reform and repression, 1901–19written in the name of the Hizb-i Mashruta, or the Constitutional Party.
This movement also went under the name of Hizb-i Sirr-i Milli, the Secret
National Party and on the basis of the limited information available on this
extremely secretive organization, it was probably a radical revolutionary
faction embedded within the wider Constitutional movement. 12
The Hizb-i Mashruta probably drew its inspiration from the revolt of
the National Constitutional Party in Turkey a month earlier, an uprising
that forced the Ottoman Sultan to reinstate the 1876 Constitution. Two
years earlier, the Iranian Hizb-i Mashrutiyya had forced Shah Muzaffar
al-Din Qajar to agree to Iran’s first national Parliament and a Constitution
modelled on that of Belgium. Amir Habib Allah Khan, doubtless aware of
these revolts, had no intention of surrendering any of his absolutist powers
and, fearing for his life, he ordered Mirza Muhammad Husain Khan, kotwal
of Kabul, to hunt down the conspirators. In so doing, the Amir unwittingly
provided a golden opportunity for the opponents of the reform movement
to destroy both their personal and ideological enemies.
In the first week of March 1909 an unnamed informant identified
the head of the Mashruta Conspiracy as Dr Abdul Ghani, headmaster of
Habibiyya College, and it was alleged that he and his two brothers, who
were teachers at the college, planned to poison the Amir and seize the
throne. In all some three hundred people were arrested and interrogated,
though many were released a few weeks later. 13 Dr Ghani, his brothers and
several other Indian citizens and other leading members of the alleged
conspiracy, however, spent the next decade incarcerated in an Afghan
jail. The only reason Ghani and the other Indians were not executed was
because they were British subjects. Those arrested included Maulawi ‘Abd
al-Ra’uf Akhundzada Kandahari, a highly respected exponent of Islamic
law, and a well-known poet, who wrote under the takhalus of Khaki. He
was also a direct descendant of Mullah Faiz Allah, tutor to King Timur
Shah. 14 His father, ‘Abd al-Rahim, had been one of the religious leaders
executed by Amir ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan on the threshold of the shrine
of Khirqa-yi Sharif for issuing a fatwa condemning his government as
kafir. In late 1905 ‘Abd al-Ra’uf secured permission from ‘Abd al-Quddus
Khan to publish Afghanistan’s first private newspaper, the Seraj al-Akhbar-i
Afghanistan, although it was closed down after one edition. 15 At the time
of his arrest, ‘Abd al-Ra’uf was Chief Examiner of the Royal Madrasa and
Mullah Huzur, or Court mullah.
Two of ‘Abd al-Ra’uf ’s sons were also detained. ‘Abd al-Rabb
Akhundzada, his eldest son, was personal spiritual adviser to Amir Habib
Allah Khan and a teacher at Habibiyya College. He had been instrumental