Absolute monarchy is the system of government in Afghanistan. Fortunately there are few parts of the earth where such a form of government exists, for it is not one which is likely to produce the greatest good for the greatest number.

In Afghanistan no one but the Amir can order the death penalty; no important question concerning the internal government of the country or its political relations with other countries can be dealt with or settled except by him; all matters of import emanating from the various State departments and offices must be referred to him for final judgment; all officers and officials required for the Government service in different parts of the country must be selected and appointed by him, and all prisoners accused of any crime of a serious nature must be tried and sentenced by him. Besides these duties there are innumerable other matters which require his attention, of which the mere reading of the private reports from spies occupies several hours each day. From this it will be seen that the man who can carry out all these duties and give each question the consideration due to it without neglecting some matter or another of importance to the interests of the country, is one who requires a quickness in grasping the essential points of a question, and a capacity for work which are unequalled.

Amir Abdur Rahman was an exceptionally able man, and one who willingly gave the whole of his time and attention to the work required of him, working from the time he rose from his bed until he lay down again; but even so he was unable to see to all things himself, and the absence of responsible officials duly authorized to investigate and settle those matters which were not of sufficient moment to be taken before him for judgment, wasted much of the time which ought to have been devoted to important questions on which the welfare of the country depended. However, it is not surprising that the Amir was chary of putting too much authority in the hands of his officials, for those who had authority to judge minor cases invariably abused the authority given them, and the people who suffered through such abuse of authority, feared the enmity of the official too much to appeal to the Amir, and generally they were given cause to do so. As a case in point, I may mention that of a camel-owner who was brought before the city magistrate concerning the non-payment of some Government duty. In this case the man was forced to pay the duty, besides having two of his camels confiscated, for the magistrate did a transport business with camels himself. The camel-owner was naturally incensed at the injustice of the whole proceeding, and wrote the particulars to the Amir, bribing an official to give in his application. Bribery must be resorted to in those cases where an official is the intermediary. All this was timely reported to the magistrate, who at once betook himself to durbar, and laid the case in his own way before the Amir, making out that the man was an old offender, and, to prevent him running away before his highness had judged his punishment, he had kept two of his camels as security. The letter the man had written was brought in just then and handed to the Amir; but the Amir’s mind was prejudiced, and he saw in the man’s statement—and an Afghan always overstates the case—an endeavour to injure the character of the magistrate in revenge for the latter doing his duty. The man was therefore put in prison, and the whole of his property was confiscated, so that he lost all he had instead of getting back the two camels first taken.

With the Amir it is always the man who gets in his story or complaint first who wins, for the Afghan mind is readily prejudiced and chary of relinquishing first impressions, no matter how much truth lies in what is said by the man who speaks last. It is such cases as these, and more often than not an appeal to the higher power results in disaster to the applicant, which make the people chary of disputing the actions of the officials, and they therefore have to put up with as much justice as they can get, either by intrigue or bribery, and keep quiet, while the officials grow fat and rich, and become arrogant with continued prosperity, until one day they fly at game too high for them, and then come to grief and lose all, ending their days in prison or at the hands of the executioner. The late Amir one day told me that he trusted no one, and was so suspicious that he did not let his right hand know what the left one did; and with such men round him it is not surprising that he should have felt so.

Another thing which is further detrimental to the country lies in the officials being consulted on all matters concerning the interests of the people, for the Amir has no means of ascertaining the views and wishes of the people himself, and has to accept what his officials say, and this gives them the opportunity of bringing about that which is to their interest, and it is due to this selfish disregard of anything but their own profit that the officials force the people in yearly increasing numbers to give up the cultivation of their land and seek work elsewhere.

The Amir and the Government of Afghanistan are said by the people to be separate and distinct, and there is a public and a private treasury, on both of which the Amir draws, himself defining those expenses which are private, and those the Government must defray; but here all distinction ends, and it is difficult to see wherein the difference lies. I have been told that the Amir is the head of the Government; but so far as I could see he was head, body, and everything else, excepting where officials and governors of provinces save him the trouble of looking into matters which are profitable to themselves. The Government stores chiefly contain the arms and ammunition made in the country or purchased elsewhere, while the private stores, in addition to those goods which are required for daily use, contain the valuable presents brought in from all parts of the country by the chiefs who visit the Amir, and those received from other Governments, and contain immense treasures. In the private stores also are all the latest novelties which have been sent for from India, and there are few articles in that way which are not to be found there. Very few, however, of the articles, except those of daily use, go into the stores and come out of it again, for most of the things are put away and forgotten, and neither the Amir nor his storekeepers know all that the stores contain, for there are no proper records kept except of articles of intrinsic value.

The late Amir was very particular about his palaces, and the dwelling-places he built for himself were the first well-constructed buildings in the country, and they were furnished in the richest European style, all furniture and upholstery being of the best he could get in India or make in his own country. He insisted on all things about him being kept clean and tidy, and woe betide the unlucky slave boy who neglected his duty in that respect.

His food was cooked in the Government kitchens, which are kept guarded so that no one but those who are authorized to do so can enter, and the chief cook, with several soldiers, had to accompany the dishes from the kitchen to the palace (all dishes are served at once, and not in courses), and when placed before the Amir it was the cook’s duty to taste of each dish to show that the food was innocent of poison. Several high officials always dined with the Amir, the latter being seated at a small table covered with a white cloth, while on the ground stretching away in front of his table a long cloth was laid which was covered by another white one, and here, on both sides, squatted or kneeled the officials, all of them, the Amir included, eating with the right hand. The hands are washed both before and after a meal. The very best and richest foods, in the way of pilaus and kabobs, were cooked, and all were seasoned with spices, and the bread was the usual Afghan nan (flat cake), but the Amir preferred white bread baked in small loaves similar to the English ones.

If an Englishman dined with the Amir he was given a separate table, and a Hindustani cook and his assistants prepared and served the food in the usual English way, while, for drink, he had the choice of various wines and spirits, which the Amir used to keep in the stores for such purpose, although he himself always drank water, in accordance with the tenets of his religion.

The Amir’s drinking water, as well as all food for him, was very carefully guarded. One man was held responsible for it, and had charge of the key of the room in which it was kept locked. The same was done with the tea, for which another man was responsible, and another, a hakeem (doctor), was responsible for all medicine, mixing it and bringing it to the Amir himself. The positions these men held were no sinecure, for if the Amir had any strange pain in his body they had a very unpleasant time of it until the pain was gone, or proved to be due to natural causes, and at such times these men went about with a strained look on their faces, for none knew what fancy might seize the Amir to their undoing.

The present Amir follows the same procedure as his father, but, owing to one or two plots against him, which fortunately came to nothing, all measures for safety are more strictly enforced, and all the men responsible for what the Amir eats and drinks wear a more harassed look.

One of the late Amir’s precautions was to be always ready at a moment’s notice either for fighting or travelling to any part of his kingdom, or out of it if needs be. For this purpose several horses (which were changed every few hours) were kept day and night in the stalls by the door of the palace ready saddled and bridled, requiring only the girths to be tightened for mounting. Several fast mules were also kept ready in other stalls for carrying treasure, etc., on the journey. A cupboard with glass doors was kept by the head of the Amir’s bed in which was stacked his best rifles, and with them boxes of ammunition, while under his pillow were two or three revolvers ready loaded, so that the Amir was ever ready for emergencies. In addition a picked company of sowars, called the “Hazarbash” guard (ever present), were always ready night and day outside the palace to accompany the Amir. This guard the Amir kept provisioned for a few days, so that they might start at any moment on a journey, and those on duty were relieved at intervals. The Amir’s life had been an adventurous one, and it had taught him, and his experience in ruling his people had confirmed it, that it is wise to be ready at all times for anything that happens.

It was the Amir’s custom to sit up working most of the night, and not to retire to rest until about four o’clock in the morning. He would then rise between twelve and two o’clock in the day, and, after dressing and taking food, would hold durbar. This habit of keeping awake most of the night was probably due to fear of a rising or treachery, which would be attempted at night rather than during the day, when all the people were about. Occasionally he held a public durbar in the salaam khana, a specially large audience chamber built in the garden outside Arak, and on these occasions any persons desirous of petitioning him were allowed to come before him, and anything they had to say was listened to. The people who wanted to make personal application to the Amir were ushered in by the shagrasi, an official whose duty it was to present people to the Amir; but they had first to square the captain of the guard on the gate, and also certain other persons through whose hands they passed, before being allowed in. The Amir was a very hard worker, and opened and answered all letters as they came, and continued doing so, no matter what other business was in hand, until he slept. As soon as he was dressed each day people were brought before him either to state their grievances or for trial, and deputations from tribes in various parts of the country were received and listened to. He put off no work until a later date that was possible of completion, but tried to get each day’s work finished the same day.

The Amir seldom spent much time in the harem serai amongst his women, it being his custom to devote an occasional evening to them only, and his opinion of women in general was not a high one. On some occasions he spoke rather plainly of the length, and lying propensities, of a woman’s tongue, and her general inaptitude for anything of worth, and love of intrigue. Solomon eventually found little worth having in woman’s society, and no doubt familiarity breeds contempt in more cases than his.

The Amir’s amusements were few and simple. He would stop for a few weeks in turn, at each of his summer palaces in the spring and early summer, to enjoy the air of the country and the scent of the flowers, of which he was passionately fond, and would eventually reach Baghibala, which is some four miles out of the city on the road to Paghman, and was his favourite summer palace, and would stop there until winter drove him back to the warmer city palaces. The Amir always had flowers in the room where he was, and in winter and spring when there were no flowers in Kabul, he had them sent from Jelalabad and other places which are at a lower altitude than Kabul and have a warmer climate. One day when I was with the Amir, he spoke of some flowers beside him, and taking one of them smelt it, and found it had no scent. The gardener was ordered to be sent for, and he came in with pale face and knees knocking against each other, for having no knowledge of the reason why he was wanted, he no doubt feared the most, and probably he was the same as others in having done more than he would care for the Amir to know. When the Amir looked up from his reading and saw the gardener, he asked why the flowers had no smell, and the gardener, at a loss to reply, could only lick his dry lips as he sought an excuse. The Amir, however, told him of a certain manure he was always to use, and bade him beware if the flowers had no scent the following year, and then told him to return to his work.

Occasionally the Amir would drive or be carried out to the chaman (marshy plain) where duck shooting was obtainable, but during the last few years of his reign he was seldom equal to the exertion of doing so, for he suffered almost constantly from gout and its accompanying ailments. His indoor amusements were chess, of which he was so able an exponent that few in his court could compete with him, and his only other amusement was in listening to or telling stories, and joking with one and another of the officials, during the occasional free-and-easy hour following dinner, when the Amir became as one of those surrounding him, and gave himself up to jest and repartee, before again assuming the duties and dignity of the head of the State. One of the recognized members of his suite was the court jester, who was dressed, however, as others were, and not in cap and bells, whose duty it was to joke and make merry when the Amir was so inclined. The jokes and stories, and the gestures used to illustrate the stories were, however, always too broad for those who are delicately inclined. This may be the outcome of the want of women’s refining influence, for women, of course, are never present in such gatherings, and men mingle with men, and see no women except those of their own house. Jesters were also among the retinues of the princes; but, without the restraining influence of the Amir to keep them a little in check, the jokes of these men were not even fit for a barrack-room.

The attendants with the Amir, or ghulam bachaha (slave boys), as they are called, are mostly the sons of chiefs. These boys are given to the Amir for his use, and are trained in his service, and when they grow up, are given civil or military appointments. These attendants, besides waiting on the Amir, had charge of various duties, some being placed in charge of the lamps and candles, others the carpets, others books and papers, others arms, etc.; and each was held responsible for the proper conduct and safe keeping of that in his charge. Neglect of duty or other offence was punished at once, and often severely. In one case, some boys were stripped of their clothes and tied to trees in the garden, and kept there the greater part of a winter night. Another, a storekeeper, had his nose cut off for stealing some of the articles in his charge. All had to be cleanly dressed, and while in the Amir’s presence, had to keep silence, and walk or move about without noise. Their clothes were gaudy, being mostly of coloured velvets, with plenty of gold lace and fur trimmings, and their turbans or hats were of the richest description. The present Amir, who is fond of plain dress and quiet colours, has his attendants dressed in black clothes cut in the fashion of frock-suits, the frock-coats being rather long and more in the Turkish official style, while among the officials generally a similar style of dress is worn, except when a man has a position which entitles him to a uniform, which pleases him best the more gold lace it has. There were many officials, as well as slave boys, who dressed in velvets in the court of Amir Abdur Rahman, and on a durbar day they presented a gay appearance, so far as dress was concerned.

After ’97 the Amir’s feelings towards England and the English changed, and those of his court had to see that they conducted themselves as comported with his mood. Sirdar Mahomed Omar told his half-brother, Sirdar Aminoolah, one day at that time, not to go before his father in the English gaiters he was wearing, and to be careful not to wear anything English on such occasions. The Amir was greatly disappointed in the failure of Sirdar Nasrullah Khan’s mission to England in ’95, which was chiefly to obtain consent to an Afghan envoy being appointed in London. As this meant dealing over the head of the Indian Government, it was negatived by the English authorities. Also the letters he received from the Indian Government, concerning his participation in the Afridi rising on the borders, in August, ’97, were bitter to him. One, which plainly hinted at the loss of his throne, if such happenings occurred again, he read out in public durbar held for the occasion, and to which all leading men were summoned, and after reading it, he accused his people of doing that which brought upon him disgrace at the hands of his ally. About this time he sent for me, and spoke for several hours on the Afridi rising, and the trouble the border tribes had caused him, and seemed particularly bitter against the Haddah moullah, Maulavi Najmudeen Aghondzada, who was the principal instigator of the rising. He said that since he came to the throne, rebellions had been frequent, and though each revolt had been put down with a strong hand (those who know the Amir’s methods will understand what his “strong hand” meant), it had not been sufficient to prevent further risings, for his people were not only the most unruly, but the most fanatical of all people. As to his having participated in forwarding the rising, the Amir argued that the people once risen and flushed with any little success, would become beyond the control of any man, and there were old scores to be wiped off between the border tribes and the Afghans, so that any rising was a menace to himself. And in addition to this, a rising in one part of the country would undoubtedly lead to similar risings and revolt in other parts, and it was only by his firm ruling and the stringent methods adopted towards those who sought to agitate the people, that the country was kept quiet.

The Amir said that no one knew to what country the Haddah moullah belonged, for he had no known relations, and during Shere Ali’s reign the moullah had been allowed to do much as he liked with the people, and raise revolt at his pleasure. He himself, however, had made inquiries, and found out the moullah’s mode of procedure, and had arranged to capture him, but the moullah received timely information of his intention, and escaped across the frontier, where he shortly afterwards raised the Shinwari and other tribes against him, and for some months gave considerable trouble, and it was not until four thousand or so had been killed that the tribes were quieted. And this was the man whose actions he was held responsible for.

The Haddah moullah had great influence with the tribes, the Amir said, and had sent agents to the Jelalabad and Laghman districts, where they induced some three thousand men to join them, but the governor of Jelalabad got news of it and stopped them, and on asking by whose permission they were going on this jihad (religious war), they replied that they were told by the agents of the moullah the Amir had given permission. The Amir said that of their leaders he had four sheikhs and two maliks, who carried the green jihad flag, in prison in Kabul, and he knew what to do with them, but the other leaders had escaped.

It was on this occasion that two men were brought in before the Amir as refugees from India, who had returned according to the amnesty issued by the Amir a few years before to all who had been driven out of the country; but the Amir said that the men were lying, and he had ample proof that they were spies from Ayoob Khan, who wanted reports of all said and done in his durbar. He said that both Ayoob Khan and Yakoob Khan yearly spent large sums of money in trying to get information of what he was doing, and to show how little he feared their influence, the Amir said: “If they will pay their money to me I will send them weekly or monthly reports, and give them all news of what happens, and my reports will be true ones, for no one else knows what I do or intend doing, and not even my most trusted officials know of any secret matters of importance.”

The Amir’s great wish, as he often expressed it when I have been in durbar, was to make his country rich by developing all its resources and bringing it on a level with other countries, and had he been gifted with health no doubt much would have been done towards it; but he was confined to his room mostly, and had to depend on his officials for information, and they proved a poor staff to lean on.

In another letter the Amir received about this time from the Indian Government, he told me that it was written that he had been faithful for twenty years, and yet in the same letter it was also written that he was buying too much war material, and that the Parliament in England would perhaps get suspicious. He could not reconcile these two statements, and said he came to the country as ruler without arms, and was recognized and acknowledged as Amir by the English, and his first act as ruler was to help them in providing for General Roberts’ army on its march from Kabul to Kandahar by giving orders all along the route to the maliks, and others in authority, to bring in provisions for the English army at each camping place, and in no way to molest them, whereby the English were enabled to march rapidly and without trouble to Kandahar. According to his treaty with the English it was necessary for them to furnish him with the latest arms to enable him to stand as her ally between her and Russia; but, instead of having them given to him, he had bought war material himself, and was now told not to do so. When the Russians extended their railway to Khuskh, they asked him to take advantage of it by trading that way, and he sent a copy of the letter to the Indian Government, asking what answer he should give, and they replied, “Give no answer;” but he was forced to reply or it might end in trouble or war, so he replied to the Russians that they had constructed this railway without consulting him, and had they done so in time he would have asked his merchants and people their opinion and what they wished, but they had made the railway for their own convenience, and his country did not want it, as their camels and pack-horses were sufficient for their own needs. He said he sent a copy of his reply to the Indian Government, who wrote back to say he had done well. He said he did not blame the English officials for what they wrote, because they were under the orders of the Parliament, but his idea of the Parliament was that it was like the Kabul public hamam (Turkish bath), where many are speaking at once, and the reverberations of sound from the big dome overhead mingles one man’s talk with that of others, so that all sequence of speech is lost in the confusion of sounds.

The great Boer War had just commenced at that time, and the Amir said he had spent several nights in anxious thought, for it seemed possible that the Russians might take advantage of this to advance through his country on India, but when he put himself in the place of the Russians and viewed the situation from their side, and he had spent many years in exile in Russia, and knew them and their ways and policy, he found much to fear from Afghanistan, for a war with them meant a general rising of Islam, which would spread to Russian Asia, and they had not enough troops for all that this meant, for the Mussulman countries she had conquered were insecurely held, and the people hated their conquerors, and as the Afghans would prefer death to being enslaved, and their women and children taken, it would be too great an undertaking to quell these risings, and fight Afghanistan and India at the same time.

About the Boer War he said he was very much grieved to hear of the number of troops lost. He had had a large experience in fighting, and from the different pictures and plans he had seen, he thought the fighting arrangements were not good, for the Boers were entrenched and hidden, and the English advanced on them in the open, and as the bodies of men are not made of steel, it is impossible to stand against the hail of bullets which modern weapons storm out every minute. He said he could send fifty thousand troops to help the British, but Afghans are unused to ships, and would be demoralized if sent in them, but England must always remember that he was ready to fight for her on his side or in India. He once told me an anecdote of the time when he was in Russia, and the Russo-Turkish War was raging. He was asked to join the Russian army with his followers in this war, for they told him they had heard that he was a great general, and would like to test his powers. But he was in no mood to fight for the Russians, particularly as they were fighting against his co-religionists, so he replied that to fight on their side would give them no opportunity of testing his merits and bravery, for all the Russians were brave and good fighters, and he would be one among many. Therefore it was better they should let him fight on the enemy’s side, and then when he was fighting against them, his ability, or want of it, would be made apparent, and they could judge for themselves. They asked him no more, he said.

In speaking of the foregoing matters the Amir said these and other anxieties were hard for one man to bear. He had to be strong enough to fight Russia both for the sake of his country, and because of his treaty with the English, and yet he was told he was buying too much war material. He tried to keep on the best of terms with his ally, and was told he stirred up the tribes to fight against them. Then, again, he had many reforms at heart for the benefit of his country, and his own officials were unreliable, and he could not ascertain the true wishes and views of the people, so that he might alter those laws which pressed upon them, and help them to better themselves, and yet he must strive that his people live in peace, security, and prosperity.

Although Amir Abdur Rahman was an exceptionally able man, he had received little or no education and training, except in the hard school of adversity, and the history of his adventures and adversities until he was made Amir would form a stirring romance. He was undoubtedly the strongest ruler Afghanistan has known, for when he came to the throne lawlessness reigned and had reigned for all time throughout the country, and no man’s life was safe who could not protect himself, and when he died a solitary traveller might journey from one end of the country to the other in safety. He was also a man of great personal courage, as those who fought against him knew, and he was relentless in vengeance for any wrong done him.

He told me an anecdote one day of when he was at war with other members of his family and had lost all but a remnant of his followers. He had taken refuge in a village fort, and one of his followers had treacherously betrayed his whereabouts to his enemy, who came that night with a large number of soldiers, and surrounding the fort, clamoured at the gate for his surrender. He was without provisions for his men and horses, and was greatly outnumbered, so that fighting was useless, and he determined on stratagem as a means of getting out of the difficulty, for his capture, he knew, meant death. So putting on a large posteen (sheepskin coat) which covers the body down to the feet, and is usually worn at night, covering the head as well as the body, he had himself let out of a small door at the side of the fort, and with a pistol in his hand which he kept hidden under the sheepskin he mingled with the soldiers outside, who did not molest him thinking he was one of themselves. Eventually he came to where his enemy was standing, and watching his opportunity when none of the others were near he seized him from behind, and clapping the pistol to the back of his head, ordered him to make no outcry or instant death would follow, and then by roundabout ways he led his prisoner to the small door he came out from, and got him into the fort. Here, as a condition of life, he made him give orders from the wall for his followers to retire to a considerable distance, and thereafter he effected his escape and got clear away with his men.

The Amir was a good judge of character, and was fond of reading the characters of men he had never seen from their photos, and in those cases where I knew the men, whose photo he was studying, his reading of their character was mostly correct. He had a great admiration for Gladstone, Bismarck, and McMahon, and said they were the leading men of their time. There were few generals he admired, subjecting most to a good deal of adverse criticism, but General White’s defence of Ladysmith, he said, was the most brilliant achievement of the Boer War.