t<^^<C^^<^^<<^tc^t^t^<^

AMANULLAH

came up for review in his vigorous brain. The women,
for instance. Few dared to brave the wrath of Allah
and the temporal disapproval of the mullahs by thinking
freely about the purdah system. Few questioned the
right of men to imprison women all their lives in the
enveloping cloak of custom. But Amanullah did,

He thought of their starved lives in the upper rooms.
Their starved minds, fed by an occasional glance through
the lattice into a courtyard. He thought of the debase-
ment of their bodies in the name of religion* He
pictured their agonies under the rules that went for
medicine at the most critical time of their lives.

These thoughts were secret, Amauullah was from
that moment a rebel. Trained by the mullahs, he yet
dared to question their right to dictate the physical
and material welfare of the nation* He must have been
startled by his own thoughts, when in the sober light
of day he passed in review the strange revolutionary
theories which had occupied him by the camp-fire,

He even found reason to despise caste. He revolted
against the laws which made men separate one from
another in holy distaste. He was applying common
sense to the Koran, He could have been shot for it.

But none guessed his thoughts. None wondered what
was taking place in the mind of the young soldier who
had already gained fame in every province in the
country. None knew his burning ambition. He was
not looked on as even a possible future Amir* The
prophets took their searching eyes no further than
Court circles, and gossip, seeing the old Habibullah
still strong and vigorous and cruel, guessed that
when the time did come, then his place would be
taken by some similar cunning schemer close to the
throne,

NasruEah, brother of Habitaullah, and just such

84