Kaffristan, or who are prisoners of war, taken when some tribe breaks out in rebellion against the Amîr. When it is remembered that the Afghans, though at present the dominant race, form only a part, and a minor part, of the population, there being several other nations, of different physical conformity, different language, religion, and customs, inhabiting the country, the fact of frequent outbreaks and rebellions is less inexplicable than it would otherwise be. ”

“ For ages it has been a proverb among the natives of India that he who goes to Kabul carries his life in his hand. They say, “Trust a cobra, but never an Afghan;” and there is no denying the fact that the people of Afghanistan have had the credit from time immemorial of being a turbulent nation of highway robbers and murderers. If there were any chance of plunder they spared not even their co-religionists, and, being fanatical Mahomedans, they were particularly “down” on any unfortunate traveller suspected of being a Feringhi and an infidel. ”

“ It is unfortunate that the season is so late, and that winter will soon be here; but there is yet time for a British army to reach Kabul before the great cold sets in.
The Viceroy of India is much concerned that there should have been any delay in promptly acceding to Your Highness's request for advice and assistance, as conveyed in Your Highness's letters of the 3rd and 4th instant. It was His Excellency's earnest wish that troops should march on Kabul at once, so as to ensure Your Highness's personal safety and aid Your Highness in restoring peace and order at your capital. ”

“ These are the people who are feared by the inhabitants of Kabul when disturbances set in, for they come in thousands, naked, practically, and having nothing to lose but life, which they value little, loot all, rich and poor alike, for the poor of Kabul are like princes for wealth to them. ”

“ A powerful Asiatic ruler has the means of ensuring a silence which is absolute, and nothing is ever known from Kabul except what the amir wishes to be known. Probably larger numbers of the growing boys and young men of Kafiristan are fanatical Mahommedans, fanatical with the zeal of the recent convert, while the older people and the majority of the population cherish their ancient customs in secret and their degraded religion in fear and trembling—waiting dumbly for a sign. ”

“ Then we crossed the bridge and rode on again. From here, almost to the Kabul valley, the road is through a very wild and desolate mountainous region; you gradually rise higher and higher, to nearly 8,000 feet, but just before you reach Kabul, descend some 2,000 feet, the valley of Kabul being 6,000 feet above the sea. It is, of course, a very great deal colder in this region than in Jelalabad; in fact, while the harvest is being reaped in Jelalabad, the corn at Gundamuk, only twenty-five miles further on, is but an inch or two above the ground. ”

“ This wall was built many years ago as a protection against the raids of the wild tribes inhabiting the country south-west of Kabul, who frequently fell upon the city in great numbers, putting the people to the sword and carrying off all the loot they could get, including women and cattle, both of which are looked upon in much the same light in Afghanistan.
The country round Kabul is well cultivated, and as there is little rainfall irrigation is resorted to for watering the crops. ”

“ Cleveland, the wife of Major Cleveland, arrived in Kabul with her husband, coming at the same time as the Misses Brown, that any explanation was forthcoming. It may be said here that, in both cases, the Amir endeavoured to induce the women to return to India: unluckily, each was obdurate, and the pair have been converted to Islamism taking up their residence in the hovels of the Kabul bazaar, where, enclosed from the world, they endure an existence the sordid tragedy of which forbids more detailed description. ”

“ The flocks of sheep and goats and the droves of camels also suffer; and, as there is a large nomadic population in the district, the distress is not confined to the limits of the town. Indeed, the Ghazni centre experiences a higher rate of mortality than anywhere else in Afghanistan.
Kabul is situated at the western extremity of a spacious plain in an angle formed by the approach of two converging heights, the Asmai and the Shere Darwaza, with which the Takht-i-Shah is joined by a narrow ridge 7 miles above the confluence of the Logar and Kabul rivers. ”

“ Illustrations of the harshness of the law abound in Kabul itself. It is a common spectacle to see prisoners, their ankles encircled by steel bands, which are connected by a rod to a chain round their waists, sitting by the wayside asking alms of passers-by. ”

“ He, the correspondent of the Times, tells us that Maya tribes form still part of the population of Afghanistan. He also tells us that Kabul is the name of the river, on the banks of which their villages are situated. But Kabul is the name of an antique shrine in the city of Izamal. Cogolludo, in the lib. IV., cap. VIII. of his History of Yucatan, says: “They had another temple on another mound, on the west side of the square, also dedicated to the same idol. They had there the symbol of a hand, as souvenir. To that temple they carried their dead and the sick. ”

“ The Afghans are an essentially arrogant and conceited people; they had not forgotten our disastrous retreat from Kabul, nor the annihilation of our array in the Khurd Kabul and Jagdalak Passes in 1842, and [Page 377] believed themselves to be quite capable of resisting our advance on Kabul. ”

“ Eastward it extends to the border of Jalalabad at Jagdalak; southward it includes the Logar district, and extends to the border of Ghazni; north-westward it includes the Paghman hills, and the valley of the upper Kabul river, and so to the Koh-i-Baba. Roughly it embraces a territory of about 100 m. square, chiefly mountainous. Wheat and barley are the staple products of the arable tracts. Artificial grasses are also much cultivated, and fruits largely, especially in the Koh Daman. A considerable part of the population spends the summer in tents. ”

“ Former dangers of the valley of Katasang. Enterprising peasants. Tomb in the Sei Baba valley. Burial customs. The Lataband Pass and the Iron Cage. Distant view of Kabul. The Amîr’s projected road at Lataband. The approach to Kabul. The Lahore Gate.
We arrived at Jelalabad about the middle of the afternoon. The town is fortified; surrounded by a high wall, with bastions and loopholes; and is in a good state of repair. We entered one of the massive gates, rode through the bazaars to the Palace. The bazaars, like those of Kabul, are roughly roofed over to keep out the glare of the sun. ”

“ Many of the well-to-do natives of Afghanistan have that dread; and at the time when the present Amîr was severely ill, in 1890, there was such trepidation and anxiety in Kabul, that many of the well-to-do concealed their more portable valuables by burying them in the earth, and sought for safer retreats outside the town, to which they could hurry in time of need. ”

“ The government of Afghanistan is an absolute monarchy under the amir, and succession to the throne is hereditary. There are five chief political divisions in the country—-namely, Kabul, Turkestan, Herat, Kandahar and Badakshan, each of which is ruled by a ``naib'' or governor, whom is directly responsible to the amir. ”

“ Whether the fruits of such a friendship would be wholesome, and conduce to the interests of Afghanistan, no one takes into question. The Afghans, like all Asiatics, look only to the interests of the moment, see only the harm which Afghans have suffered in Kashmere and Sindh through English ascendancy, have a lively remembrance of the last sojourn of the red-jackets in Kabul and Kandahar ”

“ The first Mahommedan attempts at the conquest of Kabul were unsuccessful, though Seistan and Arachosia were permanently held from an early date. It was not till the end of the 10th century that a Hindu prince ceased to reign in Kabul, and it fell into the hands of the Turk Sabuktagin, who had established his capital at Ghazni. There, too, reigned his famous son Mahmud, and a series of descendants, till the middle of the 12th century, rendering the city one of the most splendid in Asia. We then have a powerful dynasty, commonly believed to have been of Afghan race ”

“ Tents of every kind, camels, yaks, mules and horses, coolie transports of various races, men of many languages and many religions, give to this high-laid town a truly cosmopolitan stamp in the summer time when the passes are open.1238 Kabul, which lies at an altitude of nearly 6000 feet near the head of the Kabul River, is the focus of numerous routes over the Hindu Kush, and dominates all routes converging on the northwest frontier of the Punjab.1239 It is therefore the military and commercial key to India. ”

“ Though some tribes are said to be nomadic, predatory, and the poorest and most barbarous of all the races in Afghanistan, those I came in contact with seemed, compared with the Afghans, a hard working peaceful people, unless they were roused by cruelty and oppression; then, indeed, they fought with dogged persistence. They seemed to have a certain simplicity of character which contrasted strongly with the duplicity of the Afghan. Though undersized, they are of great physical strength, and as slaves taken in war, or servants for hire, they seemed to me to do all the hard work in Kabul. ”

“ If the Afghan is taught his business properly, the occupation of Kabul by an advancing foe from the north may be written down as relegated to past history. It should never happen again. On the Herat side to the west it is different. There the steady progress of a considerable force supported by a railway is practicable as far as Kandahar, provided there is sufficient development of water-supply along the route. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I understand that there is no one at Kelat-i-Ghilzai or Ghazni to stop the progress of the troops en route from Kandahar. There is no reason, therefore, why they should not reach Kabul in a very short time. ”

“ The road from Balkh to Kabul and from Kabul to the Punjab was pre-eminently a Buddhist route. Balkh, Haibak, and Bamian all testify, as does the neighbourhood of Kabul itself, to the existence of a lively Buddhist history before the Mahomedan Conquest, and between Kabul and India there are Buddhist remains near Jalalabad which rival in splendour those of the Swat valley and the Upper Punjab. All these places were objects of devout attention undoubtedly, but to reach Kabul via Balkh from Khotan it would be necessary to cross the Pamirs and Badakshan. ”

“ Byrnes and twenty-three of his followers were massacred. One hour later a British relief corps tried to enter the city. All Kabul turned against them. The British were forced to retire. The news of this set Afghanistan wild. Thousands of armed mountaineers flocked to Kabul, and the whole nation rose against the foreigners. The British troops were cut off from all supplies. They maintained their precarious position only by lavish promises of ransom. At Afghans up in arms length, after many parleys, a meeting was arranged, for December 23, between MacNaghten and the Afghan chiefs. ”