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Shah Shoja'
original name SHOJA' MIRZA, or SHOJA'-UL-MULK, Shoja' also spelled
SHUJA' (b. 1780--d. April 1842, Kabul, Afghanistan), shah, or king,
of Afghanistan (1803-10; 1839-42) whose alliance with the British
led to his death.
Shoja' ascended the throne in 1803 after a long fratricidal war.
In 1809 he concluded an alliance with the British against an expected
Franco-Russian invasion of India but, the following year, was overthrown
by his elder brother Shah Mahmud and went into exile in British
India. He eventually fled to Lahore, where in 1813 he attempted
to obtain the assistance of the Sikh emperor Ranjit Singh by
offering him the giant Koh-i-noor diamond. Ranjit Singh accepted
the offer but procrastinated with his assistance, using the time
instead to consolidate the Sikh empire. Shah Shoja' in 1816 left
for Ludhiana and placed himself under British protection. For 23
years he engaged in a number of unsuccessful schemes to regain his
throne. Finally, in 1839, he was again placed on the throne by the
British during the first Afghan War but was assassinated when the
British occupation force withdrew from Kabul. |
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