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Founder of the state of Afghanistan (1747-1773); the ruler who, relying on the Afghan tribes, established the first national Afghan state. He proclaimed his rule at Kandahar, founded a new city there bearing his own name, and was buried there.
He was born in 1722. He was the son of Muhammad Zaman Khan, chief of the Abdali tribe, which had settled near Herat towards the end of the XVII century and came under the rule of the Iranian shah Nadir in 1731; the entry AFGANİSTAN names his father as chief of the Sadozai branch of the Abdalis. Nadir Shah, who captured Kandahar in 1737, freed Ahmad Khan, then a captive of the Ghilzais, and took him under his protection.
Through his courage, intelligence and ability he soon joined Nadir Shah's favourite commanders; he took part in most of his campaigns, gained great experience and became governor of Mazandaran. After Nadir Shah was murdered in 1747, he took advantage of the turmoil into which Iran fell and proclaimed his rule at Kandahar. The tribal chiefs under his authority gave him the title durr-i durran, meaning "pearl of pearls".
After annexing Kabul and its surroundings he brought the Ghilzais, Uzbeks and Tajiks under his rule in turn, becoming the absolute master of Afghanistan. He then turned to extending his frontiers, westward towards Iran and southward towards the Mughals. In the Indian campaigns that began in 1748 he took Lahore and Multan; in Iran he took Herat and Mashhad, left them to Nadir Shah's grandson Shahrukh and returned to Kandahar (1750). In 1756 he inflicted a heavy defeat on the Mughal army, and in the campaign he undertook in 1760 he routed the Marathas and returned to Kandahar with great booty. When the Marathas and the Sikhs grew stronger, he made new campaigns to India between 1762-1767.
Sensing in the west of his country the threat of — in the source's words — "a powerful Shi'i Iran", he turned to the Ottoman state; his approach met with no favourable response (1763). When the Emirate of Bukhara, taking advantage of his preoccupation with India, occupied most of the region known as Afghan Turkestan, he marched on Bukhara in 1770. The two armies faced each other near the city of Karshi but, in the phrase the source reports, did not fight "out of Islamic solidarity"; peace was made with the Amu Darya as the border.
Having spent his whole life hurrying from war to war, Ahmad Shah fell exhausted and ill; he handed the affairs of government and state to his son Timur, withdrew to rest, and died some time later (1187/1773). His son Timur Shah, who succeeded him, reigned 1773-1793.
The source presents him as a great commander and statesman, a modest and just ruler loved and respected by all the tribes of Afghanistan: during his reign he did not burden the people with taxes and, above all, revived their fortunes with the booty he brought back from his Indian campaigns.
His Poetry and Sufi Line — The entry AFGANİSTAN counts him, together with his son Timur Shah and Shah Shuja, among the great men of letters and poets Afghanistan has produced; each of these rulers has a Persian divan.
His Tomb and Complex — After capturing Kandahar, Nadir Shah had the city destroyed and rebuilt south-east of its old site under the name Naderabad, a name forgotten after his death. Ahmad Shah Durrani, who ruled Kandahar after him, founded east of the old city a walled city he named Ahmadshahi. The entry KANDEHAR states that the best known architectural monument in the city is the tomb of Ahmad Shah Durrani.
Differing Scholarly Views
The source entries rest on political historiography; on the following points the atlas records the wording of the entries and the assessments of their authors side by side and takes no side.
Nadir Shah's capture of Kandahar — The entry AHMED ŞAH DÜRRÂNÎ says that Nadir Shah captured Kandahar in 1737, while the entry KANDEHAR says the city was taken by him in 1150 (1738).
The number of his Indian campaigns — According to the entry AHMED ŞAH DÜRRÂNÎ, after the first campaign of 1748 he set out for the fourth time in 1760, and between 1762-1767 made three more campaigns there. The entry AFGANİSTAN records that he made four campaigns to India between 1748-1760 and then led two campaigns against the Sikhs in 1762 and 1764.
His approach to the Ottomans — According to the entry AHMED ŞAH DÜRRÂNÎ he asked the Ottoman state for help to ward off the Iranian danger, and his request was refused (1763). According to the entry AFGANİSTAN, however, he sent an envoy to Istanbul and proposed to the Ottoman sultan Mustafa III that they act together to do away with the Iranian state, and received no positive answer.
The source's assessment — The entry's author sees his greatest fault in his granting great privileges within the state he founded to his own Abdali tribe, placing it above members of the other tribes; in the author's view this is why he failed to unite the tribes of Afghanistan and establish national unity, and its traces can be seen even today. The atlas records this as the assessment of the entry's author.
Sources
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (DİA) · vol. 2, pp. 133-134, entry “AHMED ŞAH DÜRRÂNΔ
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (DİA) — Azmi Özcan · vol. 24, pp. 293-294, entry “KANDEHAR”
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (DİA) — Mehmet Saray · vol. 1, pp. 401-408, entry “AFGANİSTAN”
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Permanent ID: EA-Z-000532 · this address reaches the same record even if its name changes; use it when citing.