An enquiry into the ethnography of Afghanistan / prepared for and presented to the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists (London, September, 1891) by H.W. Bellew.

  • Henry Walter Bellew
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An enquiry into the ethnography of Afghanistan / prepared for and presented to the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists (London, September, 1891) by H.W. Bellew. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    reputed to be a Koresb, because Abdus Shams of that tribe was his maternal grandfather ; but he was really an Israelite. WalId left two sons, Khalid and Walid, who both became converts to Islam and staunch adherents of Muhammad. Khalid fought valiantly in his cause, and received from the Prophet the title of Syfullah, “ Sword of God,” and afterwards, under the succeeding Khalifs, acquired renown as a successful soldier of the Faith. This Khalid bin Walid, of the tribe of Afghana—Koresh ac- cording to some—on embracing Islam sent a letter to the Afghans, his fellow-Israelites, who had been settled in the mountains of Ghor ever since the time of the expulsion of the Israelites from Sham by Bukhtannasar, informing them of the appearance of the “ Last Prophet of the Time,” and inviting them to embrace his religion. Consequently several of the Afghan chiefs, with Kais, the greatest of them, at their head, set out for Medina, and on arrival there, under the guidance of Khalid, embraced the new Faith, and, joining with the Israelites there, soon distinguished themselves in the cause of Muhammad against the Koresh at Mecca. In the battle fought at this place, Kais is said to have slain seventy of the Koresh by his own hand. For their services on this occasion, the Prophet bestowed many favours upon them, and inquiring the name of each individual, observed that they were Hebrew names, and as a mark of his favour changed them for Arabic ones. To their leader, Kais, a name which the Pro- phet observed was a Hebrew one, he gave the Arabic name of Ahdiir Rashid^ “ Servant of the Guide,” together with the title of Malik^ “ King,” the same as was borne by their great ancestor, Malik Talut, who was mentioned by that title in the Curan (Koran), and declared that this title should never depart from their chiefs, but that they should be always called by it to the last day; at the same time, on dismissing these Afghans to their homes, the Prophet, exhorting Abdur KashId to spread the Faith amongst his own people, gave him the surname of Pilitdn^ said to be a Syrian word meaning rudder,” since he was henceforth to be the guide of his people in the way they should go. Kais, after his return to Ghor, expounded the new doctrine with such success that his people immediately embraced Islam, and he lived many years highly respected by them. [Nevertheless, by the way, the Afghans have no shrine dedicated to his memory, though those of comparatively modern Muhammadan saints crop up all over the country in embarrassing profusion.] Kais died in the year 41 of the Muhammadan era, which commenced 6th May, GGl. It is from this Kais, Abdur Eashid, Pathan, that the modern Afghans derive their descent, as the ancestor of their nationality. It is this Kais who is made the starting-point of all their genea-
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