afghanistanopened the city gates to ‘Abd al-Rahim Safi, while the majority of Balkh’s
Pushtun colonists failed to support Ghulam Nabi Charkhi’s attempt to oust
the usurper. Habib Allah Kalakani also received support from the Jabbar
Khel, while the tribes of Khost showed little enthusiasm initially for Nadir
Khan’s campaign. Only the Safis of Tagab and the tribes of Wardak, Maidan
Shah and Ghazni offered any resistance.
The main opposition to Habib Allah Kalakani came from the Hazaras
and the Isma‘ilis of Sayyid Nadir Khan of Kayan, the Aga Khan’s repre-
sentative. Despite several attempts to suppress the revolt, Hazara resistance
continued until the autumn of 1929 and at one point they threatened to take
Kabul. Habib Allah Kalakani even forced the leaders of Kabul’s Qizilbash and
Hazara community, which included the historian Faiz Muhammad Katib,
to travel to Behsud to persuade the rebels to submit. 2 When their mission
ended in failure and the envoys returned to Kabul, they were bastinadoed
and imprisoned, treatment which probably contributed to Katib’s death two
years later. The government then cynically used the fatwa condemning Shi‘as
and Isma‘ilis as kafirs to encourage the Sulaiman Khel to conduct a jihad
against the Hazaras, holding out the prospect of plunder, land and pasturage
rights. The threat of an attack by the Sulaiman Khel forced the Hazaras to
submit, but a month later they again rose in revolt and so tied down forces
that otherwise would have been deployed against Shah Wali Khan.
Panjshiris and Koh Damanis at a local buzkashi competition. Habib Allah Kalakani
is still a folk hero for many of these people and Bacha-yi Saqau’s army mostly comprised
of levies from this region.