Andrew Dalgleish
Encyclopedia
Andrew Dalgleish on Karakoram Pass
, between Ladakh
, India
and East Turkestan
(now Xinjiang
, China
) was a Scottish trader, traveller and possibly Great Game spy.
, engaged in trans-Karakoram trade in the 1870s and 1880s. He married a Yarkandi wife. He had for some years traded between Yarkand and Leh and he was fluent in Uyghur
.
Dalgleish was murdered by an Afghan named Daud Mohammad, a Kakar Pathan
from Quetta
who was once a merchant but had gone bankrupt. According to Hamilton Bower
, in May 1888 Dalgleish, accompanied by some pilgrims and servants, left Leh for Yarkand. Several days into their journey they were joined by Mohammad. On April 8, 1888 the party crossed the Karakoram Pass and set up some tents to rest. While drinking tea in a tent Dalgleish and Mohamed had a conversation regarding Mohammad’s debts. Mohammad excused himself and then returned with a gun and fired into the tent, striking Dalgleish in the shoulder. Dalgleish escaped from the tent but Mohammad pursued him with a sword. Mohammad did not immediately flee and instead forced Dalgleish's servants to make him a meal him and then he slept in his victim's tent. The next day Mohammad departed and Dalgleish's servants and pilgrims made their way to Yarkand. The British community in Yarkand expressed their outrage over the murder and pleaded with the local yamen
to have the murdered arrested. Mohammad later arrived in Kashgar and despite pleas from the Russian Consul Nikolai Petrovsky
local officials refused to arrest Mohammad.
During his travels through East Turkestan from 1889–90, British military officer Hamilton Bower attempted without success to pursue Dalgleish's killer. Mohammad was arrested in 1890 in Samarkand
(then Russia
) and committed suicide in prison.
A small memorial made of marble slab was erected by Bower on the desolate site of his death. It read in English
and Persian
, "Here fell Andrew Dalgleish, murdered by an Afghan, April 6th, 1888."
His resting place is in a Christian cemetery in Leh, Ladakh.
Karakoram Pass
The Karakoram Pass is a mountain pass between India and China in the Karakoram Range. It is the highest pass on the ancient caravan route between Leh in Ladakh and Yarkand in the Tarim Basin...
, between Ladakh
Ladakh
Ladakh is a region of Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of the Republic of India. It lies between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and East Turkestan
East Turkestan
East Turkestan is a controversial political term with multiple meanings depending on context and usage...
(now Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
) was a Scottish trader, traveller and possibly Great Game spy.
Life and murder
He took part in the first trading venture of the Central Asian Trading Company, the company having been set up in 1873 with the encouragement of Robert Barkely Shaw. Dalgleish was one of the first British traders in LadakhLadakh
Ladakh is a region of Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of the Republic of India. It lies between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent...
, engaged in trans-Karakoram trade in the 1870s and 1880s. He married a Yarkandi wife. He had for some years traded between Yarkand and Leh and he was fluent in Uyghur
Uyghur language
Uyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turk, is a Turkic language with 8 to 11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other...
.
Dalgleish was murdered by an Afghan named Daud Mohammad, a Kakar Pathan
Pashtun people
Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...
from Quetta
Quetta
is the largest city and the provincial capital of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. Known as the "Fruit Garden of Pakistan" due to the diversity of its plant and animal wildlife, Quetta is home to the Hazarganji Chiltan National Park, which contains some of the rarest species of wildlife in the...
who was once a merchant but had gone bankrupt. According to Hamilton Bower
Hamilton Bower
Hamilton Bower was a British military officer who traveled through Chinese Turkestan and Tibet.-Life:In 1889-90 Bower traveled through Chinese Turkestan, where in the city Kucha he purchased a Sanskrit-language manuscript written in the Brahmi alphabet...
, in May 1888 Dalgleish, accompanied by some pilgrims and servants, left Leh for Yarkand. Several days into their journey they were joined by Mohammad. On April 8, 1888 the party crossed the Karakoram Pass and set up some tents to rest. While drinking tea in a tent Dalgleish and Mohamed had a conversation regarding Mohammad’s debts. Mohammad excused himself and then returned with a gun and fired into the tent, striking Dalgleish in the shoulder. Dalgleish escaped from the tent but Mohammad pursued him with a sword. Mohammad did not immediately flee and instead forced Dalgleish's servants to make him a meal him and then he slept in his victim's tent. The next day Mohammad departed and Dalgleish's servants and pilgrims made their way to Yarkand. The British community in Yarkand expressed their outrage over the murder and pleaded with the local yamen
Yamen
A yamen is any local bureaucrat's, or mandarin's, office and residence of the Chinese Empire. The term has been widely used in China for centuries, but appeared in English during the Qing Dynasty....
to have the murdered arrested. Mohammad later arrived in Kashgar and despite pleas from the Russian Consul Nikolai Petrovsky
Nikolai Petrovsky
Nikolay Fyodorovich Petrovsky was the Russian consul-general in Kashgar from 1882 until 1902.Petrovsky's main adversary during his time in Central Asia was George McCartney, his English counterpart. The competition between their two countries for influence in Central Asia is known as the Great Game...
local officials refused to arrest Mohammad.
During his travels through East Turkestan from 1889–90, British military officer Hamilton Bower attempted without success to pursue Dalgleish's killer. Mohammad was arrested in 1890 in Samarkand
Samarkand
Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...
(then Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
) and committed suicide in prison.
A small memorial made of marble slab was erected by Bower on the desolate site of his death. It read in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
, "Here fell Andrew Dalgleish, murdered by an Afghan, April 6th, 1888."
His resting place is in a Christian cemetery in Leh, Ladakh.
Further reading
- Rizvi, Janet. (1996) Ladakh. Crossroads of High Asia. Oxford University Press, New Delhi. ISBN 0-19-564546-4, pp. 105–106