Ahmad Shah Durrani

Ahmad Shah Durrani who conquered Kashmir in 1752 A.C. was the son of Muhammad Zaman Khan, an Afghan of the Sadozai clan of the Popalzai branch of the Abdali tribe living in the province of Herat. Zaman Khan’s father ‘Abdullah Khan’ was the son of Hayat Sultan. The Sadozai clan was so called on account of its chief Sado who had obtained certain concessions from Shah ‘Abbas the great of Iran in the sixteenth century. Sado’s companion was Muhammad. From Muhammad, Haji Jamal Khan, the father of Painda Khan – whose son Amir Dust Muhammad Khan later ruled at Kabul – descended. Zaman Khan had migrated to Multan where Ahmad was born. The exact date of Ahmad’s birth is however not known. The Sadozais to whom Zaman Khan belonged were – it is said – Shi’as, and hence a surmise that they derived their name from ‘Abd-i-‘Ali or the servant of Caliph ‘Ali. Sayyid Jamal-ud-Din Asadabadi, widely known as Afghani, accordingly spells the name ‘Abdali. As, however, the Abdalis later turned strict Sunnis, the second version is that they were called Abdali because they were descended from Abdal, the founder of this clan, who was so called by his own Pir Khwaja Abu Ahmad Abdal Chisti, a saint. Abdal had three grandsons called Popal, Barak, Haloko and Musa. Popal had six sons, of whom the third was Bami. Bami’s eldest son was Sado. The two principal clans of the Durranis whose government, Mountstuart Elphinstone says, was at all the times democratic, were the Popalzais and the Barakzais. The Sadozais, or the royal race, was one of the branches of the Popalzais. The Bamizai in which the Vizarat was vested was another branch of the same clan. Second in influence to the Popalzai and greater in extent was the tribe of  Barakzais. The elder brother of Ahmad Khan was Zulfiqar Khan. Before the advent of Nadir Shah, there was trouble in Iran when Zaman, Zulfiqar and Ahmad returned to Herat from Multan.

The Afghans revolted against Nadir Shah. He defeated them. By way of Punishment Nadir removed the Ghilzais inhabiting Qandahar to Herat and forced the Sadozais from Herat to Qandahar. During the execution of this transfer of Afghans, Zulfiqar and Ahmad were taken prisoners presumably on account of some protest against, or interference in, the orders of Nadir by them. Zulfiqar and Ahmad struck Nadir as promising youths. The elder brother rose to the command of a large clan in 1737 and was in course of time made governor of Herat, where he lost his life in a fight with the Ghilzais. Ahmad was enlisted in the personal stuff of Nadir on account of his bright features, his keen intelligence and conspicuous gallantry.

Nadir Shah was murdered near Mashhad in eastern Iran on the night of 9th June, 1747. In the confusion that ensued, Ahmad Khan seized a major part of the treasury and the famous daimond, the Kuh or Koh-i-Nur, ‘the Mountain of light, ‘ and hastened to Qandahar. En route in October, 1747, the Afghan chiefs elected him their leader and called him Ahmad Shah. Haji Jamal- the father of Painda Khan and grandfather of Dust Muhammad Khan – who was also a candidate, withdrew in favour of Ahmad Shah. Ahmad Shah was crowned in the mosque at Qandahar by pouring on his head a measure of wheat which to the Afghans is symbolic of abundance and prosperity. Ahmad Shah was thus the first to lay the foundation of the kingdom of Afghanistan. Haji Jamal first, and later Shah Vali Khan Bamizai, was appointed Ashraf-ul-Wuzara or the Prime Minister.

How Ahmad Shah Abdali became ‘Durrani’is explained by the circumstance of his Pir Muhammad Sabir Shah calling him Durr-i-Dauran, ‘The Pearl of the Age.’ But Ahmad Shah preferred to be styled Durr-i-Durran, or ‘ The Pearl of Pearls, ‘ states the Hayat-i-Afghani of Sardar Muhammad Hayat Khan, hence the name Durrani applied to the Abdalis. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, however, discards the version about Durr-i-Dauran and accepts Durr-i-Durran. Ahmad Shah was about 25 then.

Ahmad Shah claimed the provinces that Nadir had wrested from the Emperor Muhammad Shah as a part of the Durrani Kingdom, which included Qandahar, Ghazni, Kabul, Hazara, Peshawar, Derajat, Multan and Sind. Ahmad Shah invaded India ten times; it was the fifth invasion which brought about the defeat of the Marathas at the third battle of Panipat in 1761. It was in the course of his third invasion in 1752 that Kashmir was annexed.

In 1757 during his fourth invasion Ahmad Shah married Timur to Zuhra Begam the daughter of Alamgir 2, and himself married Hazrat Begam the daughter of Muhammad Shah emperor of Delhi.

Without going into the details of the buzy life of Ahmad Shah here, suffice it to say that he died in October 1772 (1186 A.H) of complications arising from nasal gangarine. He was highly esteemed by the Afghans who called him Ahmad Shah Baba, respecting him as a saint. His mausoleum at Qandahar is declared a bast or a sanctuary where not even criminals can be touched. In the words of Elphinstone, Ahmad Shah “was himself a divine and an author was always ambitious of the character of a saint.”

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