Ahmad Khan enlisted as a young soldier in the military of the Afsharid kingdom and quickly rose to become a commander of four thousand Abdali Pashtun soldiers. After the death of Nader Shah Afshar of Persia in June 1747, Abdali became the Emir of Khorasan. Rallying his Pashtun tribes and allies, he pushed east towards the Mughal and the Maratha Empire of India as well as west towards the disintegrating Afsharid Empire of Persia and north toward the Khanate of Bukhara. Within a few years he had conquered all of today's Afghanistan and Pakistan, including much of northeastern Iran and the Punjab region in the Indian subcontinent.[3][6] He decisively defeated the Marathas at the 1761 Battle of Panipat which was fought north of Delhi in India.
After his natural death in 1772-73, his son Timur Shah took control of the empire. Ahmad Shah's mausoleum is located at Kandahar, Afghanistan, adjacent to the famous Mosque of the Cloak of the Prophet Mohammed in the center of the city. The Afghans often refer to him as Ahmad Shah Bābā (Ahmad Shah the "Father").
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Early years
Further information: Hotaki dynasty
Durrani's father, Mohammed Zaman Khan, was chief of the Abdalis Pashtuns. He was killed in a battle with the Hotakis between 1722 and 1723, around the time of Ahmad Khan's birth. His family were from the Sadozai section of the Popalzai clan of the Abdalis. In 1729, after the invasion of Nader Shah, the young Ahmad Khan fled with his family south to Kandahar and took refuge with the Ghilzais.He and his brother, Zulfikar, were later imprisoned inside a fortress by Hussain Hotaki, the Ghilzai ruler of southern Afghanistan. Shah Hussain commanded a powerful tribe of Pashtun fighters, having conquered the eastern part of Persia in 1722 with his brother Mahmud, and trodden the throne of the Persian Safavids.
In around 1731, Nader Shah Afshar, the rising new ruler of Persia, began enlisting the Abdali Pashtuns from Herat in his army. After conquering Kandahar in 1738, Ahmad Khan and his brother were freed by Nader Shah and provided with leading careers in his administration. The Ghilzais were pushed eastward while the Abdalis began to re-settle in and around the city of Kandahar.
Commander in the Afsharid military
Further information: Afsharid dynasty
Popular history has it that the brilliant but megalomaniac Nader Shah could see the talent in his young commander. Later on, according to Pashtun legend, it is said that in Delhi Nader Shah summoned Ahmad Shah, and said, "Come forward Ahmad Abdali. Remember Ahmad Khan Abdali, that after me the Kingship will pass on to you. "Nader Shah used to say in admiration that he had not met in Iran, Turan, and Hindustan any man of such laudable talents as Ahmad Abdali possessed."
Nader Shah's rule abruptly ended in June 1747 when he was assassinated by his own guards. The guards involved in the assassination did so secretly so as to prevent the Abdalis from coming to their King's rescue. However, Ahmad Khan was told that Nader Shah had been killed by one of his wives. Despite the danger of being attacked, the Abdali contingent led by Ahmad Khan rushed either to save Nader Shah or to confirm what happened. Upon reaching the King's tent, they were only to see Nader Shah's body and severed head. Having served him so loyally, the Abdalis wept at having failed their leader,[19] and headed back to Kandahar. On their way back to Kandahar, the Abdalis had decided that Ahmad Khan would be their new leader, and already began calling him as Ahmad Shah.[15]
After the capture of Qandahar, Nadir Shah sent him to Mazandaran where the young Pashtun became governor. At the time of Nadir's death, he commanded a contingent of Abdali Pashtuns. Realizing that his life was in jeopardy if he stayed among the Persians who had murdered Nadir Shah, he decided to leave the Persian camp, and with his 4,000 troops he proceeded to Qandahar. Along the way and by sheer luck, they managed to capture a caravan with booty from India. He and his troops were rich; moreover, they were experienced fighters. In short, they formed a formidable force of young Pashtun soldiers who were loyal to their high-ranking leader.[11]
Rise to power
Further information: Durrani dynasty
Despite being younger than other claimants, Ahmad Shah had several overriding factors in his favour:
- He was a direct descendant of Sado, patriarch of the Sadozai clan, the most prominent tribe amongst the Pashtuns at the time;
- He was unquestionably a charismatic leader and seasoned warrior who had at his disposal a trained, mobile force of several thousand cavalrymen;
- Haji Ajmal Khan, the chief of the Mohammedzais (also known as Barakzais) which were rivals of the Sadodzais, already withdrew out of the election
Forming the last Afghan empire
Further information: Durrani Empire
Durrani first crossed the Indus River in 1748, the year after his ascension – his forces sacked and absorbed Lahore during that expedition. The following year (1749), the Mughal ruler was induced to cede Sindh and all of the Punjab including the vital trans Indus River to him, in order to save his capital from being attacked by the Afghan forces of the Durrani Empire. Having thus gained substantial territories to the east without a fight, Ahmad Shah and his Afghan forces turned westward to take possession of Herat, which was ruled by Nader Shah's grandson, Shah Rukh of Persia. The city fell to Ahmad Shah in 1750, after almost a year of siege and bloody conflict; Ahmad Shah and his forces then pushed on into present-day Iran, capturing Nishapur and Mashhad in 1751. He then pardoned Shah Rukh and reconstituted Khorasan, but a tributary of the Durrani Empire. This marked the westernmost border of the Durrani Empire as set by the Pul-i-Abrisham, on the Mashhad-Tehran road.
Meanwhile, in the preceding three years, the Sikhs had occupied the city of Lahore, and Ahmad Shah had to return in 1751 to oust them. In 1752, Ahmad Shah with his forces invaded and reduced Kashmir. He next sent an army to subdue the areas north of the Hindu Kush. In short order, the powerful army brought under its control the Turkmen, Uzbek, Tajik and Hazara peoples of northern, central, and western Afghanistan. In 1752, Kashmiri nobles invited Ahmad Shah Durrani to invade the province and oust the ineffectual Mughal rulers.
Then in 1756-57, in what was his fourth invasion of India, Ahmad Shah sacked Delhi and plundered Agra, Mathura, and Vrndavana. 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. He married the daughter of the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah. His de facto suzerainity was accepted by the East India Company. Leaving his second son Timur Shah (who was wed to the daughter of (Alamgir II) to safeguard his interests, Durrani finally left India to return to Afghanistan.
On his way back he attacked the Golden Temple in Amritsar and filled its sacred pool with the blood of slaughtered cows. Durrani captured Amritsar in 1757, and sacked the Harmandir Sahib at which point the famous Baba Deep Singh and some of his loyalists were killed by the Afghans. This final act was to be the start of long lasting bitterness between Sikhs and Afghans.
Third battle of Panipat
Main article: Battle of Panipat (1761)
He declared a jihad (Islamic holy war) against the Marathas, and warriors from various Pashtun tribes, as well as other tribes such as the Baloch, Tajiks, and Muslims from South Asia answered his call. Early skirmishes ended in victory for the Afghans against the smaller Maratha garrisons in northwest India. By 1759, Durrani and his army had reached Lahore and were poised to confront the Marathas. By 1760, the Maratha groups had coalesced into a big enough army under the command of Sadashivrao Bhau. Once again, Panipat was the scene of a battle for control of northern India. The Third battle of Panipat (January 1761), fought between largely Muslim armies of Abdali and Nawabs and largely Hindu Maratha army was waged along a twelve-kilometre front, and resulted in a decisive victory for Ahmad Shah.
Kashgaria
Further information: Kashgar#Qing_Reconquest
Ahmad Shah sought to aid the muslim city of Kashgar which was being conquered by the expanding Qing dynasty, artempting to rally Muslim states to check Qing expansion. Ahmad Shah halted trade with Qing China and dispatched troops to Kokand.
However, with his campaigns in India exhausting the state treasury, and
with his troops stretched thin throughout Central Asia, Ahmad Shah did
not have enough resources to check Qing forces. In an effort to
alleviate the situation in Kashgaria, Ahmad Shah sent envoys to Beijing, but the talks did not yield favorable prospects for the people of Kashgar.Rise of the Sikhs in the Punjab
During the Third Battle of Panipat between Marathas and Ahmad Shah, The Sikhs did not support either side and decided to sitback and see what would happen. The exception was Ala Singh of Patiala, who sided with the Afghans and was actually being granted and crowned the first Sikh Maharajah at the Sikh holy temple.The victory at Panipat was the high point of Ahmad Shah's and Afghan power, this situation was not to last long; the empire soon began to unravel. As early as by the end of 1761, the Sikhs had begun to rebel in much of the Punjab. In 1762, Ahmad Shah crossed the passes from Afghanistan for the sixth time to crush the Sikhs. He assaulted Lahore and Amritsar. Within two years, the Sikhs rebelled again, and he launched another campaign against them in 1764, resulting in an even battle. During his 8th invasion of India, the Sikhs vacated Lahore, but faced Abdali's army and general, Jahan Khan. The fear of his Indian territory falling to the Sikhs continued to obsess the Durrani's mind and he let out another campaign against Sikhs towards the close of 1766, which was his eighth invasion into India.
Death and legacy
In his tomb his epitaph is written:Under the shimmering turquoise dome that dominates the sand-blown city of Kandahar lies the body of Ahmad Shah Abdali, the young Kandahari warrior who in 1747 became the region's first Durrani king. The mausoleum is covered in deep blue and white tiles behind a small grove of trees, one of which is said to cure toothache, and is a place of pilgrimage. In front of it is a small mosque with a marble vault containing one of the holiest relics in the Islamic World, a kherqa, the Sacred Cloak of Prophet Mohammed that was given to Ahmad Shah by Mured Beg, the Emir of Bokhara. The Sacred Cloak is kept locked away, taken out only at times of great crisis but the mausoleum is open and there is a constant line of men leaving their sandals at the door and shuffling through to marvel at the surprisingly long marble tomb and touch the glass case containing Ahmad Shah's brass helmet. Before leaving they bend to kiss a length of pink velvet said to be from his robe. It bears the unmistakable scent of jasmine.
Ahmad Shah's victory over the Marathas influenced the history of the subcontinent and, in particular, British policy in the region. His refusal to continue his campaigns deeper into India prevented a clash with the East India Company and allowed them to continue to acquire power and influence after their acquisition of Bengal in 1757. However, fear of another Afghan invasion was to haunt British policy for almost half a century after the battle of Panipat. The acknowledgment of Abdali's military accomplishments is reflected in a British intelligence report on the Battle of Panipat, which referred to Ahmad Shah as the 'King of Kings'. This fear led in 1798 to a British envoy being sent to the Persian court in part to instigate the Persians in their claims on Herat to forestall an Afghan invasion of British India. Mountstuart Elphinstone wrote of Ahmad Shah:The King of high rank, Ahmad Shah Durrani,
Was equal to Kisra in managing the affairs of his government.
In his time, from the awe of his glory and greatness,
The lioness nourished the stag with her milk.
From all sides in the ear of his enemies there arrived
A thousand reproofs from the tongue of his dagger.
The date of his departure for the house of mortality
Was the year of the Hijra 1186 (1772 A.D.)
His successors, beginning with his son Timur and ending with Shuja Shah Durrani, proved largely incapable of governing the last Afghan empire and faced with advancing enemies on all sides. Much of the territory conquered by Ahmad Shah fell to others by the end of the 19th century. They not only lost the outlying territories but also alienated some Pashtun tribes and those of other Durrani lineages. Until Dost Mohammad Khan's ascendancy in 1826, chaos reigned in Afghanistan, which effectively ceased to exist as a single entity, disintegrating into a fragmented collection of small countries or units. This policy ensured that he did not continue on the path of other conquerors like Babur or Muhammad of Ghor and make India the base for his empire.His military courage and activity are spoken of with admiration, both by his own subjects and the nations with whom he was engaged, either in wars or alliances. He seems to have been naturally disposed to mildness and clemency and though it is impossible to acquire sovereign power and perhaps, in Asia, to maintain it, without crimes; yet the memory of no eastern prince is stained with fewer acts of cruelty and injustice.—Mountstuart Elphinstone
In Pakistan, a short-range ballistic missile Abdali-I, is named in the honour of Ahmed Shah Abdali.
Ahmad Shah's poetry
Ahmad Shah wrote a collection of odes in his native Pashto language. He was also the author of several poems in Persian. The most famous Pashto poem he wrote was Love of a Nation:By blood, we are immersed in love of you.
The youth lose their heads for your sake.
I come to you and my heart finds rest.
Away from you, grief clings to my heart like a snake.
I forget the throne of Delhi
when I remember the mountain tops of my Afghan land.
If I must choose between the world and you,
I shall not hesitate to claim your barren deserts as my own.
Timeline
- 1722: Ahmad Shah is born as Ahmad Khan in Multan or Herat.
- 1739: At the age of 16, Ahmad Shah commands a 4,000-strong cavalry contingent in support of Nader Shah's invasion of India.
- 1762: Ahmad Shah wins his most famous military battle defeating the Marathas at Panipat
نادر شاہ والیء ایران کا جنرل۔ افغانوں کے ابدالی قبیلے کا سردار اور افغانستان میں ابدالی سلطنت کا بانی۔ نادر شاہ کے قتل 1747ء کے بعد افغانستان کا بادشاہ بنا۔ ہرات اور مشہد پر قبضہ کیا اور 1748ء تا 1767ء ہندوستان پر کئی حملے کیے۔ جن میں سب سے مشہور حملہ 1761ء میں ہوا۔ اس حملے میں اس نے مرہٹوں کو پانی پت کی تیسری لڑائی
میں شکست فاش دی۔ کابل ، قندھار ، اور پشاور پر قبضہ کرنے کے بعد احمد شاہ
ابدالی نے پنجاب کا رخ کیا اور سر ہند تک کا سارا علاقہ اپنی سلطنت میں
شامل کر لیا۔ 1756ء میں دہلی کو تاخت و تاراج کیا اور بہت سا مال غنیمت لے
کر واپس چلا گیا۔ ان حملوں نے مغلیہ سلطنت کی رہی سہی طاقت بھی ختم کردی ۔
پنجاب میں سکھوں کے فروغ کا ایک سبب احمد شاہ کے پےدر پے حملے بھی ہیں۔
دور حکومت 1747ء تا1773ء
افغانستان کے بادشاہ نادر شاہ کے قتل کے بعد احمد شاہ ابدالی جوکہ نادر شاہ کے فوج کے سالار تھے لویہ جرگہ
کے ذریعے بادشاہ منتخب ہوئے، یہ جرگہ شیر سرخ بابا کے مزار پر منعقد ہوا
تھا، اسی دوران صابر شاہ ملنگ نے ایک گندم کا خوشہ انکے سر پر بطور تاج کے
لگایا اور احمد شاہ کو بطور بادشاہ تسلیم کرلیا گیا، احمد شاہ درانی کو بجا
طور پر افغانستان کا بانی کہا جا سکتا ہے۔ اس وقت سلطنت اٹک سے کابل، کوئٹہ ،مستونگ، قلات ، سبی، جیکب آباد، شکارپور، سندھ، پشین، ڈیرہ اسماعیل خان ، ضلع لورالائی اور تمام پنجاب پر مشتمل تھی، شال کوٹ کوہٹہ قندھار
کا ایک ضلع تھا، احمد شاہ درانی کا دورے سلطنت ( 1747ء سے 1823ء) تک
افغانستان پر رہی۔ 1765ء کا زمانہ آیا سکھوں نے پنجاب میں قتل و غارت گری
کا بازار گرم کیا ہوا تھا ۔1772ء تک احمد شاہ درانی اور اس کے بعد اس کی
اولاد کی حکومت رہی۔ اس کی اولاد میں ایوب شاہ کو1823ء میں قتل کر دیا گیا۔
احمد شاہ ابدالی کی ہمشیرہ کا مزار بھی خواجہ ولی مودودی چستی کرانی کی درگاہ کے احاطہ کے اندر کرانی ،کوئٹہ کے مقام پر واقع ہے ،
پنجاب کی مہم سے واپسی پر احمد شاہ ابدالی نے میر نصیر خان کو ہڑند اور داجل کے علا قے بطور انعام دیے۔ اسی زمانے میں جب احمد شاہ کی مشرقی ایران کی مہم سے واپسی ہوہی تو اس نے میر نصیر خان کی والدہ بی بی مریم کو کوئٹہ کا علا قہ یہ کہتے ہوے دیا کہ یہ آپ کی شال ہے (شال کا مطلب دوپٹہ ہوتا ہے) ۔اسی دن سے کوئٹہ کا نام شال کوٹ پڑ گیا، اور یہ ریاست قلات کا حصہ بن گیا۔ قلعہ میری قلات ( قلعہ کوہٹہ ) کے قریب خواجہ نقرالدین شال پیر بابا مودودی چشتی کا مزار بھی واقع ہے، شال کوٹ کو جو شاہراہ ہندوستان اور ایران سے ملاتی ہے اُسے شال درہ کہتے تھے آج اُس شاہراہ پر اسی نام سے ایک بہت بڑی آبادی قائم ہے، خواجہ ولی مودودی چستی کرانی کا مزار بھی اسی وادی کے اندر واقع ہے،
Source From Wikipidia.
رسم تاج پوشی احمد شاہ ابدالی 1747.
احمد شاہ ابدالی کی ہمشیرہ کا مقبرہ احاطہ مزار خواجہ ولی چستی کرانی، کوئٹہ
پنجاب کی مہم سے واپسی پر احمد شاہ ابدالی نے میر نصیر خان کو ہڑند اور داجل کے علا قے بطور انعام دیے۔ اسی زمانے میں جب احمد شاہ کی مشرقی ایران کی مہم سے واپسی ہوہی تو اس نے میر نصیر خان کی والدہ بی بی مریم کو کوئٹہ کا علا قہ یہ کہتے ہوے دیا کہ یہ آپ کی شال ہے (شال کا مطلب دوپٹہ ہوتا ہے) ۔اسی دن سے کوئٹہ کا نام شال کوٹ پڑ گیا، اور یہ ریاست قلات کا حصہ بن گیا۔ قلعہ میری قلات ( قلعہ کوہٹہ ) کے قریب خواجہ نقرالدین شال پیر بابا مودودی چشتی کا مزار بھی واقع ہے، شال کوٹ کو جو شاہراہ ہندوستان اور ایران سے ملاتی ہے اُسے شال درہ کہتے تھے آج اُس شاہراہ پر اسی نام سے ایک بہت بڑی آبادی قائم ہے، خواجہ ولی مودودی چستی کرانی کا مزار بھی اسی وادی کے اندر واقع ہے،
Source From Wikipidia.
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