garrisons to subdue, soldiers from Kabul and Kandahar came back, sometimes twice a year, and repeated the massacres of 1880 and 1881. A further punishment was heavy taxation. The Hazarajat is a place of beauty in some regions, well watered, with abundant spring grass. But it is not a land of great wealth. Hazara families lived there hand-to-mouth, able to survive for the day but never able to set aside provision very far into the future. The heavy taxation was a death sentence for thousands. Starvation and the outbreak of diseases that develop when nutrition is limited took lives more slowly than gunfire or the blow of a sword, but they took lives just as surely.
The Hazara of the south who had escaped the wrath of Abdur Rahman had deceived themselves of the Emir’s intentions. His plan was to extend his control and tribute over the whole of Hazarajat. Those Hazara who had stood aloof from their suffering brothers repented of their error when harsh taxation and reprisals were enacted everywhere in Hazarajat. In secret meetings, the Hazara of the north and south agreed on rebellion. What choice did they have? The best of their traditional lands were being confiscated and handed over as gifts to the Emir’s friends and supporters, whose allegiance he would count on in the years to come. The Hazara whose lands were left in their keeping today would likely lose them tomorrow. It is a bitter thing for any man to endure, to have the lands that he has inherited from his father taken from him and given to strangers. For these Hazara who had suffered the theft of their lands, death held no terrors. Without their lands and with their hearts torn apart, they were dead anyway.
The rebellion, which began in 1888, lasted for two years and ended in defeat. Whenever he could, the Emir took the opportunity to turn Hazara against Hazara. To one tribe he would say, ‘Put aside your weapons and I will return your lands.’ When the tribe accepted the offer, the Emir sent messengers to tell other tribes of the bargain, and in this way sowed the seeds of hatred. Also, Abdur Rahman was shrewd enough to use for his own purpose the great division within Islam of Sunni and Shi’a. The division is the most tragic of all differences that throw Muslim against Muslim. Like divisions within Christianity, it makes no sense when so much of the faith is shared and honoured by all. But the fact is that most Afghans are Sunni, while most Hazara are Shi’a. Abdur Rahman said to the minority of Hazara who are Sunni, ‘Why should we fight in this way? We uphold the true faith. Your enemies are the Shi’a who persist in their blindness and arrogance.’ In this way, with promises and flattery, he persuaded Hazara to spurn Hazara, and battles were lost, and the war was lost.
Yes, the war was lost but anger was as strong as ever. Many of the Sunni Hazara who had listened to the Emir’s flattery were murdered at the war’s end. The promises amounted to nothing. In 1890, no more than six months after the close of the first rebellion, the Hazara rebelled again. This second rebellion was not carefully planned; it was sparked by a sudden outpouring of rage brought on by a single act of infamy.
The Hazara had come to know in what contempt they were held by the soldiers of Abdur Rahman, but even in the midst of savagery, certain rules were observed. As a rule, Muslim soldiers avoid the abhorrent crime of rape. It is a deed that destroys the spirit of the women on whom it is enacted, and destroys also the souls of the men responsible. There is no justification for rape to be found in the scriptures of Islam, not under any circumstances; indeed it has been reviled from the age of the Prophet through the centuries. When soldiers of one of the Emir’s garrisons seized the wife of a Hazara chieftain in Hazarajat and violated her, the husband of the woman led his followers to the garrison’s armoury and took possession of all the weapons inside. Now armed, the
The Hazara of the south who had escaped the wrath of Abdur Rahman had deceived themselves of the Emir’s intentions. His plan was to extend his control and tribute over the whole of Hazarajat. Those Hazara who had stood aloof from their suffering brothers repented of their error when harsh taxation and reprisals were enacted everywhere in Hazarajat. In secret meetings, the Hazara of the north and south agreed on rebellion. What choice did they have? The best of their traditional lands were being confiscated and handed over as gifts to the Emir’s friends and supporters, whose allegiance he would count on in the years to come. The Hazara whose lands were left in their keeping today would likely lose them tomorrow. It is a bitter thing for any man to endure, to have the lands that he has inherited from his father taken from him and given to strangers. For these Hazara who had suffered the theft of their lands, death held no terrors. Without their lands and with their hearts torn apart, they were dead anyway.
The rebellion, which began in 1888, lasted for two years and ended in defeat. Whenever he could, the Emir took the opportunity to turn Hazara against Hazara. To one tribe he would say, ‘Put aside your weapons and I will return your lands.’ When the tribe accepted the offer, the Emir sent messengers to tell other tribes of the bargain, and in this way sowed the seeds of hatred. Also, Abdur Rahman was shrewd enough to use for his own purpose the great division within Islam of Sunni and Shi’a. The division is the most tragic of all differences that throw Muslim against Muslim. Like divisions within Christianity, it makes no sense when so much of the faith is shared and honoured by all. But the fact is that most Afghans are Sunni, while most Hazara are Shi’a. Abdur Rahman said to the minority of Hazara who are Sunni, ‘Why should we fight in this way? We uphold the true faith. Your enemies are the Shi’a who persist in their blindness and arrogance.’ In this way, with promises and flattery, he persuaded Hazara to spurn Hazara, and battles were lost, and the war was lost.
Yes, the war was lost but anger was as strong as ever. Many of the Sunni Hazara who had listened to the Emir’s flattery were murdered at the war’s end. The promises amounted to nothing. In 1890, no more than six months after the close of the first rebellion, the Hazara rebelled again. This second rebellion was not carefully planned; it was sparked by a sudden outpouring of rage brought on by a single act of infamy.
The Hazara had come to know in what contempt they were held by the soldiers of Abdur Rahman, but even in the midst of savagery, certain rules were observed. As a rule, Muslim soldiers avoid the abhorrent crime of rape. It is a deed that destroys the spirit of the women on whom it is enacted, and destroys also the souls of the men responsible. There is no justification for rape to be found in the scriptures of Islam, not under any circumstances; indeed it has been reviled from the age of the Prophet through the centuries. When soldiers of one of the Emir’s garrisons seized the wife of a Hazara chieftain in Hazarajat and violated her, the husband of the woman led his followers to the garrison’s armoury and took possession of all the weapons inside. Now armed, the
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