[i]

[ii]

AT THE COURT OF THE AMÎR

The Amîr of Afghanistan,
from a painting by the Author.

[iii]

AT THE
COURT of the AMÎR

A NARRATIVE

BY
JOHN ALFRED GRAY, M.B. Lond.
Late Surgeon to H.H. The Amîr of Afghanistan

HAND-MADE AFGHAN RUPEE
STAMPED “AMÎR ABDURRAHMAN.”

LONDON
RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON
Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen
1895
[All Rights Reserved]

[iv]
[v]

THE APOLOGY.

I would not have thought of inflicting a book onmy long-suffering fellow-countrymen, but for thewish expressed by my publishers: for

In Afghanistan however, difficult of access, andhence comparatively unknown, there have been,since that strong man Amîr Abdurrahman ascendedthe Throne, such remarkable changes in the administrationof the country, and such strides towardscivilization, that it was thought a narrative of lifethere, throwing, possibly, some light on the personalityof the Monarch, and on the “bent” of the people,might be of general interest.

The book has been written in the intervals ofprofessional work, and, with its shortcomings ofdiction and style, the only merit it can claim—thatof “local colour”—is due to the fact that it wascompiled from the letters I wrote from Afghanistanto her who is now my wife.

Wadham Lodge,
Uxbridge Road,
Ealing, W.

[vi]
[vii]

CONTENTS.