Qualla: Siege of Malakand https://qualla.com/siege-of-malakand en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:32 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Siege of Malakand https://qualla.com/siege-of-malakand Siege of Malakand: Introduction https://qualla.com/siege-of-malakand/ A 22-year-old second lieutenant named Winston Churchill was looking for a war. He found one in the summer of 1897, in a mountain pass on the North-West Frontier of British India, where roughly 10,000 Pashtun tribesmen had surrounded a garrison of British and Indian soldiers at Malakand. Churchill had come as a war correspondent, filing dispatches for The Daily Telegraph at five pounds per column. He could not have known that the eight days between July 26 and August 2 would furnish the material for his first book, launch his literary career, and send him hurtling toward a political life that would reshape the twentieth century.

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]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/w/5/h/siege-of-malakand-wp/tw5h-siege-of-malakand-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Siege of Malakand: The Line That Lit the Fuse https://qualla.com/siege-of-malakand/ The roots of the siege ran deeper than any single grievance. In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, Britain and Russia were locked in what Arthur Conolly had named "The Great Game," a contest for influence across Central Asia. The British, terrified that Russia would u...

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]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/w/5/h/siege-of-malakand-wp/tw5h-siege-of-malakand-the-line-that-lit-the-fuse.mp3 0:06 2 full Siege of Malakand: The Fakir Who Raised an Army https://qualla.com/siege-of-malakand/ Resentment found its voice in Saidullah, a Pashtun faqir whose call to arms swept through the valleys of what is now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The British knew him by their own mocking names -- "The Great Fakir," the "Mad Fakir," the "Mad Mullah" -- but there was nothing mad about his ...

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]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/w/5/h/siege-of-malakand-wp/tw5h-siege-of-malakand-the-fakir-who-raised-an-army.mp3 0:06 3 full Siege of Malakand: Seven Nights of Fire and Stone https://qualla.com/siege-of-malakand/ The attack began after 10:00 pm on July 26. Musket fire erupted against the southern camp, and Major McRae led roughly twenty men into the darkness to meet it. They reached a sharp turn in the road flanked by gorges and opened fire, but the Pashtun force was immense. Major Taylor...

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]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/w/5/h/siege-of-malakand-wp/tw5h-siege-of-malakand-seven-nights-of-fire-and-stone.mp3 0:06 4 full Siege of Malakand: Mules and Ammunition https://qualla.com/siege-of-malakand/ Relief came in stages, each one harrowing. The 35th Sikhs and 38th Dogras, summoned from Nowshera, lost between 19 and 21 men to heat exhaustion before they even reached the pass. A bayonet charge by the 45th Sikhs repelled an attack on the night of July 30. The following morning...

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]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/w/5/h/siege-of-malakand-wp/tw5h-siege-of-malakand-mules-and-ammunition.mp3 0:06 5 full Siege of Malakand: The Book That Built a Career https://qualla.com/siege-of-malakand/ Churchill turned his dispatches into The Story of the Malakand Field Force, his first published book. Of its reception he wrote: "[it] will certainly be the most noteworthy act of my life. Up to date (of course). By its reception I shall measure the chances of my possible success...

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]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/w/5/h/siege-of-malakand-wp/tw5h-siege-of-malakand-the-book-that-built-a-career.mp3 0:06 6 full