' Abdurrahman had known strange vicissitudes. He was the
eldest grandson of the old Dost; his father was Afzul Khan, the elder
brother of Shere Ali. After the death of the Dost he had been an exile in
Bokhara, but he returned to Balkh, of which province his father had been
Governor until removed by Shere Ali, made good his footing there, and
having done so advanced on Cabul, taking advantage of Shere Ali's absence
at Candahar. The capital opened its gates to him in March 1866; he fought
a successful battle with Shere Ali at Sheikabad, occupied Ghuznee, and
proclaimed his father Ameer. Those were triumphs, but soon the wheel came
round full circle. Afzul had but a short life as Ameer, and Abdurrahman
had to retire to Afghan Turkestan. Yakoub, then full of vigour and
enterprise, defeated him at Bamian and restored his father Shere Ali to
the throne in the winter of 1868. Abdurrahman then once more found
himself an exile. In 1870, after much wandering, he reached Tashkend,
where General Kaufmann gave him permission to reside, and obtained for
him from the Czar a pension of 25,000 roubles per annum. Petrosvky, a
Russian writer who professed to be intimate with him during his period of
exile, wrote of him that, 'To get square some day with the English and
Shere Ali was Abdurrahman's most cherished thought, his dominant,
never-failing passion.
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