The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-02-21
POPE Plus AND ABDUL GHAFUR.
How Like, yet Unlike, In Life and Death, were
these two Great POtentAtes.

these two Great POtentateH'
A few days before Plus TX. breathed
his last the Pope Of the Mussulmans
away, Abdul Ghaur, the Ahkoond of
Swat. (Ahkoond, be II here said, means
"teacher.") From Cashmere to Mecca,
from Bokhara to Lahore, in the politics
of highland Asia, the Ahkoond has been
much as the Pope in the politics of Cath.
Ollie Christendom. Not the Old Man of
the Maintain; nor the fanatic Ameer OF
Bokhara, murderer of Stoddard and Con-
oily; nor the Sultan Of Roum, claimant
of the legitimate Caliphate; nor even the
blind old zealot, Feysul, leader OF the
Wahabee revival has exercised such in
huence over the Mussulmans of Asia as
has the asCetic cowherd Of the Goojurs.
Abdul Ghafur was born Of shepherd
parents in 1890, and till he was sixteen
herded their cattle. Running away from
home he sought out teachers first at
Peshawur, then at Khuttuk. DESTROYS of
greater distinction than that afforded by
the ordinary career of moollah, he
vowed to become derveesh and took
possession of the island of Bokka, a
mere bank of mud formed at one great
inundation of the Indus to disappear at
another Here for twelve years he lived
a hermit-life, in wretChed hut, exposed
to the cold blasts that only High Asia
knows and having for food only milk
and the ends of variety Of high grass.
Literally for months he remained squat
ting on the ground facing towards the
holy city and bowling the creed and the
ninety names of God, as the Rev. Mr..
Hughes, a missionary to Peshawur, and
Sir Harry Lumsden, a British officer, GER
tify. The latter had been specially or
dered to visit and report upon this fan
attic, who had already become powerful
in the religious world. Indeed his fame
had already come to the ears Of the Sikhs,
masters of the Peshawur Valley, who had
vowed vengeance on their former Mahom-
etan prosecutors, and they attempted his
life, but he fled to the mountains. So
great was now 1885 his influence that
Dost Mohammed courted his assistance
when he struck against the Sikhs, but
Runieet Singh was too strong for Ameer
and Ahkoond, aud the latter, after fight
ing gallantly in the Khyber Pass for the
Afghans, fled to the Swat village of Sy-
doc, which he was destined to make an
other Mecca.
The Swat valley, valley some. fifty or
sixty miles long by three miles wide, was
broken up into three c0ntesting tribe
ships, each claiming supremacy over the
others for its doctor of the laws BY
craft and simulated miracles Abdul Cha
fur induced the clans to unite under a
nominal king'of his own choosing, Syud
Akbar. Then he removed his rival
saints by having one assassinated while
at prayer and denouncing the other two
to the British, who had conquered the
PuDiaub, as Wahabees. Dost Moham-
med urged him to preach holy war
against the advancing iufdel British, but
the Ahkoond, who saw that the English
sovereignty guaranteed peace and pros
perity to the faithful, repelled his over
lures. HenCeforward he continued to
exercise his influence In favor of the Brit
ish, or at least refrained from using it
against them, save when, in 1868, he for
time checked Lord Elgin in the UNI
beyla campaign by casting in his lot with
the Wahabees. This, however, was only
temporary, for he preached ever after.
ward that djehad, or CT escentade, against
the reformed of the Wahabee rite was
even more meritorious than one against
the infdel British. 1t WAS Wahabee as
sassins, by the way, who struck down the
ViCeroy, Lord Mayo, and Chief Justice
Norman, of Calcutta.
The Ahkoond's influence it would be
almost impossible to overrate. For near
ly half century the Indian government
watched him as assiduoCsly and anx-
iously as Europe watches Bismarck or
used to watch Napoleon III. In 1852
Sir Harry Lumsden writes "This saint
has gained such an asCendency over the
minds of Mahometans in general that
they believe that he is supplied by su-
pernatural means with the neCessaries of
life. Every morning, as he rises from
his prayers, he is said to find money un-
der his carpet sufficient for the days ex-
penditures. He is consulted in all diff.
Culties." "This Pope of Sydoo," says
Mr.. Hughes, the missionary already
mentioned, "reigns supreme as the guide
and director of the hearts of men all over
High Asia" Three hundred pilgroms
daily visited him, and none came empty
handed, whether their home was Bengal.
or Bokhara, or Constantinople, or Mecca
itself, (for even in the holy city the All
koond was held in high repute), or Per-
sia, or Tunis. These he entertained
fancy the host of 100000 visitors each
year-blessed, prayed for and advised.
His counsels and predictions were sought
upon every imaginable subject. This
man came to ask if he could lawfully
learn English, a language which the ora.
Gle denounced as "the seed of infdelity;;"
this if his crippled son would be healed
by certain treatment; this how his law
suit in the Anglo-Indian courts would
turn out; this IA ruler whether he should
declare war upon a neighbor, or the
Franks, or the Russians. Up to the very
last he retained his vigor. Last summer
Ameer Sher Ali, of Cabul, as his father,
Dost Mohammed, had done before him,
inyited the AhkoOnd's cooperation and
blessing in the military movement then |
being prepared in Afghanistan to take |
advantage of the Russo-Turkish war,
however it should result. The Ameer |
had. indeed, previously testified to his |
veneration of the old saint by ordering
the compilation of bulky volume cele-
brating his sanctity and his miracles, |
In May, 1877, though then eighty-seven,
blind and suffering from chronic skin
disease, induced by the austerities of his |
early life, the Ahkoond, already the pa
triarch of great family, married girl
of twenty. It is worth while to add that |
Mayfair of June 26, 1877, when chroni- |
cling his last appearance in the arena Of
Asian politics, said prophetically, as the |
event has proved: at may be that the |
same month, possibly the same day, shall
see the removal of two old men, whose |
deaths will convulse the West and affect |
the East" The two "old men" died
within fortnight of each other.