Jesus In India — Page 176
166 JESUS IN INDIA Kharkov, who examined the subject at length, rejects this theory. Mountstuart Elphinstone classes it in the same category as the theory of the descent of the Romans from the Trojans. The objections to Abdúllah Khán's view have been recently expressed, fittingly and forcibly, by Professor Dowson, in a letter to the Times. “If” writes that gentle- man, “it were worthy of consideration, it is still incon- sistent with the notion that the Afgháns are descendants of the lost ten tribes. Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin, and that tribe was not one of the lost ten. There remains the question of feature. This, no doubt, has its weight, but cannot prevail against the more important question of language. " Professor Dowson then proceeds to show that the Afghán language has no trace of Hebrew in it, and concludes by pronouncing the supposition that in the course of time the whole Afghán race could have changed their language as “too incredible. ” EXTRACT 20 History of the Afghans by J. P. Ferrier, translated from the orig- inal unpublished manuscript by Captain William Jesse (John Murray, London, 1858) Page 1. . . . the majority of Eastern writers consider them to be the descendants of one of the ten tribes of Israel- and this is the opinion of the Afghans themselves.