Page:The Moslem World - Volume 02.djvu/146

 spirit in the organisation of a Mohammedan school and college on the lines of the well-known institution at Aligarh. This college has received the most liberal support from khans on both sides of the frontier, and it is hoped that some of the Trans-frontier chiefs may be induced to send their sons to it.

Among the independent tribes, the only attempt at education is that given by some of the mullahs in their mosques. They teach the Koran by rote, and sometimes a little Persian and theology. Arithmetic and general knowledge are altogether beyond their pale, and English is tabooed. Even in the large towns of Afghanistan, it is exceedingly rare to meet any one able to converse in the English language.

From what has been said above, it is clear that Afghanistan is one of the most impregnable strongholds of Islam. Among the Pathan tribes, power is divided between the mullahs and the khans, or chiefs; in some parts the secular arm being more powerful, in others, the ecclesiastical, according to the personality^ and power of the leading men on either side. Just as some chiefs have risen to widely extended power and influence through personal force of character, so some mullahs have attained extraordinary ascendancy over the people, so much so that thousands are ready to flock to their standards when the tocsin of jihad, or religious war, is sounded ; in fact, in the numerous frontier outbreaks and wars, the mullahs have generally taken a more prominent position than the chiefs. They stand to gain more, at least in fame, and to lose less in the event of failure. The Povindah mullah, the Hadda mullah and others, have recently inflamed the tribes to war by travelling about, making incendiary speeches and putting forward the most extravagant claims to miraculous power, claims which as often as not are blindly believed, as, for instance, where the Povindah mullah told the Mahsuds that he had made them proof against British bullets, and the tribesmen swept down on the British camp up to the muzzles of the guns. The Akhund of 8wat is very widely revered all over the frontier, and men of all tribes make long pilgrimages to his zyarat in Swat, with regard to