3-052-471 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Afghan War: the Shor Bazaar, Cabul, looted by the enemy on Dec. 14, 1880. View of '...the interior of the Shor Bazaar...after it was sacked or "looted" by the plundering Afghan soldiery or wild Ghilzai hillmen, when General Sir F. Roberts had been compelled to abandon the city and to withdraw the British troops into the Sherpore cantonment. The Shor Bazaar is situated nearer to the Bala Hissar, and is of considerable size and importance. In these bazaars may be got all the kinds of fruit for which Afghanistan is noted - melons, grapes, cherries, apples, mulberries, and others. Dried fruits are also plentiful. Wine is still made and also imbibed, in spite of the prohibition of the Koran. Cabul and its bazaars are noted for their cookery. The population...is composed of Afghans, Kuzzilbashes, Tajiks, Hindoos, Armenians, and a few Jews. The Hindoos are not large in number; they are mostly money-lenders. The Armenians and the Mohammedans seem to agree very well, but the Hindoos are subject to much persecution. Many of them were stripped and shamefully ill-used during the ten or twelve days before the reoccupation of the city by General Roberts. Our Illustration of the Shor Bazaar is from a Sketch by Colonel A. G. F. Hogg, of the Bombay Staff'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.