Ahmed Shah Abdali: Difference between revisions

Ahmed Shah Abdali also known as Ahmad Shah Durrani, sometimes also Ahmad Shĝh Bĝbĝ, was the founder of the Durrani Empire of Kandahar and is therefore often regarded as the founder of modern Afghanistan. He was an ethnic Pashtun and was born as the second son of Mohammed Zaman Khan, chief of the Abdali tribe, in the city of Multan in 1723. In 1772, Ahmad Shah retired to his home in Maruf in the mountains east of Kandahar, where he died in October the same year. He was succeeded by his son, Timur Shah Durrani.

In his youth, he and his elder brother (Zulfikar Khan) were imprisoned inside a fortress by Hussein Khan, who was governor of Kandahar for the Ghalzais. Hussein Khan commanded a powerful tribe of Afghans, having conquered the whole of Persia a few years eariler.

Ahmad Shah and his brother were freed by Nadir Shah, the new emperor of Persia, after his conquest of Kandahar in 1736-37. The brothers, with a powerful body of their clansmen, pledged their loyalty to Nadir Shah and soon distinguished themselves in battle. He quickly rose to command a cavalry contingent estimated at four thousand strong, composed chiefly of Abdalis, in the service of Nadir Shah.

Popular history has it that the brilliant and megalomanical Nadir Shah could see the talent in his young commander. he is reported to have said, "I have not seen in Iran, Turan and Hindustan any mass of such laudable talents as possessed by Ahmed Abdali!".

Military Campaigns

Ahmed Shah had accompanied Nadir Shah to Delhi in 1739, and had seen the weakness of the ruler there. To pay for the maintenance of the army, he had to conquer new lands. His own country had no resources at all, compared with the vast wealth of India. Apart from that, he wished to enhance his own reputation in Afghanistan by capturing a neighboring country.

In 1947, Ahmad Shah then began his career as head of the Abdali tribe by capturing Ghazni from the Ghilzai Pashtuns, and then wresting Kabul from the local ruler, and thus strengthened his hold over most of present-day Afghanistan. Leadership of the various Afghan tribes rested mainly on the ability to provide booty for the clan, and Ahmed Shah proved remarkably successful in providing both booty and occupation for his followers. Apart from invading the Punjab three times between the years 1747-1753, he captured terrotary to the west as well.

In December 1747, Ahmed Shah set out from Peshawar and arrived at the Indus river-crossing at Attock. From there, he sent his messenger to Lahore but reception from Shah Nawaz was frosty. When Ahmed Shah reached the bank of the Ravi on 8th January, 1748, the Lahore army of 70,000 prepared to oppose the invader. The Pathans crossed over on the 10th of January and the battle was joined on the 11th. Ahmed Shah had only 30,000 horsemen, and no artillery. But during the battle, a force of 5,000 Pathans of Qasoor under Jamal Khan defected to his side, and he was able to crush the poorly trained forces of Lahore. Shah Nawaz fled to Delhi, and Adina Beg was equally fast in running away to the Jalandhar area.

Ahmed Shah entered the city on the 12th January 1748, and set free Moman Khan and Lakhpat Rai. He then ordered a general massacre. Towards evening, the prominent leaders of the city including Moman Khan, Lakhpat Rai and Surat Singh collected a sum of three million rupees and offered it as expenses to Abdali, requesting him to halt the looting and slaughter. Ahmed Shah appointed Jamal Khan of Qasoor Governor of Lahore, and Lakhpat Rai his minister, and restoring law and order around the town by February 18, he set out towards Delhi.

Meanwhile, in the preceding three years, the Sikhs had occupied the city of Lahore, and Ahmed Shah had to return in 1751 to oust them.

Then in 1756/57, in what was his fourth invasion of India, Ahmed Shah sacked Delhi looting every corner of that city and enriching himself with what remained of that city's wealth after Nadir Shah's invasion in 1739. However, he did not displace the Mughal dynasty, which remained in nominal control as long as the ruler acknowledged Ahmad's suzerainty over the Punjab, Sindh, and Kashmir. He installed a puppet Emperor, Alamgir II, on the Mughal throne, and arranged marriages for himself and his son Timur into the Imperial family that same year. Leaving his second son Timur Shah (who was wed to the daughter of Alamgir II) to safeguard his interests, Ahmad finally left India to return to Afghanistan. On his way back, Ahmed Shah captured Amritsar (1757), and sacked the sikhs holy temple of Golden Temple.

As early as by the end of 1761, the Sikhs had began to occupy much of Punjab. In 1762, Ahmad Shah crossed the passes from Afghanistan for the sixth time to crush the Sikhs. He assaulted Lahore and Amritsar (the holy city of the Sikhs), massacred thousands of Sikh inhabitants, destroyed their temples and again desecrated their holy places with cow's blood. Within two years, the Sikhs rebelled again, and he launched another campaign against them in December, 1764 resulting in a severe Sikh defeat. However, he was unable to hold his ground and soon had to departed from Punjab and hasten westward to quell an insurrection in Afghanistan.

After the departure of Ahmad Shah Abdali, Jassa Singh Ahluwalia attacked Sirhind and it was razed to ground. The Afghan Governor Zen Khan was killed. This was a great victory for the Sikhs who were rulers of all the area around the Sirhind. Jassa Singh also paid a visit to Hari Mandir at Amritsar, and restored it to original shape after defilement by Ahmad Shah.