Private Journal of Henry Francis Brooke: Late Brigadier-General Commanding 2nd Infantry Brigade, Kandahar Field Force, Southern Afghanistan, from April 22nd to August 16th, 1880Brooke, Henry Francis
History
Private Journal of Henry Francis Brooke: Late Brigadier-General Commanding 2nd Infantry Brigade, Kandahar Field Force, Southern Afghanistan, from April 22nd to August 16th, 1880
Brooke, Henry Francis
Afghan Wars; Brooke, Henry Francis, 1836-1880
have a nasty trick of watching till a person is busy looking at things
in a shop, and then coming up quietly and stabbing one in the back. It
is consequently necessary, when we go shopping, to go in parties of
2 or 3, or take an escort, so as to always have some one on the watch
against treachery, and as long as one takes this precaution they are
too cowardly to attack in the open. The people in the streets are very
picturesque, and most of them fine handsome men. No women are ever seen
except very old ones, and even they generally wear the Turkish yashmak
or veil which covers
[Sidenote: Kandaharis--the Charsoo.]
them from head to foot. In the centre of the city the 4 main streets
meet under a curious large-domed building, around which are shops, and
which is always crowded with a very mixed gathering of villains of all
sorts. This place is called the _Charsoo_ (or four waters), and it was
in it that Lieutenant Willis, of the artillery, was murdered in broad
day light by a Ghazi (N.B.--Next week I will explain who and what
Ghazis are), who, however, was himself immediately killed. Any native
attempting the life of any officer or soldier is now always hung in the
Charsoo, which has had a very good effect.
THURSDAY, 22nd APRIL, continued.--The newspapers have had a good deal
of late about Ghazis, both here and at Cabul, and I dare say it will
be well to explain who and what they are, as even here people have an
idea that every Afghan who fights against us is a Ghazi, and there is
some reason for this idea, as the primary meaning of the Persian word
is "a warrior." The Ghazis, however, with whom we have had to deal, are
fanatical Mahomedans who bind themselves by vows to kill one or more
of the infidels (that is of us), and thereby earn a positive certainty
of going straight to heaven. So convinced are they that if they can
only kill an infidel their future happiness is secured, that they are
perfectly indifferent as to whether they lose their own life in the
attempt or not, in fact I believe they rather desire to be killed,
and so enter at once on all the delights of a Mahomedan Paradise,
the principal charm of which is, that they are there to have as many
wives as ever they like, all, we will hope, warranted free from vice
or temper, and requiring no management, but living as a happy family,
without any jealousy or inclination to scratch out each others' eyes,
as I fear would be the case in a similar establishment on earth. It
will be easily understood that a gentleman with these ideas in his head
is a very awkward customer, as, caring absolutely nothing as to what
happens to himself, he has a very great pull over the man he attacks,
who is extremely unwilling to be either wounded or killed.
[Sidenote: Murderous assaults by Ghazis.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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