reform and repression, 1901–19Khan, following General Roberts’s occupation of Kabul, and had been part
of the ex-Amir’s entourage in Lahore. Despite this association, Amir Habib
Allah Khan had married Sher Dil Khan’s eldest daughter, Sarwar Sultana,
or Ulya Hazrat Begum, mother of the future Amir of Afghanistan, ’Aman
Allah Khan. As Amir Habib Allah Khan’s favourite wife, Ulya Hazrat used
her position at the top of the zanana pecking order to undermine ’Inayat
Allah Khan’s position as heir apparent and to secure the succession for
her son. On their return to Kabul, Loynab Khushdil Khan and his son, ‘Ali
Ahmad, became members of the Amir’s inner council and eventually ‘Ali
Ahmad became Amir Habib Allah Khan’s most trusted adviser.
Habibiyya College and the start of the reform movementIn September 1902 Amir Habib Allah Khan celebrated the first anniversary
of his reign with a darbar. The guest of honour was Najm al-Din, the Hadda
Mullah, who conferred on Amir the title of Seraj al-Millat wa al-Din,
Light of the Nation and Religion, and from this point forward Habib Allah
Khan’s family adopted Seraj as their family name and his era, and that of
his son Amir ’Aman Allah Khan, was known as Serajiyya. Seraj was also
frequently used in titles of state projects, publications and place names. To
commemorate the darbar the Amir declared an annual holiday celebrated
as Jashn-i Etiffaq-i Millat, Festival of National Unity, the first non-Islamic
national day to be celebrated in Afghanistan.
Under the influence of the Mahmud Tarzi and the Young Afghans,
in 1903 Habib Allah Khan inaugurated Afghanistan’s first European-
style school, Habibiyya College, modelled on Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s
Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental Collegiate School at ‘Aligarh. The curricu-
lum broke new ground by including basic science, mathematics, history
and geography as well as Islamiyat, Islamic Studies. This initiative was
not well received by Nasr Allah Khan and his Sunni faction, especially
graduates of Deoband’s Darul Uloom. They opposed any secularization
of education and the inclusion of subjects outside the traditional Islamic
curriculum of the madrasa, for in their view Western science and education
undermined Islamic doctrine and the ‘ulama’s monopoly over education.
Furthermore, they disliked Sir Syed Ahmad’s rationalist and progressive
views on Islam, which they regarded as verging on the heretical, as well
as his active engagement with British rule in India, a government that
individuals such as the Hadda Mullah regarded as illegitimate. In order
to forestall any religious backlash over Habibiyya, the Amir let Nasr Allah
Khan establish state-funded madrasas in key provincial centres.