Ahmad Shah Durrani

Ahmad Shah Durrani founded the Durrani empire in Afghanistan. He was a leader of the Abdali tribe, elected by the Afghans after Nadir Shah's murder, and he invaded India nine times.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.), article signed C. Collin Davies, describes Ahmad Shah as belonging to the Sadozay section of the Popalzay clan of the Abdali tribe. In the early eighteenth century the Abdalis were chiefly around Herat under their leader Zaman Khan, Ahmad's father. They resisted Persian attempts on Herat until 1728, when they submitted to Nadir Shah, and they rebelled again under Dhu'l-Fiqar Khan, Ahmad's brother. Nadir took Herat in 1731 and, in 1737, allowed the Abdalis to settle at Kandahar. Ahmad Khan rose from personal attendant (yasawal) to command the Abdali contingent of Nadir's army, which accompanied him to India. ¹

In Jumada II 1160/June 1747 Nadir Shah was murdered by Qizilbash conspirators at Quchan in Khurasan. The Afghan soldiery set out for Kandahar and on the way elected Ahmad Khan their leader, with the withdrawal in his favour of Haji Jamal Khan, the chief of the Muhammadzay or Barakzay, the rivals of the Sadozays. He took the title Durr-i Durran, "Pearl of Pearls", after which the Abdalis were called Durranis. He was crowned at Kandahar, where coins were struck in his name, and he formed a force dependent on himself, the Ghulam Shahis. From Kandahar he took Ghazni, Kabul and Peshawar. His aims were to consolidate his power and to find employment for his followers in foreign wars, and he regarded himself as heir to Nadir's eastern dominions, claiming the provinces Nadir had taken from the Mughal emperor. ¹

He invaded India nine times between 1747 and 1769. On his first expedition, in December 1747, he took Lahore and Sirhind, but he was defeated by Mu'in al-Mulk at Manupur in March 1748. In December 1749 he crossed the Indus again, and Mu'in al-Mulk was forced to agree that the revenues of the Chahar Mahal, granted to Nadir in 1739, be paid to him. Nur Muhammad Alizay, who had conspired against him, was executed. By 1751 he had taken Herat, Mashhad and Nishapur, forced Mirza Shahrukh to acknowledge Afghan suzerainty, and annexed Balkh and Badakhshan. His third expedition, of 1751–52, followed the non-payment of the Chahar Mahal revenues: Mu'in al-Mulk was defeated in March 1752, and the emperor ceded him Lahore and Kashmir. ²

After Mu'in al-Mulk's death in 1753 the Punjab fell into anarchy under his widow, and the wazir Imad al-Mulk recovered it for the empire. Ahmad Shah marched again. Lahore was reached in December 1756, and Delhi was entered on 28 January 1757; the city was plundered and its defenceless people massacred, and a similar fate befell Mathura, Brindaban and Agra. Cholera broke out among his troops in March 1757 and forced him to leave India. Before he left he married Hazrat Begam, a daughter of the late emperor Muhammad Shah, and his son Timur married Zuhra Begam, a daughter of the puppet emperor 'Alamgir II; Sirhind was annexed. Najib al-Dawla, the Rohilla leader who had supported him, was left in charge of Delhi, and Timur remained as viceroy of the Punjab. ²

Within a few months of his departure Sikhs and Adina Beg rose against Timur, and in early 1758 Adina Beg invited the Marathas to drive the Afghans from the Punjab. This was done, and Ahmad Shah returned in 1759–61 for a fourth expedition. Before setting out he marched on Nasir Khan, the Brahui chief of Kalat, who agreed to acknowledge his suzerainty. The Marathas withdrew from the Punjab and fell back on Delhi, where Sadashiv Bhau, brother of the peshwa, took on the task of driving the Afghans out. They faced a coalition of northern Muslim chiefs with Ahmad Shah, and no help from the Rajputs and other Hindu powers, whom their demands had estranged. They took Delhi on 22 July 1760 but could not supply it, and when the Afghans cut their communications they entrenched at Panipat. Routed there on 14 January 1761, they lost heavily. Ahmad Shah made no attempt to consolidate the victory and was back in Afghanistan by March. ²

The article notes that Panipat gave the Nizam a chance to recover from his defeat at Udgir (1760), probably saved Hyderabad, helped the rise of Haydar Ali in Mysore, and gave the English the respite they needed. After Panipat the Sikhs were the main power in northern India, and their attacks on his communications brought an end to the Afghan threat. His sixth expedition, in 1762, was directed against them; they were defeated with great slaughter near Gujranwala in the battle known to the Sikhs as the Ghallughara. He stayed nine months in the Punjab, when Kashmir, whose Afghan governor had revolted, was re-annexed. Three more expeditions followed between 1764 and 1769, and he faced revolts nearer home: the Aymaq near Herat rebelled in 1763, and serious disturbances broke out in 1767. He died in 1184/1773 (as EI2 gives the date). ²

The empire stretched from the Oxus to the Indus and from Tibet to Khurasan, and included Kashmir, Peshawar, Multan, Sind, Baluchistan, western Khurasan, Herat, Kandahar, Kabul and Balkh. Even in his lifetime it was clear that distant conquests such as the Punjab could not be held: Baluchistan was almost independent, and Khurasan was destined to become a Qajar possession. Under his successors the Durrani empire disintegrated rapidly. ²