![A Memoir of India and Afghanistan, With Observations on the Present Exciting and Critical State and Future Prospects of Those Countries []](/jacket/500x500/9781230305899.jpg)
Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1842 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII. DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTER OF DOST MAHOMED EX-AMEER OF CABCL. The Ameer Dost Mahomed, son of Sir Uffraz, Paienda Khan Barikzye, is of high descent amongst the Avghans, and claims a natural equality with the tribe of Suddoozye, from which the Dooraunee king is selected. But this circumstance of royal precedence gives the Suddoozye tribe a political superiority. I believe he was born near Djillalabad, although I have heard his nativity ascribed to Kandhar, in 1793. By an honorary or devotional vow of his mother he was consecrated to the lowest menial service of the sacred cenotaph of Lamech, a place of sanctity for the resort of pious Mahomedans near Djillalabad (or Ningrahar). This cenotaph is known in the colloquial dialect of the country by the appellation of Meiter Lam. In conformity with the maternal vow, when the young aspirant became capable of wielding a brush, he was carried to Meiter Lam by his mother, and instructed to exonerate her from the consequences of a sacred obligation, by sweeping, for the period of a whole day, the votive area included within the precincts of the holy space enclosing the alleged tomb of the antediluvian, the father, as he is termed, of the prophet Noah! Very little attention was paid in early life to develope the natural faculties of his mind by artificial means. He was the protege of experience and necessity, and those impartial and inexorable tutors were the constant mentors of this child, as they are of all who successfully climb the ladder of ambition. His mother was of the Kizzlebashe tribe, which forms the mercenary imperial guard of Persian origin. They are similar to the late janissaries of Turkey, and though denominated slaves, were of "praetorian dignity and power; they are also...
