Armenians
in Lahore
When Lahore was an important commercial centre and the summer capital of the
Moghul Emperors, there was a flourishing Armenian settlement there from the
end of the 16th century till the end of the 18th century.
There are some references to the Armenians of Lahore in the letters of the Jesuit
Fathers of those days. From the letters we come to know that when the Moghul
Governor threatened to persecute Christians in Lahore in 1609, the Armenian
community were in such a fear that some twenty three Armenian merchants fled
with haste.
There was an Armenian bishop in Lahore, which can prove the existence of an
Armenian Church and sufficiently large Armenian settlement which required the
appointment of a bishop. 48
It appears that the Armenians had a special quarter at Lahore. According to
Father Tieffentaller, this quarter still existed after the third invasion of
the Punjab by Ahmed Shah Durrani in 1757, because the Armenian and Georgian
soldiers serving under Ahmed Shah protected the Armenian quarter from the Afghan
soldiers, and thus it was not devastated. At the end of the second invasion
of the Punjab by Ahmed Shah in 1755, he took away many Armenian gunmakers with
him to Kabul.49
Armenians
in Kabul
The Armenian gunmakers of Lahore were not the first Armenian settlers at Kabul.
The Armenians were living there at least hundred years prior to gunmakers’ arrival.
One Jesuit Father, Benedict Goes passing the borders of Afghanistan in 1603,
heard that there might be some Christians there. A few years later the Fathers
in Mogor learnt from some Armenians who had come from Kabul that the inhabitants
of Kafiristan (who were not Muslim), bore a cross traced on their heads and
had probably at one time been Christians. Fired with the prospect of this new
opening for their efforts, the Jesuits at Agra obtained permission to undertake
a Mission to this country.50
Those Christians may or may not have been Armenians, but the fact that there
were Armenian merchants living in Kabul in the end of the 17th century seems
as a conclusive proof of the existence of an Armenian settlement there.
According to Armenian Church Records, this settlement was included in the Indo-Iranian
Diocese and Armenian priests were regularly posted to the Kabul Armenian Church.
However, due to the difficult conditions and isolation, majority of the Armenians
left Kabul. As a result, after 1830 no priests were posted to Kabul.
In 1896 Ameer of Afghanistan Abdur Rahman Khan sent a Circular to the Armenian
community in Calcutta, inviting ten-twelve Armenian families to settle in Afghanistan.
From his letter we come to know that in the time of King Nadir Shah there were
five hundred Armenians in Afghanistan. But in the time of this Ameer only twenty-one
Armenians were left there. Then the letter continues as follows:
“It is desirable,
that, from your national and religious feelings and sympathies, you should send
ten or twelve families, men of education and of some profession, to live in
the Dominions of Afghanistan, and so relieve their loneliness, and they themselves
pass their days in comfort…”51
The Wardens of the Calcutta Armenian Church sent an official reply to Ameer
on behalf of the Armenian community that the Armenians were not willing to uproot
themselves, and requested him to send Armenian children to Calcutta for education
and his Armenian subjects to Peshawar where an Armenian priest would meet them
and minister to their spiritual needs. However, two elderly Armenians accompanied
the official to Kabul. But the Ameer was not impressed and they were immediately
repatriated at the Ameer’s expense.
A year later, in 1897, the same Ameer suddenly expelled all the Armenians from
Afghanistan. This happened because of the letter from Turkey, from Sultan Abdul
Hamid II, in which he warned the Ameer that Armenians were dangerous. That time
the Turkish Sultan had already started ethnic cleansing in the Western Armenia,
killing or deporting the Armenians from their native land.
The Armenians of Kabul took refuge in Peshawar. Sadly, nothing was done by the
wealthy Armenian community of Calcutta to relieve the distress of the unhappy
refugees. It is worth mentioning that these refugees carried with them their
religious books and ancient manuscripts. There was a very interesting article
on this issue in the Englishman (Calcutta) dated February 11, 1907:
“…These people in the
time of the late Ameer Abdul Rahman had dwindled down to ten families. They
were, for reasons unknown, banished to Peshawar and brought down with them a
collection of manuscripts said to be of immense antiquity. Indeed, they are
so old that none of the families possessing them are able to read them… In any
case an examination by experts of the manuscripts now said to be in Peshawar,
should yield some valuable results. The families themselves are unaware
of the history of the first settlement in Kabul, except that it dates back to
the very earliest times.”
Armenian Archbishop Sahak Ayvadian, after this publication went to Peshawar
for a pastoral visit to these Armenians as well as to examine the books and
manuscripts. On his return to Calcutta he presented some books to the Armenian
Church Library, which he had obtained from the refugees.52
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