Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1878-03-13
An Asiatic Pope.

A few days before Plus TX. breathed
his last the Pope of the Mussulmans
passed away, Abdul Ghafur the
Ahkoond of Swat. Abdul Ghafur was
born of shepherd parents in 1880, and
ill he was sixteen herded their cattle.
Running away from home he sought
out teachers first at Peshawur, then at
Khuttuk, DESTROYS of greater distinc.
tion than that offered bv the ordinary
career of Mooliab, he vowed to become
a 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 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 grass. Literally for
months he remained squatted on the
ground facing towards the Holy City
and bowling the Greed and the ninety
names of God, as the Rev. Mr.. Hughes
q missionary to Peshawur, and Sir
Harry Lumsden, British officer,
certify. The latter had been specially
ordered to visit and report upon this
fanatic, who had already become pow
erfuI 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 Mahometan prosecutors,
and they attempted his life, but he fled
TO the mountains. So great was now
lS35) his influence that Dost Moham-
med courted his assistance when he
struck against the Sikhs, but Runjeet
Singh was too strong for Ameer and
Ahkoond, and the latter, after fighting
gsllantly in the Khyber Pass for the
Afghans, fled to the Swat village of
Sydoo. where he was destined 10 make
another Mecca.
The Swat valley, a valley some fifty
or sixty miles long by three miles wide
was broken up into three contesting
tribeships, each claiming supremacy
over the other for its doctor OF the laws.
By craft and simulated miracles Abdul
Ghafur induced the clans to consolidate
under a nominal king of his own choos-
ing, Syud Akbar. Then he removed
his rival saints by having one assassin
ated while at prayer and denouncing
the other two TO the British, who had
conquered the Punjaub, as Wahabees.
DOst Mohammed urged him to preach
holy war against the advancing infidel
British but the Ahkoond, who saw that
English sovereignty guaranteed peace
and prosperity to the faithful, repelled
his overtures. Henceforward he con-
Of the British, or at least refrained from
using it against them, save when, in
1868, he for a time checked Lord Elgin
in the umbeyla campaign by casting in
his lot with the Wahabees. This, how
ever, was only temporary, for he
preached ever afterwards that diehad
or cTesceBtade, against the reformed of
the Wahabee rite was even more meri-
wi iboo IMAM Obt
British. 1t was Wahsbee assassins, 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
nearly half a century the Indian Gov
ernment watched him as assiduously
and anxiously as Europe watches Bis
mark or used to watch Napoleon Ill.
In 1852 Sir Harry Lumsden wrote
''This saint has gained such an ascen-
dancy over the minds of Mahometans |
In general that they believe he is sup
piled by supernatural means with the |
necessaries of life. Every morning, as
he rises from his prayers, he is said to |
find money sufficient for the days ex-
penditures. he is consulted in all |
difficulties" 'The 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 |
pilgrims daily visited him, and none |
came empty handed, whether their |
home were Bengal. or Bokhara, or
COnstantinople, or Mecca itself (for |
even in the Holy City the Ahkoond was |
held in high repute), or Persia. or Tunis.
These he entertained-fancyt the host of |
100000 visitors every year-blessed,
prayed for and admired.
His counsels and predictions were
sought upon every imaginable subject.
This man came to ask if he could law
fully learn English, a language which
the oracle denounced as '.the seed OF in
fidelity, this if his crippled son would
be healed by certain treatment; this
how his lawsuit in the Anglo-Indian
courts would turn out; this Ia ruler)
whether he should declare war upon
a neighbor, or the Franks, or the Rus
slams. 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, in
vited 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 mis-
OF the old saint by ordering
the compilation of bulky volume
his sanctity and his miracles.
In May, 1877, though then eighty seven,
blind and su fering from chronic skin
disease, induced by the austerities of
his early life, the Ahkoond, already the
patriarch of a great family, married a
yirl of twenty.