The nineteenth-century communications revolution witnessed Islamic rulers eagerly adopt new technologies en masse. A curious outlier to this was the Afghan ruler Amir Sher Ali (r. 1863-78). Rather than adopt the communications revolution in toto, he adopted the postal system, printing press, and photography, but left out the telegraph. Existing scholarship offers little in the way of explaining this. Historians of nineteenth-century Afghanistan have yet to approach questions of technology due to their consensus that Afghanistan was an isolated backwater. Additionally, historians of the telegraph have only focused on countries that possessed the technology, explaining away those that did not as having lacked access or interest.
My research, however, demonstrates that the absence of telegraphy from Afghanistan was not a question of access or desire. In fact, Amir Sher Ali had offers from both British and Russian officials to have a telegraph network built free of charge. Additionally, the Amir exhibited strong interest in the abilities of the telegraph. This paper argues then that the Amir's decision to not adopt telegraphy stemmed from its interconnectedness with the spread of British and Russian imperialism. Incorporation into a European telegraphic network was seen as an omen of imminent colonial rule. Furthermore, telegraphy would eliminate the communicative delay tactics the Amir employed in order to contain the ever-increasing European demands made to undermine his sovereignty. Thus, this paper allows us to examine the political strings attached to technology and better understand why some technologies floundered in certain contexts more than others.
