Language and The national language of the Afghans is Pashto, or Pakhto, Pushto, or Pukhto, Pushtu, or Pukhtu, the pro nunciation varying in different tribes. It is an Aryan or Hindu-Persian language, written in the Arabic character, with three letters pe culiar to Pushto. It is only of late years that the language has been expressed in writing with a system of phonetic spelling. Specimens of Afghan prose and poetry are found in the "Kalid-i-Afghani," a work compiled for the use of students in 1872. As the Afghans claim an Israelitish origin Oriental scholars have thought that there were traces of Hebrew in certain Afghan words, but these words, without ex ception, have been brought into the language through the religious terminology of Islam.
Pushto is the spoken language of the people in the Trans-Indus territories of British India. including Peshawar, also in the province of Kandahar, and among the hills between the provinces of Kabul and Kandahar and British India. Persian is the language of the educated classes.
The earliest English grammar of Pushto was compiled by Prof. Bernard Dorn of the Imperial Russian University of Kharhov in 1829. There are Pushtogrammars by Captain Vaughan, Maj. H. G. Raverty, Dr. Henry Walter Bellew and Dr. Trumpp; Pushto dic tionaries by Dorn, Raverty and Bellew.
There must be a very large number of Pushto manuscripts in existence stored away in the mosques of the country, where native cali graphists employ their time in copying them. Peshawar has been the literary centre of the Afghan language. The earliest work discov ered in Pushto is a history of the conquest of Swat by Shaikh Mali Yusufzai, A.D. 1413. There is also a history of Bunair by Khawjah Khan. In the reign of Akbar, 1600, Bayazid Ansari, known as Pir Roshan, the °enlightened saint," wrote several works in Pushto. There are also several books, chiefly religious, by his contemporary Akhund Darweza. In Hughes' textbook there is a selection from the Tarilch-i Murassa, the °gem-studded' history" by Afzal Khan Khattak, who was a voluminous writer. His grandfather, Khushhal Khan, chief of the Khattaks, translated about a hundred works from Persian into Pushto, and he is also the author of a °Diwan° of poetry of very high merit. He died in 1691 and is buried at Isuri, near Attock. Ahmad Shah, the founder of the present Afghan monarchy, was a poet of some reputation. The popular poet of the Afghans, whose "Diwan° is read wherever the Afghan language is spoken, is Abdur Rahman, who re sided near Peshawar at the beginning of the 18th century and whose grave is to be seen at Hazarkhana, two miles from Peshawar.
The Christian scriptures have been trans lated into Pushto by William Carey, the Baptist missionary, 1825, Isidor Lowenthal, an Ameri can Presbyterian missionary 1862, and in 1886 by a committee of missionaries working under the supervision of the late Thomas Valpy, French bishop of Lahore 1886.
Government and When Amir Abdur Rahman ascended the throne in 1880 the greatest confusion prevailed in every department of political, civil and military ad ministration, while the supremacy of the Amir at Kabul was scarcely recognized by the chief tains of the various tribes. But with states manlike ability, supported as he was by the British government, he succeeded in establish ing a permanent government. It consists of a board of treasury, a board of trade, a bureau of justice, a department of police, a public works department, a postal system and a department of education. The government is conducted by a supreme council known as the °durbar.° This council has three sections. First the °Durbar-i Shai,° or such members of the reigning family as are invited by the Amir. Second, the or assembly of Maliks and chief tains. Third, the °Ulima° or representatives of the Mullahs or Moslem priesthood. The Amir is seldom absent from the council, and its assembling depends entirely on his pleasure. The Amir's cabinet consists of the lord of the seal, the commander-in-chief, the lord treas urer, the postmaster-general and the chief secretaries of departments. The laws are those established by the Moslem religion, the "Pukh tanwali," or peculiar customs of the Afghan people, and the supreme will of the Amir. Amir Abdur Rahman gave his closest attention to revenue and in order to establish the currency of the country he opened a mint in Kabul. The annual revenue is unknown but it probably amounts to a sum equal to $5,000,000 which includes the subsidy received from the government of India. According to the old system the Afghan army was composed entirely of tribesmen collected by their Maliks who were supposed to hold their land on condition of military service. At the present time the regular army is estimated at 150,000 men, con sisting of a royal bodyguard of four regiments of infantry and three regiments of cavalry, a regular army of 80 regiments of infantry, 40 regiments of cavalry and 100 batteries of artillery. The police force consists of 30,000 men, and the tribal auxiliaries are about 30,000. When placed on a war footing it is thought that the Amir could put in the field at least a half million men, because every Afghan is by birth and education a soldier, a man of war from his youth.