Ahmed Shah Abdali

Ahmad Shah Abdali (c.1723-1773) (Persian: احمد شاہ ابدالی), also known as Ahmad Shah Durrani or simply Ahmad Shah, was the founder of the Durrani dynasty of Afghanistan.

Early years

Ahmed Shah was born into the Sadozai clan, the second son of Mohammed Zaman Khan, chief of the Abdali tribe. He was, in his youth, imprisoned in a fortress, with his elder brother Zulfikar Khan, by Husain Khan, governor of Kandahar for the Ghalzis, which powerful tribe of Afghans, after overrunning the whole of Persia, had, a few years previously, trodden the throne of the sufis in the dust, and conquered that mighty empire.

Ahmad Shah and his brother, whose tribe were at feud with the Ghalzis, owed their freedom to Nadir Shah who in the year A.D. 1736-37, laid siege to Kandahar, which he captured. The brothers, with a powerful body of their clansmen, followed the fortunes of the conqueror

Commander of the Abdali Cavalry

He quickly rose to command a cavalry contingent estimated at four thousand strongGriffiths, John.C (2001) Afghanistan: A History of Conflict p12, composed chiefly of Abdalis, in the service of Nadir Shah.

Early Portents of Ahmad Shahs future

Popular history has it that the brilliant and megalomanical Nadir Shah could see the talent in his young commander. he is reported to have said, "I have not seen in Iran, Turan and Hindustan any mass of such laudable talents as possessed by Ahmed Abdali!". Singer, Andre (1983) Lords of the Khyber. The story of the North West FrontierSimilarly Persian legend has it that Nadir Shah was warned that one day Ahmed Shah would be a great King. Unfazed by the news he is said to have drawn a knife and cut Ahmed Shahs ear saying,"When you become King this will remind me of you". Later on according to Pashtun legend, in Delhi it is said Nadir Shah summoned Ahmed Shah Abdali and said:"Come forward Ahmed Abdali. Remember Ahmed Khan Abdali, that after me the Kingship will pass on to you. But you should treat the descendants of Nadir Shah with kindness." The young Ahmed Shahs response was, "May I be sacrficed to you. Should your majesty wish to slay me I am at your disposal. There is no cause or reason for saying such words."!". Singer, Andre (1983) Lords of the Khyber. The story of the North West Frontier

Nadir Shah's Assassination

Nadir Shah's rule abruptly ended in June 1747, when he was assassinated. As the story goes, the Turkoman guards who committed the assassination did so secretly so as to prevent the Abdalis from coming to their Kings rescue. However Ahmed Shah were told that Nadir Shah had been killed. Desperate to save him he along with his troops fought their way to his tent, only to find Nadir Shahs body. having served him so loyally the Abdalis wept at having failed their leader, and then fought their way out of the camp, and headed back towards Kandahar.

Ahmed Shah had little trouble in taking charge of much of present-day Afghanistan in the power vacuum that resulted from Nadir's death, and Ahmed Shah personally came into possession of the celebrated Kohinoor diamond, which was given to him by Nadir's grandson, Shah Rukh.

Later the same year (1747), when the chiefs of the Abdali tribes and clans met near Kandahar at a loya jirga to choose a new leader, Ahmad Shah was chosen to lead the tribe. Despite being younger than other claimants, Ahmad had several overriding factors in his favor:

He was a direct descendant of Sado, patriarch of the Sadozai clan, the most prominent tribe amongst the Pashtuns at the time;
He was unquestionably a charismatic leader and seasoned warrior who had at his disposal a trained, mobile force of several thousand cavalrymen;
Not least, he possessed a substantial part of Nadir Shah's treasury.

One of Ahmad Shah's first acts as chief was to adopt the title "Durr-i-Durrani" ("pearl of pearls" or "pearl of the age"). The name may have been suggested, as some claim, from a dream dreamt my Ahmad Shah, or as others claim, from the pearl earrings worn by the royal guard of Nadir Shah. The Abdali Pashtuns have been known thereafter as the Durrani clan.

Early victories

Ahmad Shah began his career as head of the Abdali tribe by capturing Ghazni from the Ghilzai Pashtuns, and then wresting Kabul from the local ruler, and thus strengthened his hold over most of present-day Afghanistan. Leadership of the various Afghan tribes rested mainly on the ability to provide booty for the clan, and Ahmed shah proved assiduous and remarkably successful in providing both booty and occupation for his followers. Apart from invading the Punjab three times between the years 1747-1753, he captured Herat in 1750 and both Nishapur (Neyshabur) and Meshed (Mashhad) in 1751.

Ahmed shah first crossed the Indus river in 1748, the year after his accession; his tribe sacked Lahore during that expedition. The following year (1749), the Mughal ruler was induced to cede Sindh and all of Punjab west of the Indus River to him, in order to save his capital from being attacked by Ahmed shah. Having thus gained substantial territories to the east without a fight, Ahmad Shah turned westward to take possession of Herat, which was ruled by Nadir Shah's grandson, Shah Rukh of Persia. The city fell to Ahmad shah in 1750, after almost a year of siege and bloody conflict; Ahmed shah then pushed on into present-day Iran, capturing Nishapur (Neyshabur) and Meshed (Mashhad) in 1751.

Meanwhile, in the preceding three years, the Sikhs had occupied the city of Lahore, and Ahmed shah had to return in 1751 to oust them. In 1752, he invaded and reduced Kashmir. He next sent an army to subdue the areas north of the Hindu Kush. In short order, the powerful army brought under its control the Turkmen, Uzbek, Tajik and Hazara tribes of northern Afghanistan.

Then in 1756/57, in what was his fourth invasion of India, Ahmed shah sacked Delhi despite every previous agreement with the mughal emperors, stripping and looting every corner of that city, and enriching himself with what remained of that city's wealth after the depradations inflicted on it by his mentor, Nadir shah, in 1739. However, he did not displace the Mughal dynasty, which remained in nominal control as long as the ruler acknowledged Ahmad's suzerainty over the Punjab, Sindh, and Kashmir. He installed a puppet Emperor, Alamgir II, on the Mogul throne, and arranged marriages for himself and his son Timur into the Imperial family that same year. Leaving his second son Timur Shah (who was wed to the daughter of Alamgir II) to safeguard his interests, Ahmad finally left India to return to Afghanistan. On his way back, Ahmed shah attacked the Golden Temple in Amritsar (1757), and filled its sarovar (sacred pool) with the blood of slaughtered cows.

Conflict with the Marathas

The Mughal power in northern India had been declining since the reign of Aurangzeb, who died in 1707; the Marathas, who already controlled much of western and central India from their capital at Pune, were straining to expand their area of control. After Ahmad Shah sacked the Mughal capital and withdrew with the booty he coveted, the Marathas filled the power void; in 1758, within a year of Ahmed shah's return to Kandahar, the Marathas secured possession of the Punjab, and succeeded in ousting Timur Shah and his court from India.

Third Battle of Panipat

Ahmad Shah therefore had to return to India and face the formidable challenge posed of the Maratha Confederacy. He declared a jihad (Islamic holy war) against the Marathas, and warriors from various Pashtun tribes, as well as other tribes such as the Baloch, Tajiks, and Muslims in India, answered his call. Early skirmishes ended in victory for the Afghans; by 1759, Ahmad Shah and his army had reached Lahore and were poised to confront the Marathas. By 1760, the Maratha groups had coalesced into a great army that probably outnumbered Ahmad Shah's forces. Once again, Panipat was the scene of a confrontation between two warring contenders for control of northern India. The Third battle of Panipat (January 1761), fought between largely Muslim and largely Hindu armies who numbered as many as 100,000 troops each, was waged along a twelve-kilometer front, and resulted in victory for Ahmed shah. This battle, coming as it did within four years of the Battle of Plassey, is of historical importance beyond the garnering of booty, since it left India without a dominant native power (neither Mughal not Maratha) and thus facilitated British expansion much easier.

Decline

The victory at Panipat was the high point of Ahmad Shah's -- and Afghan -- power. His empire was among the largest Islamic empires in the world at that time. However, this situation was not to last long; the empire soon began to unravel. As early as by the end of 1761, the Sikhs had regained control of much of the Punjab. In 1762, Ahmad Shah crossed the passes from Afghanistan for the sixth time to subdue the Sikhs. He assaulted Lahore and Amritsar (the holy city of the Sikhs), massacred thousands of Sikh inhabitants, destroyed their temples and again desecrated their holy places with cow's blood. Within two years, the Sikhs rebelled again, and he launched another campaign against them in 1764.

Soon afterwards, Ahmed Shah had to hasten westward to quell an insurrection in Afghanistan. He had to buy peace with the Uzbek emir of Bukhara by agreeing that the Amu Darya would mark the division of their lands. Meanwhile the Sikhs rose yet again, and Ahmad was now forced to abandon all hope of retaining the command of the Punjab. By the time of his death, he had lost all but nominal control of the Punjab to the Sikhs, who remained in charge of the area until defeated by the British in the First Anglo-Sikh War in 1846.

In 1772, Ahmad Shah retired to his home in Maruf in the mountains east of Kandahar, where he died in October the same year. He was succeeded by his son, Timur Shah Durrani.

Legacy

Ahmad Shah's successors, beginning with his son Timur, proved so inept that the Durrani empire was at an end within 50 years of Ahmed Shah's death, and Afghanistan was embroiled in civil war. Much of the territory conquered by Ahmad Shah fell to others in this half century. By 1818, Ahmad Shah heirs controlled little more than Kabul and the surrounding territory. They not only lost the outlying territories but also alienated other Pashtun tribes and those of other Durrani lineages. Until Dost Mohammad Khan's ascendancy in 1826, chaos reigned in Afghanistan, which effectively ceased to exist as a single entity, disintegrating into a fragmented collection of small units.

Ahmed Shah's own achievements were however considerable. He had succeeded to a remarkable degree in balancing tribal alliances and hostilities, and in directing tribal energies away from rebellion. Although he was ultimately only another in a lengthy line of successful Afghan warlords, Ahmed Shah was aggressive, energetic, and tenacious; a bold but careful general and a conqueror who created a large empire. Even today there are thousands of people each year named their sons Ahmad Shah in tribute to the first Emir of Afghanistan. Ahmed Shah and his heirs were the first Pashtun rulers of Afghanistan, and according to some interpretations, the nation of Afghanistan began to take shape under his rule, following centuries of fragmentation and exploitation.

I forget Delhi when I recall, The mountain peaks of my beautiful Pukhtunkhwa.Taizi, Sherzaman (2006) Pakhtunkhwa

Indeed, the name "Afghanistan" finds official mention for the first time ever in history, in the Anglo-Persian peace treaty of 1801. Ahmed Shah has therefore earned recognition as "Ahmad Shah Baba", the "Father" of Afghanistan.

Footnotes

Notes

External links

Emirs of Afghanistan | Pashtun people | Durrani Empire | 1723 births | 1773 deaths

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