afghanistanand ancestral heroes and the exposure of their dead. The Kafirs were never
consulted about whether they wished to become part of Afghanistan and
their incorporation was the death blow to their ancient culture and religion.
Once the Hazara rebellion had ended, ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan declared
jihad against the Kafirs and in 1895 he sent two large columns into the
region from the north and west. The Kafirs, who were mostly armed
with bows and arrows, axes and spears, stood no chance against an army
armed with breech-loading repeater rifles, artillery and machine guns.
Faced with annihilation, many tribes agreed to convert to Islam in order
to save themselves and their families. Those that resisted faced the full
force of the Afghan blitzkrieg. Men and women were slaughtered indis-
criminately and male children above the age of seven were given the choice
of conversion or slavery. In a desperate attempt to save their lives, some
Kafirs offered their infant daughters in marriage to the invaders, but many
younger children too ended up as slaves or servants in the households
of Muhammadzais, tribal leaders and other officials. Most of the Kafir
tribal and religious leaders were executed, their herds seized, and their
homes, temples, ancestral burial grounds and images smashed and burnt.
A small number of wooden images were taken to Kabul as trophies of war,
where they were later exhibited in the Kabul Museum. The region was then
renamed Nuristan, Land of Light, and mullahs were sent into the region to
oversee an Islamization programme. In 1896, to celebrate the conversion
of the Kafirs, the Amir convened a grand darbar and took the title of Ziy a’
al-Milat wa al-Din, Glory of the Nation and Religion.
Sardar Nasr Allah Khan’s state visit to BritainDespite the controversy surrounding the Amir’s internal repressions, in
1895 the British government formally invited ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan to
make a state visit to Britain, but since he was in declining health the Amir
delegated his son, Sardar Nasr Allah Khan, to undertake the tour in his
place. While in Britain Nasr Allah Khan had an audience with Queen
Victoria, visited munitions factories, attended Royal Ascot races and made
gifts to Muslim institutions. He continued his tour of Europe with visits to
France and Italy, but rather than making him more sympathetic to Britain,
the tour had a negative impact on Nasr Allah’s views on European culture
and its values.
Unlike his father, whose beliefs were a mixture of Islamic mysticism
and outright superstition, Nasr Allah Khan was a strict and orthodox
Sunni Muslim. His religious conservatism, combined with his sheltered