1845."] An account of the early Ghiljdees. 307 



account drawn up at my request by Mulla Pairo Lodeen, who staid 

 with me throughout the siege. 



The Ghiljaees, as will be shewn, are only Afghans by the mother's 

 side, being by the father's descended from the Sultans of Ghor. 



The word is properly Ghalzo'e : from ghal, thief; and zo'e, son — mean- 

 ing the son of theft, the fruit of a clandestine amour. The Ghiljaees them- 

 selves give this derivation of the word, although they would appear to 

 be ashamed of it by turning Ghalzo'e into Ghiljaee. The Persians have 

 out of compliment turned it for them into Ghilzye. 



On the 28th August 1841, while making a tour through the, till 

 then, unvisited Ghiljaee tribes of the Arghandah valley, a Rokhee Mulla 

 of some reputed sanctity and respect in the tribes, said they were all 

 Ghiljaees, as the Persians pronounced the word Ghiljyes as the Afghans 

 and themselves did, from being descended from Ghilj the son of king 

 Bet. 



In my journal kept during the siege, I find the following memoran- 

 dum, dated 22nd April 1842. 



" May not the word Ghilzye be derived from ^-tM Ghalech. (The 

 Persian vowel mark zer having in Afghanee the pronunciation of a 

 in hare) ; and Ghalech being often written for ^t^'* Kilech : and the 

 tribe may have been called Ghalechees, or descendants of Ghalech. An 

 acquaintance, a great grandson of Ashraf-khan, is named Ghalech- 

 khan." 



A mistake has very generally been committed by supposing the ter- 

 mination zye or zai to the names of Afghan tribes to be derived from 

 the Persian word for to be born. The word is a corruption of the 

 Pushtoo zo'e a son, and a true Afghan of the sarah or country would 

 tell you he was a Popalzo'e or Babakanzo'e as the case might be ; a Po- 

 palite or Babakanite ; and he would not say he was a Popalzye or Ba- 

 bakanzye, on pain of being abused as a spai zaman (comes filius) Par- 

 seeban. 



It is related that the Caliph Abdul Malik, son of Mar wan, despatched 

 his commander-in-chief Hujaj, son of Yoosaf, a Sakufee by tribe, to 

 subdue Ghoristan. It was then under two princes, Shah Jalaladeen 

 and Shah Muazzadeen, sons of Sultan Bahram who had the country 

 given him in grant by Alee, the cousin of Mahammad, on a visit he paid 



