Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ...as set forth in our military manuals, to be translated into Persian, and had learned them thoroughly. Of war Firamosh knew nothing, nor, as he said himself, was he ever likely to require the knowledge; for when Afghans engage in fighting amongst themselves, they rely more upon diplomacy and intrigue than on military strategy. When actually driven to fight, the natural courage of their race is ever to the fore, but every petty Chief supersedes the General, who is but a "ghulam," # and has little voice in the matter; and, as may be expected on these occasions, Slave. 1857 TREACHERY OF A CONVERTED KAFIR 167 the result is that in a multitude of such counsellors there is not much wisdom. In mountain warfare against the hill tribes Firamosh Khan had displayed that personal courage for which the inhabitants of Kafiristan are noted. Afghans declared that, being a slave, he dared not commit a serious mistake, which might have cost him his head. He nominally received 100 rupees a month for his expenses, with horses and arms supplied by his master. Although naturally Firamosh Khan's disposition was anything but cruel, the associations of his life had engendered traits of cunning and revenge, said to be the inevitable result of the conversion of the Kafir to Muhammadanism, of which the following instance is a notable example. When the Wazir Muhammad Akbar Khan went up with a force to Kunur (the valley which runs down from Chitral towards Jelalabad), he sent Rustam Khan, a converted Kafir slave, with a company to occupy Chagar Serai, a village on the Afghan side of the border. On arrival Rustam Khan sent a message to his relations in the village of his birth, that he was at Chagar Serai, full of anxiety once more to meet his own kith and...
