Jesus In India — Page 142
142 J e s u s i n I n d i a forcibly, by Professor Dowson, in a letter to the Times. “If,” writes that gentleman, “it were worthy of consideration, it is still inconsistent with the notion that the Afgháns are descendants of the lost ten tribes. Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin, and that tribe was not one of the lost ten. There remains the question of feature. This, no doubt, has its weight, but cannot prevail against the more important question of language. ” Professor Dowson then proceeds to show that the Afghán language has no trace of Hebrew in it, and concludes by pronouncing the supposition that in the course of time the whole Afghán race could have changed their language as “too incredible. ” History of the Afghans by J. P. Ferrier, translated from the original unpublished manuscript by Captain William Jesse (John Murray, London, 1858) Page 1. ‘… the majority of Eastern writers consider them to be the descendants of one of the ten tribes of Israel— and this is the opinion of the Afghans themselves. ’ Page 4. ‘… the Afghans, however, think that they have evidence of their Jewish origin in the following tradition. When Nadir Shah, marching to the conquest of India, arrived at Peshawur, the chiefs of the tribe of Yoosoofzyes presented him with a Bible written in Hebrew, and several articles that had been used in their ancient worship which they had preserved; these articles were at once recognised by the Jews who followed the camp. ’ Page 6. ‘Being incompetent to decide which is right, we shall adopt the opinion of Abdullah Khan of Herat as the one most deserving of credit, and we will precede it by giving his view of the manner in which the Afghans were brought to Afghanistan. The following is a translation of his manuscript: “…. . Malek Thalut (Saul) king of the Jews had two sons, Afghan and Djalut— the first was the father of the Afghan nation and gave