Leaders of the Afghan Mission in Kabul 1916
This photograph shows the multi-national representatives of the Afghan Mission. From left to right, they are the Ottoman Sultan’s representative Kâzım Orbay, Leutnant von Hentig, the Hindu Indian Nationalist leader Mahendra Pratap, Oberleutnant Oskar Niedermayer and the Islamic Indian Nationalist Maulavi Barkatullah.
Kâzım Orbay, Werner von Hentig, Walter Röhr, Mahendra Pratap, Kurt Wagner, Oskar Niedermayer, Günther Voigt and Maulavi Barkatullah.
Photo © Stiftung Bibliotheca Afghanica
Walter Röh, Kurt Wagner, and Günther Voigt are in the Back Side from left to Right.
In the background are the German and Ottoman flags.
On the left, Major Kâzım Orbay wears an olive green Ottoman army officer’s uniform with the black lambs wool Kalpak hat. On his left breast is the Prussian Order of the Crown, awarded to him by von Hentig.
Photo © Stiftung Bibliotheca Afghanica
Next to Orbay is Leutnant Werner von Hentig wearing the uniform of an Officer of the Prussian Cuirassiers as in the previous photograph. He has his spiked helmet on his lap.
Raja Mahendra Partap: A Great Man Reduced to Jaat Raja by the Politics
In the center is Mahendra Pratap, the leader of the Indian nationalists. He wears a long Indian gown over a Western suit and a white turban. Again, some of these may be items made for the expedition by Afghan tailors. At his throat is the Prussian Order of the Red Eagle second class which he had been awarded by Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Oberleutnant Oskar Niedermayer sits to the side of Pratrap. He wears the 1907 Landespolizei uniform as seen in the previous photograph.
Barkatullah Bhopali, who formed the ‘Government of India in Exile’ with Raja Mahendra Pratap, as its President and himself as the Prime Minister.
Maulavi Barkatullah is on the far right. He wears and suit and tie with a black lambswool hat. These may be items have been carefully brought across the Persian desert or made for the expedition by Afghan tailors upon their arrival.
It may be a round or diamond-shaped medal at his throat (such as the non-Christian Prussian Order of the Red Eagle) or perhaps simply a pendant.
Photo © Stiftung Bibliotheca Afghanica
