Pashtun horse dealers, Kandahar, 1880

 

"Affghan horse dealers", 1880. Photo by Benjamin Simpson. Source

"Pathan horse dealers, Kandahar". Source

Afghan men and dome-covered shops at Char-su, Kandahar, 1880

Afghan men and dome-covered shops at Char-su, Kandahar, Afghanistan, 1880.

Photo by Benjamin Simpson.

Original caption: "Char Su, the point to which the roads from the principal gates converge – the scene of Capt.Willis' murder by a Ghazi."

22-year old British officer Herbert Valiant Willis of the Royal Artillery was attacked and killed by an Afghan Ghazi at Char Su on 15 January 1879.

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Camels with merchandise, trading between Peshawar and Kabul, 1889

 

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Recommended Books

Recommended Books

Pashtun traders in Sri Lanka

A 1911 Census report described Afghans (Pashtuns) in Sri Lanka as follows:

"They are well-known figures in the streets of Colombo and Kandy and in estate bazaars. They are tall and well formed. Their strongly marked features and heavy eyebrows usually give their faces a somewhat savage expression. Their complexion is ruddy; the beard is usually worn short, as also is the hair. Their dress is distinctive—a loose tunic, baggy drawers, and thick boots. Their headdress is wound in rolls round the head, generally over a small skull-cap. There are some excellent wrestlers amongst them. They have their own chiefs and settle disputes amongst themselves. They wander all over the East and are even found in Chinese Turkestan and Australia. Their occupation they usually give as cloth sellers or horse traders, but their principal business is usury; they are the petty money lenders of the country. Their calculation of the rate of interest to be paid is simple and effective. Payment has generally to be made one month from the date of the loan; failure to pay on the due date entails double payment, and the principal goes on doubling from month to month. The debtor very often finds difficulty in meeting his creditor on the day of payment. These usurers seldom go to court but exercise a considerable amount of petty tyranny." ("Ceylon at the Census of 1911" By Sir Edward, Superintendent of Census, Ceylon)

A Pashtun trader inscribed as 'Pattaniya'", Sri Lanka, 1830 (c). One of sixty-three drawings from an Album depicting Sinhalese occupations and castes. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Source

An Afghan (Pashtun) in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), 1881 (c). Photo by William Skeen.

An illustration of a moneylender playing with a native of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), 1899 (c). By German artist Christian Wilhelm Allers.

Killa Abdullah melons, 1937

1937 : Melons being unloaded from lorries at Qilla Abdullah station before being dispatched by rail to fruit markets in Lahore.

Qilla Abdullah district is heartland of the Achakzai tribe of Pashtuns. Apples, grapes, almonds, watermelons, melons, apricotes, pomegranates and grape are harvested in Qilla Abdullah district.

Afghan merchants, Chaman, 1889

 

Afghan merchants, Chaman, 1889. Photo by Fred Bremner.

Afghan merchants resting at Quetta Bazaar. From "The Sketch" (a weekly British Illustrated Newspaper), 1897.

Pashtun fruit seller in Sindh, 1861

 

Pashtun fruit seller in Sindh, 1861. 

Source: "People of India", Vol.6, published in 1872. 

The British author of the above-mentioned book writes: "The photograph represents an Afghan fruit dealer, who has accompanied a caravan to Sind. His costume and appearance are unmistakable. He has melons, pears, apples, and grapes for sale, and the fruit is carefully packed with cotton in round boxes. Afghanistan fruit is sent to native courts in India, where, especially the grapes, it is highly prized; but none of it has the juiciness or flavour of English fruits of the same description. In the hot, dry climate of Sind, however, it is peculiarly welcome and refreshing, and much is consumed by the higher classes."

Pashtun intermediaries dominated the horse trade between Central Asia and India

During the medieval period, Pashtuns dominated the horse trade with India even through the horses were bred by Turkoman and Uzbek nomads in Turkestan. After the Pashtun dealers had bought the horses at low prices from the nomadic tribes of Turkestan, they were fattened for one or two months in the various meadows around Kabul. During October and November, the horses were brought to India and sold through extensive network of horse fairs or melas. 

Figures for horse trade between Central Asia and India during the Mughal period, range from 25,000, as mentioned by Bernier, to Manucci’s 100,000. The eighteenth-century figures have about the same range. Babur himself mentions that in the early sixteenth century, about 7 to 10,000 horses were imported through Kabul into India. Based on the statistics of the A’in-i Akbari, Moosvi calculates that about 16,000 horses must have been imported annually to replace the existing number of Turkish horses in the Mughal army, arriving at an Indian total of 1,000 Persian and 21,000 Turkish horses. This would result in a massive trade volume of at least three million rupees. The horse trade was important not only in terms of horses delivered for the Mughal army but also in terms of taxes that could be raised. According to Abul Fazl, Akbar enforced a tax of two to three rupees on every horse imported through Kabul and Qandahar. According to Manucci, horse-dealers had to pay 25 per cent of the value of their horses on crossing the Indus. In the end, however, overtaxing could always endanger supply itself or force dealers to look for alternative outlets. 

The Pashtuns had a widely acclaimed reputation for using the horse trade as a springboard to gain political power. For example, the Lodi sultans of Delhi had started their careers as horse-traders from the North-West. This fairly common pattern in which the horse trade ushered in, directly or indirectly, political power and even state formation, once again repeated itself during the eighteenth century when we see the emergence of a string of Pashtun chieftaincies along the major horse-trading routes from Kabul to southern and eastern India.

The military threat posed by the Pashtun horse- traders is demonstrated in one of the anecdotes of Aurangzeb, in which the emperor reprimanded Amir Khan, his governor in Kabul, for letting into the country 11,000 horses fit for service but accompanied by one groom for every two horses. According to Aurangzeb:

 It is a very strange act of negligence on the part of Amir Khan who has been trained by me and knows my mind. It is as if 5,500 brave Turanis have entered the imperial territory from foreign parts. Well, such [was the number of the] men who wrested the kingdom of Hindustan from the hands of the Afghans. . .. In future, he should know it to be his duty to avoid this sort of action, and he should remedy the past in this way, that whenever the droves of horses arrive, he should allow only one groom to every 20 horses, and that groom should be a useless old and helpless man.

Ref: "Mughal Warfare: Indian Frontiers and Highroads to Empire 1500-1700" by J.L.L.Gommans 

Nine Pashtun horse merchants, 1816 (c). From Fraser's album. Via Willaim Dalryample

Pashtun horse merchants and others, 1816 (c). From Fraser Album. The men in the colorful dresses are Pashtuns. All the men in the painting are Afghans except the white-bearded man in plain white clothes. The figures in the painting are named as follows: 1st figure. Khodadad Khan son of Meerza Bahram. 2d. Meerza Bahram, an Afghan born at Caubul, a horse merchant. 3d. Seyyeed Khan, a Dooraunee Patan, a merchant of Candahar. 4th. Nunmoo Lahoree, a trooper, and residing at Delhee. 5th. Moolah Seyed Oollah, a Dooraunee Patan, a horse merchant of Caubul. Source

Eight Pashtun horse merchants, 1816 (c). From Fraser's album. Via Willaim Dalryample

Mulah Seyedullah, a Durrani Pashtun, a horse merchant of Kabul, circa 1816-20. Detail from a painting in the Fraser Album

Pashtun horse dealers in Sindh, 1861. From Watson and Kaye collection.

Two Pashtun horse dealers in Kandahar, 1880 (c). Photo by Sir Benjamin Simpson 

Barikh Khan , a Pashtun horse dealer in Lahore. 1886's painting by Rudolf Swoboda.

'Peshawar Carpet Seller,' 1905.

 

'Peshawar Carpet Seller,' 1905.

Pashtun horse dealers

Afghan horse dealers, Sindh, 1861. From Watson and Kaye collection.

             

A pair of Afghan horse, 1880 (c). Photo by Sir Benjamin Simpson 

Barikh Khan , an Afghan horse dealer in Lahore. 1886's painting by Rudolf Swoboda.

Moolah Seyed Oollah, a Dooraunee Patan, a horse merchant of Caubul, circa 1816-20, an illustration from the Fraser Album, Company School, Delhi or Haryana

Meerza Bahram, an Afghan born at Caubul, a horse merchant, circa 1816-20, an illustration from the Fraser Album, Company School, Delhi or Haryana.

Nine Afghan Horse Merchants, Delhi, 1820. From William Fraser Album .

Eight Afghan Horse Merchants Delhi, 1816-20 , From the Fraser Album.

                      Afghan horse dealer from the kingdom of Kabul, 1836-42. Painting by Emily Eden.