Machine transcription
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people to see their country develop along modern lines, but
rather in the political manœuvring of ouside elements.
During the ensuing period of almost one full year of civil
wars the throne of Kabul witnessed one of the most dramatic
events of all time when a highwayman named Habibullah seized
the power and declared himself King. Thus, among other
destructive results of the civil wars, most of Afghanistan’s
political leaders were killed, banished or imprisoned.
At this time Sardar Mohammad Nadir was in Paris where
he had been sent as Afghan Minister some time after his promo-
tion to the rank of Marshal and Minister of War in the first
Cabinet of independent Afghanistan. Hearing the news from
home, he left France and returned in haste to Afghanistan,
where the people found in him the leader they needed to deliver
the country from its miserable domination by the bandit-king.
On 25th January, 1929, Sardar Mohammad Nadir Khan,
accompanied by his brothers, Sardar Mohammad Hashim Khan
and Sardar Shah Wali Khan, left for Afghanistan. Sardar
Shah Mahmoud Khan, their younger brother, who was then
in Kabul, went to meet them at the Afghan border. The three
had a long talk, wherein Sardar Shah Mahmoud give all details
of the revolt, with its attendant horrors.
From March until October 1929, the struggle for deliver-
ance continued, the brothers playing an important part in this
drama. Routed again and again, they ever rose with fresh
hearts from the disaster, till at last on October 16, their efforts
were crowned with success. The bandit-king was driven out
of the capital, and peace was restored. The warm welcome
which Sardar Mohammad Nadir Khan received at Kabul was
never excelled by that accorded to a triumphant Cæsar.
Thousands of people from all parts of the country had lined
Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting. How this was measured.
