Ahmad Shah Durrani
Ahmad Shah Durrani (born Ahmad Khan Abdali, c. 1720–1722 – October 1772) was the founder of the Durrani Empire and is widely regarded as the founder of the modern Afghan state. He took power at Kandahar in 1747, built an empire stretching from the Amu Darya to the Indian Ocean, and is remembered by Afghans today simply as Ahmad Shah Baba — "Ahmad Shah the Father".[1][2]
Early life
Ahmad Khan belonged to the Sadozai clan of the Abdali (later Durrani) tribal confederation, second son of Muhammad Zaman Khan, its hereditary chief.[1] His birthplace is disputed: modern scholarship has generally favoured Multan, but the historian Sajjad Nejatie argues that contemporary sources — including the Tarikh-i Ahmad Shahi commissioned by the shah himself — point instead to Herat.[2]
After his father's death in 1721 he was raised by his elder brother Zulfiqar; defeated by Nader Shah of Iran in 1731–32, the brothers fled to Kandahar, where the Hotak ruler Hussain held them prisoner until Nader's conquest of the city in 1738 set them free.[2] Ahmad then entered Nader Shah's service, commanding his Abdali cavalry and accompanying the Persian invasion of India in 1738–39.[1][2]
The coronation of 1747
When Nader Shah was murdered by his own guards in June 1747, the Abdali chiefs gathered near Kandahar. The famous legend holds that a grand tribal assembly unanimously chose Ahmad, and that the holy man Sabir Shah, caretaker of the Sher Surkh shrine at Naderabad, plucked barley shoots from a nearby field and placed them in his turban, proclaiming him Durr-i-Duaran, "pearl of the age" — a title Ahmad polished into Durr-i Durran, "Pearl of Pearls", whereupon his tribe traded the old name Abdali for Durrani.[2][3][4]
Modern historians tell it more soberly: a nine-man military council made the decision, the Barakzai chief Jamal Khan disputed it until an agreement reserved the vizierate for his line, and several scholars describe the accession as effectively a military coup rather than an election.[2] Either way, the young man adopted the title Padishah and ruled as Ahmad Shah.[2]
Emperor
Over a quarter-century of near-continuous campaigning — fifteen or more expeditions, nine of them into India — Ahmad Shah forged one of the largest Islamic empires of its age, extending from the Amu Darya to the Indian Ocean and from Khorasan into Kashmir, the Punjab, and Sindh, governed with a council of nine life-term advisers drawn from the leading tribes.[1][2] His armies sacked Delhi in 1757; in his fifth Indian campaign they broke the Maratha armies at the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761, the largest battle of the eighteenth century.[2] He spent little time at his capital of Kandahar, returning chiefly to restore stability after each new round of conquest.[2] His son Timur Shah later transferred the seat of government to Kabul, where it has remained ever since.
Death and legacy
Years of campaigning ruined his health. Ahmad Shah died on 16 or 23 October 1772 at Toba Ma'ruf, in what is now Maruf district of Kandahar Province, and was buried at Kandahar in the mausoleum facing the shrine of the Cloak of the Prophet — a relic he himself had brought there in 1768.[1][5] His tomb was already an object of popular veneration when the British envoy Mountstuart Elphinstone visited in 1809, and it remains the spiritual centre of the city he founded.[3]