ABSTRACT
Abdur Rahman, a nephew of Sher Ali, was to become the greatest Central Asian character to emerge during the whole period under review. In political acumen and astuteness he was far ahead of the Khans and Amirs of Bukhara and elsewhere such as Russia had hitherto to deal with. He was probably ahead even of his grandfather, Dost Muhammad, who after all was the first man in that period to unite Afghanistan although he was given no chance to prove himself thereafter. It would be fruitless to wonder how long British and Russian rivalry might have continued, still less what the upshot might have been, but for Abdur Rahman. In his shapeless clothes and Russian boots he resembled a bear, and he could be bear-like in other ways too as the Indian government was to discover. Often enough he had cause for provocation from within as well as without, but there was a look of greatness about him. He may not have been the British ideal of an ally; for instance besides making use of the traditional Dark Well for punishment he was prone to devise other peculiarly unpleasant tortures for miscreants; yet on the other hand he had an English governess for his children. But what mattered most was that having finally thrown in his lot with India he remained staunch and thereby contributed more than any single man to the ending of the Game.
