afghanistan
‘Abd al-Quddus Khan and Nasr Allah Khan were ideologically allied
and together they rehabilitated the religious establishment, which had been
persecuted and suppressed by ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan, forming an advisory
council of senior ‘ulama’, known as the Mizan al-Tahqiqat-i Shari‘at, which
scrutinized all laws and decrees to ensure they conformed to Islamic law.
Its chairman, Hajji ‘Abd al-Razzaq, head of the Supreme Court and Nasr
Allah Khan’s spiritual adviser, was a graduate of the Darul Uloom seminary
at Deoband. The Mizan al-Tahqiqat persuaded Amir Habib Allah Khan to
abolish some of his father’s more brutal forms of execution, since they did
not conform to the Islamic penal code. The Amir also released hundreds of
political prisoners and closed the fearful Siyah Chah dungeon, the disused
well outside the walls of the Bala Hisar where the condemned were left to
rot in the filth and darkness.
Since it was imperative that Amir Habib Allah Khan win over powerful
Islamic conservative figures, the Amir invited the Hadda Mullah to Kabul,
for as the spiritual head of a Qadiriyya tariqa, Najm al-Din commanded the
devotion of many Pushtun tribes of southeastern Afghanistan and on the
Indian side of the Durand Line. Najm al-Din was also a noted opponent
of British rule and frequently incited the tribes of the Northwest Frontier
to jihad. In order to secure the support of the Hadda Mullah, Amir Habib
Allah Khan accorded official recognition to his spiritual authority and
increased his state allowance.
Three years later, in an attempt to offset Najm al-Din’s radicalism and
probably on the recommendation of Mahmud Tarzi (see below), the Amir
invited Sayyid Hasan Gailani, head of an Iraqi branch of the Qadiriyya Order,
to settle in Afghanistan. Hasan Gailani was given a jagir in the Surkh Rud
district of Nangahar, and the pir reciprocated by endorsing the Amir and the
Muhammadzai dynasty’s legitimacy. Indeed, the Gailani family became one
of the staunchest religious backers of the monarchy, a tradition that Hasan’s
son and heir, Ahmad Gailani, has perpetuated to the present day.
While there was little bloodshed over the issue of the succession,
Amir Habib Allah Khan faced at least one serious dynastic challenge.
His stepmother, Bibi Halima, ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan’s favourite wife and
a maternal granddaughter of Dost Muhammad Khan, resented the fact that
her twelve-year-old son Muhammad ‘Omar Khan, or ‘Omar Jan, had been
passed over in favour of the son of a Tajik concubine from Badakhshan.
In a bid to topple Habib Allah Khan, Bibi Halima secured the support of a
number of mid-ranking army officers, but in early 1903 the plot was discov-
ered and 36 military personnel were executed. ‘Omar Jan was stripped of
all his official positions and Bibi Halima was confined to the haram sarai
nandana
(Nandana)
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