On two occasions was the Akhund beguiled—possibly from some dread of loss of ascendancy among his co-religionists should he refuse—into taking up arms for “the Faith.” In the year 1835, Dost Muhammad Khan, Amir of Kabul, invited him to join his force near Peshawar, with as large a body of his disciples as he could persuade to accompany him, and attack the camp of the Sikhs. This the Akhund did, and he and his following had some trifling success against the soldiers of the Khalsa. But the arrival of Ranjit Singh to command the Sikh armies in person was enough to send the Amir flying precipitately through the Khyber, and to scatter the Akhund’s fanatical rabble in all directions. The Akhund himself made for Buner with a few followers, who quickly deserted him, and then, returning to his ascetic and secluded life, he settled for a time in Ranizai territory. From here he moved a few years later to the village of Saidu Mandz, in the Baizai district of Swat, where he lived surrounded by numerous disciples and visited by crowds of devotees. The Akhund gained such an ascendancy over the minds of his co-religionists that they believed all kinds of stories about him; that he was supplied by supernatural means with the necessities of life, and that every morning a sum of money, sufficient for his own needs and for the entertainment of the pilgrims who flocked to consult him, was found under his praying carpet. But most wonderful of all—he was never known to accept any present offered to him. “His ascendancy over the Muhammadans of the Border and Eastern Afghanistan,” says Oliver, “was as great as that of Loyola in Rome or Luther in Saxony; his edicts regarding religious customs and secular observances were as unquestioned as the Papal Bulls in Spain. When the chiefs of Swat recognised the possibility of British military operations extending to their valley and the necessity for federation, it was to the Akhund they turned to select them a king. His selection was a Saiyid of Sitana, who for some years carried on an organised government under the patronage of the Border Pope. Putting aside the incredulous stories about him as priest, his life seems to have been one of devotion, humility, abstinence and chastity; the doctrines he taught were as tolerant and liberal as those of his Wahabi opponents were intolerant and puritanical. Judged by the standard applied to other religious leaders, he used his influence, according to his lights, for good, supporting peace and morality, discouraging feuds, restraining the people from raiding and offences against their neighbours, and enforcing the precepts of Muhammadan law as far as ineradicable Pathan custom would permit him.” [Sidenote: His Ascendancy]