State and Tribe in 19th-century Afghanistan
Christine Noelle, State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan: The Reign of Amir Dost Mohammed Khan (1826-1863). Curzon Press, Richmond 1997
By Jos Gommans
Recently it appears that publishers have taken a renewed interest in studies on Central Asia. Curzon Press has proved itself to be especially active in this newly emerging field by publishing at least three thick new volumes in the course of last year. One of these books is Christine's Noelle's State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan. The book sets out to balance two most eye-catching flaws in the existing historiography on the area. Firstly, as Bert Fragner states in the preface, Noelle will retrieve historical fact from the twilight of legends. These legends relate, of course, to earlier, Kiplingesque stereotypes of the proud, rugged, invincible, but at the same time, turbulent and untrustworthy Pathan. In conjunction with this, Noelle also wants to liberate Afghanistan from the still prevalent Great Game perspective in which it merely serves as an eccentric bone of contention between imperial Russian and British interests. Taking a completely different tack, this book is to be a thorough investigation of the socio-political circumstances prevailing within the country. To achieve this, Noelle has made admirable use of the neglected work of Afghan historians written in Persian.The book consists of four chapters and is well equipped with, among other aids, an excellent glossary and appendices containing detailed maps, genealogical tables, and information on local currencies. The first two chapters are fairly traditional histories of political events. Noelle neatly describes how the Amir Dost Muhammad Khan emerges as the Afghan primus inter pares from the maelstrom of almost permanent conflict and shifting alliances amongst his relatives and other tribal elites. Chapter Two goes on to trace Afghan expansion into the Uzbek polities of the north. On the basis of the earlier work of McChesney and others, Noelle begins by questioning the different ethnic and political legacies of the Uzbeks who were connected more closely to Chingizid Central Asia than to Safavid Iran or Mughal India. New and refreshing is Noelle's description of the various Uzbek principalities and the way these gradually gave in to 'Afghanization'. She correctly stresses that even in places where the former Uzbek elite was deprived of its power, Afghan officials, often members of the royal family as well, continued to rely on the co-operation of the next lower echelon of the local leadership for the collection of revenues and the raising of troops.
After these promising and illuminating first two chapters, the book tends to tail off in a rather disappointing decline. Chapter Three deals with the position of the Pashtun tribes in the Muhammadzai state. What is offered is another debate on segmentary tribal systems, mainly based on the earlier research of anthropologists like Barth, Ahmad and others. Those who have missed these debates will find a convenient summary here. Only in the second part of this chapter are we given some interesting new insights into the nineteenth-century political developments among the border tribes and the Ghilzais. Noelle limits herself by merely supporting the earlier findings of Glatzer and many others that the degree of hierarchization within a tribe is directly linked to the intensity of its interaction with the state.
After paying attention to the Uzbek north and the Pashtun east, Chapter Four moves on to the fortunes of the Durrani leadership in Qandahar. Here again, Noelle is at her best unravelling the highly complicated and ever shifting political situation of the country. At the same time, though, her analysis in the final sections, in which she explores the nature of Dost Muhammad Khan's administration, is a missed opportunity. It appears that the massive amount of material she has unearthed would properly support a more thorough analysis of Afghanistan's situation during the nineteenth century. The role of the state revenue, trade, and the ulama are treated only at the very end of the book in less than 30 out of a total of 300 pages. Now and again, the author states that trade had hardly any impact on Afghan society but, while claiming this, she repeatedly proves the reverse. For example, from what is related about the wealthy and obstreperous Mohmands at La'lpura and Qataghans at Qunduz, one clearly gets the impression that even during the period of the decline in the nineteenth century, long-distance overland trade with India and Central Asia mattered a great deal and that it played a prominent part in the strategic considerations of the Amir and the local chiefs. The same goes for the important religious developments of the period which involved not only administrative issues, but influenced tribal configurations as well. We almost forget that the famous Islamic activist, Jamaluddin Afghani, not only claimed an Afghan birth but also served at Dost Muhammad's court. Generally speaking, the political developments of the period still require deeper analysis from a much wider social, economic, and cultural perspective. So far, the orientalist cliché of the macho, unruly Pathan has hardly been challenged. Nonetheless, Noelle's solid political treatment of Dost Muhammad Khan's government is surely to be welcomed as a basic first step in this direction.
:Dr Jos Gommans (gommans@let.leidenuniv.nl) is attached to the Dept. of Languages and Cultures of South and Central Asia, Leiden University.