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Ahmad Shah Durrani
(b. 1722?, Multan, Punjab--d. Oct. 16-23?, 1772, Toba Ma'ruf, Afg.),
founder of the state of Afghanistan and ruler of an empire that extended
from the Amu Darya to the Indian Ocean and from Khorasan into Kashmir,
the Punjab, and Sind. Head of the central government, with full control
of all departments of state in domestic and foreign affairs, both
civil and military, the shah was assisted by a prime minister and
a council of nine life-term advisers that he selected from the chiefs
of the leading Afghan tribes.
A member of the noble Sadozai clan and the second son of Mohammad
Zaman Khan, a hereditary chief of the Abdali tribe of Afghans, Ahmad
rose to command an Abdali cavalry group under Nader Shah of Persia,
and, on Nader Shah's assassination, the Afghan chiefs elected Ahmad
as shah. He was crowned in 1747 near Qandahar, where coins were
struck in his name and where he set up his capital. Embarking on
the conquest of regions held by ineffectual rulers, he invaded India
nine times between 1747 and 1769, supposedly with no intention of
founding an empire there. After an unopposed march to Delhi in 1757,
he plundered that city, Agra, Mathura, and Vrndavana.
Before an outbreak of cholera among his troops forced his return
to Afghanistan, Ahmad married Hazrat Baygam, daughter of the Indian
Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah. His son Timur remained behind
as viceroy of the Punjab and married the daughter of India's puppet
emperor 'Alamgir II. Timur was driven out in 1758 by a force of
Sikhs, Mughals, and Marathas, but in 1759-61 Ahmad Shah swept the
Marathas from the Punjab and destroyed their large army at Panipat,
north of Delhi. In the 1760s he attempted four times to crush the
Sikhs, but his empire was restive with serious revolts nearer home,
and he lost control of the Punjab to them. He is buried in a mausoleum
in Ahmad Shahi, the new capital he built. |
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