Jesus In India — Page 132
122 JESUS IN INDIA a tribe which claims to belong to the house of Israel. Similarly, the inhabitants of the mountain range between Chilas and Kabul also call themselves Israelites. Dr. Bernier's view about the people of Kashmir, which is based on the authority of some English scholars, and is expressed in the second part ofhis book Travels¹ in Kashmir, is only too true. According to him, the Kashmiri people are the descendants of Israel; their dress, their facial features and some of their rituals conclusively point to the fact that they are undoubt- edly of Israelite origin. ² An Englishman, Forster by name, writes in his book that during his stay in Kashmir he felt as if he was living amidst a tribe of the Jews. H. W. Bellews C. S. I. in his book The Races of Afghanistan, published by Thacker Spink & Co. Calcutta, states that the Afghans came from Syria. Nebuchadnezzar took them prisoner and settled them in Persia and Media, from whence at some later date they moved to the East and settled in the Ghor hills, where they were known as Beni Israel. In proof of this there is the prophecy of the Prophet Idris [Enoch], which says that the ten tribes of Israel who were taken prisoner, escaped from captiv- ity and took refuge in the territory called Arsarah which appears to be another name of the area known as Hazara today, part of the region being called Ghor. In Tabaqāt-i-Nāșrī, there is an account of the conquest of Afghanistan by Genghis Khan. It is stated that in the times of the Shabnisi dynasty there lived a tribe known as Beni Israel, some of whom were big businessmen and good trad- ers. In 622 A. D. , which is the year in which Muhammad, that is to 1. Dr. Bernier's Travels in the Mogul Empire. [Publisher] 2. See Appendix, extract 10. [Publisher] 3. See Appendix, extract 11. [Publisher]