¿ABD-AL-QODDUÚS B. SOLT®AÚN MOH®AMMAD B. SOLT®AÚN PAÚYANDA MOH®AMMADZAÚY SARDAÚR, called ˆAGASÈ, prominent Afghan military and political figure of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

¿ABD-AL-QODDUÚS B. SOLT®AÚN MOH®AMMAD B. SOLT®AÚN PAÚYANDA MOH®AMMADZAÚY SARDAÚR, called ˆAGASÈ, prominent Afghan military and political figure of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was born around 1840, a nephew of the Am^r Du@st Moháammad Khan, and was associated early with ¿Abd-al-Raháma@n b. Moháammad Afzµal b. Du@st Moháammad. In the late 1860s he was governor of Ta@Þqorg@a@n while Afghan Turkestan was under ¿Abd-al-Raháma@n's control. He appears to have been with ¿Abd-al-Raháma@n during the latter's exile in Russian Central Asia (1869-80). After ¿Abd-al-Raháma@n's accession to the amirate of Afghanistan under British protection, ¿Abd-al-Qoddu@s was briefly subordinate to the amir's cousin, Moháammad Esháa@q b. Moháammad A¿záam, in Afghan Turkestan. In the 1881 struggle between ¿Abd-al-Raháma@n and Moháammad Ayyu@b, son of a previous amir, ˆ^r ¿Al^ Khan, for Qandaha@r, ¿Abd-al-Qoddu@s was sent by Moháammad Esháa@q to seize Herat on ¿Abd-al-Raháma@n's behalf. Herat was Moháammad Ayyu@b's headquarters, but in his absence his supporters surrendered the city to ¿Abd-al-Qoddu@s in D¨u÷l-qa¿da, 1298/October, 1881. ¿Abd-al-Qoddu@s stayed on as governor of the city until 15 D¨u÷l-qa¿da 1299/28 September 1882. He was repeatedly reprimanded by the amir for what was seen in Kabul as administrative malfeasance. Recalled to Kabul, he was placed under house arrest until ¿Èd al-FetÂr 1304/23 June 1887, when he was rehabilitated and appointed administrator of the sáandu@q-e ¿ada@lat (an institution of public welfare by which government disbursements to the indigent were regularized; Sera@è al-tawa@r^k¨, p. 437). He appears to have held this post until D¨u÷l-qa¿da, 1307/June-July, 1890, when ¿Abd-al-Raháma@n, then in Maza@r-e ˆar^f, ordered him to lead an expeditionary force into the Haza@raèa@t and bring that region under the control of Kabul. In Moháarram, 1308/August-September, 1890 he was in Ba@m^a@n, where he was ordered to rebuild an ancient ˆahr-e GÚolg@ola as an army base. In the course of excavating, a number of archeological finds were made. Three types of buildings (se ba@b-e k¨a@na) were unearthed, each measuring thirty d¨ar¿ in length, ten d¨ar¿ in width, and ten d¨ar¿ in height. A 700-year-old document (qaba@la) was also discovered. It was sent to the amir who gave it to his son, H®ab^balla@h (Sera@è al-tawa@r^k¨, p. 698).

The subsequent war against the Haza@ras, in which ¿Abd-al-Qoddu@s was heavily involved, was a long and difficult one with racial, religious, and economic overtones. ¿Abd-al-Qoddu@s' policies from the beginning were ineffective in exploiting the strong support for the Kabul government that had long existed in many areas of the Haza@raèa@@t. His officials imposed burdensome provisioning requirements on the loyal Haza@ra population, and his subordinates treated the people as a conquered population and publicly taunted them as koffa@r for their adherence to Et¯na@-¿aÞar^ Shi¿ism. Moreover, ¿Abd-al-Qoddu@s himself outraged the moral sensibilities of the Haza@ras of Oru@zga@n, the chief city of the Haza@raèa@t, by taking Haza@ra women into concubinage, a practice that his officers also adopted. He remained in the vicinity of Oru@zga@n for nearly a year but was then recalled to Kabul in Rab^¿ I, 1310/October, 1892, partly because of his incapacitation as a result of illness and partly as a result of his inept policies which by this time had alienated loyal Haza@ras and brought the region into open armed resistance to Kabul.

On his return, ¿Abd-al-Raháma@n appointed him court chamberlain (^Þ^k a@qa@s^, whence apparently the soubriquet ˆagas^), in which position he remained for the next decade. After ¿Abd-al-Raháma@n's death in 1901 and the accession of his son, H®ab^balla@h, ¿Abd-al-Qoddu@s became the latter's closest advisor. In 1905, during the Afghan-Anglo negotiations carried out by H®ab^balla@h Khan and Louis W. Dane, ¿Abd-al-Qoddu@s's influence was crucial in gaining favorable terms for the Afghan side. He maintained an intensely nationalistic posture in all his policy recommendations, including his decisive advocacy of Afghan neutrality during the First World War.

In 1919, after the assassination of the Am^r H®ab^balla@h Khan, ¿Abd-al-Qoddu@s was named prime minister (sáadr-e a¿záam) by his successor, Am^nalla@h Khan. In the Anglo-Afghan war of the same year, he commanded the Afghan troops at Qandaha@r. And in 1924, although in his mid-eighties, he took part in the suppression of the Mangal uprising in K¨u@st. He died on March 18, 1928. The title e¿tema@d-al-dawla, conferred on him by H®ab^balla@h Khan, was adopted by his descendants, the E¿tema@d^ family.

Bibliography : For the career of ¿Abd-al-Qoddu@s to 1892, Fayzµ Moháammad Ka@teb, Sera@è al-tawa@r^k¨, Kabul, 1333/1915, vol. III offers the most information. After 1901, many references to ¿Abd-al-Qoddu@s are to be found in British records. See especially citations in L. Adamec, Afghanistan's Foreign Affairs to the Mid-Twentieth Century, Tuscon, 1974. Idem, Historical and Political Who's Who of Afghanistan, Graz, 1975. See also V. M. Masson and V. A. Romodin, Istoriya Afganistana, Moscow, 1965, II, pp. 273, 381, 388.

(R. D. McChesney)