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Page 21

Men and events through 18th and 19th century Afghanistan · pages 1–205


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- 10 - As soon Zaman Shah after the death of his fathear, finding his brothers' submission complete discovered that he was strong enough; he unfortunately slowly began to change his at- titude, and assumed an autocratic mien. During the course of these events, it became apparent that Sirdar Payanda Khan, who had the service of the king at heart, and was the true worker for his nation as a man of considerable experience and acuemn, was receding from the favour of the king. Another man, by the name of Wafadar Khan replaced the great Sirdar Payanda Khan as a minister of the Afgan monarch. This Wafadar Khan, accor- ding to a contemporary historian was a man of political craft, wih soft and soothing manners and voice, which he used to a fault even on occasions when he acted as a Court Jester. His attitude towards those who served under him, was full of aro- gance and haughtiness, and in his behaviour in respect of those above him in station, he was subservient and cringing. He was afraid of the least appearance of difficulty or mis-carriage in events, he loved his appointment considerably, and to safe-guard his own place in administration, he left nothing undone to severe the connection or contact between the king and his best to pro- duce a sense of repugnance towards the people on the part of their ruler. This man possessing such childish traits, who was impel- led by no other than his personal interests, had attained such close attention of the king that the monarch had placed all po- wer and administration in his hands, and Zaman Shah was just a tool in the hands of this worthless person. As was but natural, the ideas of the king were poisoned to such a degree that he devoutedly set his foot forward to oppose the recognised leaders of people; and notably was soured towards the Barak Zais. Al- though the animosity between the Barakzais and the Sadu Zais, which produced such drastic difficulties both for the people and the country of Afghanistan, is said to belong to other reasons the real and the true reason of this conflict is that very do- ubt and mistake which brought Wafadar Khan to the chair of a minister of the realm. The King's Favourite, of course, as could be expected, took advantage of that weekness and of that conflict and the illtreatment reached to un-bearable extent, in regards to the well-wishers of the country. Quite naturlly this progress

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Men and events through 18th and 19th century Afghanistan, page 21. Afghanistan Digital Library, New York University Libraries. Machine-transcribed text: Afghan Press Archive, https://afghanpress.org/book/adl1197/21 (accessed [date]).
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