nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47and isolated upbringing, meant that the tour of Europe came as a profound
culture shock. Nasr Allah Khan was particularly appalled at having to
meet and talk to naked, that is, unveiled, women and the fact that they
mixed freely with men who were not even their relatives. By the time he
returned to Afghanistan, Nasr Allah Khan had developed a deep distaste of
European education, social mores and modernization in general, regarding
them as not just un-Islamic but irretrievably tainted with ‘Christian’ values.
Nasr Allah’s visit also failed to realize the Amir’s primary objective, which
was to secure the right to open an Afghan Embassy in London. His request
was rejected on the ground that ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan had repeatedly
refused to allow a British Resident to live in Kabul. However, Nasr Allah
regarded the British refusal as a personal insult, which alienated him even
further from Britain.
Yet not everything was quite what it seemed. When a British military
doctor examined the twenty-year-old prince, his highly confidential medi-
cal report revealed that Nasr Allah Khan and Sardar Muhammad Akram
Khan, the Amir’s brother-in-law, were suffering from ‘chronic alcoholism’,
which on occasion verged on delirium tremens. 45 Consumption of alco-
holic drinks is forbidden under Islamic law, but Sadar Nasr Allah Khan,
his father and other members of the royal family had developed a taste for
spirits during their exile in Russian Turkistan, and after becoming ‘Abd
al-Rahman Khan Amir had reinstituted the production of local wine and
spirits, which had been banned since the days of Dost Muhammad Khan.
By the mid-1890s the Amir’s health, which had never been good, had
deteriorated to the point he was so unwell that he was barely able to govern
for months at a time. The management of daily affairs of state fell to his
son, Habib Allah Khan, whom he had been grooming as his heir apparent
for several years. By 1901 it was clear the Amir had not long to live and he
moved to Paghman. His last days were dreadful to behold as his body liter-
ally rotted from the feet upwards, while the stench of his gangrenous flesh
was so foul that his courtiers could only remain in the Amir’s presence for
a few minutes at a time. He finally passed away in the autumn of 1901 and
was buried the same day, without any pomp or ceremony, for his enemies
had threatened to steal the corpse and dishonour it. Over the ensuing
months there were a number of attempts to burn down the mausoleum.
Amir ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan: an appraisal of his reignThe reign of ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan was significant in the development of
Afghanistan as a nation state, though his legacy has been far from positive.