Ismailis In Afghanistan

By Author: Ibrahim Machiwala Lodhi
Total Articles: 463
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The word Afghanistan means the land of the Afghans and the word afghan (awghan or aoghan) means the mountaineers. The oldest Indian literature refers it as Balhekdes. The Persians called it as Zablistan and Kabalistan. To the Greeks, it was Bakhtar or Bactria. The Afghan territories also is included in the Central Asia.

How and when the Ismaili mission penetrated Afghanistan is under the shadow of much ambiguity. There were immense difficulties on the field of communication with the Imams, also the scattered dispersion and above all their absolute minority in the territory. Most of them had to settle in the mountainous villages of central parts and remote places of northern areas. The hovering fear of persecution forced them to maintain complete secrecy of their faith and assumed taqiya during last five centuries.

During the pre-Fatimid period, the Samanids of Samarkand and Bukhara had penetrated their power in the territories of Afghanistan. The Ismaili mission was brisk in Khorasan between 903 and 913. Nasr bin Ahmad (d. 914) was an ardent Ismaili ruler in the Samanid dynasty, but there is no any sound indication ...
... whether the Ismailis entered in Afghanistan in his period. It is however possible that the da'is working under Hatim ar-Razi (874-934), An-Nasafi (d. 942) or Abu Yaqub as-Sijistani (883-996), etc. had visited the villages of Afghanistan. During the period of Imam al-Mustansir billah, Nasir Khusaro was designated as a hujjat of Khorasan and Badakhshan. He came from Khorasan and launched mass conversion in Central Asia.

The reduction of Alamut rule has had a tremendous impact upon the Iranian Ismailis, impairing their morale to great extent. It demolished and annihilated the progressive civilization and culture of the Ismailis. They were absolutely disorganized and disoriented. Those who had escaped the main brunt of the Mongol onslaughts had taken harbour in Khorasan and Afghanistan. The Ismailis who were origins of Badakhshan were relatively not accessible to the Mongol sword and continued to develop a distinctive tradition of their own.

In Gilgit, the Trakhan was a leading dynasty of local rulers. In the period of Torra Khan (1310-1335), his cousin Raja Rais Khan took refuge in Badakhshan in the house of an Ismaili called, Taj Mughal (d. 1325). Raja Rais Khan was received with great pomp, who embraced Ismailism. He also married to the daughter of Taj Mughal. Raja Rais Khan persuaded Taj Mughal to invade Gilgit with his followers. Taj Mughal conquered Chitral and subdued Yasin, Koh Khizr and Punial Gilgit, ruled by Torra Khan, who also accepted Ismailism. Taj Mughal launched pervasive mission and said to have dominated on the north greater part of Turkistan, on the west the whole area including the city of Herat, and on the southeast right upto the border of Chitral.

Pir Shams (d. 1356) had been in Badakhshan and brought many followers of Momin Shahi sect within Ismaili fold. After visiting Gilgit and Tibet, he returned to Ghazna, where he deputed a local prince towards Badakhshan on a mission operation. Imam Mustansir billah II is also related to have deputed a certain Baba Shahidi in Herat, who came with Abdur Rahman Jami and taught the religious education to the local people.

Syed Suhrab Wali Badakhshani was hailed from Herat and passed his life in Badakhshan and Kabul as a local missionary. In his writing, he mentions the date 1452, which suggests that he lived in the period of Imam Muhammad bin Islam Shah (d. 1463), Imam Mustansir billah II (d. 1475) and Imam Abdus Salam (d. 1493). He was followed by his son Syed Umar Yamghani, whose descendants and followers continued Ismaili mission around Badakhshan and in the central part of Afghanistan.

Khayr Khwah Herati was an origin of Herat at the end of 15th century. His father Sultan Hussain was a native of Ghriyan in Afghanistan, where he served as Imam's vakil. He was also a head of the Ismaili affairs in the region of Herat and other cities in northern Afghanistan, even the borders of China and India. Once the Imam summoned him in Iran through a messenger, Nur Mahmud. He started his journey along with Khwaja Kassim Kohistani, but was killed by brigands in Khorasan. His son Khayr Khwah, who was then 19 years old, was taken in his father's place despite the objection of few elders of the jamat. He visited Anjudan and saw the Imam. Finally, he was appointed a chief da'i in place of his father in Afghanistan, and died most possibly after 1553.

Scanning the meagre chains of traditions, it ensues that the credit to launch mass conversion in the villages of Hazarajat goes to a certain Pir Murad and his two brothers, who were formerly aggressive to the Ismailis. He was an origin of Behsud professing the faith of the Twelvers. It is said that he was greatly touched with the esoteric practice and embraced Ismailism. He is said to have travelled in Iran to behold the Imam. The tradition has it that he launched his mission in Central Afghanistan and brought a concourse of the people of Siasang and other parts of Hazarajat to the Ismaili fold. He died and buried in Behsud. Pir Murad was succeeded by his son, Akhund Kalb-i Ali, who mostly propagated in Behsud. His younger brother, Akhund Asghar is reported to have launched the mission widely for 12 years. Akhund Zargan Ali, the son of Akhund Kalb-i Ali spread the mission in Quli Khish, Shikali, etc. He was followed by his son, Akhund Sarwar Ali, who in turn, succeeded by Akhund Shafi (d. 1947).

It suggests that the Ismaili faith and its influence were widely spread out in Afghanistan during 16th century. There is no any indication of the Ismaili mission for a century after the period of Khayr Khwah Herati due to the vortex of politics and persecutions. In upper Oxus, Mir Shah Amir Beg of Shagnan was a powerful ruler in Central Asia. He had left behind an inscription at Khorog, dating 1779 or 1780. His son, Shah Wanji Khan had exiled the fire-worshippers from Shagnan, and extended his influence in Badakhshan and Chitral. His son Kubad Khan is said to have violently harassed the local Ismailis. He was however overthrown by his brother, Yusuf Ali Shah in 1814. In his time, the Ismaili da'is operated actively in Afghanistan and its surrounding lands.

Syed Karamali Shah hailed from Mahallat. He was deputed in Badakhshan and Chitral, where he launched pervasive mission and died in Yasin. Syed Shah Ardabil was also a famous missionary in Badakhshan. He is reputed to have converted Mir Saleem Khan II, the ruler of Trakhan dynasty in Gilgit, who died in 1823.

The ancestors of Syed Yakut Shah, the son of Syed Shah Abbas Abdur Rahim had propagated Ismailism in Central Asia including Badakhshan. He also visited Iran to see Imam Hasan Ali Shah, and then launched his proselytizing mission in Badakhshan.

Imam Hasan Ali Shah left Iran in 1841 and arrived India via Afghanistan. He trekked inside Afghanistan from Girishk to Kandahar in August 1841. He had a meeting with Muhammad Taymur, the appointed governor of British India in Kandahar and Major Henry Rawlinson (1810-1895). The political arena in Afghanistan had become so hodgepotch that no Ismailis could freely visit Kabul or Kandahar to see the Imam. Syed Shah Hussain, the then Mukhi of central and northern parts of Afghanistan however managed to see the Imam in Kandahar.

The British forces quitted Kandahar on August 9, 1842 for Quetta, the Imam stayed for about six weeks with Sardar Sherdil Khan. By the end of November 1842, the Imam came in Sind. When the Imam Hasan Ali Shah settled himself in Bombay, he deputed his Iranian men as his commissioners in Afghanistan. In most cases, the Imam sent his sealed letters in Persian in Kabul.

In 1923, Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah (d. 1957) sent Pir Sabzali (d. 1938) on a visit of Central Asia, who also visited the territory of Badakhshan dominated by the Soviet Union and the Afghanistan. He visited Faizabad and returned to Chitral via Kabul. In other words, he could see the Tajik Ismailis in Badakhshan and not the Ismailis of central and northern parts of Afghanistan.

Incessant tribal fighting couped with the instability of the Kabul regime and the obstructionism tendency of the theologian class resulted mass migration in 1978 and 1992. The whole country was in the grips of a bloody factional tribal war ever since the downfall of its communist President Najibullah in 1992, and the influx of the immigrants continued. The greater part of Afghanistan was under control of the Taliban; a guerilla group emerged in 1994. As for the Ismailis of Afghanistan, it must be admitted that it was a greatest migration throughout the Ismaili history. The non-Afghan Jamat helped the Afghan Ismailis in accordance with the guidance of the Imam. The pitiable condition almost disappeared when they came into the new contacts and a ray of hope gleaned in their future.

Warm and well-deserved tribute must be paid to the leaders, institutions and workers, who, despite language problems came forward in the field with all resources and helped their Afghan Ismaili brethren in their daily foods, clothes, lodging, health, education, jobs, etc. Every front came into action, recalling the tremendous role the Ansars (helpers) played in Medina in the time of the Prophet. They have exhibited true spirit of fidais of the past, which shall be ever remembered. Hence, after the end of the Taliban regime and the pluralism in Afghanistan, the Afghan Ismailis began to retuned to their homeland, where they freely practice their faith.

On March 23, 2003, the Present Imam and Mr. Hamid Karzai, Chairman of the Interim Authority of the Government of Afghanistan signed an Agreement of Cooperation for Development that establishes an operating framework for the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) in Afghanistan. The Agreement, the first of its kind signed by the Interim Authority, enables the Network to move from the provision of humanitarian assistance to the establishment of long-term development programmes similar to those that have been successfully implemented in India, Pakistan, Tajikistan and other countries in Asia and Africa. In view of the importance of the Loya Jirga Commission's mandate in helping to create a future representative government for Afghanistan, the Imam also announced a grant of US$2 million to enable the Commission to complete its work.