THE DESCENT OF THE AFGHANS FROM THE JEWS.
“The Afghans call themselves the posterity of Melic Talut, or king Saul. The descent of the Afghans, according to their tradition, is thus whimsically traced:
“In a war which raged between the children of Israel and the Amalakites, the latter being victorious, plundered the Jews, and obtained possession of the Ark of the Covenant. Considering this the God of the Jews, they threw it into fire, which did not affect it; they afterwards endeavoured to cleave it with axes, but without success: every individual who treated it with indignity, was punished for his temerity. They then placed it in their temple, but all their idols bowed to it. At last they fastened it upon a cow, which they turned loose into the wilderness.
“When the prophet Samuel arose, the children of Israel said to him, “We have been totally subdued by the Amalakites, and have no king. Raise to us a king, that we may be enabled to contend for the glory of God.” Samuel said, “In case you are led out to battle, are you determined to fight?” They answered, “What has befallen us that we should not fight against infidels? That nation has banished us from our country and children.” At this time the angel Gabriel descended, and delivered a wand, and said, “It is the command of God, that the person whose stature shall correspond with this wand, shall be King of Israel.”
“Melic Talut was at that time a man of inferior condition, and performed the humble employment of feeding the goats and cows of others. One day a cow under his charge was accidentally lost. Being disappointed in his search, he was greatly distressed, and applied to Samuel, saying, “I have lost a cow, and do not possess the means of satisfying the owner. Pray for me that I may be extricated from this difficulty.” Samuel perceiving that he was a man of lofty stature, asked his name. He answered, Talut. Samuel then said, “Measure Talut with the wand which the angel Gabriel brought.” His stature was equal to it. Samuel then said, “God has raised Talut to be your king.” The children of Israel answered, “We are greater than our king; we are men of dignity, and he is of inferior condition. How shall he be our king?” Samuel informed them that they should know that God had constituted Talut their king by his restoring the ark of the covenant. He accordingly restored it, and they acknowledged him their sovereign.
“After Talut obtained the kingdom, he seized part of the territories of Jalut or Goliath, who assembled a large army, but was killed by David. Talut afterwards died a martyr in a war against the infidels; and God constituted David king of the Jews.
“Melic Talut had two sons, one called Berkia, and the other Irmia, who served David and were beloved by him. He sent them to fight against the infidels, and by God’s assistance they were victorious.
“The son of Berkia was called Afghan, and the son of Irmia was named Usbec. These youths distinguished themselves in the reign of David, and were employed by Solomon. Afghan was distinguished by his corporeal strength, which struck terror into demons and genii; Usbec was eminent for his learning.
“Afghan used frequently to make excursions to the mountains, where his progeny, after his death, established themselves, lived in a state of independence, built forts, and exterminated the infidels.”
With this account we shall subjoin a remark of the late Henry Vansittart, Esq. He observes, that—
“A very particular account of the Afghans has been written by the late Ha Fiz Rahmat Khan, a chief of the Rohillas, from which the curious reader may derive much information. They are Musselmans, partly Sunni, and partly of the Shiah persuasion. They are great boasters of the antiquity of their origin and reputation of their tribe; but other Mussulmans entirely reject their claim, and consider them of modern and even base extraction. However, their character may be collected from history. They have distinguished themselves by their courage, both singly and unitedly, as principals and auxiliaries. They have conquered for their own princes and for foreigners, and have always been considered the main strength of the army in which they have served. As they have been applauded for virtues, they have been also reproached for vices, having sometimes been guilty of treachery, and even acted the base part of assassins.”
A specimen of their language (the Pushtoo) is added, and the following note is appended by the president:
“This account of the Afghans may lead to a very interesting discovery. We learn from Esdras, that the Ten Tribes, after a wandering journey, came to a country called Arsareth, where we may suppose they settled. Now, the Afghans are said by the best Persian historians to be descended from the Jews; they have traditions among themselves of such a descent, and it is even asserted that their families are distinguished by the names of Jewish tribes, although, since their conversion to Islam, they studiously conceal their origin. The Pushtoo language, of which I have seen a dictionary, has a manifest resemblance to the Chaldaic, and a considerable district under their dominion is called Hazarch, or Hazarel, which might easily have been changed into the word used by Esdras. I strongly recommend an inquiry into the literature and history of the Afghans.”—From Bichano’s “Signs of the Times.”
Besides these testimonies, we would add the following upon this interesting subject. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and in the ninth of Hoshea, king of the Ten Tribes of Israel, Samaria, the metropolis of Israel’s kingdom, was taken by Shalmanezer, king of Assyria. Having abolished the government, he next deported the inhabitants beyond the Euphrates into Assyria, “and placed them in Halah, and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes”—2 Kings 17: 6. This is termed “removing them out of Jehovah’s sight”—2 Kings 17: 18. Not that he could no longer see them, because “the eyes of the Lord are in every place;” but because the scripture represents his eyes as resting upon the Holy Land as they do not on any other country: —it is “a land,” says Moses, “which Jehovah thy God careth for; the eyes of Jehovah thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year”—Deuteronomy 11: 12. Hence for Israel to be removed from this land, was to remove them out of His sight as beholding the land, and the things upon it. It may be also remarked in passing, that as to send the Ten Tribes into captivity was to remove them out of Jehovah’s sight, so to bring them back into the land is for them to “live in his sight.” Hosea, in speaking of their captivity and return, has this passage, which we present in the form following:
Jehovah—“I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.”
The Ten Tribes—“Come, and let us return unto Jehovah; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up; and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know if we follow on, to know the Jehovah, (eth-Yehowah:) His going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth”—Hosea 5: 15; 6: 1-3.
But to return to the passage in Kings, which Gesenius translates thus:
“And placed them in Chalcitis and on the Chabor, a river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.”
This is certainly to be preferred to the common version. In this Habor, or properly Chabor, would seem to be a city or province watered by Gozan. “By” is not in the original, and Gozan appears to be a province or people, rather than a river—2 Kings 19: 12. The root of “Chalcitis” is evidently in the Hebrew Chalch, converted into Chalach by the pointing of the Masorites. We like Gesenius’ rendering, which cannot be improved. It makes the river to be the Chabores, which is regarded as the Chebar of Ezekiel. But we doubt the correctness of this. The orthography is not the same. Ezekiel’s river is Kebar, or Kor, in the land of the Kasdim, or Chaldeans; while the other is Chbor, or Chabor, which empties into the Euphrates in the northern part of Mesopotamia. Ezekiel says he was “among the captivity by the river Kebar.” There were two captivities at the time. He was with that in Chaldea proper at Babylon; and not with that in the Chaldea which had then acquired the name of Aram naharaim, Syria of the Rivers, or Mesopotamia. Ptolemy in his Geography, v. 18, calls the region lying between the rivers Chaboras and Laocoras, by the name of Gauzanitis, Hebraically, Gozanitis; there is also a district in Media termed Gauzan, between the rivers Cyrus and Cambyses, which fall into the Caspian.
The region, then, west and south of the Caspian, and north-east of Samaria, was the first resting place of the Ten Tribes. Their sojourn there, however, was not permanent. If any dependence can be placed upon Esdras, which is very doubtful, after their transportation to Assyria, “they entered into the Euphrates by the narrow passages of the river,” which “they passed over” dry shod. He says they journeyed “a year and a half” to Arsareth; they would therefore pass up between the Euxine and Caspian Seas through the Asiatic Sarmatra, until their march would bring them to the Tanais or Don, or to the Rha, or Volga, rivers, or to the isthmus between the two. There is no historian to inform us what counsel they took at this juncture. We can see, however, from the map, that whichever way they went, they would penetrate more deeply into the country inhabited by the Scythian aborigines of what is now called the Russian empire. The probability is that some ascended along the Volga and Don into Meshech or Moscovy, and thus finding their way into Poland; while another party would cross the Volga and Ural rivers, and descend between the Caspian and Ural mountains into Independent Tartary, and in the course of time make their way into Afghanistan, and the farther East. In this way the Parthians, who lay to the east of the Caspian, and around its southern extremity, and thence to the Euphrates, would come to be placed between the Ten Tribes and the Holy Land, to which Agrippa alluded in his speech to the defenders of Jerusalem, as reported by Josephus.
The Ten are often spoken of as the Lost Tribes of Israel. We do not, however, regard this as appropriate. We believe that the multitudes of Israelites in Russia, Poland, &c., are the descendants of a migration from Assyria, whose communities have grown up to maturity with the growth of the Moscovite nation. The greater part of the Ten Tribes are evidently regarded by the prophets as being in the country north from the Holy Land; for they make the exodus of Israel from the North, in their redemption by Messiah, as greatly transcending in celebrity the exodus of the whole nation from Egypt under Moses.
“Go, and proclaim these words toward the north,” saith the prophet, “and say, Return thou backsliding Israel, saith Jehovah.” “In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers”—Jeremiah 3: 12-13.
So also another prophet intimates by the words,
“Behold, these shall come from far; and lo, these from the north, and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim”—Isaiah 49: 11.
Again,
“I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth.”—
That is, “I will say to Russia, give up; and to Egypt, keep not back; bring my sons from Afghanistan, &c., and my daughters from the farthest east.” In another place,
“Behold the days come, saith Jehovah, that they shall no more say, Jehovah liveth who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt: but Jehovah liveth who brought up and which led the Seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them: and they shall dwell in their own land”—Jeremiah 23: 7-8.
“Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith Jehovah; for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the Lord”—Zechariah 2: 6.
But we need not adduce more proof to show that the country north of the Promised Land is the great sepulchre in which the tribes are entombed—it is the amplest of the political graves in which the children of Israel are buried. But Jehovah has promised that he will open their graves and bring them up out of them, and thence into the land of their fathers. The north will not be disposed to give them out any more than Pharaoh was in the days of old. The King of the North, by ukase in 1843, ordered all Jews to move from the frontiers of Poland into the interior, under pretence of preventing smuggling. But it will be all to no purpose. The ukase of Israel’s King has been long since proclaimed, that—
“They shall come again from the land of the enemy to their own border,” for “there is hope in their end, saith Jehovah”—
Jeremiah 31: 15-17.
EDITOR.
