Ahmad Shah Abdali

Ahmad Shah Abdali (1726–1773) was the founder of the Durrani dynasty in Afghanistan.  He was born in Multan of Pakistan, the son of Sammaun-Khan, hereditary chief of the Abdali tribe.  As a young boy, Abdali fell into the hands of the hostile tribe of Ghilzais and kept as a prisoner in Kandahar.  On March 1738, he was rescued by Nadir Shah, who had him guard over some regions that are now in the North Western Frontier of Pakistan.  Nadir Shah was known to be a child molester and it was not a surprise that he kept Abdali as one of his slaves.  Shah favored Abdali above the rest because of Abdali’s young, handsome features.  Abdali was then given the title of “Dur-Durran” (Pear of Pearls) by Shah and then Abdali changed the Abdali tribe name to the Durrani tribe.  Shah gave Abdali the command over a cavalry of Abdali tribesmen. 

In 1747, Nadir Shah was assassinated by his guards and Abdali used that to his advantage.  He took the opportunity to seize the Persian treasures and invade Khorasan.  He headed to Kandahar and persuaded the local tribes to join his “Kingdom of Doom.”  He made his own crown with the “koh e noor” which he had stolen from the Persians. 

And so Abdali’s reign of terror began.  Abdali first crossed the Indus River in 1748, when he first tookLahore-which was in Hindustan at that time.  In 1751, he invaded Lahore once more and looted the city from top to bottom, leaving nothing left.  To this day, the Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims of that region call him the Devil of Afghanistan.  He and his tribesmen tortured, killed, looted, and raped the people of the region.  He and his tribesmen took back their booty to Kandahar to enjoy their stolen goods.  In the course of his life, he raided India nine times.

In 1750, Abdali took Nishapur and in 1752, he attacked Kashmir.  In 1756, he invaded Dehli and looted every corner.  He stole the valuable treasures of the Moghul Empire and everything else he could get his hands on.

In the meantime, Abdali made another addition to his collection of wives; a princess from the Imperial family.  He treated her the same way he treated his other wives and his daughters.  He made her strip and dance in a “mordagow khana.”

When the Maratha chiefs declared a traditional Sikh holy war on Abdali, he took this as an opportunity to cross the Indus again and attack them, setting their villages on fire.  In 1758, the Marathas gained possession of Punjab, but the victory was short-lived.  On January 6, 1761, they lost to Abdali in the great battle of Panipat. 

In a later raid, Abdali inflected a severe defeat upon the Sikhs but had to immediately head westward back to Kandahar to quell a rising insurrection.  Meanwhile, the Sikhs rose again in power and Abdali was forced to abandon his hopes of retaining the command over the Punjab.

It is because of Abdali that the Moghul Dynasty, as well as Afghanistan, was colonized by the British. Over the course of 25 years, he weakened India and its Raj and local government.  He adventured intoIndia numerous times and each time, he returned with gold, camels, women, etc.  He left a great number of people dead, destroyed cities and lives and families. All of this seemed like fun to him and his people.  Therefore, when he died in 1773, his sons began fighting over the throne. The British took this moment of weakness to step in and create more division.  Abdali’s sons were busy fighting against and killing each other.  The British aided the brothers in staying enemies and gradually they weakened the state and took over. 

This led to the creation of modern-day Afghanistan.  Since then, the non-Pashtuns of Afghanistan have had to deal with these treacherous and corrupt Pashtuns who have occupied our land.  The Pashtuns call Abdali the Father of the Nation.  But why should we, the Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, etc. accept that title and claim?  Abdali is not the Father of our Nation.  He was an untrustworthy opportunist, an invader who raided and destroyed our land.  We are still left to deal with the remaining savage Pashtuns.  The Father of our Nation is Saman Khuda, the man who wrestled our land back from the Arabs and established a civilized and prosperous land.  Ahmad Shah Abdali was the enemy of our nation, the destroyer of our nation.  For non-Pashtuns to celebrate and honor Abdali would be treason.

King AmanUllah khan

         Amanullah Khan was crowned the Amir of Afghanistan after his father, Amir Habibullah was assassinated in February 1919. Amanullah Khan was fiercely anti-British and wanted to destroy an old agreement which gave the British control over Afghanistan's foreign policy. The British resisted this move, and so began the Third Anglo-Afghan War (1919). After a brief struggle, the British were forced to negotiate and in the end surrendered their control over Afghanistan's foreign policy.

           Afterwards, Amanullah became a national hero, and was given the tile Ghazi. He then turned his attention to modernizing Afghanistan. He changed his title from Amir to Padshah (King) in 1926. King Amanullah's modernization plans were not greeted so warmly by everyone in Afghanistan, and as result, many tribes revolted. In the end, the revolt caused Amanullah Khan the throne. He left Afghanistan and lived in exile in Italy and Switzerland. He died in 1960, and was buried in Jalalabad, near his father's tomb

Ghani khan

Ghani Khan was born in Hashtnagar in 1914. He is widely considered the best pashto language poet of the 20th century and stands on a par with Khushal Khan Khattak and Rehman Baba. He was the son of the Red-Shirt Leader, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, aka Bacha Khan and The Frontier Gandhi. His wife Roshan came from a parsi family and was the daughter of Nawab Rustam Jang. The couple had three children, two daughters, Shandana and Zareen, and a son, Faridun.

He went to study at Rabindranath Tagore’s Shanti Niketan Art Academy and developed a liking for painting and sculpture. He visited England, and studied sugar technology in the United States, after which he returned and started working at the Takht Bhai Sugar Mills in 1933. Largely owing to his father’s influence, he was also involved in politics, supporting the cause of the pathans of NWFP. He was arrested by the Government of Pakistan in 1948 – although he had given up politics by then – and remained in prison till 1954, visiting various jails all over the country. It was during these years that he wrote his poem collection Da Panjray Chaghaar, and considered it the best work of his life. Aside from a few poems of his youth and early manhood, Ghani Khan’s poetry, like his temperament, is anti-political. His other two poem collections are: Panoos and Palwashay. He also wrote The Pathans, a short book in English prose, published in 1958, which like his sculptures and paintings, does not compare well to his poetry, keeping in mind that he is arguably the greatest pashto language poet. He died in March 1996.

The singular distinction of his poetry – aside from his obvious poetic genius – is a profound blend of knowledge about his native and foreign cultures, and the psychological, sensual, and religious aspects of life.

Ajab Khan Afridi

Ajab Khan was one of the two sons of Sherdil Khan Afridi, the other being Shahzada Khan. They lived in a village near Kohat called Jawaki. There were always skirmishes between the Pathans and the British. One night the British sent troops to the village, surrounded it and searched each and every house for arms. They totally ignored the sensibilities and customs of the locals and misbehaved with women.

They enraged Ajab Khan and his brother, and the two, together with three friends, went to Kohat on April 13, 1923, entered the house of Major Ellis where they barged into the bedroom where Mrs Ellis and Miss Molly Ellis were sleeping. Seeing the two brothers, Mrs Ellis started screaming and wouldn’t stop, despite being ordered to do so. Shahzada Khan then killed her by a dagger.

Ajab Khan picked up Miss Ellis, slung her over his shoulder and spirited her away to the tribal area just a few kilometres away. He took her to his mother and asked her to take good care of the girl. Miss Ellis later told Prof Bangash (more about him later) that Ajab Khan never looked her straight in the eye. If they met by chance, he would lower his gaze and quickly remove himself. She was 18 years old at the time.

The strange thing about this whole incident is that, while Major Ellis and his family were living adjacent to the residence of the brigade commander, no one came to see what the commotion was about.

Tirah Valley is familiar to me, because the founder of the Muslim dynasty in Bhopal, Sardar Dost Mohamed Khan and his colleagues, were from there and were posted at Raisen Fort near Bhopal by Aurangzeb. After Aurangzeb’s death, Kamla Pate, the Rani of Bhopal, invited Dost Mohammad to take control over Bhopal state. She was a widow and wanted to live quietly. The dynasty founded by Dost Mohammad lasted 240 years, until 1948.

Ajab Khan’s daring action made headlines in England and America and shook the very foundations of the British Empire. Dr Wilma Heston and Mumtaz Nasir mention in their book Ajab Khan Afridi (2005) how The New York Times portrayed Ajab Khan and his colleagues as savages who devoted their entire lives to hunting, fighting and brigandage. It also claimed that it was a lady doctor by the name of Mrs Starr who rescued Miss Ellis.

After the incident, Khan Bahadur Mohammad Quli Khan, political agent for Khurram Agency, was requested by Chief Commissioner Sir John Maffey to intervene and help rescue Miss Ellis. Khan Bahadur Mohammad Quli Khan was the grandfather of Gen Ali Quli Khan, one of the Pakistani army’s finest generals whom Nawaz Sharif bypassed to make Gen Musharraf COAS.

The political agent, accompanied by his assistant, Moghal Baz Khan, went to Tirah. The lady doctor, Mrs Starr (popularly known as “Sitara Bibi”) accompanied them to provide any medical care that could be needed. When the mission was about to leave, they were joined by Dr Abdul Rahim Khan Bangash, a British-trained doctor.

Dr Bangash’s son, Dr Mohammad Yousuf Bangash, a world-renowned expert on nuclear structures, is a dear friend of mine and narrated his father’s side of the story to me. Gen Ali Quli Khan knows from family sources that the “rescuers” were accommodated in Tirah as personal guests of the famous spiritual leader and resistance fighter, Faqir Ipi.

To the best of my knowledge, this information has never been published before. The younger Bangash, upon his return to London after having worked with Nasa, came to know that Miss Ellis was living at Farnham in Surrey. He informed her that he was the son of Dr Abdul Rahim Khan who was associated with her release from Tirah, and they subsequently kept in touch. In 1973 Miss Ellis arranged a reception for former British Officers who had served in British India.

She also invited Prof Bangash and his wife. There were about 20 officers. Miss Ellis arrived about 20 minutes late but the guests were meanwhile served with drinks and snacks. The invitees and Miss Ellis reminisced about the good old days in Kohat and Peshawar. When the reception was over and the guests were leaving, Miss Ellis requested Prof Bangash and his wife to remain.

They then talked about that episode. She told them that she had never harboured any hard feelings against Ajab Khan. He had been a thorough gentleman-warm, handsome and very polite. “You remind me of him and other Pathans of Kohat,” she said. “I really miss that period. I did not want to leave Kohat, but after coming back from Tirah, they packed me up and sent me back to London. I longed to visit Kohat one day and perhaps to be able to meet Ajab Khan, but fate had different ideas. I never met anyone I wanted to marry.”

In their book, Dr Heston and Mumtaz Nasir have mentioned that an interpreter was informed by a journalist that he had by chance met Miss Ellis’s housemaid in a London subway. She confirmed that Miss Ellis had fallen in love with Ajab Khan but that he had very politely refused to entertain any such relationship, saying that he had been sorry to have taken such drastic action, but that it was in revenge for the insults to his mother and the other ladies of his community.

In 1983 Miss Molly Ellis came to Pakistan, visited Kohat and renewed old memories. She was warmly received and was overwhelmed by the hospitality shown to her. She did not speak a word against Ajab Khan who had already passed away in 1959 on the Afghan side of the border and was buried there. May Allah rest his soul in eternal peace. Ameen.

In 1983 Miss Molly Ellis came to Pakistan, visited Kohat and renewed old memories. She was warmly received and was overwhelmed by the hospitality shown to her. She did not speak a word against Ajab Khan who had already passed away in 1959 on the Afghan side of the border and was buried there. May Allah rest his soul in eternal peace. Ameen.

British Officer and Group of Men - Afganistan 1878

British Officer and Group of Men - Afganistan 1878

       Group of the Amir Shere Ali, Prince Abdullah Jan, & Sirdars.

• Photograph taken by John Burke in 1869; a studio portrait of the Amir of Afghanistan, Sher Ali (1825-1879), Prince Abdullah Jan and Afghan sirdars or chiefs, from a series titled 'Photographs of the Amir Shere Ali Khan and Suite'. John Burke accompanied the Peshawar Valley Field Force, one of three British Anglo-Indian army columns deployed in the Second Afghan War (1878-80), despite being rejected for the role of official photographer. He financed his trip by advance sales of his photographs 'illustrating the advance from Attock to Jellalabad'. Coming to India as apothecary with the Royal Engineers, Burke turned professional photographer, assisting William Baker. Travelling widely in India, they were the main rivals to the better-known Bourne and Shepherd. Burke's two-year Afghan expedition produced an important visual document of the region where strategies of the Great Game were played out. This image is part of a special series on Sher Ali at the Ambala Durbar of 1869.

• The First Afghan War resulted in a defeat for the British in 1842. Ever since, there was a deep desire in the British to lay their writ over Afghanistan. The country tried to stay independent, turbulent due to chaotic struggles for power between relatives. In 1869, a new Amir, Sher Ali, took power. That same year, in an attempt to appease the British he travelled to Ambala near Lahore for a durbar with the Viceroy Lord Mayo. This photograph appears to have been taken at this time. The little boy with Sher Ali was his son and chosen heir. The negotiations at the durbar were ineffective, the Amir resisting the British demand to have an embassy at Kabul which the Afghans would view as an invasion, yet seeking British aid to establish his legitimacy. This was not forthcoming, although they offered him money.

Ghani khan about Pukhtoon

 The theoritical concept of the great Pushto Poet, Ghani Khan, about Pathans’:

• Pathan loves Fighting but hates to be a Soldier.
• Loves Music but has a great contempt for the Musician.
• Pathan is Kind, Hospitable & Gentle but hates to show it.
• Loves his new Rifle & Old Wife.
• Hot-Blooded, Hot-Headed, Poor & proud with Strange Principles.
• Might be a Loving Friend or a Deadly Enemy.