aiwand.

[Footnote 320: _The Life of Abdur Rahman_, vol. ii. pp. 197-98. For
these negotiations and the final recognition, see Parl. Papers,
Afghanistan, No. 1 (1881), pp. 16-51.]

The fact that we supported the Sirdar named Shere Ali at Candahar seemed
to blight his authority over the tribesmen in that quarter. All hope of
maintaining his rule vanished when tidings arrived that Ayub Khan, a
younger brother of the deported Yakub, was marching from the side of
Herat to claim the crown. Already the new pretender had gained the
support of several Afghan chiefs around Herat, and now proclaimed a
_jehad_, or holy war, against the infidels holding Cabul. With a force
of 7500 men and 10 guns he left Herat on June 15, and moved towards the
River Helmand, gathering around him numbers of tribesmen and
ghazis[321].

[Footnote 321: "A ghazi is a man who, purely for the sake of his
religion, kills an unbeliever, Kaffir, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, or
Christian, in the belief that in so doing he gains a sure title to
Paradise" (R.I. Bruce, _The Forward Policy_, p. 245).]

In order to break this gathering cloud of war betimes, the Indian
Government ordered General Primrose, who commanded the British garrison
at Candahar, to despatch a brigade to the Helmand. Accordingly,
Brigadier-General Burrows, with 2300 British and Indian troops, marched
out from Candahar on July 11. On the other side of the Helmand lay an
Afghan force, acting in the British interest, sent thither by the
Sirdar, Shere Ali. Two days later the whole native force mutinied and
marched off towards Ayub Khan. Burrows promptly pursued them, captured
their six guns, and scattered the mutineers with loss.

Even so his position was most serious. In front of him, at no great
distance, was a far superior force flushed with fanaticism and the hope
of easy triumph; the River Helmand offered little, if any, protection,
for at that season it was everywhere fordable; behind him stretched
twenty-five miles of burning desert. By a speedy retreat across this
arid zone to Khushk-i-Nakhud, Burrows averted the disaster then
imminent, but his anxiety to carry out the telegraphic orders of the
Commander-in-chief, and to prevent Ayub's force from reaching Ghaznee,
led him into an enterprise which proved to be far beyond his strength.

Hearing that 2000 of the enemy's horsemen and a large number of ghazis
had hurried forward in advance of the main body to Maiwand, he
determined to attack