Josiah Harlan, Prince of Ghor (June 12, 1799 – October 1871) was an American adventurer who travelled to
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
and
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...
with the intention of making himself a king. During his travels, he became involved in local politics and factional military actions. He was awarded the title ''Prince of
Ghor
Ghōr (Dari: ), also spelled Ghowr or Ghur, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is located in the western Hindu Kush in central Afghanistan, towards the northwest. The province contains eleven districts, encompassing hundreds ...
'' in exchange for military aid.
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
...
's short story ''
The Man Who Would Be King
"The Man Who Would Be King" (1888) is a story by Rudyard Kipling about two British adventurers in British India who become kings of Kafiristan, a remote part of Afghanistan. The story was first published in '' The Phantom Rickshaw and other E ...
'' is believed to have been partly based on Harlan.
Harlan's childhood
Harlan was born in
Newlin Township, in
Chester County, Pennsylvania
Chester County (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Tscheschter Kaundi''), colloquially known as Chesco, is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the Delaware Valley region of the state. As of the 2020 census, the population was 53 ...
. Harlan and his nine siblings—including paleontologist
Richard Harlan
Richard Harlan (September 19, 1796 – September 30, 1843) was an American paleontologist, anatomist, and physician. He was the first American to devote significant time and attention to vertebrate paleontology and was one of the most importan ...
—were raised in a strict and pious home by
Quakers
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
. His father was a merchant broker in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
.
After losing his mother at the age of 13, Harlan took up reading. It was recorded that at the age of 15, he was reading medical books, such as the biographies of
Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...
. He also allegedly held interest in advanced religious texts. Harlan had a knack for languages, as he was able to speak
French fluently and could read in both Greek and
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
. Furthermore, he enjoyed studying
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
ancient history, with
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
bearing a particular point of interest for him.
Early travels
In 1820, Harlan embarked on his first travels after joining the
Freemasons. His father secured him a job as a
supercargo
A supercargo (from Spanish ''sobrecargo'') is a person employed on board a vessel by the owner of cargo carried on the ship. The duties of a supercargo are defined by admiralty law and include managing the cargo owner's trade, selling the merchand ...
on a merchant ship bound for
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
, sailing from
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
to
Guangzhou
Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...
,
China and back. After his return, he fell in love with Elizabeth Swaim, for whom he wrote several verses of poetry. Soon after, they got engaged and planned to marry after he returned from the voyage to
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and
China. However, after his fiancée married someone else, Harlan vowed to never return to America and used the word ''solitude'' several times in his writings. He became aloof, developed a romantic loner persona, and became a man of action who lived only for glory.
In July 1824, he enlisted as a military surgeon with the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...
, despite his lack of medical training. The company was about to enter the
war in Burma and needed qualified surgeons. Relying on self-study and some practice while at sea, Harlan presented himself to the medical board for examination and was hired as a surgeon in the Calcutta general hospital. In the first month of 1825, he served with the army in Burma. Harlan admired the impressive capacity of the East India Company's
sepoys, who "consumed nothing but parched grain, a leguminous seed resembling the pea", and yet kept going. Owing to heavy losses due to disease and war, Harlan sometimes fought with the
Bengal Artillery, acquiring military knowledge that would be used in future exploits. Harlan was at the
Battle of Prome in 1825, where Anglo-Indian forces stormed the city of Prome (modern
Pyay) and engaged in fierce hand-to-hand fighting with the Burmese. The
Treaty of Yandabo
The Treaty of Yandabo ( my, ရန္တပိုစာချုပ် ) was the peace treaty that ended the First Anglo-Burmese War. The treaty was signed on 24February 1826, nearly two years after the war formally broke out on 5March 1824, by ...
in 1826 ended hostilities.
Once recuperated, Harlan was posted to
Karnal
Karnal ( is a city located in the state of Haryana, India and is the administrative headquarters of Karnal District. It was used by East India Company army as a refuge during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 in Delhi. The Battle of Karnal between ...
, north of
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...
. There, he read the 1815 book: ''An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul, and its dependencies in
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
,
Tartary
Tartary ( la, Tartaria, french: Tartarie, german: Tartarei, russian: Тартария, Tartariya) or Tatary (russian: Татария, Tatariya) was a blanket term used in Western European literature and cartography for a vast part of Asia bound ...
and India, comprising a View of the Afghan Nation and history of the Dooraunee Monarchy.'' This book was written by
Mountstuart Elphinstone
Mountstuart Elphinstone (6 October 1779 – 20 November 1859) was a Scottish statesman and historian, associated with the government of British India. He later became the Governor of Bombay (now Mumbai) where he is credited with the open ...
, who was then a civil servant with the East India Company, and had visited Afghanistan in 1809. While visiting Afghanistan, he met the country's king
Shuja Durrani, a monarch who wore the
Koh-i-Noor
The Koh-i-Noor ( ; from ), also spelled Kohinoor and Koh-i-Nur, is one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, weighing . It is part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. The diamond is currently set in the Crown of Queen Elizabeth The ...
("Mountain of Light") diamond on his left arm and was later deposed by his half-brother
Mahmud Durrani during Elphinstone's visit.
To many Westerners at that time, Afghanistan seemed remote and mysterious. Elphinstone's book described a nation that no Westerner had ever before visited, which quickly became a bestseller. Harlan dreamed of a medieval Afghanistan, where tribal chiefs battled for supremacy.
Harlan was a
martinet
The martinet ( OED ''s.v.'' ''martinet'', ''n.''2, "'' N.E.D.'' (1905) gives the pronunciation as (mā·ɹtinėt) /ˈmɑːtɪnɪt/ .") is a punitive device traditionally used in France and other parts of Europe. The word also has other usages, de ...
who would not tolerate any insubordination from those serving under him. But he himself had difficulty taking orders and was openly insubordinate towards his superiors. Harlan began to learn
Hindi
Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
and
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
. In the summer of 1826, he quit his service with the East India Company. As a civilian, he was granted a permit to stay in India by the Governor-General
Lord Amherst
Field Marshal Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, (29 January 1717 – 3 August 1797) was a British Army officer and Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in the British Army. Amherst is credited as the architect of Britain's successful campaig ...
.
At the time, India was a proprietary colony granted by
The Crown
The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...
to the East India Company, which had become the world's most powerful corporation, with
monopolies
A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...
on trade with India and China. By the early 19th century, the company ruled 90 million Indians, controlled 70 million acres (243,000 square kilometers) of land under its own flag, and issued its own currency. It maintained its own civil service and its own army of 200,000 men, led by officers trained at its officer school, which gave the Company a larger army than those of most European states. The East India Company was not owned by the Crown, but many of its
shareholders were MPs and aristocrats, giving it a powerful lobby in Parliament. It was so powerful that several
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
regiments were sent out to serve alongside the Company's army. It was known simply as "the Company" in India, as it dominated both the political and economic life of India.
Harlan disliked the Company as he claimed the Company showed no interest in the welfare of the Indians as it maximized profits for its shareholders and politically emasculated the maharajahs and nawabs, reducing them to mere ceremonial rulers without power. Harlan was fiercely proud that his country was a republic, but he had a romantic, sentimental love of the pomp and ceremony of
monarchy
A monarchy is a government#Forms, form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The legitimacy (political)#monarchy, political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restric ...
. He wanted to go to the Punjab and Afghanistan in part to see where monarchs had real power and were not controlled by foreign powers.
Entering Afghanistan
After a stay in
Shimla
Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared as the summer capital of British India. After independence, the ...
, Harlan came to
Ludhiana
Ludhiana ( ) is the most populous and the largest city in the Indian state of Punjab. The city has an estimated population of 1,618,879 2011 census and distributed over , making Ludhiana the most densely populated urban centre in the state. I ...
, a border outpost of the
British East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...
on the
Sutlej river which formed the border between the
Sikh Empire
The Sikh Empire was a state originating in the Indian subcontinent, formed under the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who established an empire based in the Punjab. The empire existed from 1799, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahor ...
and
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
at the time. Harlan had decided to enter the service of
Ranjit Singh, the
Maharaja
Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king".
A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, a ...
of
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...
. Ranjit Singh was prepared to hire Westerners who could be useful to him, but generally did not allow them to enter Punjab. He had seen the East India Company gobble up much of the Indian subcontinent, and as far he was concerned, the less known of Punjab the better. So, Punjab became a rather mysterious region for Westerners. The East India Company's agent in
Ludhiana
Ludhiana ( ) is the most populous and the largest city in the Indian state of Punjab. The city has an estimated population of 1,618,879 2011 census and distributed over , making Ludhiana the most densely populated urban centre in the state. I ...
, Captain
Claude Martin Wade
Colonel Sir Claude Martine Wade CB (3 April 1794 – 21 October 1861) was a British soldier who was Agent to the Governor-General for the Affairs of the Punjab and North-West Frontier, 1823–1840.[Shah Shujah Durrani
''Padshah Sultan'' Shah Shuja Durrani (Pashto/Dari: ; November 1785 – 5 April 1842) was ruler of the Durrani Empire from 1803 to 1809. He then ruled from 1839 until his death in 1842. Son of Timur Shah Durrani, Shuja Shah was of the Sadduzai ...]
's palace, Harlan discovered a court of grotesquely deformed men. Shuja had a habit of removing the ears, noses, tongues, penises and testicles of his courtiers and slaves when they displeased him, and they all offended him at some point. Harlan commented Shuja's court was an "earless assemblage of mutes and eunuchs in the ex-king's service". Harlan spoke no
Pashto
Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().
Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...
and Shuja no English, so they conversed in a mixture of
Hindi
Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
and
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
. Harlan praised "the grace and dignity of His Highness's demeanor", observing the sense of power that Shuja projected, but also that "years of disappointment had created in the countenance of the ex-King an appearance of melancholy and resignation". When Shuja went out for a picnic with his wives, a gust of wind blew down his tent, and Shuja flew into a rage. Much to Harlan's horror, Shuja had his chief slave, an African named Khwajah Mika who had arrived in India via the slave markets of
Zanzibar
Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islan ...
, castrated on the spot.
Shuja agreed to hire Harlan, and Harlan had a tailor in Ludhiana sew an
American flag
The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the ca ...
, which he used to imply that he was working for the
U.S. government, as he went about recruiting mercenaries to restore Shuja. By the fall of 1827, Harlan had recruited about 100 mercenaries, a mixture of
Hindus
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
,
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
and
Sikhs interested in loot and plunder.
Writing about Afghanistan's unstable politics, its frequently overthrown rulers, and the penchant for sons to conspire against their fathers, and brothers against brothers, Harlan noted: "The prize was literally handed about like a shuttlecock. The king who in the battle may have dispatched a favorite son in the command of his army would probably before night find himself flying from his own troops." Afghanistan was dominated by a feud between two families, the Durrani and the
Barakzai
Bārakzai ( ps, بارکزی, ''Bārakzay;'' plur. ps, بارکزي, ''Bārakzī'') is the name of a Pashtun tribe from present-day, Kandahar, Afghanistan. '"Barakzai" is a common name among the Pashtuns and it means "son of Barak" in Pashto. A ...
, and furthermore, the men of the Durrani and Barakzai families were just as much inclined to feud with other family members as they were with the rival families. Shuja, who belonged to the Durrani family, had together with his brother Mahmud overthrown and blinded their brother Zaman. Shuja then deposed Mahmud and was overthrown by Mahmud, who in his turn was overthrown by the Barakzai brothers after he had their father Fateh Khan publicly chopped to pieces. In turn the Barazkais were now feuding among themselves. 72 Barakzai half-brothers now ruled Afghanistan. Muslim traditions of polygamy allowed a man to have four wives at once, and an unlimited number of concubines, so their father had a surplus of sons. Given this history, and the fact that Afghan tribal chiefs tended to be loyal only to those who paid them the most, Harlan believed that despite the small size of his force that he could topple the Emir,
Dost Mohammad Khan
Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzai (Pashto/Persian: ; 23 December 17929 June 1863), nicknamed the Amir-i Kabir, Also titled Amir al-Mu'minin, was a member of the Barakzai dynasty and one of the prominent rulers of the Emirate of Afghanistan. His 37-year ...
, who was the most able and intelligent of the fractious Barakzai brothers.
With financial support from Shuja Shah Durrani, Harlan travelled along the
Indus and into
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, first to
Peshawar
Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...
then to
Kabul
Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...
. During his journey, Harlan discovered in
Ahmedpur two deserters from the East India Company's army, James Lewis, better known by his pseudonym
Charles Masson and Richard Porter aka "John Brown", who tried to persuade him that they were Americans, but Harlan couldn't help but notice their English accents. Harlan correctly guessed that the only reason why two Englishmen out in the wildness would try to pass themselves off as Americans was that they were deserters. The two deserters joined Harlan's army and maintained the pretense of being two gentlemen from Kentucky who had decided to explore the Hindu Kush. As he entered Afghanistan, Harlan first met the warlike
Pashtun
Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...
tribes and learned about their strict code of ''
Pashtunwali
Pashtunwali or Pakhtunwali ( ps, پښتونولي) is the traditional lifestyle and is best described as a code of honor of the Pashtun people, by which they live. Scholars widely have interpreted it as being "the way of the Afghans" or "the code ...
'' ("the way of the Pashtuns") under which any insult, real or perceived, had to be avenged with swift and blinding violence while at the same time, a man had to be courteous and honorable to all, including his enemies. As Harlan's army was close to mutiny, he decided he would enter Afghanistan disguised as a Muslim ''
dervish
Dervish, Darvesh, or Darwīsh (from fa, درویش, ''Darvīsh'') in Islam can refer broadly to members of a Sufi fraternity (''tariqah''), or more narrowly to a religious mendicant, who chose or accepted material poverty. The latter usage i ...
'' (holy man) returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca. Much to Harlan's fury, Masson deserted his army and inspired several others to follow his example. Harlan knew only a few phrases in Arabic, but it he convinced a Pashtun chief that he was a ''dervish'' returning from Mecca. Shuja followed Harlan's force with his own troop of mercenaries, seizing
Peshawar
Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...
, the summer capital of Afghanistan. He behaved with such arrogance towards the Pashtun chiefs who had come to swear loyalty to him, expecting lavish financial rewards, that they went back to the Bazakzai brothers, who did not use court etiquette to humiliate them as Shuja had done.
Harlan met the man who he had come to depose in Kabul, Dost Mohammad Khan, at
Bala Hisar Fort. The custom of ''Pashtunwali'' ensured that Dost Mohammad would choose to treat Harlan as an honored guest. By this time, Harlan had become fluent in Persian, the ''lingua franca'' of the Muslim world, and it was in that language that he and Dost Mohammad talked. Even through Harlan had come to Afghanistan to overthrow Dost Mohammad, upon meeting him, he discovered he rather admired him. Unlike the rulers from the House of Durrani, who used the title of ''Shah'' (Persian for king), the monarchs of the House of Bazakzai used the less grand title of ''Emir'' (Arabic for prince). Pashto had such low status in the Muslim world that both the Durranis and Barakzais used Arabic and
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
titles to improve their prestige. Harlan had arrived assuming the West was superior to the East, but meeting Dost Mohammad challenged his thinking, as he found Easterners could be just as intelligent as Westerners. When Dost Mohammad asked Harlan to explain the American system of government to him, Harlan spoke about the tripartite
separation of powers
Separation of powers refers to the division of a state's government into branches, each with separate, independent powers and responsibilities, so that the powers of one branch are not in conflict with those of the other branches. The typic ...
between the President, Congress, and the Supreme Court. The Emir remarked the American system did not sound much different from the Afghan system, where there was a tripartite separation of powers between the Emir, the tribal chiefs, and the ''
Ulama
In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...
'' (Islamic clergy who also served as judges). Harlan noted that although a Muslim, Dost Mohammad drank heavily and had brought prostitutes to his court; Harlan described them as "promiscuous actors in the wild, voluptuous, licentious scene of shameless bacchanals".
Harlan explored Kabul, the "city of ten thousand gardens", observing that there were so many gardens in the city full of sweet-smelling flowers and fruits they almost covered the smell of human and animal excrement dumped in the streets. Harlan wrote Kabul was a "jewel encircled with emerald with flowers and blossoms whose odors perfume the air with a fragrance elsewhere unknown". Harlan called Kabul a "sweet assemblage of floral beauty" full of "ornamental trees, apple orchards, patches of peach and plum trees, vast numbers of mulberry of various species, black, white and purple, with the sycamore, the tall poplar, the sweet scented and the red and white willows, the weeping willow, green meadows, running streams and hedges of roses, red, white, yellow and variegated".
Harlan observed that Kabul had a lively red-light district full of "professional courtesans
icor female singers and dancers, libidinous creatures whose lives are passed in the immodest and secret intrigues of licentiousness". Macintyre wrote that Harlan's disapproving tone suggested considerable experience of the red-light district of Kabul.
A difficult moment for Harlan emerged when
Hajji Khan, a mercenary working for Dost Mohammad, approached him with a plan to assassinate the Emir and restore Shuja to the throne. Harlan was uncertain if Khan was working as an
agent provocateur
An agent provocateur () is a person who commits, or who acts to entice another person to commit, an illegal or rash act or falsely implicate them in partaking in an illegal act, so as to ruin the reputation of, or entice legal action against, th ...
sent by Dost Mohammad to test his loyalty (meaning he would be executed if he agreed to the plot) or was sincere (meaning he would kill Harlan if he refused to join the plot). Harlan suggested that the two should go off and invade the
Sindh together; when Khan persisted, Harlan said he could never violate the rules of ''Pashtunwali'' by conspiring to murder his host, at which point Khan told him that the Emir extended him his thanks for his willingness to observe ''Pashtunwali''. Shortly afterwards, a
cholera epidemic hit Kabul, killing off much of the population, owing to the feces-ridden water of Kabul. Harlan was infected with cholera and wandered into a mosque one night which was a morgue full of the bodies of cholera victims. As Harlan left the mosque, he tripped over bodies piled up in the streets. At that point, an anonymous man told Harlan that the only cure for cholera was to drink alcohol, saying if one consumed enough alcohol that cholera could be survived. Harlan was raised a teetotaler, but to survive cholera he broke with his Quaker values by drinking as much as possible of the wine and whisky smuggled into Afghanistan from India. An attack of cholera typically lasts 48 hours, during which the body excretes fluids, causing intense
dehydration
In physiology, dehydration is a lack of total body water, with an accompanying disruption of metabolic processes. It occurs when free water loss exceeds free water intake, usually due to exercise, disease, or high environmental temperature. Mil ...
leading to death, which can be countered by consuming enough fluids such as alcohol which are not infected. After surviving cholera, Harlan later stated he looked death in the eye, and was never again afraid of death.
In Peshawar, Harlan had met a ''
Nawab
Nawab ( Balochi: نواب; ar, نواب;
bn, নবাব/নওয়াব;
hi, नवाब;
Punjabi : ਨਵਾਬ;
Persian,
Punjabi ,
Sindhi,
Urdu: ), also spelled Nawaab, Navaab, Navab, Nowab, Nabob, Nawaabshah, Nawabshah or Nobab, ...
''
Jubbar Khan, who was a brother of Dost Mohammad Khan. Jubbar Khan was important as a possible rival of Dost Mohammad, and thus a possible ally to Shuja Shah. During this time, Harlan met an Afghan ''
maulvi
Mawlawi ( ar, مولوي; also spelled Maulvi, Molvi, Moulavi and Mawlvi) is an Islamic religious title given to Muslim religious scholars, or ulama, preceding their names, similar to the titles Mawlānā, Mullah, or Sheikh. Mawlawi generally ...
'' (Islamic scholar) who also worked as an alchemist and doctor, whose name no-one knew and whom Harlan called "the Moolvie". Harlan discovered much to his amazement that the ''maulvi "''was an enthusiastic
Rosicrucian
Rosicrucianism is a spiritual and cultural movement that arose in Europe in the early 17th century after the publication of several texts purported to announce the existence of a hitherto unknown esoteric order to the world and made seeking it ...
" who was seeking the Philosopher's stone, and who kept Jubbar Khan happy with the supposed medical secrets that his occult knowledge gave him. Harlan soon discovered that the ''maulvi'' was a fraud, who once insisted that his alchemy could only work if he was provided with a large number of unusually large fish from a local river; when after much difficulty the requisite number of big fish were caught, the ''maulvi'' only then "remembered" that they all had to be of the same sex for his alchemy to work, at which point the fishing season had passed. Harlan often argued with the ''maulvi'', telling him about that modern chemist in the West had firmly established it was not possible to turn lead into gold, much less turn fish into silver, as he insisted that he could. While staying with Jabbar Khan, Harlan evaluated the situation and realized that Dost Muhammad's position was too strong, and that influence from outside Afghanistan was needed. He decided to seek his luck in Punjab. Upon his return to the Punjab, Wade admitted to Harlan that Shuja would never be restored to the throne of Afghanistan, saying: "There is now no possible chance for Shuja's restoration, unless an ostensible demonstration of Russian diplomacy should transpire in Kabul." Wade's reference to "Russian diplomacy" in Kabul was Harlan's initiation into the struggle for influence in Central Asia between Russia and Britain known to the British as the
Great Game
The Great Game is the name for a set of political, diplomatic and military confrontations that occurred through most of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century – involving the rivalry of the British Empire and the Russian Empi ...
and to the Russians as the "Tournament of Shadows".
Maharaja Ranjit Singh
Harlan came to
Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...
, the capital of Punjab, in 1829. He sought out the French general
Jean-François Allard, who introduced him to the Maharaja. Allard had been awarded the ''
Légion d'honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
'' by Napoleon and was the Western officer that Ranjit Singh trusted the most.
Ranjit Singh, the "Lion of Lahore" had conquered much of what is today north-western India and Pakistan and was considered to be one of the most powerful rulers in the Indian subcontinent, which is why Harlan sought to work in his service. As a rule, Ranjit Singh was against taking anybody British into his service as he held deep suspicions of the Company and mistrusted the loyalties of the few Britons in his service. His European such as French and Italian officers were part of the Dal Khalsa army, which was one of the most formidable military machines in Asia. Their contribution to the empire was well rewarded. As a result, Ranjit Singh paid his Western officers well and Harlan noted that Allard lived in a grand mansion, which he called "a miniature Versailles in the midst of an Oriental bazaar".
Allard was lonely in the Punjab, unable to relate to the Indians, and was known to welcome any Westerner. He received Harlan as a guest, warning him "It is a very difficult to get an appointment here, but still more to get one's dismissal, when once in office". Allard wrote a poem calling himself a happy "slave" of Ranjit Singh because he wanted to visit his homeland, France, with his Kashmiri wife, and Ranjit Singh had initially refused him permission to leave, thus requiring an obsequious poem to being allowed a visit home. Allard introduced Harlan to Ranjit Singh, dressed all in white with a matching white turban, who proudly wore the
Koh-i-Noor diamond
The Koh-i-Noor ( ; from ), also spelled Kohinoor and Koh-i-Nur, is one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, weighing . It is part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. The diamond is currently set in the Crown of Queen Elizabeth The Q ...
(which he had taken from Shuja) and radiated an aura of power. As Harlan knew no Punjabi, he spoke to Singh in Hindi.
Harlan was offered a military position but declined, looking for something more lucrative. This he eventually found: after lingering at the court for some time he was offered the position of Governor of
Gujrat District, a position he accepted. Ranjit Singh told Harlan, "I will make you Governor of Gujrat and give you rupees a month. If you behave well, I will increase your salary. If not, I will cut off your nose". Before giving him this position, however, the Maharaja decided to test Harlan. In December 1829, he was instated as Governor of
Nurpur and
Jasrota
Jasrota kingdom in the Himalayan foothills of India was founded in 1064 A.D at south-eastern Jammu between the Ravi and the Ujh rivers which ended in 1815. The remainants of Jasrota kingdom exists as ruined forts, restored temples, water bod ...
, described by Harlan himself as "''two districts then newly subjugated by the King in Lahore, located on the skirt of the Himalah mountains''". These districts had been seized by the maharajah of the Punjab in 1816 and were fairly wealthy at the time Harlan arrived. Little, if anything, is known of Harlan's tenure there, but he must have fared well. One visitor noted that given Ranjit Singh's habit of cutting off the noses of those who failed him that "The fact of his nose being entire, proved that he has done well". In May 1832 he was transferred to Gujrat. In Gujrat, Harlan was visited soon after his instatement by
Henry Lawrence who later described him as "''a man of considerable ability, great courage and enterprise, and judging by appearance, well cut out for partisan work''". Harlan later wrote "I was both civil and military governor" with unlimited powers to do whatever he pleased as long as taxes were collected, and order maintained. While serving the
durbar
Durbar can refer to:
* Conference of Rulers, a council of Malay monarchs
* Durbar festival, a yearly festival in several towns of Nigeria
* Durbar floor plate, a hot-rolled structural steel that has been designed to give excellent slip resistance ...
, Harlan often encountered the
Akalis, militant and heavily armed
Sikh fundamentalists, who Harlan noted were seen "riding about with sword drawn in each hand, two more in the belt, a matchlock at the back and then a pair of quoits fastened around the turban-an arm peculiar to this race of people, it is a steel ring, ranging from six to nine inches in diameter, and about an inch in breath, very thin, and at the edges very sharp; they are said to throw it with such accuracy and force as to be able to lop off a limb at sixty or eighty yards". The weapon that Harlan described as a "quoit" is better known as the
chakram
Chakram ( sa, , script=latn; pa, , script=latn) is a throwing weapon from the Indian subcontinent. One of its major purposes is to protect the turban and the head from sword/melee attacks. It is circular with a sharpened outer edge and a diame ...
.
One of Harlan's visitors was the Reverend
Joseph Wolff
Joseph Wolff (1795 – 2 May 1862) was a Jewish Christian missionary born in Weilersbach, near Bamberg, Germany, named Wolff after his paternal grandfather. He travelled widely, and was known as "the missionary to the world". He published sev ...
, a Bavarian Jew who had converted successively to Catholicism, Lutheranism and finally Anglicanism, and was now traveling all over Asia as a missionary. After being ordained a minister at Cambridge, Reverend Wolff had set off to Asia to find the
Ten Lost Tribes
The ten lost tribes were the ten of the Twelve Tribes of Israel that were said to have been exiled from the Kingdom of Israel after its conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire BCE. These are the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Ash ...
of Israel and covert all the peoples of Asia to the Church of England. Wolff had arrived at Gujrat and asked to see the governor, expecting him to be a Sikh ''
sardar
Sardar, also spelled as Sardaar/Sirdar ( fa, سردار, , 'commander', literally 'headmaster'), is a title of royalty and nobility that was originally used to denote princes, noblemen, chiefs, kings and other aristocrats. It has also been ...
'' (nobleman) and was surprised that the governor was whistling Yankee Doodle Dandy and he introduced himself as: "I am a free citizen of the United States, from the state of Pennsylvania, city of Philadelphia. I am the son of a Quaker. My name is Josiah Harlan". Wolff said Harlan wore a very expensive Western suit and liked to smoke a hookah. Wolff was one of the few people with whom Harlan spoke of his love for Swaim, as Wolff wrote in his journal: "He fell in love with a young lady who promised to marry him. He sailed to Calcutta; but hearing that his betrothed lady had married somebody else, he determined never again to return to America". Harlan also confessed to Wolff his dream of ruling Afghanistan, and Wolff noted: "He speaks and write Persian with great fluency; he is clever and enterprising. Dr. Harlan is a high Tory in principles, and honors kingly dignity; though on the other hand he speaks with enthusiasm of Washington, Adams and Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence".
While European governors were rare, Harlan was certainly not the only one. His colleague
Paolo Avitabile
General Paolo Crescenzo Martino Avitabile (25 October 1791 – 28 March 1850), also known as Abu Tabela ( hnd, ), was an Italian soldier, mercenary and adventurer. A peasant's son born in Agerola, in the province of Napoli near Sorrento (in so ...
was made governor of
Wazirabad
Wazirabad (Urdu/ pa, ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the capital of Wazirabad District.
Famous for its cutlery products, it is known as the city of cutlery and is also quite famous for its foods.
Wazirabad is situated on the banks of t ...
, and
Jean-Baptiste Ventura
Jean-Baptiste (Giovanni Battista) Ventura, born Rubino (25 May 1794 – 3 April 1858), was an Italian soldier, mercenary in India, general in Maharaja Ranjit Singh's Sarkar-i-Khalsa, and early archaeologist of the Punjab region of the Sikh Empi ...
was made governor of
Dera Ghazi Khan
Dera Ghazi Khan (), abbreviated as D.G. Khan, is a city in the southwestern part of Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 19th largest city of Pakistan by population. Lying west of the Indus River, it is the headquarters of Dera Ghazi Khan District and ...
in 1831. Avitabile once had a group portrait done of all the Westerners in Ranjit Singh's service, which depicted him, Allard, Ventura, Claude Auguste Court, and Harlan all standing together. Unlike Ventura and even more so Avitabile, who believed that violence was the only language Indians were capable of understanding and who terrorized their provinces, Harlan attempted to crack down on corruption and avoided brutality, which caused his relations with Ventura and Avitabile to decline. Harlan was also in turn followed in his position in Gujrat by an Englishman named Holmes, who failed Singh, and lost more than his nose, being publicly beheaded as an example of the fate of those who failed the Maharajah. During his time as governor of Gujrat, Harlan's principal friend was the ''maulvi, as'' the alchemist from Afghanistan unexpectedly showed up at his palace one day. The ''maulvi'' taught Harlan about "the traditional lore of Arabia" while the alchemist wanted Harlan to sponsor him to join a Masonic lodge as Harlan noted "My refusal to explain the craft of Freemasonry added to his conviction that in the secrecy of that forbidden region of science lay the Philosopher's Stone".
Joining Harlan in Gujrat was the American adventurer
Alexander Gardner who had come down from Central Asia, looking for employment with Singh and arrived at Harlan's palace to seek the company of a fellow American. Gardner, who claimed to have been born in a fur-trading post on Lake Superior in what is now Wisconsin to a Scots father and an Anglo-Spanish mother in 1785, was always very proud of his Scottish heritage. Gardner wore a turban and Asian-style clothing in a
tartan
Tartan ( gd, breacan ) is a patterned cloth consisting of criss-crossed, horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Sc ...
print, a colorful reminder of his Scots heritage, as Gardner was insistently Scottish-American in his identity during his various adventures as a mercenary in Central Asia, where he had fled after deserting from the
Imperial Russian Army in 1819. Gardner claimed that during his childhood on the shores of
Lake Superior
Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...
the
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
Indians had taught him how to fight. Whether or not this was true, Gardner was a fighter, his body was covered with wounds, most notably a gaping hole in his throat that required him to wear a neck-brace to drink. Gardner told Harlan that he and his followers "... did not slaughter except in self-defense" during his time in Central Asia. While fighting against Dost Mohammad in the pay of the warlord Habibullah Khan, Gardner's wife and his infant daughter had been killed by the Emir's forces after being captured, causing him to head to the Punjab. Gardner, who was known as "Gordana Khan" in Central Asia, recalled: "I remained a few days with Dr. Harlan and on meeting my countryman, I resumed the character of a foreigner, and resumed also the name of Gardner, which I abandoned for so long that it sounded strangely in my ears".
In 1834, the Sikh general
Hari Singh Nalwa
Hari Singh Nalwa (1791–1837) was Commander-in-chief of the Sikh Khalsa Fauj, the army of the Sikh Empire. He is known for his role in the conquests of Kasur, Sialkot, Attock, Multan, Kashmir, Peshawar and Jamrud. Hari Singh Nalwa was respon ...
finally captured the contested city of Peshawar for the Punjab, leading Dost Mohammad Khan, the Emir of Afghanistan, to send the Maharajah an insulting letter demanding the return of Peshawar or else face war, leading Ranjit Singh to reply with an equally insulting letter challenging Dost Mohammad to retake Peshawar if he dared. In the spring of 1835, Dost Mohammad, anxious to regain Peshawar, declared ''jihad'' on the Punjab. The traditional hatred between the Sikhs and Afghans meant there was no shortage of volunteers in Afghanistan to go kill Sikhs, and a huge number of tribesmen rallied to Dost Mohammad's banner. Macintyre noted the Afghans had a "fanatical" hatred of the Sikhs, which to a certain extent compensated for the superior training and firepower of the ''Dal Khalsa''. As the ''Dal Khalsa'' faced off against the Afghans, the no-man's land between the two armies was soon littered with corpses as tribesmen from the Pashtun Ghazi tribe faced off in skirmishes against the Akali. Gardner observed "the Sikhs sadly lost many lives at the merciless hands of the Ghazis, who, each with his little green Moslem flag, boldly pressed on, freely and fairly courting death and martyrdom". The Akali were equally enthusiastic in using their quoits to cut down Ghazis.
Ranjit Singh, knowing that the feuding Barakzai brothers were as much inclined to fight among themselves as against their enemies and that Harlan knew the Barakzai brothers, ordered him up to the front to see if he could divide the Afghan leaders. The Emir's half-brother
Sultan Mohammad Khan had fallen in love with a dancing girl at the court, whom he was planning to take into his harem to make into another of his concubines, but Dost Mohammad who also desired her, had used his right as Emir to take her into his harem, causing much discord between the Barakzai brothers, which Harlan knew about. Viewing the Afghan camp outside of Peshawar, Harlan reported seeing: "Fifty thousand belligerent candidates for martyrdom and immortality. Savages from the remotest recesses of the mountainous districts, many of them giants in form and strength, promiscuously armed with sword and shield, bow and arrows, matchlocks, rifles, spears and blunderbusses, concentrated themselves around the standard of religion, and were prepared to slay, plunder and destroy, for the sake of Allah and the Prophet, the unenlightened infidels of the Punjab". ''Dal Khalsa'' was a powerful army, but Ranjit Singh as usual preferred to achieve his goals via diplomacy rather than war if possible, and so sought to find a peaceful way to send the Afghans home.
Under the flag of truce, Harlan went to the camp of
Sultan Mohammad Khan, the half-brother of the Emir, to negotiate the right price for defecting, and he was motivated by his resentment of Dost Mohammad for taking away the dancing girl he desired to turn him against the Emir. Already, many Sikhs and Afghans, anxious to spill each other's blood, had engaged in skirmishes and the ground between the two armies that Harlan traveled through was littered with corpses. Harlan offered Sultan Mohammad a generous bribe on the behalf of Ranjit Singh in exchange for going home with that part of the Afghan host under his command. Dost Mohammad had heard that Harlan had arrived in his half-brother's camp. But he then received a letter from Sultan Mohammad Khan "stating the fact of Mr. Harlan's arrival, and that he had been put to death, while his elephants and plunder had been made booty". The news was received with loud cheering in Dost Mohammad's camp, and it was announced that "now the brothers had become one and wiped away their enmities in ''Feringhi'' blood". After agreeing to consider whether to accept Singh's bribe, Harlan and Sultan Mohammad Khan rode into Dost Mohammad's camp, where Harlan told the Emir to go home, telling him that despite his 50,000 men that "If the Prince of the Punjab chose to assemble the militia of his dominions, he could bring ten times that number into the field, but you will have regular troops to fight, and your ''
sans-culottes
The (, 'without breeches') were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the . T ...
'' militia will vanish like mist before the sun". Dost Mohammad then made a veiled threat to kill Harlan, reminding Harlan that when "Secunder" (Alexander the Great) had fought in Afghanistan one of his envoys had been killed under the flag of truce. A servant brought in some ''doug'' (fermented milk) to drink, which Sultan Mohammad refused to drink, believing his half-brother was attempting to poison him. When Dost Mohammad insisted that Sultan Mohammad drink some of the ''doug'' under the grounds it was rude to refuse his hospitality, his half-brother insisted that the Emir drink some of the ''doug'' first, which he refused under the grounds it's too hot of a day to drink a ''doug'', leading to a lengthy argument between the two about who was drink the ''doug'' first. Dost Mohammad finally drank some of the ''doug'' just to prove it was not poisoned. Dost Mohammad had played a cunning trick on his half-brother as the reluctance of Sultan Mohammad to drink the ''doug'' first proved to the assembled tribal chiefs that he had been engaging in treachery, as Dost Mohammad had intended. The meeting was first of several tense meetings as Harlan traveled back and forth between the Sikh camp and the two half-brothers before Sultan Mohammad was finally bribed into switching sides while Ranjit Singh had brought up his heavy artillery, which finally persuaded Dost Mohammad that discretion was the better part of valor, leading him to go home. Harlan had played the role of a diplomat well, seeing off an Afghan invasion with minimal losses to the ''Dal Khalsa''; but Ranjit Singh decided after the fact that it would have better to have given battle after all, and publicly criticized Harlan for preventing a battle that he believed he could have won, the beginning of a rift between the two.
On August 19, 1835, Ranjit Singh suffered a stroke, which left him with slurred speech, and demanded that Harlan use his knowledge of Western medicine to cure him. In the 19th century it was widely believed that running electrical jolts through the body had restorative effects, and following Harlan's advice, Ranjit Singh had the services of a British doctor, Dr. William McGregor, competent in the application of galvanism to his emaciated body should be placed at his disposal. Electrical machine was brought to Lahore to pump Ranjit Singh with electricity, an experience that did not restore his speech. The final blow to his relations with Ranjit Singh occurred when Ranjit Singh was informed that Harlan was secretly employing his time in his fortress in the practice of alchemy and transmutation of metals, where Harlan had the ''maulvi'' living with him who was alleged to be able to turn base metals into precious gold ones (refusing to share the knowledge was tantamount to treason) and that Harlan was allegedly minting counterfeit coins (a crime for which the penalty was death). In fear of his life, Harlan left Ranjit Singh's employ in early 1836. An Indian historian
Khushwant Singh
Khushwant Singh (born Khushal Singh, 2 February 1915 – 20 March 2014) was an Indian author, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. His experience in the 1947 Partition of India inspired him to write ''Train to Pakistan'' in 1956 (made ...
called Harlan "an incredible windbag" who was somehow able to convince Ranjit Singh that he was a "doctor, scholar, statesman and soldier".
Afghanistan
In 1836, after a falling-out with Ranjit Singh, Harlan defected over to the service of Dost Mohammad Khan, the Emir of Afghanistan and the archenemy of Singh. Even though Harlan, while in the service of Singh and Shah Shujah, had fought against Dost Mohammad in the past, the Emir was sufficiently impressed with Harlan's ability to accept his former enemy into his service. In the treacherous world of Afghan politics, where today's enemy was likely to be tomorrow's friend, and today's friend to be tomorrow's enemy, Dost Mohammad had learned not to hold grudges. Arriving in Kabul, Harlan ran into
Charles Masson who had deserted his earlier expedition to Afghanistan, an act that Harlan had not forgiven him for. Harlan sent a letter to the East India Company telling them that Masson, the "American" explorer and amateur archaeologist of Central Asia, was actually the Englishman James Lewis, a deserter from the Company's army sentenced to death in absentia. Captain Wade used this information to blackmail Masson into working as a spy for the Company, promising him a pardon if he agreed to work as a spy, and to have him extradited back to India to be executed if he refused his offer. Masson was a most unwilling player in the "Great Game", not the least because he knew Dost Mohammad would have him executed if he found out he was working as a spy for the Company. Masson, suspecting that it was Harlan who had denounced him to the Company, started denouncing him to the Company as a "violent and unprincipled man".
In March 1836,
Lord Auckland
Baron Auckland is a title in both the Peerage of Ireland and the Peerage of Great Britain. The first creation came in 1789 when the prominent politician and financial expert William Eden was made Baron Auckland in the Peerage of Ireland. In ...
, the Governor-General of India, received a letter in English purportedly from Dost Mohammad (who did not know English), whose flowery style and Americanisms strongly suggested that Harlan was the real author, asking him to sign an alliance and force Ranjit Singh to return Peshawar to Afghanistan. Writing as Dost Mohammad, Harlan declared: "The field of my hopes, which had before been chilled by the cold blast of the wintry times, has by the happy tidings of your Lordship's arrival become the envy of the Garden of Paradise", going on to ask the British to ensure "the reckless and misguided Sikhs" to return Peshawar to the Afghans. Lord Auckland replied: "My friend, you are aware that it is not the practice of the British government to interfere with the affairs of the independent states".
Dost Mohammad wanted Harlan to train his tribal levy (Afghanistan had no army) to fight in the Western style of war. The French had traditionally excelled at
artillery
Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...
, and as befitting an army supported by French officers of the Sikh Empire, the ''Dal Khalsa'' had excellent artillery, which had been repeatedly used to decimate the Afghan tribesmen in various battles. Singh had been pushing steadily into the "badlands" on the modern border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, but in 1837 he recalled the best of the
''Dal Khalsa'' for a parade to honor his son's wedding in Lahore, which Dost Mohammad took advantage of by attacking the Sikhs. Under the banner of ''jihad'', about 20,000 Afghan tribesmen swept down the
Khyber Pass under the command of Dost Mohammad's son
Wazir Akbar Khan
Wazīr Akbar Khān (Pashto/Dari: ; 1816-1847), born Mohammad Akbar Khān () and also known as Amīr Akbar Khān (), was an Afghan prince, general, emir for a year, and finally wazir/heir apparent to Dost Mohammad Khan until his death in 1847. ...
to attack the Sikhs, accompanied by Harlan as his special military adviser. On April 30, 1837, the Afghans battled the Sikhs at the
Battle of Jamrud
The Battle of Jamrud was fought between the Emirate of Afghanistan and the Sikh Empire on 30 April 1837. It was the last effort made by Emir Dost Mohammad Khan to recapture the former Afghan winter capital of Peshawar. Afghan forces confronted the ...
. At Jamrud, the Sikh artillery blasted holes in the Afghan ranks, with a single cannonball killing or wounding dozens of men, but when the Sikh
infantry
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...
advanced through the gaps in the Afghan line, the Afghans, following Harlan's advice, used their numerically superior reserves to crush the ''Dal Khalsa'' in furious hand-to-hand fighting. The Afghans lost about 1,000 killed while the Sikhs lost about 2,000 dead, including General
Hari Singh Nalwa
Hari Singh Nalwa (1791–1837) was Commander-in-chief of the Sikh Khalsa Fauj, the army of the Sikh Empire. He is known for his role in the conquests of Kasur, Sialkot, Attock, Multan, Kashmir, Peshawar and Jamrud. Hari Singh Nalwa was respon ...
, Ranjit Singh's favorite general. Harlan wrote that Singh must had been besides himself with fury, imagining that "The proud King of Lahore quailed upon his threatened throne, as he exclaimed with terror and approaching despair, 'Harlan has avenged himself, this is all his work'". Singh reacted by sending his best general, the French mercenary
Jean-François Allard to avenge the death of his general, while the Afghans—unable to take the fortress of Peshawar—retreated back beyond the Khyber Pass, starting on May 9, 1837. Feeling his hold on Peshawar was weak, Singh appointed the Neapolitan mercenary General
Paolo Avitabile
General Paolo Crescenzo Martino Avitabile (25 October 1791 – 28 March 1850), also known as Abu Tabela ( hnd, ), was an Italian soldier, mercenary and adventurer. A peasant's son born in Agerola, in the province of Napoli near Sorrento (in so ...
the new governor of Peshawar with orders to terrorize the city into submission, using methods that Harlan called barbaric.
Harlan liked and admired Dost Mohammad, whom he called a hard-working, self-disciplined and efficient emir who always got up early every morning to pray towards Mecca and read the Koran before receiving tribal chiefs except on Thursday, which was the only day of the week that Dost Mohammad took a bath. After discussing the affairs of Afghanistan, Dost Mohammad would have his breakfast at 11 am, to be followed by new meetings before retiring to his harem to enjoy his concubines, to be followed by a ride around Kabul in the afternoon to hear the complaints of his subjects. After he turned thirty, Dost Mohammad ceased drinking and having orgies with prostitutes, becoming a more much pious Muslim than he had been when younger. Harlan noted that Dost Mohammad had ''shirrun i huzzoor'', the Pashtun quality of modesty and politeness, but that he was also an "exquisite dissembler" capable of "the most revolting cruelty", very greedy for gold, and extremely cynical, doubting every motive except for self-interest as a reason for a man's actions. Harlan noted that Dost Mohammad was a hypocrite who denounced slavery as a great evil, but who owned slaves himself and did nothing to shut down the slave markets of Kabul, where
Uzbek slavers were always bringing in
Hazara slaves captured in their raids. Harlan observed that Dost Mohammad was stern in his rule as once he was presented with a man and a woman who had been captured when a "nocturnal orgie" had been discovered; the others had escaped, but this couple had been too drunk. Harlan observed that Dost Mohammad "listened to the charges of licentiousness and immorality", and with a wave of his hand ordered the man's beard to be burned off while the woman was to be put into a bag and given 40 lashes with a whip. When Harlan asked why the woman had to be put into a bag before whipping her, the Emir replied, "To avoid the indecency of exposure".
As part of the "Great Game" between Britain and Russia for influence in Central Asia, on September 20, 1837,
Alexander Burnes, the Scotsman who had been appointed the East India Company's agent in Kabul, arrived, and immediately became Harlan's rival. Harlan wrote that Burnes was "remarkable only for his obstinacy and stupidity". Together with the pseudo-American
Charles Masson, Burnes and Harlan were the only westerners in Kabul, and all three men hated one another. In Afghanistan, the Emir was expected to reward loyal chiefs with gifts, which given the poverty of Afghanistan meant the Emirs expected equally lavish gifts from foreign ambassadors, and Harlan recorded that Dost Mohammad was greatly offended when the only gifts that Burnes brought with him were two pistols and a spyglass. Joining the three quarreling Westerners in Kabul in December 1837 was a Polish
orientalist in Russian service, Count
Jan Prosper Witkiewicz
Jan Prosper Witkiewicz ( lt, Jonas Prosperas Vitkevičius; russian: Ян Вѝкторович Виткѐвич, Yan Viktorovich Vitkevich) (June 24, 1808–May 8, 1839) was a Lithuanian orientalist, explorer and diplomat in Russian service. ...
, who had arrived in Kabul as the representative of the emperor
Nicholas I of Russia
, house = Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp
, father = Paul I of Russia
, mother = Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg)
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Gatchina Palace, Gatchina, Russian Empire
, death_date = ...
. With Witkiewicz's arrival, the "Great Game" entered an intense new phase, and Burnes was visibly disconcerted by Witkiewicz's presence in Kabul, believing Afghanistan was falling into the Russian sphere of influence. Burnes had Christmas dinner with Dost Mohammad, Harlan and Witkiewicz, writing about the latter: "He was a gentlemanly and agreeable man, of about thirty years of age, spoke French, Turkish and Persian fluently, and wore the uniform of an officer of the
Cossacks".
Prince of Ghor
In 1838, Harlan set off on a
punitive expedition
A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a political entity or any group of people outside the borders of the punishing state or union. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong beh ...
against the
Uzbek slave trader and warlord
Mohammad Murad Beg
Mir Mohammad Murad Beg (1780-1840s) was ''Khan'' of Kunduz (modern Afghanistan) in the 19th century. Earlier in the 19th century, he defeated Mir Yar Beg to take control of Badakhshan, and extended his rule north of the Oxus river
The Amu Dary ...
. He had multiple reasons for doing this: he wanted to help Dost Mohammad assert his authority outside of Kabul; he had a deep-seated opposition to
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
; and he wanted to demonstrate that a modern army could successfully cross the
Hindu Kush
The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and western Afghanistan, Quote: "The Hindu Kush mountains run along the Afghan border with the North-West Frontier Province ...
. Taking a force of approximately 1,400 cavalry, 1,100 infantry, 1,500 support personnel and camp followers, 2,000 horses, and 400 camels, Harlan thought of himself as a modern-day
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
. In emulation of Alexander the Great, Harlan also took along with him a war elephant. He was accompanied by a younger son and a secretary of Dost Mohammad. Dost Mohammad sought to collect tribute from the Hazara, who were willing if the Afghans also ended Murad Beg's raids. Before leaving Kabul to hunt down Murad Beg, Dost Mohammad, knowing of Harlan's fascination with ancient Greece, gave him a gift of a piece of jewelry found at
Bagram
Bagram (; Pashto/ fa, بگرام) is a town and seat in Bagram District in Parwan Province of Afghanistan, about 60 kilometers north of the capital Kabul. It is the site of an ancient city located at the junction of the Ghorband and Panjshir ...
, the site of the ancient Greek city of
''Alexandria ad Caucasum'', depicting the goddess
Athena
Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded ...
, which greatly moved him. Just like his hero Alexander the Great, Harlan discovered that his war elephant could not handle the extreme cold of the Hindu Kush mountains, and Harlan was forced to send the elephant back to Kabul. High up in the Hindu Kush at the pass of Khazar, a good 12,500 feet above sea level, Harland had the Stars-and-Stripes raised on the highest peak with troops firing a twenty-six-gun-salute as Harlan wrote: "the star spangled banner gracefully waved amid the icy peaks and soilless rugged rocks of the region, seeming sacred to the solitude of an undisturbed eternity". Harlan then led his army down "past glaciers and silent dells, and frowning rocks blackened by age", battling rain and snow as "these phenomena alternately and capriciously coquetted with our ever changing climate".
After an arduous journey (which included an American flag-raising ceremony at the top of the
Indian Caucasus), Harlan reinforced his army with local
Hazaras
The Hazaras ( fa, , Həzārə; haz, , Āzərə) are an ethnic group and the principal component of the population of Afghanistan, native to, and primarily residing in the Hazaristan (Hazarajat) region in central Afghanistan and generally scatt ...
, most of whom lived in fear of the slave traders. The Hazaras are believed to be the descendants of the Mongols who conquered Afghanistan in the 13th century, which made them different both culturally and to a certain extent linguistically from the rest of the Afghan peoples. (The Hazaras speak a distinctive sub-dialect of
Dari
Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...
, which itself is a dialect of
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
.) Harlan noted the Hazaras did not look like other Afghans. Because the Hazaras are ethnically distinct and are
Shia Muslims
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mos ...
, the
Sunni Muslim Uzbeks and
Tajiks
Tajiks ( fa, تاجيک، تاجک, ''Tājīk, Tājek''; tg, Тоҷик) are a Persian-speaking Iranian ethnic group native to Central Asia, living primarily in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Tajiks are the largest ethnicity in Taj ...
liked to raid their lands for slaves. Harlan noted that because of the fear of Uzbek slavers, the houses of the Hazaras were "half sunk into slopes of hills" under "a bastion constructed of sun-dried mud, where people of the village can resort in case of danger from the sudden forays of the Tartar robbers." Harlan further noted the brutality of the Uzbek slavers who sewed their victims together as they marched them off to the slave markets, observing:
To oblige the prisoner to keep up, a strand of course horsehair is passed by the means of a long-crooked needle, under and around the collar bone, a few inches from its junction at the sternum; with the hair a loop is formed to which they attach a rope that may be fastened to the saddle. The captive is constrained to keep near the retreating horseman, and his hands tied behind his person, is altogether helpless.
Harlan's first major military engagement was a short siege at the citadel of Saighan, Afghanistan controlled by the Tajik slave-trader Mohammad Ali Beg. Harlan's artillery made short work of the fortress. As a result of this performance, local powers clamored to become Harlan's friends as various Hazara chiefs asked to see Harlan, the man who had brought down the walls of the mighty fortress of Saighan, and who promised to end the raids of the slavers.
One of the most powerful and ambitious local rulers was
Mohammad Reffee Beg Hazara, a prince of
Ghor
Ghōr (Dari: ), also spelled Ghowr or Ghur, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is located in the western Hindu Kush in central Afghanistan, towards the northwest. The province contains eleven districts, encompassing hundreds ...
, an area in the central and western part of what is now the country of Afghanistan. He and his retinue feasted for ten days with Harlan's force, during which time they observed the remarkable discipline and organization of the modern army. They invited the American back to Reffee's mountain stronghold. Harlan was amazed by the working
feudal system
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structu ...
. He admired the Hazaras, both because of the absence of slavery in their culture and by the gender equality he observed (unusual in that region at the time). Harlan observed that the Harzara women did not wear veils, worked out in the fields with their husbands, loved to hunt deer with their greyhound dogs while riding horses at full gallop and firing arrows aside their mounts, and even went to war with their menfolk. Writing about relations between the sexes among the Hazaras, Harlan noted: A strong advocate of sexual equality, Harlan was greatly impressed with the Hazara women who were the equals of the Hazara men, and whom he also praised as most beautiful. Macintyre noted that Harlan's purple prose tended to be at its most purplest when he was in love, and in his descriptions of the Hazarjat, Harlan's flowery style was at its most florid, leading Macintyre to speculate Harlan found love with a Hazara girl. At the end of Harlan's visit, he and Reffee came to an agreement. Harlan and his heirs would be the ''Prince of Ghor'' in perpetuity, with Reffee as his vizier. In return, Harlan would raise and train an army with the ultimate goal of solidifying and expanding Ghor's autonomy. At another fortress, that of Derra i Esoff, ruled by an Uzbek slaver Soofey Beg, who had recently enslaved 300 Hazara families, Harlan began a siege and soon his artillery had smashed holes in the wall of the fortress. Harlan sent his Hazara tribesmen into the breach, writing: After taking the fortress, Harlan found about 400 Hazara slaves, whom he promptly had "released from a loathsome confinement in the dry wells and dungeons of the castle and sent home to their friends".
Harlan tracked Murad Beg down to his fortress in
Kunduz
, native_name_lang = prs
, other_name =
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline = Kunduz River valley.jpg
, imagesize = 300
, image_alt =
, image_caption =
, image_ ...
. Beg dragged out the only cannon at his fort, an old Persian gun left over from the days of
Nadir Shah
Nader Shah Afshar ( fa, نادر شاه افشار; also known as ''Nader Qoli Beyg'' or ''Tahmāsp Qoli Khan'' ) (August 1688 – 19 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian ...
to try to intimidate Harlan. As an amateur horticulturist, Harlan was offended that the Uzbeks were much more interested in raiding for slaves than in growing flowers, noting "Little attention is bestowed upon the elegant in horticulture. Their flowers are, consequently, few and not of a pleasing variety". As soon as Harlan reached Kunduz, Murad Beg sent out emissaries to resolve a diplomatic solution as Harlan noted: "The Uzbecks
zbekshave a great horror of bloodshed, and think that prudence is the better part of valor". Harlan further noted that Uzbek armies always fought the same way: "a few individual sallies of vaunting cavaliers are made in advance, the parties uttering unearthly yells of defiance, and assuming threatening attitudes. A parley ensures, an interview between the leaders follow, and the affair terminates with the harmless festivals of a tournament." As Harlan surrounded Kunduz, Murad Beg, who was terrified of giving battle, chose to make a treaty with Harlan to recognize Dost Mohammad as the Emir of Afghanistan and to stop slave raiding in exchange for being allowed Kunduz. Harlan described Murad Beg as:
However, when Harlan returned to Kabul the British forces with
William Hay Macnaghten
Sir William Hay Macnaghten, 1st Baronet (24 August 179323 December 1841), was a British civil servant in India, who played a major part in the First Anglo-Afghan War.
Life
William was the second son of Sir Francis Macnaghten, Bart., judge of the ...
arrived to occupy the city in an early stage of the
First Anglo-Afghan War
The First Anglo-Afghan War ( fa, جنگ اول افغان و انگلیس) was fought between the British Empire and the Emirate of Kabul from 1838 to 1842. The British initially successfully invaded the country taking sides in a succession d ...
. The British had restored Shuja, and Harlan heard a proclamation read by Shuja's herald from the Bala Hisar fortress: "Everyone is commanded not to ascend the heights of the vicinity of the Royal harem under the pain of being disemboweled alive. May the king live forever!". Harlan commented that Shuja's "harsh barbarity" had not changed, and he was going to be just as hated by his people now that he was restored as he was when was overthrown the first time back in 1809. Harlan quickly became a ''
persona non-grata
In diplomacy, a ' (Latin: "person not welcome", plural: ') is a status applied by a host country to foreign diplomats to remove their protection of diplomatic immunity from arrest and other types of prosecution.
Diplomacy
Under Article 9 of the ...
'', and after some further travel returned to the United States.
Homeward bound
After leaving Afghanistan, Harlan spent some time in
Imperial Russia. A woman he knew in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, sent letters to Russian nobility in which she claimed that Harlan was an experienced administrator who could help the Russian peasantry better itself. Though he was well liked by Russia's society women, Harlan made no important government contacts and soon decided to go back to America.
Once he returned to America, Harlan was feted as a national hero. He skillfully played the press, telling them not to dwell on his royal title, as he "looks upon kingdoms and principalities as of frivolous import, when set in opposition to the honorable and estimable title of American citizen". His glory quickly faded after the publication in Philadelphia of ''A Memoir of India and Afghanistan − With observations upon the present critical state and future prospects of those Countries''. Harlan had been working on a longer book called ''The British Empire in India'', but the almost total annihilation of the British force retreating from
Kabul
Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...
in the
Hindu Kush
The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and western Afghanistan, Quote: "The Hindu Kush mountains run along the Afghan border with the North-West Frontier Province ...
in January 1842 attracted much media attention in the United States, so Harlan tried to cash in with his hastily written and published ''A Memoir of India and Afghanistan''. In his book Harlan attacked enemies he made in India, both European and Indian. Most alarmingly, he wrote about the ease with which Russia could, if it so chose, attack and seriously harm the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
. Harlan was denounced in Britain, although, as one historian has observed, his book was
The American press did not pan him, but the controversy ensured that he would never publish another book. The writer
Herman Melville
Herman Melville ( born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are ''Moby-Dick'' (1851); ''Typee'' (1846), a rom ...
appears to have read ''A Memoir of India and Afghanistan'', as the references to the
First Anglo-Afghan War
The First Anglo-Afghan War ( fa, جنگ اول افغان و انگلیس) was fought between the British Empire and the Emirate of Kabul from 1838 to 1842. The British initially successfully invaded the country taking sides in a succession d ...
in ''
Moby Dick
''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship ''Pequod'', for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant whi ...
'' seem to be based on Harlan's book.
With his funds dwindling, Harlan took on new tasks. He began lobbying the American government to import
camels to settle the
Western United States
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the We ...
. His real hope was that they would order their camels from Afghanistan and send him there as a purchasing agent. Harlan convinced the government that camels would be a worthy investment (Secretary of War
Jefferson Davis was particularly interested), but it decided that importing them from
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
would cost less than from Afghanistan. After the US Army discovered the resistance of American horses, mules, and cows to the aggressive camels, the
Camel Corps was disbanded in 1863. The camels were set free in
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
.
On May 1, 1849, Harlan married an Elizabeth Baker in
Chester County, Pennsylvania
Chester County (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Tscheschter Kaundi''), colloquially known as Chesco, is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the Delaware Valley region of the state. As of the 2020 census, the population was 53 ...
. As Miss Baker was a Quaker like Harlan, who had abandoned the pacifism of his faith during his time in Asia, her family was scandalized that she married a man who had fought in wars. In 1852, Harlan's wife bore a daughter, Sarah Victoria, whom he greatly loved, being by all accounts a doting father. However, Harlan's massive unpublished manuscript telling his life story only mentions his wife once and very briefly at that, and he always carried with him a poem he had written in 1820 for Elizabeth Swaim until the day of his death.
Harlan next decided that he would convince the government to buy Afghan grapes. He spent two years working on this venture, but the coming of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
prevented this.
American Civil War
Harlan then proposed to raise a
regiment
A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation.
In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscript ...
.
In 1861, when the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
began, Harlan wrote to the Secretary of War,
Edwin M. Stanton
Edwin McMasters Stanton (December 19, 1814December 24, 1869) was an American lawyer and politician who served as U.S. Secretary of War under the Lincoln Administration during most of the American Civil War. Stanton's management helped organize ...
, declaring that "General Josiah Harlan" was ready and willing to fight for the
Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
against the
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...
. Macintyre noted: "The man who had trained the Afghan army and humbled the slaving warlord Murad Beg saw no reason why he should not go into battle, once more, with a private army. Bizarrely, nor did the authorities in Washington, and permission was duly granted for the formation of "Harlan's Light Cavalry". Harlan had no formal rank, no experience of the American army, and had no knowledge of modern warfare. He was also sixty-two years old, but gave his age as fifty-six". He raised a Union regiment
11th Pennsylvania Cavalry
The 11th Pennsylvania Cavalry (108th Volunteers) was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Service
The 11th Pennsylvania Cavalry was organized at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as an independent regiment na ...
of which he was colonel, but he was used to dealing with military underlings in the way an oriental prince would. This led to a messy court-martial, but the aging Harlan ended his service due to medical problems. Harlan collapsed on July 15, 1862, while serving in Virginia from the effects of a mixture of fever, dehydration, and
dysentery
Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...
, was ordered to give up command of his regiment, and was reluctantly invalided out of the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
on August 19, 1862, on the grounds he was "debilitated from diarrhea".
Legacy
He wound up in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, working as a doctor, dying of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...
in 1871. He was essentially forgotten. His remains were buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in San Francisco (now defunct), but were moved and his gravesite is unknown. However, Harlan proved to be an inspiration for
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
...
's 1888 short story "
The Man Who Would Be King
"The Man Who Would Be King" (1888) is a story by Rudyard Kipling about two British adventurers in British India who become kings of Kafiristan, a remote part of Afghanistan. The story was first published in '' The Phantom Rickshaw and other E ...
," which in its turn became a popular 1975 film starring
Sean Connery and
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...
. Many critics have noted a close resemblance between
Daniel Dravot
Daniel Dravot (DRAV-it) is a fictional character in Rudyard Kipling's novella "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888) and its film adaptation. In the film, he is portrayed by Sean Connery. Robert Hutchinson in his biography of Frederick Wilson sugg ...
, the hero of "The Man Who Would Be King" and Harlan. Both were ambitious adventurers burning to conquer a kingdom in Central Asia, both entered Afghanistan disguised as a Muslim holy man, both were Freemasons, both wanted to emulate Alexander the Great, and both were granted Afghan titles of nobility.
However, Harlan had no counterpart to Peachey Carnehan, Dravot's sidekick, but the character of Carnehan was created by Kipling to explain to the narrator of "The Man Who Would Be A King" how Dravot was killed in Afghanistan. Kipling, who was a Freemason himself, had always said he received the inspiration for "The Man Who Would Be A King" while working as a journalist in 1880s India, saying that an unnamed Freemason had told him the stories that gave him the idea for "The Man Who Would Be King," which suggests that Harlan's adventures in Afghanistan were still being retold in Masonic lodges in India in the 1880s.
Harlan also appears in
George MacDonald Fraser
George MacDonald Fraser (2 April 1925 – 2 January 2008) was a British author and screenwriter. He is best known for a series of works that featured the character Flashman.
Biography
Fraser was born to Scottish parents in Carlisle, England, ...
's novel ''
Flashman and the Mountain of Light''.
Scott Reiniger
Scott Hale Reiniger, ''Harlan Sahib Bahadur'', Prince of Ghor (born September 5, 1948) is an American actor. He is best known as one of the stars of the 1978 classic horror film '' Dawn of the Dead''.
Biography
Scott Hale Reiniger, Jr. was born ...
, star of cult classic 1978
horror film ''
Dawn of the Dead'', is Harlan's great-great-great-grandson, and thus () heir to the title ''Prince of Ghor''.
Works
*
See also
*
Afghanistan–United States relations
Relations between Afghanistan and the United States began in 1921 under the leaderships of Amanullah Khan and Warren G. Harding, respectively. The first contact between the two nations occurred further back in the 1830s when the first recorded p ...
*
Ghōr Province
Ghōr (Dari: ), also spelled Ghowr or Ghur, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is located in the western Hindu Kush in central Afghanistan, towards the northwest. The province contains eleven districts, encompassing hundreds ...
*
Star Gazers' Stone
Star Gazers' Stone located on Star Gazers' Farm near Embreeville, Pennsylvania, USA, marks the site of a temporary observatory established in January 1764 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon which they used in their survey of the Mason-Dixon li ...
Notes
References
*
*
*
External links
Biography of Josiah HarlanUS movie actor is 'Afghan prince' BBC
The Quaker who went on the Warpath
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harlan, Josiah
1799 births
1871 deaths
18th-century American people
19th-century American people
People from Chester County, Pennsylvania
People of the First Anglo-Burmese War
British East India Company Army officers
American mercenaries
Princes
Explorers of Central Asia
Union Army colonels
People of Pennsylvania in the American Civil War
19th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis deaths in California