Author's note: This study is based on primary and relevant secondary sources in English and Persian. In addition to materials gathered from the India Office Records in London and the National Archives of India, I have used eyewitness reports by 19th-century Western writers such as Mountstuart Elphinstone, who visited Kabul in 1808 during the reign of Shah Shujāʿ Joseph Ferrier, a French general who visited Afghanistan in the mid-1800s; Howard Hensman, special correspondence of the Pioneer (Allahabad) and the Daily News (London), who accompanied British troops in Afghanistan during the second Anglo- Afghan war. I have also consulted the work of Mohan Lai, an Indian secretary who served under General MacNaughten and Major Burns in Kabul in the mid-19th century; and the autobiography of Amir ʿAbd al-Rahman, translated into English by his secretary, Sultan Mahomed (Muhammad) Mir Munshi. The most important sources in Persian are 19th-century and early 20th-century government publications; Naqshbandi texts written by Mujaddidi shaykhs, ʿUmdat al-Muqāmāt (written in the early 1800s by Muḥammad Fazl-Allah) and Hidayāt al-ʿUrfān (written in the mid-19th century by Muḥammad ʿUmar Jān); Tāj al-Tawārīkh, Amir ʿAbd al-Rahman's autobiography; Ṭuhfat al-Amīr fī Bayān-i-Sulūk wa al-Tadbīr written by Muḥammad Tāj al-Dīn Afghāni at Amir Habib-Allah's order; and Sirāj al-Tawārīkh written by FaiṼ Muhammad Kātib, court historian in the time of King Habib-Allah.

I am grateful to Ludwig Adamec for sharing materials from the National Archives of India. The NAI files used in this work are from his library.

¹ Munshi, Sultan Mahomed Mir, ed. and trans., The Life of Amir Abdur Rahman: Amir of Afghanistan, 2 vols. (London: John Murray, 1901), 2:251.Google Scholar

² Hensman, Howard, The Afghan War of 1879–80 (London: H. Allen and Co., 1881), 336.Google Scholar

³ Ludwig Adamec's works on diplomatic history in Afghanistan covers in detail Afghanistan's relations with Great Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

⁴ This theme is explored by David Gibbs to explain the tenacious resistance in the countryside to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and to the domestic Marxist regime in Afghanistan during the 1980s; Gibbs, David, “The Peasant as Counter Revolutionary: The Rural Origins of the Afghan Insurgency,” in Studies in Comparative International Development 21 (Spring 1986): 36–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵ Ferrier, J. P., History of the Afghans (London: John Murray, 1858), 95.Google Scholar

⁶ Ḥabībī, ʿAbd al-Ḥayy, Tārīkh ī-MukhtaṠar-i-Afghānistān, 2 vols. (Kabul: The Book Publishing Institute, 1970), 2:99.Google Scholar

⁷ Fufalzai, ʿAzīz al-Dīn W., Timūr Shāh Durrāni, 2 vols. (Kabul: Historical Society, 1967), 1:41.Google Scholar

⁸ Lal, Mohan, The Life of the Amir Dost Muhammad Khan of Kabul, Pakistan ed., 2 vols. (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1978), 1:168–69;Google ScholarFerrier, , History of the Afghans, 203.Google Scholar

⁹ Lal, , Life of the Amir 2:277.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Fufalzai, ʿAzīz al-Dīn W., Durrat al-Zamān fī Tārī kh-i-Shāh Zamān, 22–23.Google Scholar

¹¹ Jān, Muḥammad ʿUmar, Hidāyat alʿUrfān: Dar Baiyān-i-Azkār-i-Tarīqa-i ʿāliya-i-Naqshbandiyya (Kabul: Nuʿmāni Publishers, 1940), 59.Google Scholar

¹² Shikārpūri, ʿAṭā Muḥammad, Nawā-I-Maʿārik, quoted by Fulfalzai, Durrat al-Zamān, 274.Google Scholar

¹³ Ghani, Ashraf, “Islam and State-Building in a Tribal Society: Afghanistan 1880–1901,” Modern Asian Society 12, 2 (1978): 271.Google Scholar

¹⁴ The part of Kabul that once belonged to the descendants of Mīr, Ahmad was referred to as the awqāf of Mīr Wāʿiẓ in the official listings of the revenue office.

¹⁵ Elphinstone, Mountstuart, An Account of the Kingdom ofCaubul, 4th ed., 2 vols. (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1972), 2:83.Google Scholar

¹⁶ l-Allah, Muhammad FaṼ, ʿUmdat al-Muqāmāt (Kabul: Nuʿ māni Publishers, 1355/1925), 99–102.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Fufalzai, , Timţr Shāh Durrāni, 2:309.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Kātib, FaiṼ Muḥammad, Sirāj al-Tawārīkh (Kabul: Government Press, 1912), 1:135;Google ScholarGhubār, M. G. Muhammad, Afghānistān dar Masīr-i-Tārīkh (Kabul: Publishing Institute, 1967), 406;Google ScholarFufalzai, , Durrat al-Zamān, 116.Google Scholar

¹⁹ By 1838, as the result of intense internal strife among Durrāni princes, large portions of Durrāni or Sadduzai territory such as Panjab, Kashmir, and Moltan had been lost to the Sikhs, and local leaders in northern Afghanistan were proclaiming independence.

²⁰ Ferrier, , History of the Afghans, 331.Google Scholar

²¹ Ibid., 332.

²² Ibid., 334.

²³ Ibid., 332.

²⁴ Wheeler, J. Talboys, Memorandum on Afghanistan Affair from A.D. 1700 (Calcutta: Office of Superintendent of Government Printing, 1869), 112.Google Scholar

²⁵ Gregorian, Vartan, The Emergence of Modern Afghanistan: Politics of Reform and Modernization, 1880–1946 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1969), 83.Google Scholar

²⁶ Ibid.

²⁷ Forbes, Archibald, The Afghan Wars, 1839–42 and 1878–80, 4th ed. (London: Seeley and Co., Ltd., 1906), 224.Google Scholar

²⁸ Ibid., 358.

²⁹ Hensman, , The Afghan War, 264.Google Scholar

³⁰ Barthorp, Michael, The North-West Frontier: A Pictorial History, 1859–1947 (Bristol: Blandford Press, 1982), 85.Google Scholar

³¹ India Office Records, L/P&S/10/125, 3082, A.165, confidential document, 1907Google Scholar. These preliminary negotiations formed the basis of the so-called Clarendon-Gortschakoff Agreement of 1872–1873Google Scholar.

³² Hensman, , The Afghan War, 435.Google Scholar

³³ Adamec, Ludwig, Afghanistan, 1900–1923: A Diplomatic History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), 14–15.Google Scholar

³⁴ India Office Records, L/P&S/10/125, 3082, A 165, 1907Google Scholar.

³⁵ A report compiled by the political department of India office affirms that “there is no record of any formal acceptance by Amir ʿAbd al-Rahman of the terms set forth in Mr. Griffin's letter of July 1880”; ibid. The amir did, however, assure the British that “if I have the friendship of a great government like yours, how can I communicate with another power without advice from and consultation with you”; ibid.

³⁶ Ghubār, , Afghānistān dar Masīr-i-Tārīkh, 641Google Scholar. In his autobiography, ʿAbd al-Rahman felt compelled to respond to the allegations of apostasy leveled against him by the clergy because of his alleged friendly ties with the British. Munshi, Mir, The Life of Abdur Rahman, 1:225Google Scholar.

³⁷ Kakar, Hasan, Government and Society in Afghanistan: The Reign of Amir Abd al-Rahman Khan (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979), 164–65.Google Scholar

³⁸ Biographical Accounts of Chiefs, Sardars and Others of Afghanistan (Strictly Confidential), Foreign Office of India (Calcutta: Office of Superintendent of Government Printing,1869), 112Google Scholar, cited by Adamec, , Historical and Political Who's Who of Afghanistan, 98Google Scholar.

³⁹ Biographical Accounts, 6Google Scholar.

⁴⁰ Munshi, Mir, The Life of Abdur Rahman, 1:265.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Ibid., 15.

⁴² Ghani, , “Islam and State-Building, 279.Google Scholar

⁴³ Kātib, , Sirāj al-Tawārīkh, 3:941Google Scholar. From this time until the end of King Shah's, Zahir reign (1933–1973) the qadis were appointed directly by the kingGoogle Scholar.

⁴⁴ Qureshi, , 162Google Scholar. The Akhundzada of Swāt claimed spiritual leadership through a chain of predecessors (silsila), mainly shaykh Junaid of Peshawar and Shaykh Ahmad of Delhi, to Sayyid Abdal-Qadir Gailani; interview with al-Qayyūm, Padshah Sāhib Sayyid ʿAbd, the last shaykh in the line of the successors of Akhundzada of Swāt through the Mulla of Hadda, Peshawar, 23 09 1994Google Scholar.

⁴⁵ Kakar, , Government and Society, 125.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Biographical Accounts, 147Google Scholar.

⁴⁷ Kāfiristān, land of the infidels (kāfirs), is currently known as Nuristan.

⁴⁸ Curzon, George N. (Marquess of Kedleston), Tales of Travel (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1923), 67.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Adamec, , Historical and Political Who's Who, 230Google Scholar; Schinazi, May, Afghanistan at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century: Nationalism and Journalism in Afghanistan—A Study of Siraj al-Akhbar, 1911–1918 (Naples: Instituto Universitario Orientale Seminaro di Studi Asiatici, 1979), 117Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ National Archives of India, January 1905, tel. 73k, 23 12 1904.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Adamec, , Afghanistan, 1900–1923, 70.Google Scholar

⁵² National Archives of India, Foreign Department Notes, Secret File, 07 1908, Nos. 276–78.Google Scholar

⁵³ Ibid., nos. 276–78, 46.

⁵⁴ Kepple, Arnold, Gun-Running and the Indian North-West Frontier, 2nd ed. (Quetta, Pakistan: Gushae-Adab, 1977), 78.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Government of India, secret serial no. 88, Who's Who in Afghanistan (Simla: Government Monotype Press, 1914), 11.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Keppel, , Gun-Running, 72'73.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Ibid., 52.

⁵⁸ India Office Records, L/P&S/14/6, Kharita no. 11 p.o., Simla, 14 07 1913Google Scholar, from His Excellency the Viceroy to His Majesty Amir of Afghanistan.

⁵⁹ National Archives of India, Foreign Secret File, nos. 23–32, 02 1907.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Adamec, , Afghanistan, 1900–1923, 67.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Ghubār, , Afghānistān dar Masī, 711.Google Scholar

⁶² See, for example, Afghāni, M. Tāj al-Dīn, Ṭuhfat al-Amīr fī Bayān-i-Suluk wa al-Tadbīr (Kabul: Government Printing House, n.d.), chaps. 1–5.Google Scholar

⁶³ Ḥabībī, ʿAbd al-Hayy, Junbish-i-Mashrūḥiyyat dar Afghānistān (Washington, D.C.: Private Press, 1986), 13.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Ahang, M. Kāẓim, Sayr-i-Zhurnalizm dar Afghānistān (Kabul: Historical and Literary Society, 1970), 72–73.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Ḥabībī, , Junbish-i-Mashrūṭiyyat dar Afghānistān, 8.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Ghubār, , Afghānistān dar Masī, 718–19.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Habībī, , Junbish-i-Mashrūṭiyyat dar Afghānistān, 16Google Scholar; Ghubār, , Afghānistān dar Masir-i-Sarikh, 718Google Scholar.

⁶⁸ Qureshi, I. Husain, Ulema in Politics: A Study Relating to the Political Activities of the Ulema in the South-Asian Subcontinent from 1556–1947, 2nd ed. (Karachi: Maʿaref Limited, 1974), 224.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Ibid., 246–47.

⁷⁰ On 3 03 1915Google Scholar, the viceroy wrote to Habib-Allah: “I am delighted to have proof that in spite of such influences as may be at work in your territories Your Majesty is steadily pursuing the policy of neutrality which throughout you have declared to the King Emperor's Government. I have had evidence of your Majesty's wise influence in the temperate preaching of mollahs on the frontier and in the improved tone of the ‘Siraj-ul-Akhbar [sic] newspaper.” India Office Library, L/P&S/14/6, Kharita no. 6, POA, 3 03 1915Google Scholar, from HE Viceroy and Gov. G. to HM A of Afghanistan.

⁷¹ India Office Records, London, L/P&S/14/6, Kharita no. 10, PO-A, Simla, 10 05 1915, from Viceroy to Amir Habib-Allah.Google Scholar

⁷² India Office Records, L/P&S/10/544, P 3352, 15 09 1915Google Scholar.

⁷³ Ibid., P3845, 1915; P3258, 1915.

⁷⁴ Ibid., P3553, 29 August 1915.

⁷⁵ Ibid., L/P&S/14/6, tel. no. S.994, 28 09 1915Google Scholar.

⁷⁶ Ibid.

⁷⁷ Ibid.

⁷⁸ Ibid.; Sirāj al-Akhbār, Kabul, vi, no. 15, 14 04 1916.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Adamec, , Afghanistan, 1900–1923, 92.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ India Office Records, L/P&S/10/202, P2805, 1916Google Scholar.

⁸¹ Ibid.; letter from George Roos-Keppel to the secretary of state for India, n. 4BN, 17 06 1916Google Scholar.

⁸² Sirāj al-Akhbār, vi., no. 22, 16 07 1916.Google Scholar

⁸³ Adamec, , Afghanistan, 1900–1923, 92.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Government of India, “Who Is Who of Afghanistan,” confidential unpublished file, British Government in India, 1920, 151Google Scholar.

⁸⁵ “The Afghan Situation,” National Archives of India, Political Department, India Office, A 177, 17 05 1919Google Scholar.