Jesus In India — Page 137
CHAPTER FOUR 127 descended from the Beni-Israel, and that they are the descend- ants of the ten lost tribes. ¹ The book History of the Afghans, by G. P. Ferrier, translated by Capt. William Jesse, and published in London (1858), records on page 1 that the majority of orien- tal historians are of the opinion that the Afghan people are the descendants of the ten tribes of Israel and that the Afghans too hold the same opinion. The same historian says on page 4 of this book, that Afghans possess evidence in support of this that they present as follows, that: When Nadir Shah arrived at Peshawar, with intention of conquering India, he was presented a Bible writ- ten in Hebrew by the chiefs of the Yoosoofzyes tribe as well as sev- eral other articles preserved by their families for the performance of religious rites of their old faith. There were also Jews in Nadir Shah's camp, who, on seeing the articles, readily recognised them. Again, the same historian states on page 4 of his book that in his opinion the view of Abdullah Khan of Herat is highly reliable. Briefly stated this view is as follows: Malek Thalut (Saul) had two sons, Afghan and Djalut. Afghan was the patriarch of these people. After the reigns of David and Solomon, the Israelite tribes started fighting one another. As a result, each tribe became separated from the other. This state of affairs continued up to the time of Nebuchadnezzar who invaded and killed 70,000 Jews. He sacked the city, and took the remaining Jews with him to Babel as prison- ers. After this catastrophe, the children of Afghan fled in fear from 1. See Appendix, extract 19. [Publisher] 2. This should be J. P. Ferrier (Joseph Pierre Ferrier). In Urdu / () was written as G (. ) because at the time of the author, not much distinc- tion was made between and . [Publisher]