1 a vizier's daughter - Hazara.net

26
A VIZIER’S DAUGHTER – A TALE OF THE HAZARA WAR
country afforded. If he required anything, he expected her to provide
it. It was fair enough; what else should a wife expect?
As for his love for Gul Begum, that was a thing quite apart. He could
have found many wives that would have suited him just as well as
Halima, women who would have made just as good mothers for his
children, and have kept his house just as well better perhaps. But with
his daughter it was altogether different. There was only one Gul
Begum. All Hazara could not have produce another. She was head and
shoulders taller than the tallest woman in the country; she was twice as
strong and active; twice as quick at her work; and as to intelligence,
they were all fools when the y tried to measure their wits against hers.
What was to be done with this girl? His beloved, his treasure. Of
course he would have to give her to a husband some day; that was
unavoidable. It was one of the customs of his nation, a custom that
could not be broken under any circumstances. But must he part with
her? He thought not sometimes, for he could find some fairly
intelligent boy, the son of poor parents, to whom he would give her on
condition that he gave up his own home and came and lived in hers. In
that way he could keep his daughter with him without going against the
traditions of his tribe.
But sometimes he formed more ambitious schemes, and this evening,
on the eve of his departure for Kabul, it was these plans that were
taking up his attention. The governor of Bamian had a son, a boy of
sixteen; he was of the Afghan blood royal. Could he not, by allying her
to this family, secure certain advantages? – not only for his family but
for his whole nation? He could give her a dowry – a ver y handsome
dowry, quite sufficient to tempt the governor, but would he by this
means secure what he wanted ? He must make sure of that; it would
never do for him to give her up and then find that the sacrifice had
been all to no purpose, for he had yet another scheme. The son of the
Ameer of Kabul was just sixteen too, and he thought he would be more
likely to secure his object by making an alliance there; the difficult y in
that case was that what he could offer as a dowry would be no great
inducement to the so n of a man who could command the best and
handsome of many nations, who could plan an alliance with Turke y or
with Egypt.
That certainly was rather ambitious, but was is too ambitious? It might
suit him well, and now was the time to suggest it. A diplomatic
marriage had often been made when two nations were one the eve of
war; why should not such a marriage stop war at the present crisis ?
And then a wild plan came into his mind; the Ameer wanted to unite
the land of the Hazaras with Afghanistan; here was his chance; no
Hazara unless, perhaps, Sayad Mir Hassan, had Ghulam Hossain’s
diplomatic skill, could he not by this alliance, unite those two
countries? Who so queenly as Gul Begum ? Why should not she be
Queen – Queen of the whole Hazara tribe? Who had a better right? Few
knew, except Ghulam Hossain himself, that he was the richest man in