On the day following the burial of the Amir, October 3, 1901, Sirdar Habibullah, the eldest son of Amir Abdur Rahman, who was then about thirty-two years of age, was formally made Amir. The ceremony took place in the Salaam khana, outside the walls of the Arak palace, in the presence of all the princes, officials, principal army officers, chiefs, and khans of tribes. There was no display of colour, and the princes, officials, and others who had them wore black clothes, while others had white clothes and some those of a dark colour. It is not the Afghan custom to wear black as mourning, except on the death of a king, and it is then worn for three days. The ceremony consisted of two parts, the religious and the civil. The religious ceremony was performed by the chief moullah of the Juma Musjid, and was commenced by all those present joining in prayers. Then the moullah wound a lungi (headcloth) of white muslin round the Sirdar’s head, after which the Koran and holy relics of the Prophet (a coat and some hair) and a flag from the tomb of a saint were presented him, after which the moullah announced him to be the duly elected Amir of Afghanistan. The flag from the tomb of a saint was one brought by the late Amir from a holy grave in Turkistan, all such graves having poles on which small flags and streamers are fastened, stuck in the ground around them. The late Amir had camped near by when on his way from Russia to Kabul, and during the night had dreamed that he would be successful in his quest for the throne of Afghanistan, and so had brought one of the flags from the grave as both a memento and a charm.