uncle, they again routed Shere All's forces, and occupied
Kandahar in 1867; and when at the end of that year Afzul Khan
died, Azim Khan succeeded to the rulership, with Abdur Rahman
as his governor in the northern province. But towards the end
of 1868 Shere Ali's return, and a general rising in his favour,
resulting in their defeat at Tinah Khan on the 3rd of January
1869, forced them both to seek refuge in Persia, whence Abdur
Rahman proceeded afterwards to place himself under Russian
protection at Samarkand. Azim died in Persia in October 1869.
This brief account of the conspicuous part taken by Abdur
Rahman in an eventful war, at the beginning of which he was
not more than twenty years old, has been given to show the
rough school that brought out his qualities of resource and
fortitude, and the political capacity needed for rulership in
Afghanistan. He lived in exile for eleven years, until on the
death, in 1879, of Shere Ali, who had retired from Kabul when the
British armies entered Afghanistan, the Russian governorgeneral
at Tashkent sent for Abdur Rahman, and pressed him to try his
fortunes once more across the Oxus. In March 1880 a report
reached India that he was in northern Afghanistan; and the
governor-general, Lord Lytton, opened communications with him
to the effect that the British government were prepared to
withdraw their troops, and to recognize Abdur Rahman as amir of
Afghanistan, with the exception of Kandahar and some districts
adjacent. After some negotiations, an interview took place
between him and Mr (afterwards Sir) Lepel Griffin, the
diplomatic representative at Kabub of the Indian government,
who described Abdur Rahman as a man of middle height, with
an exceedingly intelligent face and frank and courteous
manners, shrewd and able in conversation on the business in
hand. At the durbar on the 22nd of July 1880, Abbdur Rahman
was officially recognized as amir, granted assistance in
arms and money, and promised, in case of unprovoked foreign
aggression, such further aid as might be necessary to repel
it, provided that he followed British advice in regard to
his external relations. The evacuation of Afghanistan was
settled on the terms proposed, and in 1881 the British troops
also made over Kandahar to the new amir; but Ayub Khan,
one of Shere Ali's sons, marched upon that city from Herat,
defeated Abdur Rahman's troops, and occupied the place in
July. This serious reverse roused the amir, who had not
at first displayed much activity. He led a force from
Kabul, met Ayub's army close to Kandahar, and the complete
victory which he there won forced Ayub Khan to fly into
Persia. From that time Abdur Rahman was fairly seated on the
throne at Kabul, and in the course of the next few years he
consolidated his dominion over all Afghanistan, suppressing
insurrections by a sharp and relentless use of his despotic
authority. Against the severity of his measures the powerful
Ghilzai tribe revolted, and were crushed by the end of 1887.
In that year Ayub Khan made a,fruitless inroad from Persia;
and in 1888 the amir's cousin, Ishak Khan, rebelled against
him in the north; but these two enterprises came to nothing.
In 1885, at the moment when (see AFGHANISTAN) the amir
was in conference with the British viceroy, Lord Dufferin,
in India, the news came of a collision between Russian
and Afghan troops at Panjdeh, over a disputed point in the
demarcation of the north-western frontier of Afghanistan.
Abdur Rahman's attitude at this critical juncture is a good
example of his political sagacity. To one who had been a man
of war from his youth up, who had won and lost many fights,
the rout of a detachment and the forcible seizure of some
debateable frontier lands was an untoward incident; but it
was no sufficent reason for calling upon the British, although
they had guaranteed his territory's integrity, to vindicate
his rights by hostilities which would certainly bring upon
him a Russian invasion from the north, and would compel his
British allies to throw an army into Afghanistan from the
south-east. His interest lay in keeping powerful neighbours,
whether friends or foes, outside his kingdom. He knew this
to be the only policy that would be supported by the Afghan
nation; and although for some time a rupture with Russia seemed
imminent, while the Indian government made ready for that
contingency, the amir's reserved and circumspect tone in the
consultations with him helped to turn the balance between
peace and war, and substantially conduced towards a pacific
solution. Abdur Rahman left on those who met him in India
the impression of a clear-headed man.of action, with great
self-reliance and hardihood, not without indications of the
implacable severity that too often marked his administration.
His investment with the insignia of the highest grade of the
Order of the Star of India appeared to give him much pleasure.
From the end of 1888 the amir passed eighteen months in
his northern provinces bordering upon the Oxus, where
he was engaged in pacifying the country that had been
disturbed by revolts, and in punishing with a heavy hand
all who were known or suspected to have taken any part in
rebellion. Shortly afterwards (1892) he succeeded in
finally beating down the resistance of the Hazara tribe, who
vainly attempted to defend their immemorial independence,
within their highlands, of the central authority at Kabul.
In 1893 Sir Henry Durand was deputed to Kabul by the government
of India for the purpose of settling an exchange of territory
required bu the demarcation of the boundary between north-eastern
Afghanistan and the Russian possessions, and in order to discuss
with the amir other pending questions. The amir showed his
usual ability in diplomatic argument, his tenacity where his
own views or claims were in debate, with a sure underlying
insight into the real situation. The territorial exchanges
were amicably agreed upon; the relations between the Indian and
Afghan governments, as previously arranged, were confirmed; and
an understanding was reached upon the important and difficult
subject of the border line of Afghanistan on the east, towards
India. In 1895 the amir found himself unable, by reason of
ill-health, to accept an invitation from Queen Victoria to visit
England; hut his second son Nasrullah Khan went in his stead.
Abdur Rahman died on the 1st of October 1901, being succeeded
by his son Habibullah. He had defeated all enterprises by
rivals against his throne; he had broken down the power of
local chiefs, and tamed the refractory tribes; so that his
orders were irresistible throughout the whole dominion.
His government was a military despotism resting upon a
well-appointed army; it was administered through officials
absolutely subservient to an inflexible will and controlled
by a widespread system of espionage; while the exercise
of his personal authority was too often stained by acts of
unnecessary cruelty. He held open courts for the receipt
of petitioners and the dispensation of justice; and in the
disposal of business he was indefatigable. He succeeded in
imposing an organized government upon the fiercest and most
unruly population in Asia; he availed himself of European
inventions for strengthening his armament, while he sternly
set his face against all innovations which, like railways
and telegraphs, might give Europeans a foothold within his
country. His adventurous life, his forcible character,
the position of his state as a barrier between the Indian
and the Russian empires, and the skill with which he held
the balance in dealing with them, combined to make him a
prominent figure in contemporary Asiatic politics and will
mark his reign as an epoch in the history of Afghanistan.
The amir received an annual subsidy from the British
government of 18-1/2 lakhs of rupees. He was allowed to
import munitions of War. In 1896 he adopted the title of
Tia-ul-hlillat-ud Din (Light of the nation and religion);
and his zeal for the cause of Islam induced him to publish
treatises on Jehad. His eldest son Habibullah Khan, with
his brother Nasrullah Khan, was born at Samarkand. His
youngest son, Mahomed Omar Jan, was born in 1889 of an Afghan
mother, connected by descent with the Barakzai family.
See also S. Wheeler, F.R.G.S., The Amir Abdur Rahman (London,
1895); The Life of Abdur Rahman, Amir of Afghanistan, G.C.B.,
G.C.S.L, edited by Mir Munshi, Sultan Mahommed Khan (2 vols.,
London, 1900); At the Court of the Amir, by J. A. Grey (1895).
(A. C. L.)
ABECEDARIANS, a nickname given to certain extreme
Anabaptists (q.v.), who regarded the teaching of the Holy
Spirit as all that was necessary, and so despised all human
learning and even the power of reading the written word.
A BECKETT, GILBERT ARBOTT (1811-1856), English writer, was
born in north London on the 9th of January 1811. He belonged
to a family claiming descent from the father of St Thomas
Becket. His elder brother, Sir William a Beckett (1806-1869),
became chief justice of Victoria (Australia). Gilbert Abbott
a Beckett was educated at Westminster school, and was called
to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1841. He edited Figaro in
London, and was one of the original staff of Punch and
a contributor all his life. He was an active journalist on
The Times and The Morning Herald, contributed a series
of light articles to The Illustrated London News, conducted
in 1846 The Almanack of the Month and found time to produce
some fifty or sixty plays, among them dramatized versions of
Dickens's shorter stories in collaboration with Mark Lemon.
As poor-law commissioner he presented a valuable report to the
home secretary regarding scandals in connexion with the Andover
Union, and in 1849 he became a metropolitan pouce magistrate.
He died at Boulogne on the 30th of August 1856 of typhus fever.
His eldest son GILBERT ARTHUR A BECKETT (1837-1891) was born
at Hammersmith on the 7th of April 1837. He went up to Christ
Church, Oxford, as a Westminster scholar in 1855, graduating in
1860. He was entered at Lincoln's Inn, but gave his attention
chiefly to the drama, producing Diamonds and Hearts at
the Haymarket in 1867, which was followed by other light
comedies. His pieces include numerous burlesques and
pantomimes, the libretti of Savonarola (Hamburg, 1884) and
of The Canterbury Pilgrims (Drury Lane, 1884) for the music
of Dr (afterwards Sir) C. V. Stanford. The Happy Land (Court
Theatre, 1873), a political burlesque of W. S. Gilbert's Wicked
World, was written in collaboration with F. L. Tomline.
For the last ten years of his life he was on the regular staff
of Punch. His health was seriously affected in 1889 by the
death of his only son, and he died on the 15th of October 1891.
A younger son, ARTHUR WILLIAM A BECKETT (1844--1909), a
well-known journalist and man of letters, was also on the
staff of Punch from 1874 to 1902, and gave an account of his
father and his own reminiscences in The A Becketts of Punch
(1903). He died in London on the 14th of January 1909.
See also M. H. Spielmann, The History of Punch (1895).
ABEDNEGO, the name given in Babylon to Azariah, one of
the companions of Daniel (Dan. i. 7, &c.). It is probably a
corruption, perhaps deliberate, of Abednebo, ``servant of
Nebo,'' though G. Hoffmann thinks that the original form was
Abednergo, for Abednergal, ``servant of the god Nergal.'' C.
H. Toy compares Barnebo, ``son of Nebo''; of which he regards
Barnabas as a slightly disguised form (Jewish Encyclopaedia).
