Nadir Shah’s successor

Ahmad Shah Durrani (ASD) was one of the multiples invaders of India and very little is known about him. The only major work that chronicles his life is the one by the noted Indian historian, Dr. Ganda Singh ("Ahmad Shah Durrani Father of Modern Afghanistan" published by Asia Publishing House, Mumbai). Dr. Singh was a Sikh who taught history at Patiala, Punjab during the early 20th century and was awarded the prestigious Padma Bhushan one of India’s highest civilian awards.

Dr. Singh’s work is the result of painstaking research of original Persian and Marathi documents that he reviewed in several libraries in India and Afghanistan. Plus, his work was reviewed by noted Indian historians Padma Bhushan Dr. G.N. Sardesai, and Dr. Jadunath Sarkar.  Finally, Afghanistan’s previous Minister of Foreign Affairs, His Excellency Sardar Faiz Muhammad Khan Faizi, went through Dr. Singh’s work and stated that “.... in my opinion the narration of events is faithful and faultless… “.  With such accolades from great historians and state leaders, this book is the most comprehensive work of his life.

Dr. Kushwant Singh’s work, “The History of the Sikhs” is also an excellent work that touches upon ASD life. Noted Indian historian J.L. Mehta’s work, “Advanced Study of Modern India” is an excellent resource that describes in detail about the wars that he fought.

We will use all these three resources and write about ASD’s early life, his rise to power, the battles that he fought and the legacy that he left behind in Afghanistan and India.

Ahmad Shah Durrani: (Source: Wikipedia)

Ahmad Shah Durrani is widely recognized as one of the leading figures in Afghanistan and his eight invasions of India had a huge impact. The most significant of his invasion was the Battle of Panipat where he defeated the Marathas who were the main threat to the East India Company. While the Maratha’s would try to recover from the defeat, it was too late and eventually the East India Company would control the entire nation. Thus, understanding the events surrounding Ahmad Shah’s invasion is crucial to understand the India in the 1700s.

He was born as Ahmad Khan to Zaman Khan Abdali of the Saddozei clan and Zarghuna Alikozei and is believed to have been born around 1722 in the Multan province in Pakistan.

Zaman Khan Abdali was the Governor of Herat province in Afghanistan and died soon after Ahmad Shah’s birth. ASD was born into the Abdali tribe (which will later be named as the Durrani tribe after Ahmad Shah was named as the leader of Afghanistan). After the demise of his father, ASD’S family went through some difficult times and his mother reached out to the then Governor of Herat, Ismail Khan to be ASD’s mentor. The exact whereabouts of ASD until the age of 10 are not known. He is believed to have fled to Kandahar in February 1732 along with his brother Zulfiqar Khan. Mir Husain was the Governor of Kandahar at that time, and he belonged to the rival Ghalzei tribe. He threw ASD and his brother in prison, possibly due to internecine tribal enmity.

By 1729, the Persian emperor Nader Shah had already completed consolidating his empire within and around Persia and started his campaign of Afghanistan. Nadir enlisted the support of the Durranis in his campaign, and they readily agreed to be on his side, especially considering that Kandahar was under the control of their rivals – the Ghalzeis. Nadir’s siege of Kandahar ended on March 12, 1738, and the Durranis played a major role in Nadir’s conquest. Both ASD and his brother were in Kandahar’s prison at this time and Nadir released them from the prison and ASD was only around 17 at that time. The much older Nadir took a special liking to ASD and ASD’s influence on Nadir grew rapidly.

Soon, ASD became a Yasawal (officer) in Nadir’s army and then the treasury officer. ASD commanded thousands of cavalrymen under him and took an active part in Nadir’s campaign of India and Turkey.

During his final years, Nadir was increasingly becoming paranoid and often massacred anyone he suspected of being disloyal. His paranoia extended to his own countrymen and often he ended up exterminating an entire group of people and decapitating them and piling their heads together as a warning to anyone. Nadir even suspected his son of disloyalty and blinded him.

Nadir’s nephew Muhammad Ali Quli Khan was one of the key personnel in his ranks and rebelled against him with the support of the Kurds. Nadir was apprehensive of Muhammad Ali Quli Khan who was the commander of security forces but was unable to act on him as he was also well respected for his bravery and leadership.

During June 1747, Nadir was increasingly concerned about his safety and believed that there could be an attempt on his life. Nadir also realized that his security forces cannot be trusted and entrusted his security detail to ASD and his men of 4,000 people. On 19/20 June 1747, he summoned ASD and ordered him to arrest all the key security personnel and kill anyone who would resist.

This conversation was overheard by one security guard who was a spy of Ali Quli Khan. He passed the information to Salih Khan who was the chief of Nadir’s household. Salih Khan and Ali Quli Khan decided that it was time to act to stop the senseless killings by Nadir Shah. They assembled an array of several generals and headed towards Nadir’s camp to confront him for all his crimes. Most of the generals lost their nerves and dropped off on the way to the camp. Finally, Salih Khan and Ali Quli Khan entered his camp and Salih Khan cut one of Nadir’s hands and then Ali Quli Khan pulled his sword and decapitated Nadir.

The conspirators tried to keep Nadir’s death a secret, but the news of his murder reached ASA through one of Nadir’s wives, Bibi Sahiba. ASD rushed to the tent with his troops and then broke down and cried to see Nadir’s headless body. At the same time, he was politically astute and ambitious and realized that for him to represent Nadir’s empire, symbolically his insignia was needed. He took Nadir’s ring from his finger and the priceless Kohinoor diamond that Nadir had wrapped around his waist and rushed out with his comrades. It is unclear how they escaped; they could have bribed their way out; they could have sneaked out in the night, or they could have escaped just hacking their way through.

During their returns back to Afghanistan, ASD and other Afghans realized that suddenly they were free from the Persian oppression, and this was very appealing to the independent spirit of the Afghans. The need to unite all the tribes under one leader was apparent but understandably every tribe wanted to nominate their own leader. After 8 prolonged meetings, there was no consensus. Finally, the Darvesh (a Sufi religious leader who is materially penniless but spiritually rich) Muhammad Sabir Shah nominated Ahmad Shah Saddozei Abdali as the leader owing to his noble lineage and other leadership traits. Finally, per the prevailing customs, the Darvesh tucked barley shoots under Ahmad Shah’s turban and coronated him as the chief of Afghanistan. His name was changed to Ahmad Shah Durrani. As a result of this Ahmad Shah had the greatest respect for Darvesh and we will discuss later this will play a major role in his invasion of India.

After being elected as the supreme leader of Afghanistan, Initially, ASD wanted to go to his native town Herat but realized that town was still under the governance of one of Nadir’s appointees. Perhaps due to his lingering feelings and respect for Nadir Shah, he decided not to go to Herat and marched towards Kandahar. Just before he reached Kandahar a huge caravan of 300 camels had just arrived from India with priceless diamonds, clothes, and jewelry and it was supposed to be given to Nadir Shah. ASD wanted to capture this bounty and realized that by declaring Nadir’s death and showing Nadir’s insignia he could legitimately claim the bounty. He formally announced the death of Nadir via a public crying event which was the Persian custom. Then, he seized the caravan and distributed the loot to his soldiers and thus ensuring that his troops would stay loyal to him for a long time.

ASD encountered minor opposition in Kandahar which he quelled immediately. Finally, in July 1747, the leading Mullah poured wheat on ASD’s head which was the Afghan tribal custom implying that a new era of growth and prosperity would begin. Thus, ASD was formally proclaimed as the new emperor of Afghanistan. From that point onwards he was called Ahmad Shah Durrani.

The greatest challenges that he faced were the organization of the multiple Afghan tribes into a cohesive force, and the expansion and the consolidation of his kingdom. He was also fully aware that the Afghans were vastly different from the Persians who were used to autocracy and obeying the rule of law. The Afghans were an independent bunch with a predominantly tribal rather than a national identity. ASD did not want to enforce his laws on the tribal chiefs and gave them full autonomy. This approach also assuaged the chief’s feelings, and they were ready to be part of his Indian campaign. He was also astute enough to realize that considering the status of Afghanistan the only way to maintain his vast army was to invader other nations and plunder. We will discuss his invasions in the next blog.

Summary: In this section, we discussed the birth and growth of Ahmad Shah Durrani and his conquest of Kandahar. 

Source:

1. "Ahmad Shah Durrani Father of Modern Afghanistan" by Dr. Ganda Singh, published by Asia Publishing House, Mumbai.

2. "History of Sikhs" by Kushwant Singh.