Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0000/00003.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 31KB | 494 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00003}
$Pretitle{265}
$Title{Afghanistan
Chapter 1B.   Ahmad Shah and the Durrani Empire}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Sally Ann Baynard}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{ahmad
shah
british
afghanistan
india
herat
kabul
afghan
sikhs
control}
$Date{1986}
$Log{Ruins of a Mosque*0000301.scf
Figure 2.*0000302.scf
}
Country:     Afghanistan
Book:        Afghanistan, A Country Study
Author:      Sally Ann Baynard
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1986

Chapter 1B.   Ahmad Shah and the Durrani Empire

[See Ruins of a Mosque: Courtesy Embassy of Afghanistan, Washington DC]

     From the death of Nadir Shah in 1747 until the communist coup of April
1978, Afghanistan was governed-at least nominally-by Pashtun rulers of the
Abdali tribe. Indeed, it was under the leadership of the first Pashtun ruler,
Ahmad Shah, that the nation of Afghanistan began to take shape after centuries
of fragmentation and rule by invaders. Even before the death of Nadir Shah,
the tribes of the Hindu Kush area had been growing stronger and were beginning
to take advantage of the waning power of their distant rulers.

     The Ghilzai Pashtuns had risen in rebellion against Iranian rule early in
the eighteenth century, but they had been subdued and relocated by Nadir Shah.
Although tribal independence would remain a threat to rulers of Afghanistan,
the Abdali Pashtun established political dominance, starting in the middle of
the eighteenth century with the rise of Ahmad Shah. Two lineage groups within
the Abdali ruled Afghanistan from 1747 until the downfall of the monarchy in
the 1970s-the Sadozai of the Popalzai tribe and the Muhammadzai of the
Barakzai tribe.

     Although the names of Timur, Genghis Khan, and Mahmud of Ghazni are
well-known for the destruction they wrought in South and Central Asia, the
name of the founder of the Afghan nation-state is relatively unknown to
Westerners, though Ahmad Shah created an Afghan empire that, at its largest
in the 1760s, extended from Central Asia to Delhi and from Kashmir to the
Arabian Sea (see fig. 2). There have been greater conquerers in the region
before and since Ahmad Shah, but never before his reign and rarely since has
there been a ruler of this fragmented area capable not only of subduing the
truculent Afghan tribes but also of pulling them together into a nation.

     Ahmad was the second son of the chief of the Sadozai, which although
small was the most honored of the Abdali lineages. Along with his brother, he
had risen in rebellion against Nadir Shah and had been jailed by the Ghilzai
in Qandahar. Finally released by Nadir Shah in 1738 when he took the city
from the Ghilzai, Ahmad rose in the personal service of the Iranian monarch
to the post of commander of an elite body of Afghan cavalry. When Nadir Shah,
who had become vicious and capricious in his later years, was killed by a
group of dissident officers, Ahmad and some 4,000 of his cavalrymen escaped
with the treasury Nadir Shah always carried with him for payments and bribes
en route.

     Ahmad and his Abdali horsemen rode past Herat and southeastward, joining
the chiefs of the Abdali tribes and clans at a shrine near Qandahar to choose
a paramount chief. Although his rivals for the post included Haji Jamal
Khan-chief of the Muhammadzai, chief branch of the Barakzai, which would be
the other royal branch of the Abdali-and although only 23, Ahmad was finally
chosen after more than a week of discussion and debate.

[See Figure 2.: Ahmad Shah Durrani's Empire, 1762 Source: Based on information
from Louis Dupree, Afghanistan, Princeton, 1973, 320]

     Despite being younger than other claimants, Ahmad had several factors in
his favor. He was a direct descendant of Sado, eponym of the Sadozai; he was
unquestionably a charismatic leader and seasoned warrior, who had at his
disposal a trained, mobile force of several thousand cavalrymen; and he had
part of Nadir Shah's treasury in his possession. In addition, the other chiefs
may have preferred someone from a small tribe who would always need the
support of the larger groups to rule effectively.

     One of Ahmad's first acts as chief was to adopt the title "Durr-i-Durran"
meaning "pearl of pearls" or "pearl of the age"), whether because of a dream
or because of the pearl earrings worn by the royal guard of Nadir Shah. The
Abdali Pashtuns were known thereafter as the Durrani.

     Ahmad's rise was owing not only to his personality and talents but also
to extraordinary luck. His reign coincided with the deterioration of the
empires on both sides of Afghanistan-the Mughals to the southeast and the
Safavis to the west. Even his first days as paramount chief were blessed with
good fortune. Just before arriving in Qandahar, where some resistance was
expected, Ahmad encountered a caravan bound for the Iranian court laden with
treasure. The new ruler seized it, used it to pay his cavalry and to bribe
hostile chiefs, and invited its Qizilbash (Turkmen Shia who served as palace
guards for many Afghan and Iranian rulers) escort to join his service.

     Ahmad Shah began by taking Ghazni from the Ghilzai Pashtuns and then
wrested Kabul from a local ruler. In 1749 the Mughal ruler, to save his
capital from Afghan attack, ceded to Ahmad Shah sovereignty over Sind province
and over the areas of northern India west of the Indus. He returned to his
headquarters in Qandahar to put down one of an endless series of tribal
uprisings and then set out westward to take Herat, which was ruled by Nadir
Shah's grandson, Shah Rukh. Herat fell to Ahmad after almost a year of bloody
siege and conflict, as did also Meshed (in present-day Iran). Ahmad left Shah
Rukh, a 16 year-old who had previously been blinded by a rival, to rule the
eastern Iranian province of Khorasan for him. At Nishapur, Ahmad was
temporarily halted, but the following spring he struck again, this time
employing a cannon that fired a 500-pound projectile. Although the cannon
exploded on its first shot, Ahmad Shah's determination and the effect of the
huge missile convinced the local rulers that they should surrender. Before
returning to Herat, Ahmad's troops plundered the city and massacred much of
the population.

     Stopping by Meshed to remind the rebellious Shah Rukh of his subservient
position, Ahmad next sent an army to subdue the areas north of the Hindu Kush.
In short order the army brought under control the Turkmen, Uzbek, Tajik, and
Hazara tribes of northern Afghanistan. Ahmad invaded India a third, and then
a fourth, time, taking control of the Punjab, Kashmir, and the city of Lahore.
Early in 1757 he sacked Delhi, but he permitted the attenuated Mughal Dynasty
to remain in nominal control as long as the ruler acknowledged Ahmad's
suzerainty over the Punjab, Sind, and Kashmir. Leaving his second son Timur
(whom Ahmad married to a Mughal princess) in charge, Ahmad left India to
return to Afghanistan. Like Babur, he preferred his homeland to any of his
other domains. Dupree quotes an Afghan writer's translation of one of Ahmad
Shah's poems:

Whatever countries I conquer in the world, I would never forget your beautiful
gardens. When I remember the summits of your beautiful mountains I forget the
greatness of the Delhi throne.

     The collapse of Mughal control in India, however, also facilitated the
rise of rulers other than Ahmad Shah. In the Punjab the Sikhs were becoming a
potent force, and from their capital at Poona the Marathas, who were Hindus,
controlled much of western and central India and were beginning to look
northward to the decaying Mughal empire, which Ahmad Shah now claimed by
conquest. After Ahmad returned to Qandahar in 1757, he was faced not only with
uprisings in Baluch areas and in Herat but also with attacks by the Marathas
on his domains in India, which succeeded in ousting Timur and his court. Herat
was quickly brought under control, and the Baluch revolt was quelled by a
combination of siege and compromise, but the campaign against the Maratha