An Inquiry Into the Ethnography of Afghanistan/Page 26-50

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An Inquiry Into the Ethnography of Afghanistan

By H. W. Bellew

The Oriental University Institute, Woking, 1891

Ethnology of Afghanistan:Page 26-50

Alexander's rapid march

Arrian's account of Alexander's operations in this quarter are briefly to the following effect.

[Page-26]: After describing Alexander's rapid march in pursuit of Darius, and his coming up with the fugitives (apparently somewhere in the vicinity of the modem Mashhad), when the corpse of the Persian king fell into the hands of the conqueror, whilst Bessus and his party effected their escape towards Baktria, Arrian says that Alexander marched into Hyrkania in pursuit of the Greek mercenary troops which served Darius, who, to the number of fifteen hundred, had retreated into the Mardian mountains, and resolved to reduce the Mardi to subjection. As we shall refer to this expedition again at a later stage of our inquiry, I will for the present leave the Mardi, and take up Alexander's movements after he quits Hyrkania, when he began his march against the Parthians.

He then, says Arrian, passed into the confines of Aria (the modern Herat province), to Susia (Tus ?), a city of the Arii, where he received reinforcements. From this he directed his march towards Baktria, but on the road, learning that the governor of the Arii had revolted and slain the attendants whom Alexander had left with him when in pursuit of Darius, and had assembled the people of the country at Artakoana, where is the royal- palace of the Arian princes, he postponed his journey into Baktria, and leaving the rest of the army in camp with Kraterus, himself with a strong detachment marched suddenly against the Arii and their governor Satibarzanes, and having travelled six hundred furlongs in two days, came to Artakoan. Alexander was here joined by Kraterus with the rest of the army; and after the capture of the city, he appointed Arsakes the Persian governor of the Arii. If for Persian we here read Parthian, this Arsakes may have been a Turk Koman chieftain. For at the present day we find among the Turkoman of Marv, one of their principal divisions named Arsaki or Harzagi ; the modern representatives of the ancient and powerful Arsakidas, whose rise to sovereignty, and to the dominion of Asia, may have had its commencement in this appointment made by Alexander. From Artakoan Alexander proceeded against the Zarangae or Drangae, and came to their imperial city. It was probably during his prolonged halt here that Alexander founded the city of Herakloea, which, Pliny tells us (Nat. Hist. ch. 18), was afterwards destroyed, and rebuilt by Antiochus, and by him called Akhaia. This place is, I think, now represented by the modern Kila Kah, or Cala Aka " The castle of Aka, situated at the southern extremity of the Anardara district.

Mati tribes

We now return to the Mati tribes, and come to their other grand division called Ibrahim, surnamed Loe. In this nomenclature we may find concealed a Brahman tribe descendants of Lava,


[Page-27]: the son of Rama, the founder of the Solar Race of Rajputs.

Kais or Kesh, the progenitor of the existing Afghan nationality being the representative of Kush, the other son of Rama ; who with his brother Lava, shares the proud distinction of joint progenitor of the Rajput tribes, representing the Brahmanical religion. Whilst in Shekh Bet Batani we may find the representative of Bhat or Bhatti the patriarch of the Buddhist Yadu race in Zabulistan. Be this as it may, the names Mati and Loe, in Afghanistan, have long since given way to Lodi or Ludi, and the tribes and clans classed as descendants of Ibrahim, are now known only by the over-name of Lodi.

Lodi is in three divisions, viz. : Syani, Nyazi, and Dotani. I have before suggested the identity of the Afghan Lodi or Ludi with the Ludi of Asia Minor or Lydia ; but it may prove more correct to identify the Afghan Lodi with the Luhdi Brahman of Northern India, especially as the Afghan Lodi is written indifferently Lodi and Lohdi.

Syani is in two divisions, viz.: Parangi and Ismail. The name Syani is applied also to two different tracts of country in Afghanistan ; to a mountain range which, emanating from the Sarhad chain on the western frontier of modern Balochistan, runs eastwards and separates Sistan from Makran, and is called Sydna Koh ; and to the elevated table-land country at the junction of the Khojah Amran range with the Suleman range, which in the Pukhto language is called Syuna Dag,

Parangi, Barangi, Piringi, or Firingi sections are (Greek) : —



Several of the above we have met with before.

  • Mani is Manat, mercantile Rajput ; or else for followers of Manes, the founder of the Manichsean sect.
  • Ismail — perhaps the Muhammadan substitute for Simala Rajput, or else the patronymic of the Mulahida or " Assassins " — is in three divisions, viz. : Sur, Lohani, and Mahpal.

Sur sections are : —

Of these

  • Daud stands for Dadu or Dadi, a tribe we shall meet again farther on.

[Page-28]:

  • Khodo or Khudo, a section commonly met with in one or other of these forms, and is a Jata tribe, the same people as the Tschoudi of Esthonia in Russia ; and here may stand for Chato. Brahman clan of Northern India. From Usman or Uthman sprung Sher Shah (Farid Khan), king of Hindustan, and his successors of that family.

Lohani Sections

Lohani. — Lohana is the name of a Hindu tribe of the Indian desert. Sections are : —


The Lohani, as above shown, is a great tribe, and is largely engaged in the caravan trade between India and Central Asia, under the name Povindah of which mercantile association they form one of the principal clans ; the other Povindah clans being the Nyazi, the Nasar, and the Kharoti. These Povindah clans are entirely devoted to the caravan trade. In summer they leave their families in tents, called gizhdi, or kizhdi, or khizhdi, in the Panah, Karabagh, Nawur, etc., districts of Ghazni, with a guard of their old men, whilst the bulk of the younger men disperse with their merchandise, mostly carried on camels, to Samarkand, Bukhara, Tashkand, Kashghar, Yarkand, etc. In winter they leave their families in tents at the foot of the hills, or Daman, of the Derajat portion of the Indus valley, whilst the men spread over India, driving their caravans to the principal cities and trading marts down to Calcutta, Bombay, Hydrabad, etc.

Of the long list of sections above given, nearly the whole number is composed of Rajput and Hindu tribes and clans, principally of the trading and mercantile classes.


[Page-29]:

The over name:

  • Dor is a Rajput tribe.
  • Hani is the Hana Brahman.
  • Sen is Sengarh Rajput.
  • Tun and Tani are the same, and have been before noticed.

Nyazi Sections

The Nyazi division of Lodi, as suggested by Tod (Annals of Rajasthan), is derived from the Hindi Nyad, or "New comer." The term appears to have been applied to Indian inhabitants of Afghanistan, converts to Islam in the time of Shahabuddin Ghori. The Nyazi, it is said, emigrated largely to Hindustan during the reigns of Sultan Bahlol Lodi and Sher Shah Suri, under whose Governments they enjoyed lucrative offices about the royal court, and various important administrative charges.

There are now few of the clan left in Afghanistan, where they form one of the four principal clans of the Povindah caravan merchants. Their summer quarters are in the high plateau on the west of the Suleman range, and they winter on its eastern side in the Daman of the Indus valley.

The Nyazi sections are : —



Many of these we have before met with and noticed.

  • Astana stands for Ashtana Kayasth Hindu clan.
  • Bharat, for Bharata, minstrel clan.

[Page-30]:

later on: they have a colony of some four hundred families settled in Koh Daman of Kabul, where they are engaged in the caravan trade with Bukhara. But the principal seat of the Mashwanri as an independent tribe of itself, separate from the Nyazi Mashani, is in the Gandghar hills, on the east bank of the Indus, in the Chach Hazarah district, where their chief place is Sri Kot. They represent the ancient Masiani, whom Strabo (Greog. XV. 2) mentions as occupying the country lying between the rivers Kophes and Indus; that is, in the modern Yusufzi plain between the junction of the Kabul river with the Indus, and directly opposite, on the west bank of the Indus, to the actual present occupancy of the Mashwanri.


The sections of these Gandghar Mashwanri are : —

Of the above,

Yusufzi. It is the same place as the Langar Kot mentioned in the Afghan histories as the stronghold of the Dalazak tribe at the time they were conquered and driven across the Indus by the Mandanr and Yusuf, as will be related hereafter.

Of the other Nyazi sections in the above list, many have already been noticed, and several will appear again, and be noticed in their proper places.

  • Mahpal is entirely composed of subdivisions of the Bhiba Rajput, and is called Bibizi. Bhiba is a clan of Pramara Rajput, and Mahpal stands for Mahpe Khatri tribe.

Dotani division of Lodi sections

Dotani, division of Lodi, sections are:: —

Of these,


[Page-31]:

The foregoing details complete the list of tribes and clans classed in the Afghan genealogies as the descendants of Bibi Matu, daughter of Shekh Bet Batani, who was married to Shah Husen, prince of Ghor, as previously mentioned. By his other wife, Bibi Mahi, the daughter of Shekh Bet's servant Kagh Dum, a Dorh by caste, Shah Husen had a son called Sarwani; his descendants are styled Mahi but they are classed with the Batani, and more commonly known by this latter name. The original country of the Sarwani was at the southern extremity of the Suleman Range, in the tract now known as the Sarawan division of Kalat Balochistau, comprising the Shalkot, or Quetta, and neighbouring cantons. Sarwani may stand for Sarwarya Chaluk, or Sarwarya Brahman.

Sarwani sections are ; —

Acho, Ako, Aghoki, Ahmad, Ali, Ashak, Aso, Aybak, Bali, Bubak, Dabi, Dodo, Gadar, Hadya, Harun, Ismail, Isot, Ja'par, Kakator, Karbori, Malikyar, Malana, Malata, Mamo, Mardak, Mata, Musa, Nahar, Nur, Puni, Rustam, Saknot, Samo, Samra, Sanjar, Seni, Shakha, Suda, Suri, Sripal, Yusuf.

Of the above sections,

  • Acho, Aghoki and Ashak appear to be the same, and may stand for the Indian Achi a tribe celebrated in the history of Kashmir (See Troyer's "Rajataringini"), and now represented in Afghanistan by the Achakzi.
  • Bali is Bala Brahman.
  • Kakatur may be the same as Takatu, a mountain of the Suleman range overlooking Shal and Peshin, whence this clan in named,

[Page-32]: This completes the list of the Batani tribes. The large proportion of Rajput and Indian names amongst their clans and sections, and the abundant representation of the Yadu, or Gadun, Rajput of the Lunar race and Buddhist religion seem to warrant the conclusion that the Afghan patriarch, Shekh Bet, is the same personage as the Yadu patriarch Bhatti, described by Tod, as previously mentioned, and that the patronymic Batani is the same as Bhattiani. Pliny (Nat. Hist., 18), describing the nations dwelling about the mountain heights of Margiana and along the range of Caucasus (the modem Bala Murghab and Gharistan of the Kohi Baba branch of Hindu Kush), mentions the names of those about the river Mandrus (Helmand of our day), and then the names of those beyond them ; and amongst the nations in the latter category appear the Bateni. The situation of the Bateni is not precisely defined, though, from their being mentioned along with the Matiani and the Syrmatai (the Sauromatai of Strabo), it is clear that they occupied portions of the Ghor, or modern Hazarah, country. This is the very region in which the Afghan tradition places the Batani and Mati, as well as the Sur, to which Shah Husen belonged. Pliny's Syrmatai, or Surmatai, apparently represent a mixed nation of the Suri and Mati, whose country probably was the western portion of the modern Hazarah. Pliny (whose death is dated 79 A.D.) describes the tribes as they were at the beginning of the Christian era. But the disturbances and revolutions attending the rise and spread of Islam produced great shiftings and dislocations of the population in these parts, so far as concerned the open and easily accessible country at all events ; whilst the inaccessible mountain districts appear to have retained much of their ancient occupiers even up to the present day.

Pliny's account of the nations inhabiting this portion of Afghanistan at the commencement of the Christian era is of so great interest and assistance to us in our present inquiry that I do not hesitate to quote it in this place, with the object of disposing of a certain number of identifications, to which I may have occasion to refer at a later stage of this inquiry.

Pliny tells us (Nat. Hist., 18) that to the east of the Caspii, a nation on the south-east shore of the Caspian Sea, is the Apavortene region (the modern Abivard, the native country of the Asiatic conqueror of the last century, Nadir Shah, Turkoman), in which is the fertile plain called Dareium (the present Daragaz). Next come the nations of the Tapyri, the Anariaki, the Stauri, and the Hyrkani.

Of these, the

  • Anariaki we have previously noticed. The
  • Hyrkani are the modern Gurgani, and beyond the limits of our inquiry. "Whilst in the

Char Aymac

[Page-33]

  • The Char Aymac, or " Four Settlements," comprise the Tymuri, the Bahi, the Tymani, and the Suri. These four tribes occupy the Ghor country (the ancient Paropamisus) in its western portion between, Kabul and Herat. The name Aymac or Oemagh, is a Turki word meaning "house, family , tribe, settlement", etc., and seems to have been applied to these tribes to distinguish them from the Afghan, perhaps during the time of the Mughal conquest, in the first half of the thirteenth century, or perhaps as early as the period of the

Turk dominion in the latter part of the tenth century.

The Char Aymac (char = "four" in Persian) are an entirely different people from the Afghan. They differ from them in physiognomy, in physique, in language, in form of government, and in manners and morale. The Aymac show a more or less strong strain of Tatar blood, and resemble that northern Asiatic race in physical and moral characteristics. Their language is the old Persian of the time of Firdausi, with a greater or less admixture of Turki words. The government of their chiefs is of a despotic kind, not republican like that of the Afghans. In religion they are now Muhammadan, both of the Sunni and Shia' sects, but mostly of the latter; previously to their conversion to Islam they were largely Christian of the Nestorian Church, and had amongst them considerable colonies of Jews and Israelites, and many Fire- worshippers. The Aymac are more or less, entirely independent of the Afghan Government, and hold little communication with their neighbour nations, either commercial or political, and are very much secluded from the outside world in the inaccessible retreats of their mountain fastnesses. The interior of their country is said to abound in strong places and impregnable castles, perched on the highest points of steep and rugged hills. Little is known, with any certainty, of the internal constitution and distribution of these tribes. It will be convenient to dispose of them in this part of our inquiry, and I therefore take them each in its turn ; observing merely that they are all more or less nomadic and predatory ; more or less entirely independent of kingly authority, and, generally speaking, are the poorest and most barbarous of all the races inhabiting Afghanistan. Yet in their day they combined to form a very powerful sovereignty, which extended from the Euphrates to the Ganges. It was the Suri of Ghor which supplanted the Turk from beyond the Oxus at Ghazni ; and it was a sovereign of the Ghori dynasty, Sultan Shahabuddin, who overthrew the Tuar Rajput dynasty at Delhi, slew its last king, — Pithora Rae, or Prithwiraja — conquered Hindustan, and established Islam in India.


[Page-34]:

  • Tymuri are in two great divisions — Jamshedi and Firozkohi. Jamshedi inhabit the Bala Murgab country as far as Kushk, Badghiz, Kurogh, etc. They are reckoned at about twelve thousand families, and are entirely nomadic. They claim descent from Jamshid, king of Persia, of the ancient Peshdadi dynasty, and are said to retain the Persian cast of features in greater purity than any of the other Aymac; especially among their Ilat who, like the Persian Ilat, live in tents of a strong cloth made of black goats' hair. Like the Persians also, they are of the Shia' sect of Muhammadans. I have no list of their clans and sub-divisions.
  • Firozkohi inhabit the Firozkoh country, or Kohi Firoza, " Turquoise mountain," which separates the upper courses of the Herat and Murgab rivers. They are reckoned at about twenty thousand families, and are divided into two main branches, called Darazi and Mahmudi. Of these the Darazi or Druzi is the most important and powerful, numbering twelve thousand families, and holding the strongest part of the country (the district of Chakcharan), and the strongly situated castle of Darazi. The Firozkohi extend from Kala' Nao, on the north of the range, to Daulatyar on its south, and are all of the Shia' sect. There is a settlement of Firozkohi — perhaps descendants of the original Tapyri of Pliny — in the Nishapur district of Persia. The Firozkohi of Ghor claim a common descent with them. Firoz is a name frequently found among the sections of several of the Afghan tribes of the Suleman range ; and, may be, is connected with the Tymuri Firozkohi, but I have no list of their clans or sections to clear up this point.
  • Dahi, or Dai — the Hazarah proper, for the term Hazarah is loosely applied to all the divisions of the Aymac — inhabit the country lying between the Pughman range, Ghorband and Ghori districts of Kabul on the east, and the Kila 'Yahudi (Jews' Castle), Chakcharan, and the Gasarman range on the west ; and between Roi and Saighan beyond Hindu Kush on the north, and the Gulkoh range and as far west as Tiri and Darawat on the south; or, in other words, the eastern half of the Ghor country. This region is elevated throughout, and some of its mountain peaks rise to 20,000 feet above the sea ; many of its localities bear Indian names, as Ghorband and Ghori, meaning mountainous tracts ; Pughman from a Jat tribe called Pogh ; Chakcharan, from Chak "district," and Charan, "the Bard clan of Minstrels " ; Gasarman, after the Gasora tribe of mercantile Rajput.

Hazarah tribe

The Hazarah are a distinct nationality in Afghanistan,


[Page-35]: and comprise a mixture of several different tribes or races.

Their principal divisions are the following : — Dahi Zangi, Dahi Khundi, Dahi Chopan, Dahi Mardah, Dahi Fauladi, Jaghuri, Shekh Ali, Barbari, Gavi, Besudi, Kubti, Nakodari, etc.

  • Dahi Zanghi are reckoned at about 16,000 families, and inhabit the districts of Sari Jangal Sal, or Lal, Sagsez, Waras, Zuri, Sarikol, etc., to Chakcharan. They comprise many sections ; among the number (all Shia' Musalman) are : —
Bacha-Ghulam. Bubali. Dai Khundi. Sag-Pae. Sag-Joe, Takash. Urarus. Yanghur.
  • Sag or Sak-pae and Sak-joe represent Saka clans probably ; in Tibet the SakaSakai of the ancient Persians, and Skuthoi of the Greeks — are called Sok-po and Sok-mo (male and female respectively); the Sagsez district is probably named after these Sak or Sag.
  • Dahi Khundi inhabit the country to the south of Chakcharan as far as Tiri and Darawat (or Deh Rawat, for Dahi Rawat), about 100 miles north of the Kandahar city; their chief districts are Sang Takht, Shekh Miran, Gizin, Hashtarlae, Galigadi, etc. The Dai Khundi are Shia' Musalman, but oddly enough pretend descent from the Koresh tribe of the Arab. There are other tribes in Afghanistan claiming the same proud Muhammadan descent, and with no less incongruity, such as the Koreshi of the ludug valley ; but with greater scbsurdity than all, the Kafir of Kafiristan, or some of the tribes so called. In reality, however, the Arab Koresh or Curaish is the Musalman substitute or disguise of the Rajput Keruch or Goresh or Gorish itself, perhaps, derived from the Persian Kurush, the tribe to which Cyrus belonged ; though why the Dahi Khundi claim such descent is not verjy clear, since they appear to be the modern representatives of the ancient Xanthoi mentioned by Strabo, who (Geog. xi. 7) say!, "Ancient writers call the nations on the east side of the Caspian Sea Sakai and Massagetai, The nomads who live on the east coast of that sea are called by the moderns (Strabo died about 24 a.d.) Dahai and surnamed Parnoi." The name Parnoi I have not been able to trace as that of a separate or independent tribe in Afghanistan, but Dahi, or Dai, or Deh, is common in the Hazarah country as the distinctive national title of many of its tribes. I may note, however, that Barni, or Parni was the tribe to which belonged the Kharizm or Khwarizm-Shah kings, whose dynasty was destroyed in the year 1222 A.D. by Changiz Khan, in the person of Sultan Muhammad Kharizm Shah, whose son, the celebrated Jalaluddin, was called Mang Barni, and held the government of Ghazni until finally driven out by the conquering Mughal.

[Page-36]: In the next chapter to that above quoted Strabo says,

"Most of the Scythians, beginning from the Hyrkanian Sea, are called Dahai Skuthai, and those more to the east Massagetai and Sakai; the rest have the common appellation of Skythians, but each separate tribe has its peculiar name. The best known tribes are those who deprived the Greeks of Baktriana, the Arioi, Pasianoi, Tokharoi, and Sakarauloi, who came from the country beyond the Jaxartes, opposite the Sakai and Sogdianoi, and which country was also occupied by Sakai. Some tribes of the Dahai are surnamed Aparnoi, some Xanthioi, others Pissuroi. The Aparnoi approach nearest to Hyrkania and the Caspian Sea ; the others extend as far as the country opposite to Aria."

Of the tribes who deprived the Greeks of Baktriana we shall speak later on.

Of the tribes mentioned as

"Between the Dahai Skuthai," continues Strabo,

"Hyrkania and Parthia, as far as Aria, lies a vast and arid desert., which they crossed by long journeys, and overran Hyrkania, the Nesaian country, and the plains of Parthia. Such is the kind of life the other nomads also lead, continually attacking their neighbours, and then making peace with them."

I have added this quotation to the others from Strabo, because his description of the life led by the Dahai Skythians, at the beginning of the Christian era, is precisely, word for word, the kind of life that their posterity, on the very same ground, have habitually followed up to our own day — until, indeed, only the other day, when the victorious arms of Russia extended the authority of the White Czar over these unruly hordes — an authority which, we may confidently anticipate, will confer upon these restless barbarians the blessings of a civilized and orderly government, with peace, plenty, and prosperity.

Tribes who deprived the Greeks of Baktriana

Regarding the tribes mentioned above as having deprived the Greeks of Baktriana, it is not more easy to recognise their posterity among the existing inhabitants of Afghanistan than that of those whom they dispossessed ; notwithstanding the fact that this Skythian invasion was more the migration of an entire nation than a purely military conquest ; and as such was a slow and continued process extending over many consecutive years, if not over a period of some generations. The

  • Arii we can recognise in the modern Herati the representatives of the Haravi of the old Indian writers, and probably the same as the Haraya Rajput. The

[Page-37]:

  • Tajik of Afghanistan, are a distinct people from the Tajik proper, and speak a peculiar dialect of their own, which is said to be a mixture of Persian, Hindi, and Turki words, with some Pukhto and a little Arabic, the grammar being Indian.
  • The Sakarauli may be represented by the Shah Katori of the Upper Kunar valley and Chitral, or Kashkar. Formerly both the Toghiani and the Katori overspread the entire Indus valley from the mountains to the sea ; and their descendants, though for the most part lost to sight in the general Musalman population, are still traceable by their clans scattered here and there in different parts of this extensive tract, from the Hazarah, or Chach, and Rawalpindi districts in the north, to the Sind and Guzrat provinces in the south.

The identifications I am now pursuing, of the present inhabitants of Afghanistan with the nations who, we are assured by authentic history, anciently occupied the situations now possessed by the Afghan, have an important bearing from a philological point of view, and may throw some light upon the formation of the numerous dialects we find spoken in different parts of the wide area of our Afghanistan ; but this subject, notwithstanding its great interest and direct connection with the ethnology of these peoples, is quite beyond the scope of our present investigation. Indeed, were I to enter, even briefly, on a description of the peculiarities of language, manners, customs, and traditions of the various tribes I have to deal with in Afghanistan, the materials would fill some bulky volumes. Whereas my difficulty just now is, to arrange and compress what I have to say about the Afghan tribes into as small a compass as possible without rendering the information unintelligible. Although, perhaps, confused and uninteresting, it may be, to those unacquainted with the subject, and doubtless stale to the few who have made Afghanistan and its peoples a special study, yet, even in their case, I venture to hope that the comprehensive view here presented is not entirely devoid of some points, here and there in the general sketch, of fresh interest and new information. I have not time to refer to the researches and identifications of others in the same field of investigation as that to which our inquiry is now directed, nor to notice the instances in which our observations and conclusions on the same subject may agree or disagree. I may, how-ever, state, that the entire body of my remarks and identifications in this paper is the result of personal inquiry and observation amongst the people treated of, during many years' residence on


[Page-38]: the frontiers of their country and occasional journeys in its interior ; aided and corrected by reference to the works of ancient authors relating to the region concerned, as well as by the writings of modern and contemporary travellers.

Aldae, Bebud, Bubak, Chardasta, Darzai, Bachak, Bati, Baintan, Baetamur, Orasi, Isfandyar, Paindah, Shera, Targhane,

Of these,

  • Bebud means " homeless," " penniless " ;
  • Chardasta means "four troops," " four brigades."
  • Bati for Bhatti Yadu. If so, they are, with the Bubak, of Indian origin, and were formerly associated with the Batani Buddhists, when they occupied this tract of country.
  • The Dahi Chopan are now reckoned at about eight thousand families, but formerly they were a numerous and powerful tribe. In the time of the Mughal sovereignty, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, this part of Afghanistan (Kandahar and Ghor, etc.) was the provincial government of several successive Mughal princes.

Arghun

Nikodar Oglan "Master Nicholas," the youthful son of the Mughal Emperor, Hulagu Khan, held the Kandahar and Ghor country as his provincial government before he ascended the throne of Persia, 1282 A.D., as ninth emperor of the Changiz Khan dynasty. He was the first of the Mughal sovereigns (as D'Herbelot says, on the authority of Khondamir) who embraced Islam ; when he took the name of Ahmad, and favoured the Muhammadans. His conversion to Islam gave rise, it is said, to great troubles in his family and in his government, because the Mughal Tatar at that period had a great partiality for Christians, and an extreme aversion to Muhammadans, so that Ahmad could never gain them over to his views. His nephew, Arghun (son of his elder brother, Abaka, who was a Christian), who had been superseded on the throne, revolted against his uncle, and caused his death two years later — an occurrence which greatly exasperated the Muhammadans. Arghun succeeded Ahmad-Nikodar, and in the third year of his reign, having executed two prime ministers in succession, abandoned himself to the control of the Jew, Sa'Aduddaula, a physician by profession, who so completely gained the goodwill of the Sultan Arghun, that all the affairs of the empire, public and


[Page-39]: private, together with the interests of the grandees, depended on his credit and favour. He greatly raised all the Jews and Israelites, without interfering with the Christians, who were also very powerful in the court of Sultan Arghun. It was only the Muhammadans who were at this time without credit or influence, and they murmured continually against their rivals ; for at their instigation Arghun had deprived the Musalmans of all their offices of justice and finance, and even forbidden their access to his camp and presence at his court. The Muhammadans assert that Arghun had promised the Christians to convert the temple at Mekka into a Christian Church, but that Providence frustrated his design, for Arghun at this time fell sick and died shortly after, 1291, A.D. The Jew prime minister, seeing matters in this critical state, hastened to restore the Musalmans to their former status, but he was presently slain by his enemies. Abulfeda (says D'Herbelot) asserts that the Jew, Sa'Aduddaula, " Felicity of the State," had his throat cut, because he was suspected of having poisoned the Sultan. Anyhow, it is certain that the enemies of the Jews, who regarded with jealousy their great influence, and had suffered many injuries at their hands, took this opportunity of the deaths of the Sultan Arghun and his minister to avenge themselves by a great massacre of the Jews. Sultan Arghun was succeeded on the throne by Ganjaetu, son of Abaka, who, after a reign of four years, was murdered by Baidu, son of Targai, son of Hulahu, who then ascended the throne at Hamadan, 1294 A.D. Hamadan, I may here note, is the ancient Ecbatana in the Greater Media, and derives its present name from the Greek appellation of the ancient city as 'the winter residence' xaimadiov, khaimadion — of the Persian kings (Strabo, Geog. xi. 11), as it was of the Makedonian princes who overthrew the Persian empire, and got possession of Syria ; and which, in the time of Strabo, still served the same purpose to the kings of Parthia.Baedu was dispossessed and slain by Ghazan or Cazan, son of Sultan Arghun, who since the death of his father had held the government of Khorasan, and now, with the aid of Amir Nauroz, ascended the throne. This Amir Nauroz was the son of Arghun Agha. (who had possessed the government of the Kandahar and Ghor country far thirty- nine years under the children of Changiz Khan), and after the death of his father had attached himself to the Sultan Arghun, at whose court he resided till his friend and relative, the Amir Begu, was executed, when, fearing alike fate, he fled to Afghanistan, and there, embracing Islam, waged war against the enemies of that religion, whereby he acquired the title of Ghazi. These proceedings at first embroiled him with the Prince Cazan, who was the governor of the province, but the Amir Nauroz Ghazi


[Page-40]: promising to put him on the throne occupied by Baidu, if he would embrace Islam, Cazan made public profession of that religion in the city of Firozkoh, when many others, following his lead, became Muhammadans and joined his party. Cazan now made war against Baidu, under the conduct of Nauroz, who finally defeated and slew Baidu in Azarbijan, after he had reigned only eight months.

Cazan, on his conversion to Islam, took the name of Mahmud, with which he ascended to the throne of Persia, 1294 A.D. He appointed Amir Nauroz to the government of Khorasan in reward for his services ; but, soon after, suspecting him of disaffection, sent an army against him. Nauroz on this fled for refuge to his son-in-law and protege, Fakhruddin Malik Kurd ; but this ingrate, fearing the vengeance of Cazan, and desirous of meriting the favour of his sovereign, delivered up Nauroz to the Sultan's Greneral, who immediately killed him. Cazan on this gave the government of Khorasan to his brother Aljaitu, 1298 A.D., who at first had many disputes with the Malik Kurd, owing to the vicinity of their principalities, till peace was made between them through the intervention of a Muhammadan mufti. Aljaitu succeeded his brother Cazan, 1303 A.D., when he too adopted Islam, and took the name of Ghiathuddin Muhammad, " Support of the religion of Muhammad," with the Persian title of Khudabanda, " Servant of God." He was a zealous Musalman, and during his reign of twelve years greatly favoured the Muhammadans, especially of the sect of Ali — the Shia. He built the city of Sultania, which he made the capital of his empire. Aljaitu was succeeded by his son Abu Sa'id, a youth of twelve years of age, under the tutelage of the Amir Chopin, who had the rank of Novyan, and had been his tutor and generalissimo of his army.

Amir Chopan

Amir Chopan governed the empire with an absolute power until his murder by the Sultan, because of his refusal to give him his daughter in marriage (although he himself had received the Sultan's sister in marriage in 1321 A.D.), he having already betrothed her to the Amir Hasan Ilkhani, son of Shekh Husen. The Amir Chopan had a captain of his army called Sain or Sen — evidently a Hindu name — whom he had appointed to the office of Vizir, or Prime Minister, to the Sultan. In the quarrel which ensued between the Sultan and his former tutor, the Amir Chopan, this Sen proved a traitor to the interests of the Amir ; which led to the murder of his son Damashk, whom he had left at the Sultan's court, at the time that he himself retired to Khorasan, taking Sen with him as hostage for his son. As soon as Amir Chopan heard of the murder of his son, and the order of the Sultan for his own destruction and that of all his family (an order


[Page-41]: which no one of his officers would obey, owing to the great power and popularity of Amir Chopan in Khorasan), he immediately executed the traitor Sen, and with an army of seventy thousand horse marched towards Kasvin, to which place the Sultan had advanced against him. On nearing the royal camp, Amir Chopan was deserted by nearly half his force, which went over to the Sultan. Seeing himself thus abandoned by his principal officers, who owed their fortunes entirely to himself, the Amir retreated hastily by the desert of Naubanjan (Nehbandan), towards Khorasan ; but his followers falling away from him in large numbers, he found himself unable to maintain his position in Khorasan and resolved on passing into Turkistan to join there the enemies of the Sultan Abu Sa'id. On arrival at the Murgab river, however, he changed his resolution, and retraced his steps to throw himself into the arms of Ghiathuddin Malik Kurd, whom he had nurtured from his youth and advanced to the first positions in the armies of Asia. Bat this Malik Kurd proved no more faithful than the others ; for, having just at that time received an express despatch from the Sultan, full of offers and promises if he would send him the head of Chopan, the first visit of this ingrate to his guest was that made by his executioner.


The head of Amir Chopan was sent to the Sultan, but the base conduct of the Malik Kurd was not rewarded. For the Sultan having in the meantime, through the complaisance of the Amir Hasan (who divorced her for this purpose), married Baghdad Khatun, the daughter of Amir Chopan, the Kurd was held to have murdered the queen's father, rather than to have rendered a service to the Sultan ; and the place in the court he aspired to for himself was granted to the complaisant Hasan. Malik Kurd, to revenge this disappointment, slew Jalair, the son of Amir Chopan, who had been left to his care for transmission to the court of his uncle the Sultan, he being the son of Satibeg his sister, whom he had married to the Amir Chopan. The place where Amir Chopan and his son Jalair were murdered by the Malik Kurd, is called Kaki or Khaki Chopan, and is a camp-stage on the road from Kandahar to Kila Bust, being about fifty miles west of Kandahar. It is this Chopan whom the Dahi Chopan of Hazarah claim as their great ancestor.

Dahi Mardah

Dahi Mardah inhabit Dashti Yahud, or " Jews' Plain," Sokhta, Bisud, Dahani Ghori, etc., and are reckoned at about six thousand families. They represent the Mardi of Pliny, and occupy to-day pretty much the position assigned to that people by that author in the first century of the Christian era. Pliny says (Hist.Nat. vi. 18) that " from the mountain heights of the district of Margiana (Bala Murgab), along the range of Caucasus (Hindu Kush),


[Page-42]: the savage race of the Mardi, a free people (characteristics which apply to the Dahi Marda of our day with as much force as they did to the Mardi in his), extend as far as the Baktri." For Baktri substitute, the people of Balkh, and the whole of the above account by Pliny accurately describes the situation and character of the Dahi Marda as we find them at this day in Afghanistan. They are still a truly savage and free people, for, although located in the heart of Afghanistan, they pay no tribute to, and have but little communication with the Afghans.

In the time of Alexander, the Mardi, according to Arrian's account, extended much farther westward than their present limits in Afghanistan. Arrian (date of his death 182 A.D.) informs us that Alexander, in his pursuit of Darius, came to the city of Rhages (its ruins lie some twenty miles east of Tehran, the modern capital of Persia), whence he passed through the Caspian Straits against the Parthians. The Caspian Straits here mentioned have been identified by Ferrier ("Caravan Journeys," chap. V.) with the Tangi Sirdari, or "Sirdari defile," through the Kohi Tuz, or " Salt Hill," spur of the Alburz mountain, separating the plains of Varamin and Khar. But to continue Arrian's account; he says, that about the time that Alexander had passed through the Caspian Straits (probably when he had advanced as far as the modern Shahrud and Bostan), Baqistanes the Babylonian came to him from the army of Darius, and acquainted him that' Darius had been seized and was held in custody by Bessus, governor of Baktria, and Brazas, or Barzaenters, prefect of the Arakhotoi and Drangai. In regard to this I would here observe that, whether Baqistanes was a Babylonian or not — possibly he may have been so styled on account of his holding some office or charge in Babylon — it seems very probable, if not certain, that he came to Alexander on this occasion from the district called Bagistdn at this day, and situated in the Khorasan hills not far from Tun, a subdivision of Tabbas, and almost due west of Herat. It would appear also, from Arrian's account of Alexander's movements in consequence of the information thus communicated to him, that the army of Darius from which Bagistanes came, was in or near the district of Bagistan above mentioned. Alexander, says Arrian, leaving the rest of his army to follow, set off with a detachment, and by a forced march of two nights and a day, reached the camp from which Bagistanes came (that informant probably being his guide), but found not the enemy. There he was assured that Darius was carried prisoner in a chariot, by Bessus with his Baktrian horse and all the other Barbarians, except Artabazus, and his sons, and the Greek mercenaries, who, having separated


[Page-43]:from Bessus, had left the great road and retired to the mountains. On hearing this, Alexander continued his march with all possible speed, and travelling hard all that night and till noon the next day, arrived at a certain village, where they who led Darius about, had pitched their tents the day before. From information received here, Alexander, leaving the rest of his detachment to follow by the great road, himself with five hundred mounted infantry, setting out at the close of evening, proceeded with the utmost vigour through a desert country, destitute of water, and having marched four hundred furlongs that night, early the next morning came up with the Barbarians, who at once fled in disorder. A few who stood to their arms were cut off, and then Bessus and his companions, having mortally wounded their prisoner, hasted away with a party of six hundred horse, and the corpse of the Persian king thus fell into the hands of Alexander. It is probably to this place that Justin refers, where he says that Darius was held captive in a village of the Parthians called Thara.

Alexander having gathered up those he had left behind, marched into Hyrkania (Gurgan or Jurjan) in pursuit of the foreign mercenary troops which served Darius, who had retreated to the Mardian mountains, and resolved to reduce the Mardi to subjection. On entering Hyrkania, Alexander sent one division of his army against the Tapyri, and himself marched to the city of Zadra Karta, on his way receiving the submission of the Greek mercenaries of Darius, fifteen hundred men in all, and of the Mardi, a poor but warlike people, not worth the conquering — characteristics equally applicable to the existing Dahi Marda of Hazarah, whose ancestors, according to the foregoing account, inhabited Hyrkania.

Strabo mentions the Amardi along with other tribes which dwelt along the shores of the Caspian Sea next to Hyrkania. He says (Geog. xi. 7), quoting Eratosthenes, that the Tapyri (the Tymuri of the Char Aymac previously noticed) occupy the country between the Hyrkanoi and Arioi (Gurgani and Herati) ; that around the shores of the sea next to Hyrkania are Amardoi, Anariakai (previously noticed), Kadusioi (modern Kurd), Albanoi (modern Afghan), Kaspioi, Vitioi, and perhaps other tribes extending (westward) as far as the Skythians (on the west of the Caspian Sea) ; that on the other side (eastward) of the Hyrkani are the Derbikkoi (Rajput Dharbi-ki, amongst the Turkman of Marv) ; that the Kadusioi (Kurd) are contiguous both to the Medes and the Matianoi below the Parakhoathros (Alburz range, in which the Kurd now inhabit the hills north of Mashhad).

Parthia, says Strabo (xi. 9), is a small country, thickly


[Page-44]: wooded, mountainous, and produces nothing; for this reason, under the Persian dominion it was united with Hyrkania for the purpose of paying tribute, and afterwards during a long period when the Makedonians were masters of the country. At present, says Strabo, writing about the beginning of the Christian era, it is augmented in extent, Komisene and Khorene (Kum and Khar) are parts of Parthia, and perhaps also the country as far as the Caspian Gates, Rhagai, and the Tapyroi, which formerly belonged to Media. The Tapyroi, he adds, are said to live between the Derbikkoi and the Hyxkanoi (which is just the position now occupied by the Tymuri, between the Turkoman and Gurgani). Disturbances, continues Strabo, having occurred in the countries of which we are speaking, in consequence of the kings of Syria and Media, who possessed Parthia, etc., being engaged in other affairs, those who were entrusted with the government of Parthia, occasioned first the revolt of Bactriana ; then Euthydemus and his party the revolt of all the country near that province.

Arsakes

Afterwards Arsakes (Arsak) a Skythian, with the Parnoi nomads (the Barni before mentioned as the tribe of the Kharizm Shahi dynasty), a tribe of the Dahi who live on the banks of the Okhus (that part of the Oxus river in the Khiva plain), invaded Parthia and made himself master of it. At first Arsakes and his successors were weakened by wars with those who had been deprived of their territories. Afterwards they became so powerful, by their successful warfare, that at last they took possession of all the country within the Euphrates. They deprived Eukratides and then the Scythians, by force of arms, of a part of Baktriana. They now (beginning of the Christian era) have an empire comprehending so large an extent of country, and so many nations, that it almost rivals that of the Romans in magnitude. In a previous passage (Geog. xv. 2), describing Ariana, Strabo mentions Khaarene as being situated somewhere about the part of the country bordering upon India, and adds that " this, of all the places subject to the Parthians lies nearest to India " ; and that " Kraterus traversed and subjugated this part of the country on his march from India to Karmania." The Khaarene here mentioned is the present Kharan of Balochistan. The Arsakes above mentioned as founder of the dynasty of the Arsakides, which overthrew the Roman power in Asia, and endured under a succession of thirty-one kings for 481 years — from 236 B.C. to 245 A.D. — belonged most probably to the tribe which is now represented by the Arsaki or Harzagi, division of the Turkoman of Marv ; the latter, a people which Klaproth has recognised as Koman or Kuman, Turk from the steppe north of the Caspian Sea. The Turkoman, dwelling within the limits of the region to


[Page-45]: which our inquiry is restricted, comprise the main divisions of:

Sarik, Salor, Takah, and Arsaki, or Harzagi (or Arsari as it is sometimes written by Europeans).

  • Salar is the name of a Turk tribe, and is also the name of a Rajput tribe, one of the royal races of Rajasthan, and was originally a tribe of the Saka Skythians. There are many names of Turk tribes found amongst the clans of the Rajput as given by Tod ("Annals of Rajasthan ") ; and this circumstance leads to the conclusion that the Rajput genealogies must have been compiled at a comparatively modern date, and long after the Turk invaders and conquerors had become mixed up and lost in the general population of the country ; and thus- came to be identified as Rajput on account of their adopting their language, manners, etc.

Alah. Atah. Almaeto. Bala Nasar. Baghra. Baghochari. Balaeto. Bubak. Granjaeto. Garai. Ghashi. Gujaristan. Izdari. Kalandar. Malistan. Mama. Mughaeto. Pashae. Sherdagh. Shunasi. Zaoli. Nasafi.

Of these,

  • Garai is Turk, the same as the Karat in, the Zawa hills, south of Mashhad.
  • Izdari is probably for Persian Yazdani,

Shekh Ali, I suppose to represent Greek Aioloi ; they inhabit the country about Bamian, Ghorband, and the sources of the Helmand river. They are reckoned at about ten thousand families, and are partly Shia' and partly Sunni Muhammadans.

Among their sections are the following : —

Darghan. Kalu. Habash. Tatar. Sagpa.

  • Habash for Hahashi, Abyssinian ; descendants probably of Abyssinian slaves naturalized in Balochistan and thence transported to the vicinity of Ghazni.

Zaidnat is the name applied to the Jamshedi and Firozkohi Aymac previously noticed; but amongst them are reckoned a


[Page-46]:

number of miscellaneous Hazarah, dwelling mostly to the north-east of the river Murgab, such as : —

Ali Ilahi, Balkhi, Dahi Mirak, Darghan, Khoja Miri, Saripuli, etc.

  • Ali Ilahi is the name of a sect — believers in the Divinity of Ali— rather than of a tribe.
  • Gavi inhabit Ghorband and Hindu Kush, east of the Shekh Ali Hazarah, are Sunni Musalmans, and reckoned at about two thousand families. They may represent the Goei Hun of De Guigne (" Histoire des Huns"), and probably came into these parts at the same time as the Geougen of the same stock, who passed on into the Indus valley, and thence, under the name of Gujar, spread all over Northern India.
  • Fauladi, Puladi, or Boledi, represent the Boledi of Ptolemy, and inhabit the Bisud district north of Nawar and the Fauladi valley, south of Bamian ; they are reckoned at about six thousand families, and are of the Shia' sect. There is a considerable settlement of this tribe in Western Balochistan, which we shall notice again when we come to this part of the country.
  • Bisudi — the Pissuroi of Strabo, before noticed — inhabit the Bisud district west of Pughman range from Kabul to Bamian, and are reckoned at about forty thousand families, all Shia' in religion. They are in numerous subdivisions, the chief being : —

Babali, Burjagae, Daulatpa, Dihkan, Darghan, Darvesh, Jhalak, Jangzae, Sargae, Sokpa, etc.

There is another district called Bisud in the Jalalabad valley, between the junction of the Kunar and Kabul rivers ; but no Hazarah are now found there.

Other than Hazarah clans

Besides the Hazarah clans and sections above mentioned there are some others, such as the

  • Kubti of Besud, west of Kabul. They are by some reckoned a branch of the Bisudi, and said to number four thousand families. They are supposed to be Kopts, originally from Egypt; but how they came into their present positions is not at all clear. Their chief seat is in Kohi Baran, and they have settlements in Ashdara, Magasak, Sang Shanda, etc. The Habash above mentioned among the Shekh Ali, who inhabit Rui, half way between Bamian and Balkh, perhaps

[Page-47]: may have some historical connection with the Kubti. On the other hand, it is not impossible that the Afghans, who call these Kubti by the common name of Misri (Egyptian), may have confounded an Indian tribe with an Egyptian people in consequence of the similarity of their names, and thus the Mysari of the Indian desert may have first been called Misri (Egyptian) and then Kubti (Copt). Not being Afghans by descent, none of these Hazarah tribes appear in the Afghan genealogies ; nevertheless they have their peculiar traditions as to descent, etc. The
  • Bisudi claim descent from the brothers Satuk Kamar and Satuk Sokpa. Of these names, Satuk is a Turki title of respect, equivalent to our " Mister", and corresponds with the Persian Khwajah, which means "gentleman," " merchant," etc. Kamar is the name of a Skythian tribe, which is not uncommon in Afghanistan, and appears to have been early incorporated with the Rajput of Saurashtra, where it was afterwards changed to Jetwa, according to Tod.
  • Barbari, or Babari, claim descent from the Koresh Arab ; but, as I have previously suggested, the Koresh from which several different tribes in Afghanistan claim descent, is probably the Rajput Keruch of Tod, commonly called Kurush, Gorish, Goraish,Gorich, etc., in Afghanistan, where this name is of very ancient date.

Besides the Hazarah clans and sections above mentioned, there are some others, such as the

  • Mongol and Sahrai inhabiting about the head waters of the Murgab river, and other parts of the Ghor country, who claim to be descendants of military colonists planted in this region by Changiz Khan and his grandson, Mangit. They are said to differ from the other Hazarah, and to retain somewhat of their original Mongol speech, though generally they speak the same ancient dialect of Persian as is current amongst the Char Aymac and Hazarah to the exclusion of every other language. Amongst these Mongol and Sahrai, or " desert dwellers," are found the Nukdari or Nakudari. They are mentioned by the Emperor Babur among the Aymac nomads he met on his march to Kabul in the autumn of 1504 A.D., and on several other occasions afterwards, and appear to have been a well-known tribe in his day. At present they are seldom heard of in Afghanistan, and it may be that they were called Nakudari or Nukdari after their former chieftain, Nikudar, the son of the Mughal Emperor, Hulagu Khan, who held this country of Hazarah, or Ghor, as his provincial government or principality before he

[Page-48]: succeeded to the throne ; when he forsook Christianity and his Christian name, Nicholas — in the Mongol language, Nikudar — for the Muhammadan religion, and Muhammadan name Ahmad, as before mentioned.

  • Tymani, the third of the four Aymac tribes previously mentioned, is the modern representative of the Thamanai of Herodotus: and they occupy now much the same situation as was held by their ancient predecessors. Their chief town is Tybara, or Taivara, on the Khash river, and not far from Zarni, or Ghor, the ancient capital of the Ghor kingdom, and seat of the Suri nation, which formerly possessed all the western portion of our Afghanistan. The Tymani inhabit the south-western portion of the Ghor mountains between Herat and Farah, and are reckoned at about twenty thousand families. They are in two main divisions, the Kabchak or Kipchak, and Darzai. How or when the Kabchak Uzbak came into these parts I have not ascertained. The
  • Darazi, Darzai, or Duruzi are the representatives of the ancient Persian Derusiai of Herodotus, as before stated. Formerly the Tymani and the Darazi occupied the western slopes of the Ghor hills and the Herat valley adjoining ; but on the decline of the dominion of the Suri they moved east-ward and occupied much of the country previously inhabited by the Suri, with whom as neighbours they were always in more or less close alliance ; and they are now chiefly found in the valleys of the Khash and Farah rivers, and on the south slopes of the Siah Koh, or "Black mountain" range, an offset from the Kohi Baba of Hindu Kush.
  • Suri - This people formerly constituted a numerous and powerful nation, in the western half of the modern Hazarah country, which they held as an independent native kingdom, with capitals at Firozkoh and Ghor. At the present day they occupy more restricted limits, and are confined to the hills drained by the sources of the Adraskand river, and to the adjacent plain of Sabzvar and Isapzar. In 1186 AD, the chieftain of this tribe, holding the little principality of Ghor, with the aid, probably, of the Saljuk chiefs, who had recently possessed themselves of Kandahar, and that of his own country-men in the military service of the Ghazni Sultan, overthrew the Turk dynasty founded by Sabaktakin at Ghazni, and established in its place that of the Suri of Ghor. Who these Suri were is an interesting subject for investigation ; but time does not allow of our pursuing the inquiry now, farther than to advance a few very brief remarks.

City of Alexandria

Pliny's statement (Hist. Nat., vi. 18), regarding the city of Alexandria, founded in the district of Margiana by Alexander


[Page-49]: which being destroyed by the barbarians, Antiokhus, the son of Seleukus, rebuilt it on the same site as a Syrian city, and called it Antiokhia, and that it was watered by the Margus which passed through it, and was afterwards divided into a number of streams for the irrigation of the district of Zothale ; and that it was to this place that Orodes (Arsakes XIV.) conducted such of the Romans as survived the defeat of Crassus (about 54 B.C.) ; this statement of Pliny's seems to favour the idea, conveyed by the expression " as a Syrian city," that the new city was peopled with a colony of his own subjects from Syria, and that the Suri tribe of Afghanistan originates in them. The site of Antiokhia, from the description above given, we should naturally look for on the lower course of the Murgab ; whether any traces of its existence in this direction have been discovered I do not know. But the name of an existing city somewhat farther eastward, and situated upon a river which, although rising among the same range of mountains as the Murgab, drains a different watershed and flows in a separate and distinct stream away from and at some distance from the Murgab, seems to offer an indication of the true site of Antiokhia. In the modern Andkhoe or Andikhoya we have not only a close rendering of the Greek name, but other important points of agreement with the above description of Antiokhia. It is watered by a river which passes through it, and which may have been called Margus anciently ; but whether this was so or not, this river is afterwards divided into numerous streams for the irrigation of the district of Zaidan or Zadane, a name not far off from Pliny's Zothale. Andkhui, or Andhkoe, apart from the above points of conformity with Pliny's description of Antiokhia, may reasonably be taken to mark the site of Alexandria, probably one of those six cities founded by Alexander in Baktria for the defence of that province. The name of the river on which Andkhui stands is Sangalak; but it may have been called Margus by Pliny on account of its being on the extreme eastern frontier of Margiana.

However, be this as it may, the Suri of "the Syrian city " may be represented to-day by the Suri division of the Hazarah Char Aymac. It remains yet to inquire who these Syrians, or Suri, were.

Antiokhus, the son of Seleukus Nikator, was the first king of Syria of that name. His mother, Apama, daughter of Spitamenes (Arrian), the Baktrian chief, had been given by Alexander to Seleukus in 326 B.C. at Susa, when he married his generals to native ladies and Persian princesses. Seleukus, since the death of Alexander, had held the government of Eastern Persia and


[Page-50]: the conquered Indian provinces for ten years, until, by the battle at Ipsus, 301 B.C., he acquired the throne of Syria and sovereignty of Asia, and thus established the dynasty of the Seleukidae. He then gave his son the government of Upper Asia (his own former satrapy, consisting of the modem Afghanistan and Turkistan), with the title of king, which Antiokhos held until 280 B.C., when he succeeded his father on the throne of Syria. Antiokhos Soter died 261 B.C. after a reign of nineteen years.

Thus the Greako-Baktrian Antiokhos ruled over Afghanistan for about twenty years prior to his succession to the throne of Syria, and rebuilt, on the same site, the destroyed Alexandria, as a Syrian city, which he called Antiokhia (the modern Andhkui). It was, perhaps, in the very country of which his mother was a native, and adjoined the Paropamisus province, which his father had a few years previously ceded to the Indian king Sandrakottos, or Chandragupta, in exchange for the five hundred elephants by the aid of which Shleukus won the battle of Ipsus and the sovereignty of Asia. From Pliny's account it seems clear that, Antiokhos the son of Seleukus " built Antiokhia before he became king of Syria; and the expression "as a Syrian city" seems to indicate markedly that it was peopled by Syrians to preserve it from the fate of its predecessor on the same site, Alexandria, which had been destroyed by the barbarians, as well as to have a guard of trustworthy Syrians upon the frontier of the Paropamisus province, recently ceded to the Indian king.

On the other hand, it is possible that, on taking possession of the ceded province of Paropamisus, the Indian king may have introduced a colony of Surya or Suryavansi Rajput, to secure its frontiers toward Persia and the territories of the Syrian king ; and that in consequence of the marriage alliance between Seleukus and Sandrakottos, and the friendly relations subsisting between the Syrian and Indian governments, the new city may have been made over to the charge of the newly-imported Surya Rajput.

The expression "as a Syrian city" in the passage above quoted, evidently implies something new and foreign to the country; and the question to be solved is, whether it was peopled with Suri from Syria or with Suri from India. It is certain that the subsequent history of the Suri of Paropamisus has been connected with India and not with Syria, and that they have long been identified with Indian tribes, which themselves, however,may derive from a more western source originally.

It is to be noted, however, that at the present day no traces of the Suri are to be found north of the Paropamisus, whilst towards the south, we have in the castle and district of Chakna Sur, Land, or district, of the Sur," and the castle and township


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