Capital Kandahar and Kabul
Language(s) Persian (official)
Pashto (native language of the rulers)
Government Monarchy
History
- Established 1747
- Disestablished 1826
The Durrani Empire (Pashto: د درانیانو واکمني, also referred to as the Afghan Empire[1]) was a monarchy state centered in modern Afghanistan and included northeastern Iran, the modern state of Pakistan as well as the Punjab region of India.[2][3][4] It was established at Kandahar in 1747 by an Afghan military commander, Ahmad Shah Durrani. After the death of Ahmad Shah in about 1773, the Emirship was passed onto his children followed by grandchildren. Ahmad Shah and his descendants were from the Sadozai line of the Abdali (later called Durrani) Pashtuns, making them the second Pashtun rulers of Kandahar, after the Hotaki Ghilzais.[5]
Next to the Ottoman Empire, the Durrani was the greatest Muslim Empire in the second half of the eighteenth century.[6] The Durrani Empire is often considered the origin of the state of Afghanistan, and Ahmad Shah Durrani is credited with establishing the modern nation state of Afghanistan.[7][8][9] Even before the death of Nader Shah of Persia in 1747, tribes around the Hindu Kush region had been growing stronger and were beginning to take advantage of the waning power of their distant rulers.[7]
Reign of Ahmad Shah Durrani (1747-1772)
Nader Shah's rule ended in June 1747, after being murdered by the Persians.[10] In October of 1747, when the chiefs of the Afghans met at a loya jirga (grand council) in Kandahar to choose a new ruler for the Abdali confederation, the young 25-year-old Ahmad Shah Abdali was chosen. Despite being younger than other claimants, Ahmad had several overriding factors in his favor:
- He was a direct descendant of Asadullah Khan, patriarch of the Sadozai clan, the most prominent tribe amongst the Pashtun people at the time;
- He was unquestionably a charismatic leader and seasoned warrior who had at his disposal a trained, mobile force of 4,000 loyal cavalrymen;
- Not least, he possessed a substantial part of Nadir Shah's treasury.
One of Ahmad Shah's first acts as chief was to adopt the title padshah durr-i dawran ('King, "pearl of the age").[11] The name may have been suggested, as some claim, from a dream dreamt by Ahmad Shah, or as others claim, from the pearl earrings worn by the royal guard of Nadir Shah. The Abdali Pashtuns were known thereafter as the Durrani, and the name of the Abdali confederation was changed to Durrani.
Early victories
Ahmad Shah began his rule by capturing Ghazni from the Ghilzais, and then wresting Kabul from the local ruler. In 1749, the Mughal ruler was induced to cede Sindh, the Punjab region and the important trans Indus River to Ahmad Shah in order to save his capital from Afghan attack. Having thus gained substantial territories to the east without a fight, Ahmad Shah turned westward to take possession of Herat, which was ruled by Nadir Shah's grandson, Shah Rukh of Persia. Herat fell to Ahmad after almost a year of siege and bloody conflict, as did Mashhad (in present-day Iran). Ahmad next sent an army to subdue the areas north of the Hindu Kush mountains. In short order, the powerful army brought under its control the Turkmen, Uzbek, Tajik and Hazara tribes of northern Afghanistan. Ahmad invaded the remnants of the Mughal Empire a third time, and then a fourth, consolidating control over the Punjab and Kashmir regions. Then, early in 1757, he sacked Delhi, but permitted the Mughal dynasty to remain in nominal control of the city as long as the ruler acknowledged Ahmad Shah's suzerainty over Punjab, Sindh, and Kashmir. Leaving his second son Timur Shah to safeguard his interests, Ahmad Shah left India to return to Afghanistan.
East Turkistan and the Uyghurs
Sympathizing with the plight of the Uyghurs, whose lands were conquered by the Qing dynasty, Ahmad Shah attempted to rally Muslim nations to check Qing expansion.[12] Ahmad Shah halted trade with Qing China and dispatched troops to Kokand.[13] However, with his campaigns in India exhausting the state treasury, and with his troops stretched thin throughout Central Asia, Ahmad Shah lacked sufficient resources to check the advance of Qing forces. In an effort to alleviate the situation in East Turkistan, Ahmad Shah sent envoys to Beijing, but the talks did not yield favorable results for the Uyghurs.
Third Battle of Panipat
The Mughal power in northern India had been declining since the reign of Aurangzeb, who died in 1707; the Marathas, who already controlled much of western and central India from their capital at Pune, were straining to expand their area of control. After Ahmad Shah sacked the Mughal capital and withdrew with the booty he coveted, the Marathas filled the power void.The Marathas defeated the Mugals in the north, the Sikhs emerged as a potent force in Punjab. Upon his return to Kandahar in 1757, Ahmad was forced to return to India and face the formidable attacks of the Maratha Confederacy, which succeeded in ousting Timur Shah and his court from India.
Ahmad Shah declared a jihad (or Islamic holy war) against the Marathas, and warriors from various Pashtun tribes, as well as other tribes such as the Baloch, Tajiks, and Muslims in India, answered his call. Early skirmishes were followed by victory for the Afghans, and by 1759 Ahmad and his army had reached Lahore and were poised to confront the Marathas. By 1760, the Maratha groups had coalesced into a great army that probably outnumbered Ahmad Shah's forces. Once again, Panipat was the scene of a confrontation between two warring contenders for control of northern India. The Third Battle of Panipat (January 1761), fought between largely Muslim and largely Hindu armies who numbered as many as 100,000 troops each was waged along a twelve-kilometer front. Despite decisively defeating the Marathas, what might have been Ahmad Shah's peaceful control of his domains was disrupted by other challenges.
Decline
The victory at Panipat was the high point of Ahmad Shah's—and Afghan—power. His Durrani empire was one of the largest Islamic empires in the world at that time. However, even prior to his death, the empire began to unravel. As early as by the end of 1761, the Sikhs had gained power and taken control of much of the Punjab. In 1762, Ahmad Shah crossed the passes from Afghanistan for the sixth time to subdue the Sikhs. He assaulted Lahore and, after taking their holy city of Amritsar, massacred thousands of Sikh inhabitants, destroying their revered Golden Temple. Within two years, the Sikhs rebelled again. Ahmad Shah tried several more times to subjugate the Sikhs permanently, but failed. By the time of his death, he had lost all but nominal control of the Punjab to the Sikhs, who remained in charge of the area until defeated by the British in the First Anglo-Sikh War in 1846.
Ahmad Shah also faced other rebellions in the north, and eventually he and the Uzbek Emir of Bukhara agreed that the Amu Darya would mark the division of their lands. Ahmad Shah retired to his home in the mountains east of Kandahar, where he died on (April 14, 1722)?.[14] He had succeeded to a remarkable degree in balancing tribal alliances and hostilities, and in directing tribal energies away from rebellion. He earned recognition as Ahmad Shah Baba, or "Father" of Afghanistan from the Pashtuns.
Forging a nation
By the time of Ahmad Shah's ascendancy, the Pashtuns included many groups whose origins were obscure; it is commonly believed they descended from ancient Aryan tribes, some, such as the Ghilzai, believe they may have intermingled with Turks, and some believe to be descendents of the Israelites that might have settled in the Pashtun areas.[who?] The Durrani became Persianized in culture due to their contacts with the Persians. What they had in common was their education and love of Islam. To the east, the Waziris and their close relatives, the Mahsuds, had lived in the hills of the central Sulaiman Mountains since the 14th century. By the end of the 16th century, when the final Turkish-Mongol invasions occurred, tribes such as the Shinwaris, Yusufzais and Mohmands had moved from the upper Kabul River valley into the valleys and plains west, north, and northeast of Peshawar. The Afridis had long been established in the hills and mountain ranges south of the Khyber Pass. By the end of the eighteenth century, the Durranis had blanketed the area west and north of Kandahar and were to be found as far east as Quetta, Baluchistan.
Other Durrani rulers (1772-1826)
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