Group. The Amir Yakub Khan & sirdars of Kabul [Safed Sang].--Photographer: Burke, John Medium: Photographic print Date: 1879

Photograph featuring Yakub Khan, the Amir of Afghanistan, seated in the centre, and his officers, taken in May 1879 by John Burke at Safed Sang in Afghanistan. The six foot tall Daoud Shah, from the Ghilzai tribe, his commander-in-chief, sits at the Amir's right. To the Amir's left is Habibullah Khan, the moustafi or prime minister. Burke accompanied British forces into Afghanistan in 1878 and covered the events of the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-80), becoming the first significant photographer of the country and its people in the process. The British, having defeated the Amir Sher Ali's forces, wintered in Jalalabad, waiting for the new Amir Yakub Khan to accept their terms and conditions. One of the key figures in the negotiations was the military administrator Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari (1841-1879), a half-Irish, half-Italian aristocrat who was appointed as emissary by the Viceroy Lord Lytton.

In May 1879, Yakub Khan travelled to Gandamak, a village just outside Jalalabad and entered into negotiations with Cavagnari as a result of which the Treaty of Gandamak was signed whereby the Amir ceded territories to the British and accepted a British envoy in Kabul. Cavagnari took up the post of British Resident in Kabul in July 1879. He was known to be reckless and arrogant rather than discreet and his role as envoy was viewed as injudicious even by some of the British. The situation in Kabul was tense and eventually some Afghan troops who had not been paid by the Amir rebelled and attackled the Residency, killing Cavagnari and his mission in September 1879. The war was far from over despite the treaty and British troops were recalled over the mountains to occupy Kabul, secure it and launch punitive action against the Afghans. Yakub Khan abdicated, taking refuge in the British camp and was subsequently sent to India in December

The Dost's family [Kabul]--Photographer: Burke, John Medium: Photographic print Date: 1879

Photograph taken in 1879 by John Burke, showing the Amir of Afghanistan, Yakub Khan, with his family members and officials in Kabul. Burke travelled with the British Army through the North West Frontier Province (now in Pakistan) into Afghanistan photographing the surroundings and events of the Second Afghan War (1878-80). He captured military and topographical scenes but also became the first significant photographer of the people of Afghanistan. Burke is also credited with photographing a number of the darbars or meetings that took place between the British combat leaders and Afghan chiefs which led to the uneasy peace treaties characteristic of the campaign.

Yakub Khan was a grandson of Dost Mohammed Khan (1791-1863), the charismatic Amir of Afghanistan who had established the country's borders and independence from British India through treaty in 1855. When he died, there was a struggle for succession amongst his sons. Sher Ali, his fifth son, won the throne in 1869 after killing two of his brothers and defeating a nephew. The country was unstable and tumultous, and the relationship between Sher Ali and his son Yakub (who occupied the western city of Herat and was its governor) was troubled, especially when Sher Ali chose a much younger son, Abdullah Jan, as successor. In 1874, Yakub was imprisoned for five years as a consequence of his rebelliousness. This is said to have impaired his health and abilities when the British negotiated the Treaty of Gandamak with him in 1879. Yakub, dressed in the white garb he favoured on formal occasions, is seen seated left centre in the photograph. He was only 34 years old and had been left to rule by his father who fled Kabul to take refuge in Russian territory when the British advanced.

Jellalabad from the north near the Caubul River---Artist: Atkinson, James (17780-1852) Medium: Watercolour with pen and ink Date: 1840

Drawing executed in pen-and-ink and water-colour of Jalalabad in Afghanistan with people in the foreground by James Atkinson (1780-1852) dated 1840. Inscribed on the front is: 'Jellalabad from the north near the Caubul River'. This is folio 7 verso from an album of 17 drawings of views in Afghanistan from the Kyber Pass to Kabul by Atkinson. During the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-42) Atkinson served as Superintending Surgeon to the Army of the Indus, a combined force of British and Indian troops. A talented amateur artist, he took the opportunity to complete many sketches en route in which he portrayed the mountain passes, rocky gorges and arid plains so characteristic of the country.

Jalalabad is situated in eastern Afghanistan near the Khyber Pass. The modern city was built in the 1560s by Emperor Akbar, grandson of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire. It stands in an important strategic position dominating the entrance to the Laghman and Konar (Kunar) valleys and is a leading trading centre with India and Pakistan. During the Anglo-Afghan Wars, Jalalabad was occupied by British forces. The town’s defences were destroyed at the end of the First Afghan War but were rebuilt in 1878 when the town was fortified by a surrounding high wall with bastions and loop holes.

Shah Shuja holding a durbar at Kabul (Afghanistan)--Artist: Atkinson, James (1780-1852) Medium: Watercolour Date: 1839

Water-colour sketch of Shah Shuja holding a durbar at Kabul, Afghanistan by James Atkinson (1780 – 1852) between 1839 and 1840. This is plate 22 from the album 'Sketches in Afghaunistan'. Inscribed on the mount is: 'A Durbar held by Shar Shooja at Caubul.'

During the 19th century the British were sporadically engaged in conflicts with Afghan leaders due to British fear of Russian encroachment on their Indian colony and internal divisions within Afghanistan. Shah Shuja-ul-Mulk was the Amir of Afghanistan from 1802 until 1809 when he was driven out by Mahmud Shah. The Governor-General of India Lord Auckland attempted to restore Shah Shuja in 1839 against the wishes of the Afghan people. This policy led to the disastrous first Anglo-Afghan War (1839-42). After the retreat of British troops from Kabul Shah Shuja shut himself up in his fortress, the Bala Hissar. He left this refuge and was killed by adherents of Dost Muhammad and his son Akbar Khan on 5th April 1842.

Munad Khani Group--Photographer: Burke, John Medium: Photographic print Date: 1879

Portrait of Afghan chiefs probably taken at Kabul, Afghanistan, by John Burke in 1879-80. Burke was the most intrepid of all the photographers active in Victorian India. He travelled widely in the sub-continent but is best known for his work pertaining to the Second Afghan War (1878-80). In this two-year campaign, he worked steadily in the hostile environment of Afghanistan and the North West Frontier Province (now in Pakistan), recording the military events, the topography and the people of the region in which the strategies of the Great Game (concerning the Anglo-Russian territorial rivalry) were played out. Burke also photographed a number of the darbars or meetings that took place between the British leaders and Afghan chiefs which led to the uneasy peace treaties characteristic of the campaign. This album is full of images taken during the occupation of Kabul in the later phase of the war, October 1879.

Scene in the city, Jellalabad.--Photographer: Burke, John Medium: Photographic print Date: 1878

Photograph showing a group of musicians in a street of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, taken by John Burke in 1878. Burke, an intrepid photographer widely travelled in the Indian sub-continent, is best known for his photography during the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-80). He entered Afghanistan in 1878 with the Peshawar Valley Field Force and during the two-year campaign worked steadily in the hostile environment of Afghanistan and the North West Frontier Province (now Pakistan), the scene of the military operations. Burke's photographs include many of the people of Afghanistan and his Afghan expedition produced an important visual document of the region where strategies of the Great Game were played out.

The Anglo-Russian rivalry (called the Great Game) precipitated the Second Afghan War. Afghanistan was of strategic importance to the British in the defence of their Indian Empire, and the prevention of the spreading influence of Russia. They favoured a Forward Policy of extending India's frontiers to the Hindu Kush and gaining control over Afghanistan. An opportunity presented itself when the Amir Sher Ali turned away a British mission while a Russian mission was visiting his court at Kabul. The British had demanded a permanent mission at Kabul which Sher Ali, trying to keep a balance between the Russians and British, would not permit.

British suspicions of the Amir's perceived susceptibility to the Russians led them to invade Afghanistan.

Jalalabad, the traditional winter capital of Afghan rulers, was the first major city of Afghanistan encountered after traversing the Khyber Pass. Situated in a fertile valley watered by the Kabul and Kunar rivers 90 miles east of Kabul, it had once been an important town of the Gandhara period (1st to 5th centuries AD), but the modern city was built by the Mughals. Babar, the founder of the Mughal Empire, first planted gardens here, and his grandson Jalaluddin Akbar built the city named after him in the 1560s. It stands in a strategic position on the trade route to the Indian sub-continent. After taking the Khyber Pass, the British troops' occupation of Jalalabad was largely uneventful, and although minor skirmishes with local chiefs took place around it they moved about the city freely. Burke took a number of photographs of the city and its surroundings which are believed to be among the first taken of it; there are no other surviving images from this period. The British spent a considerable amount of time here waiting for the Amir Yakub Khan in Kabul to accept their terms and conditions.

Group. The Amir Yakub Khan, General Daod Shah, Habeebula Moustafi, with Major Cavagnari C.S.I. & Mr Jenkyns [Gandamak].--Photographer: Burke, John Medium: Photographic print Date: 1879-

hotograph, a formal seated portrait of five figures (Major Cavagnari second from left, Amir Yakub Khan in the centre, the tall Daoud Shah next to the Amir, and Jenkyns and Habibullah Moustafi at extreme left and right), taken by John Burke at Gandmak in Afghanistan in May 1879. Burke accompanied British forces into Afghanistan in 1878 and covered the events of the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-80), becoming the first significant photographer of the country and its people in the process. The British, having defeated the Amir Sher Ali's forces, wintered in Jalalabad, waiting for the new Amir Yakub Khan to accept their terms and conditions. One of the key figures in the negotiations was Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari (1841-1879). A half-Irish, half-Italian aristocrat, descended from the royal family of Parma on his father's side, he had been brought up in England, with schooling at Addiscombe. He served with the East India Army in the 1st Bengal Fusiliers and then transferred into political service, becoming Deputy Commisssioner at Peshawar, and was appointed as envoy by the Viceroy Lord Lytton in the 1878 mission to Kabul which the Afghans refused to let proceed. This refusal was one of a series of events which led to the Second Afghan War.

In the photograph, the 34 year old Yakub is wearing the white clothes he favoured. The six foot tall Daoud Shah, from the Ghilzai tribe, was his commander-in-chief. He had served under the former Amir Sher Ali as well and was known as an able man. Habibullah Khan had been a trusted confidant of Sher Ali and was now the moustafi or prime minister of Yakub Khan.

In May 1879, Yakub Khan travelled to Gandamak, a village just outside Jalalabad and entered into negotiations with Cavagnari as a result of which the Treaty of Gandamak was signed whereby the Amir ceded territories to the British and accepted a British envoy in Kabul. Cavagnari took up the post of British Resident in Kabul in July 1879. He was known to be reckless and arrogant rather than discreet and his role as envoy was viewed as injudicious even by some of the British. The situation in Kabul was tense and eventually some Afghan troops who had not been paid by the Amir rebelled and attackled the Residency, killing Cavagnari and his mission in September 1879. The war was far from over despite the treaty and British troops were recalled over the mountains to occupy Kabul, secure it and launch punitive action against the Afghans. Yakub Khan abdicated, taking refuge in the British camp and was subsequently sent to India in December.

Camp scene, Jellalabad.

Photograph of Indian and Afridi soldiers taken by John Burke in 1878. The Afridi figure in the centre is posed in the act of aiming his jezail, a long and heavy Afghan musket. The Afridis were a powerful, independent tribe inhabiting the Peshawar border of the North West Frontier Province. They had a reputation for being first rate soldiers and particularly good skirmishers. The power of the British army along the frontier of its Indian Empire owed much to the courage and loyalty of the native soldiers who formed such a significant part of it. Burke, the most intrepid of the photographers active in Victorian India, accompanied nearly all of the British military campaigns of this period, but is best known for his photography during the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-80). He accompanied the Peshawar Valley Field Force during the two-year campaign and worked steadily in the hostile environment of Afghanistan and the North West Frontier Province (Pakistan), the scene of the military operations. Burke's photographs include many of the people of Afghanistan, and he is also credited with photographing the many darbars that took place with Afghan chiefs which led to the uneasy peace treaties characteristic of the campaign. His Afghan expedition produced an important visual document of the region where strategies of the Great Game were played out.

The Anglo-Russian rivalry (called the Great Game) precipitated the Second Afghan War. Afghanistan was of strategic importance to the British in the defence of their Indian Empire, and the prevention of the spreading influence of Russia. They favoured a Forward Policy of extending India's frontiers to the Hindu Kush and gaining control over Afghanistan. An opportunity presented itself when the Amir Sher Ali turned away a British mission while a Russian mission was visiting his court at Kabul. The British had demanded a permanent mission at Kabul which Sher Ali, trying to keep a balance between the Russians and British, would not permit.

British suspicions of the Amir's perceived susceptibility to the Russians led them to invade Afghanistan.

Photographer: Burke, John

Medium: Photographic print

Date: 1878

Dost Mahomed Khan and part of his family: Mahomed Akram Khan, Hyder Khan, Abdool Ghunee Khan-Artist: Eden, Emily Medium: Lithograph Date: 1844-

This lithograph is taken from plate 1 of Emily Eden's 'Portraits of the Princes and People of India'. Eden here sketches Dost Mohammed Khan with two of his sons, Muhammad Akram Khan and Haider Khan, and his cousin Abd al-Ghani Khan.

The erstwhile Emir of Afghanistan, Dost Mohammad was deposed by the British and exiled to Calcutta in 1841, making way for the British ally Shah Shuja. After the siege of Kabul and the retreat of British troops, Dost Mohammed returned to Kabul and ruled for 20 years. Eden was a skilled watercolourist and sister of the Governor General, Lord Auckland. She used her unique access to important people to paint them at close quarters.

General Roberts and staff [inspecting captured Afghan artillery, Sherpur Cantonment, Kabul]. --Photographer: Burke, John Medium: Photographic print Date: 1879----

Photograph taken by John Burke in 1879, showing rows of captured Afghan field pieces drawn up inside the cantonment at Sherpur, situated a mile north of the city of Kabul, and General Roberts and his officers inspecting the guns. Following the killing of the British Resident Sir Louis Cavagnari and his mission at Kabul in September 1879, General Roberts and his forces entered the city and occupied the cantonment in October. Roberts was tasked with launching punitive action against the Afghans, securing his force at Kabul and establishing a line of communication with British forces via the Khyber Pass. The cantonment, set up by the Amir Sher Ali as winter quarters for his troops, offered a secure and easily defendable position close to the city; it was large enough to accommodate the troops and provided easy access eastwards through the Khyber Pass towards Peshawar, northwards towards Kohistan and westwards into the Chardeh Plain.

Khyber chiefs & Khans, with Captain Tucker, Political Officer in Jamrood Fort-Photographer: Burke, John Medium: Photographic print Date: 1878-

Photograph of Afghan chiefs and a British Political Officer posed at Jamrud fort at the mouth of the Khyber Pass, taken by John Burke in 1878. Burke, the most intrepid of the photographers active in Victorian India, accompanied nearly all of the British military campaigns of this period, but is best known for his photography

during the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-80). He accompanied the Peshawar Valley Field Force during the two-year campaign and worked steadily in the hostile environment of Afghanistan and the North West Frontier Province (Pakistan), the scene of the military operations. Burke's photographs include many of the people of Afghanistan, and he is also credited with photographing the many darbars that took place with Afghan chiefs which led to the uneasy peace treaties characteristic of the campaign. His Afghan expedition produced an important visual document of the region where strategies of the Great Game were played out.

The Anglo-Russian rivalry (called the Great Game) precipitated the Second Afghan War. Afghanistan was of strategic importance to the British in the defence of their Indian Empire, and the prevention of the spreading influence of Russia. They favoured a Forward Policy of extending India's frontiers to the Hindu Kush and gaining control over Afghanistan. An opportunity presented itself when the Amir Sher Ali turned away a British mission while a Russian mission was visiting his court at Kabul. The British had demanded a permanent mission at Kabul which Sher Ali, trying to keep a balance between the Russians and British, would not permit.

British suspicions of the Amir's perceived susceptibility to the Russians led them to invade Afghanistan.

In this image a group of Afghans surround a British officer (Captain Tucker) seated amidst them. As a political officer, he would have had a key role in drumming up support for the British war effort through his local contacts.

General Roberts and staff [inspecting captured Afghan artillery, Sherpur Cantonment, Kabul]. --Photographer: Burke, John Medium: Photographic print Date: 1879

Photograph taken by John Burke in 1879, showing rows of captured Afghan field pieces drawn up inside the cantonment at Sherpur, situated a mile north of the city of Kabul, and General Roberts and his officers inspecting the guns. Following the killing of the British Resident Sir Louis Cavagnari and his mission at Kabul in September 1879, General Roberts and his forces entered the city and occupied the cantonment in October. Roberts was tasked with launching punitive action against the Afghans, securing his force at Kabul and establishing a line of communication with British forces via the Khyber Pass. The cantonment, set up by the Amir Sher Ali as winter quarters for his troops, offered a secure and easily defendable position close to the city; it was large enough to accommodate the troops and provided easy access eastwards through the Khyber Pass towards Peshawar, northwards towards Kohistan and westwards into the Chardeh Plain.

The views in this album concentrate on the topography of Kabul and military scenes during the British occupation of 1879-80. In 1878 John Burke accompanied British forces into Afghanistan for the duration of the Second Afghan War (1878-80), despite being rejected for the role of official photographer. He financed his trip by advance sales of his photographs 'illustrating the advance from Attock to Jellalabad'. Burke's Afghanistan photographs produced an important visual document of the people and the region where strategies of the Great Game (concerning the territorial rivalry between Britain and Russia) were played out. Coming to India as apothecary with the Royal Engineers, Burke turned professional photographer, in partnership at first with William Baker. Travelling widely in India, they were the main rivals to the better-known Bourne and Shepherd.

Five syuds, prisoners en route from Jellalabad.-Photographer: Burke, John Medium: Photographic print Date: 1878

Photograph showing soldiers of the British army escorting five prisoners, take near Jalalabad in Afghanistan by John Burke in 1878. The prisoners were lucky to have survived because in the harsh conditions and terrain of the Afghan Wars no quarter was given and prisoners taken, on both sides. Burke, best known for capturing military scenes made use of the opportunity to become the first significant photographer of the people and landscape of Afghanistan when he accompanied the Peshawar Valley Field Force during the Second Afghan War (1878-90). Despite being rejected for the role of official photographer, he financed his trip by advance sales of his photographs 'illustrating the advance from Attock to Jellalabad'. Coming to India as apothecary with the Royal Engineers, Burke turned professional photographer, assisting William Baker. Travelling widely in India, they were the main rivals to the better-known Bourne and Shepherd. Burke's two-year Afghan expedition produced an important visual document of the region where strategies of the Great Game were played out.

The Anglo-Russian rivalry (called the Great Game) precipitated the Second Afghan War. Afghanistan was of strategic importance to the British in the defence of their Indian Empire, and the prevention of the spreading influence of Russia. They favoured a Forward Policy of extending India's frontiers to the Hindu Kush and gaining control over Afghanistan. An opportunity presented itself when the Amir Sher Ali turned away a British mission while a Russian mission was visiting his court at Kabul. The British had demanded a permanent mission at Kabul which Sher Ali, trying to keep a balance between the Russians and British, would not permit.

British suspicions of the Amir's perceived susceptibility to the Russians led them to invade Afghanistan.

The Khan of Lalpura & followers, with political officer.--Photographer: Burke, John Medium: Photographic print Date: 1878

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Photograph with Colonel Sir Robert Warburton (1842-1899) sitting amid a group of Afghan warriors, taken by John Burke in 1878. Burke travelled widely as a photographer in the sub-continent, but is best known for his photography during the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-80). He accompanied the Peshawar Valley Field Force during the two-year campaign and worked steadily in the hostile environment of Afghanistan and the North West Frontier Province (Pakistan), the scene of the military operations. Burke's photographs include many of the people of Afghanistan, and he is also credited with photographing the many darbars that took place with Afghan chiefs which led to the uneasy peace treaties characteristic of the campaign. His Afghan expedition produced an important visual document of the region where strategies of the Great Game were played out.
The Anglo-Russian rivalry (called the Great Game) precipitated the Second Afghan War. Afghanistan was of strategic importance to the British in the defence of their Indian Empire, and the prevention of the spreading influence of Russia. They favoured a Forward Policy of extending India's frontiers to the Hindu Kush and gaining control over Afghanistan. An opportunity presented itself when the Amir Sher Ali turned away a British mission while a Russian mission was visiting his court at Kabul. The British had demanded a permanent mission at Kabul which Sher Ali, trying to keep a balance between the Russians and British, would not permit.

British suspicions of the Amir's perceived susceptibility to the Russians led them to invade Afghanistan.

The charismatic Warburton was among the many interesting personalities who worked along the North-West Frontier of the British Empire in India, his story is likened to that of Rudyard Kipling's 'Kim'. He was half-Afghan, his mother Shah Jahan Begum was the niece of the former Amir Dost Mohammed of Afghanistan, and his father was Lt. Colonel Robert Warburton who saw action in Kabul in the First Afghan War (1838-42). It was said that she had saved him from capture and he fell in love with her and married her. Their son was educated in India and at Addiscombe in England, joining the Royal Artillery and returning to India in 1862. Perhaps because of his mother's aristocratic lineage he was comfortable with his mixed heritage. Fluent in Pashtu, he moved fluidly between the Afghans and the British, establishing rappport with both. After the Khyber Pass came under British possession, he was made political officer in charge of the pass, from 1879-1897, responsible for the Afridis, considered the most aggressive of the Afghan tribes. He forged the Khyber Rifles into a fighting unit, and kept the peace with the Afridis for 18 years. They rose in revolt against the British soon after his retirement. Warburton, who died at Kensington, wrote a memoir, Eighteen years in the Khyber (London 1900). This photograph is one of the best-known and oft-reproduced of Burke's Afghan War pictures.