That “mother of cities” has seen strange vicissitudes.  It nourished the Zoroastrian and Buddhist creeds in their youth; from its crowded monasteries there shone forth light to the teeming millions of Asia, until culture was stamped out under the heel of Genghis Khan, and later, of Timur.  In a still later day it saw the dawning greatness of that most brilliant but ill-starred of the Mogul Emperors, Aurungzebe.  Its fallen temples and convents, stretching over many a mile, proclaim it to be the city of buried hopes.  There was, then, something fitting in the place of Shere Ali’s death.  He might so readily have built up a powerful Afghan State in friendly union with the British Raj; he chose otherwise, and ended his life amidst the wreckage of his plans and the ruin of his kingdom.  This result of the trust which he had reposed in Muscovite promises was not lost on the Afghan people and their rulers.

There is no need to detail the events of the first half of the year 1879 in Afghanistan.  On the assembly of Parliament in February, Lord Beaconsfield declared that our objects had been attained in that land now that the three chief mountain highways between Afghanistan and India were completely in our power.  It remained to find a responsible ruler with whom a lasting peace could be signed.  Many difficulties were in the way owing to the clannish feuds of the Afghans and the number of possible claimants for the crown.  Two men stood forth as the most likely rulers, Shere Ali’s rebellious son, Yakub Khan, who had lately been released from his long confinement, and Abdur Rahman, son of Ufzal Khan, who was still kept by the Russians in Turkestan under some measure of constraint, doubtless in the hope that he would be a serviceable trump card in the intricate play of rival interests certain to ensue at Cabul.

About February 20, Yakub sent overtures for peace to the British Government; and, as the death of his father at that time greatly strengthened his claim, it was favourably considered at London and Calcutta.  Despite one act at least of flagrant treachery, he was recognised as Ameer.  On May 8 he entered the British camp at Gandarnak, near Jelalabad; and after negotiations, a treaty was signed there, May 26.  It provided for an amnesty, the control of the Ameer’s foreign policy by the British Government, the establishment of a British Resident at Cabul, the construction of a telegraph line to that city, the grant of commercial facilities, and the cession to India of the frontier districts of Kurram, Pishin, and Sibi (the latter two are near Quetta).  The British Government retained control over the Khyber and Michnee Passes and over the neighbouring tribes (which had never definitely acknowledged Afghan rule).  It further agreed to pay to the Ameer and his successors a yearly subsidy of six lakhs of rupees (nearly L50,000)[315].

[Footnote 315:  Parl.  Papers, Afghanistan, No. 7 (1879), p. 23; Roberts, op. cit. pp. 170-173.]