3GG Notes on Kafiristdn. [No. 4. 



and from the writings of other Muhammadan historians.* From 

 these we find, that in the time of the Ghazniwid Sultans, the Afghan 

 tribes finding the Kaseghar district — situated immediately west of, 

 and including within it the slopes of the Suliman mountains, forming 

 the western barrier of the Indus, in which they had for centuries past 

 been located— much, too contracted to yield a subsistence to such a 

 numerous people as they had now become, were compelled to encroach 

 upon the territory to the west and north-east, towards the Kabul 

 river ; and were in the constant habit of plundering the infidels, or 

 Kafirs, as they called the original inhabitants of the country, making 

 slaves of them and of their wives and children ; and compelling all 

 those who did not seek safety in flight, to become converts to 

 Islamism. These events took place during the chieftain-ship of 

 Malik Abdal, from whom the whole of the Afghan tribes are often 

 called Abdalis, or, by substituting the letter w for b — a change 

 common in the Pus'hto and Iranian languages — Awdalis, hence the 

 name given them by the Si'ah-posh as already related.f 



The people of Chitral and Kashkar, and according to Wood, the 

 chiefs of the tribes of Roshan and Shaglman — two mountain districts 

 lying in the valley of the Oxus, immediately to the north of Durwaz — 

 claim lineage from the Macedonian conqueror himself. But until 

 these countries shall have been explored by some intelligent European 

 traveller, we cannot arrive at any certainty on this head. J 



Akhtind Darwezah, the venerated saint of the Afghans, and oppo- 

 nent of Bayizid Ansari, founder of the Eoshanian sect, traces his 



* See Introduction to my Pus'hto Geammae, (second Edition) : Hertford, 

 1859, and Jouenal of Asiatic Society of Bengal. Vol. XXIII. pp. 550. 



f This is also confirmed by the account of Malik Manir quoted by Masson in 

 his c{ Travels." " He says j In company with Malik Sir Buland of Chaghan- 

 serae, I went to the Kafir town of Kattar. The Kafirs themselves call the Mu- 

 hammadans Odal, and say that they have driven thein to the hills, usurping the 

 plains, and eating up their rice." Vol. I. pp. 233. 



X " The chief of Wakhan traced his ancestry to Alexander the Great, a descent, 

 whether fabulous or true, of which he is not a little vain. Muhammad Rahira 

 considered his illustrious lineage a fact which none dare dispute, and indeed 

 his neighbours spoke with equal confidence of his high claim. This honor, as 

 other travellers have remarked, is not confined to Wakhan, but is one to which 

 the rulers of Badakhshan, Darwaz, and Chitral are also aspirants." " Wood's 



JOUENEY TO THE OXUS." 



