Medieval and early modern periods 1206
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- Bu sahifa navigatsiya:
- His 1st and 2nd deposed
- Trouble with Barakzai tribe 103 |
- Career Depositions, imprisonments and alliances
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territory, seizing power from the weak emperor. Within decades of Aurangzeb's death, the Mughal Emperor had little power beyond the walls of Delhi. Full title His full imperial title was: Al-Sultan al-Azam wal Khaqan al-Mukarram Hazrat Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Bahadur Alamgir I, Badshah Ghazi, Shahanshah-e-Sultanat-ul-Hindiya Wal Mughaliya.
Battle of Manupur (1748)
Battle of Lahore (1752)
Battle of Sabzavar (1755)
Durrani occupation of Delhi (1757)
Battle of Gohalwar (1757)
Battle of Lahore (1759)
Battle of Barari Ghat (1760)
Second Battle of Sikandarabad (1760)
Siege of Kunjpura (1760)
Third Battle of Panipat
Battle of Gujranwala (1761)
Battle of Sialkot (1761)
Battle of Kup (1762)
Battle of Sialkot (1763)
In 1709 Mir Wais Hotak, chief of the Ghilji tribe of Kandahar Province, gained independence from the Safavid Persians. From 1722 to 1725, his son Mahmud Hotak briefly ruled large parts of Iran and declared himself as Shah of Persia. However, the Hotak dynasty came to a complete end in 1738 after being toppled and banished by the Afsharids who were led by Nader Shah Afshar of Persia. The year 1747 marks the definitive appearance of an Afghan political entity independent of both the Persian and Mughal empires. In October 1747 a loya jirga (grand council) concluded near the city of Kandahar with Ahmad Shah Durrani being selected as the new leader of the Afghans, thus the Durrani dynasty was founded. Despite being younger than the other contenders, Ahmad Shah had several overriding
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factors in his favor. He belonged to a respectable family of political background, especially since his father served as Governor of Herat who died in a battle defending the Afghans. He also had a well-trained larger army and possessed a substantial part of Nadir Shah's treasury, including the world's largest Koh-i-Noor diamond.
One of Ahmad Shah's first military action was the capture Ghazni from the Ghiljis, 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.[16] Having thus gained substantial territories to the east without a fight, Ahmad Shah turned westward to take possession of Herat, which was ruled by Nader Shah Afshar's grandson, Shahrukh Afshar. Ahmad Shah 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 Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Turkmen, and other tribes of northern Afghanistan. Ahmad Shah invaded the remnants of the Mughal Empire a third time, and then a fourth, consolidating control over the Kashmir and Punjab regions, with Lahore being governed by Afghans. He sacked Delhi in 1757, 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. Relations with China Alarmed by the expansion of China's Qing Dynasty up to the western border of Kazakhstan, Ahmad Shah attempted to rally neighboring Muslim khanates and the Kazakhs to unite and attack China, ostensibly to liberate its western Muslim subjects. 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 lacked sufficient resources to do anything except to send envoys to Beijing for unsuccessful talks. Decline The victory at Panipat was the high point of Ahmad Shah's — and Afghan — power.
However, even prior to his death, the empire began to unravel. In 1762, Ahmad Shah crossed the passes from Afghanistan for the sixth time to subdue the Sikhs. From this time and on, the domination and control of the Empire began to loosen. 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 and rebuilt their holy city of Amritsar. Ahmad Shah tried several more times to subjugate the Sikhs permanently, but failed. 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. A decade after the third Battle of Panipat, Marathas under the leadership of Mahadji Scindia entered and recaptured 99 | P a g e
Delhi in 1771, cutting off Rohillas from the Durranis forever. Ahmad Shah retired to his home in the mountains east of Kandahar, where he died on April 14, 1773. 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. Other Durrani rulers (1772 – 1826) Ahmad Shah's successors governed so ineptly during a period of profound unrest that within fifty years of his death, the Durrani empire per se was at an end, and Afghanistan was embroiled in civil war. Much of the territory conquered by Ahmad Shah fell to others in this half century. By 1818, the Sadozai rulers who succeeded Ahmad Shah controlled little more than Kabul and the surrounding territory within a 160- kilometer radius. They not only lost the outlying territories but also alienated other tribes and lineages among the Durrani Pashtuns. Timur Shah (1772 – 1793) Early life Timur Shah was born in Mashhad[2][citation needed][page needed] in 1748 and had a quick rise to power by marrying the daughter of the Mughal Emperor Alamgir II. He received the city of Sirhind as a wedding gift and was later made the Governor of Punjab, Kashmir and the Sirhind district in 1757 (when he was only 9 years old), by his father Ahmad Shah Durrani. He ruled from Lahore under the regency of his Wazir, General Jahan Khan, who administered these territories for approximately one year, from May 1757 until April 1758.Timur Shah Durrani was defeated by the Sikhs in the Battle of Gohalwar (Amritsar,1757). The Sikhs also assisted by Adina Beg Khan, Governor of the Julundur Doab, along with Raghunath Rao who was leading the Maratha Empire, forced Timur Shah and Jahan from Punjab and put in place their own government under Adina. Succession When Timur Shah succeeded his father in 1772, the regional chieftains only reluctantly accepted him, and most of his reign was spent reasserting his rule over the
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Durrani Empire. He was noted for his use of the Bala Hisar Fort in Peshawar, as the winter capital of his Empire. In 1776, Timur Shah compelled his uncle Abdul Qadir Khan Durrani to leave Afghanistan. Abdul left Afghanistan and sent his family including his: wife Zarnaab Bibi, sisters Azer Khela and Unaar Khela, brother Saifullah Khan Durrani, nephews Mohammad Umer Durrani, Basheer Ahmad Khan Durrani and Shams ur Rehman Durrani and two sons, Faizullah Khan Durrani and Abdullah Khan Durrani to Akora Khattak, in present day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He himself went to Damascus (Syria), where he (Abdul Qadir Khan Durrani) died in 1781. Timur Shah himself left twenty-four sons, and the succession that struggle that followed his death began the process of undermining the authority of the Durrani authority. Under Timur Shah's eventual successor, Shah Zaman, the empire disintegrated. In 1797 Shah Zaman, like his father and grandfather before him, decided to revive his fortunes and fill his treasuries by ordering a full-scale invasion of Hindustan, the time-honoured Afghan solution to cash crises. Changes in rule During his reign, the Durrani Empire began to shrink. In an attempt to move away from disaffected Pashtun tribes, he shifted the capital from Kandahar to Kabul and chose Peshawar as the winter capital in 1776. His court was remained influenced by Persian culture and he became reliant on the Qizilbash bodyguard for his personal protection. Personality Timur Shah prided himself on being a man of taste. He revived the formal gardens of the Bala Hisar Fort in Kabul, first constructed by Shah Jahan's Governor of Kabul. In this endeavour, he was inspired by his senior wife, a Mughal princess who had grown up in the Delhi Red Fort with its remarkable courtyard. Furthermore, like his Mughal in-laws, he had a talent for dazzling display, such as in the way he dressed and groomed himself.
Timur Shah died in 1793, and was then succeeded by his fifth son Zaman Shah Durrani. His tomb is located in Kabul.
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He seized the throne of the Durrani Empire on the death of his father, Timur Shah. He defeated his rivals, his brothers, with the help of Sardar Payenda Khan, chief of the Barakzais. He extracted an oath of allegiance from the final challenger, Mahmud, and in return relinquished the governorship of Herat. In so doing, he divided the power base between Herat and his own government in Kabul, a division which was to remain in place for a century. Kabul was the primary base of power, while Herat maintained a state of quasi-independence. Kandahar was fought over for the spoils. During his reign he tried to combine his dispersed relatives together who were deported by his father Timur Shah. His uncle Saifullah Khan Durrani, his sons Mohammad Umar, Bashir Ahmad Khan and Shams Ur Rehman, his cousins Faizullah Khan and Abdullah Khan lived in Akora Khattak[citation needed] in present day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They were contacted to come back to Afghanistan but without success. Saifullah Khan died in 1779 and after that the family was led by Faizullah Khan but he disliked the bad habits of Abdullah Khan and Bashir Ahmad Khan and left Akora Khattak and went to Bannu without informing his relatives.[citation needed] Later on, after the death of his wife, Abdullah Khan Durrani migrated to Kohat in 1791 where he married a widow, Pashmina. Zaman Shah tried his best to recombine his family members and relatives so as to gain power but many of them were living an unknown life. Some of them have even been forgotten their identity. He attempted to repeat his father's success in India, but his attempts at expansion attempts were failed by the Sikhs and also brought him into conflict with the British. The British induced the Shah of Persia to invade Durrani, thwarting his plans by forcing him to protect his own lands. In his own lands things went well for Zaman, at least initially. He was able to force Mahmud from Herat and into a Persian exile. However, Mahmud established an alliance with Fateh Khan, with whose support he was able to strike back in 1800, and Zaman had to flee toward Peshawar. But he never made it; on the way, he was captured, blinded and imprisoned in Kabul, in the Bala Hissar. Little information about the rest of his life is available, but he was probably imprisoned for nearly 40 years, until his death, during which time Afghanistan continued to experience much political turmoil.
He seized the throne of the Durrani Empire on the death of his father, Timur Shah. He defeated his rivals, his brothers, with the help of Sardar Payenda Khan, chief of the Barakzais. He extracted an oath of allegiance from the final challenger, Mahmud, 102 | P a g e
and in return relinquished the governorship of Herat. In so doing, he divided the power base between Herat and his own government in Kabul, a division which was to remain in place for a century. Kabul was the primary base of power, while Herat maintained a state of quasi-independence. Kandahar was fought over for the spoils. During his reign he tried to combine his dispersed relatives together who were deported by his father Timur Shah. His uncle Saifullah Khan Durrani, his sons Mohammad Umar, Bashir Ahmad Khan and Shams Ur Rehman, his cousins Faizullah Khan and Abdullah Khan lived in Akora Khattak[citation needed] in present day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They were contacted to come back to Afghanistan but without success. Saifullah Khan died in 1779 and after that the family was led by Faizullah Khan but he disliked the bad habits of Abdullah Khan and Bashir Ahmad Khan and left Akora Khattak and went to Bannu without informing his relatives.[citation needed] Later on, after the death of his wife, Abdullah Khan Durrani migrated to Kohat in 1791 where he married a widow, Pashmina. Zaman Shah tried his best to recombine his family members and relatives so as to gain power but many of them were living an unknown life. Some of them have even been forgotten their identity. He attempted to repeat his father's success in India, but his attempts at expansion attempts were failed by the Sikhs and also brought him into conflict with the British. The British induced the Shah of Persia to invade Durrani, thwarting his plans by forcing him to protect his own lands. In his own lands things went well for Zaman, at least initially. He was able to force Mahmud from Herat and into a Persian exile. However, Mahmud established an alliance with Fateh Khan, with whose support he was able to strike back in 1800, and Zaman had to flee toward Peshawar. But he never made it; on the way, he was captured, blinded and imprisoned in Kabul, in the Bala Hissar. Little information about the rest of his life is available, but he was probably imprisoned for nearly 40 years, until his death, during which time Afghanistan continued to experience much political turmoil.
Mahmud Shah Durrani was the half-brother of his predecessor, Zaman Shah.On July 25, 1801, Zaman Shah was deposed, and Mahmud Shah ascended to ruler-ship. He then had a chequered career; he was deposed in 1803, restored in 1809, and finally deposed again in 1818.
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His son Shahzada Kamran Durrani was always in trouble with Amir Fateh Khan Barakzai, the brother of Dost Muhammad Khan. After the assassination of Fateh Khan Barakzai the fall of the Durrani Empires begun. King Mahmud Shah Durrani died in 1829. The country was then ruled by Shuja Shah Durrani; another of his half-brothers.
According to Mountstuart Elphinstone, "The King of Kabul [Shah Shuja] was a handsome man". He also wrote "of an olive complexion with a thick black beard.....his voice clear, his address princely." Shuja wore the Koh-i-Noor diamond in one of his bracelets when Elphinstone visited him. William Fraser, who accompanied Elphinstone was "struck with the dignity [Shah Shuja] of his appearance and the romantic Oriental awe..." Fraser also "judged" him to be "about five feet six inches tall" and his skin colour was "very fair, but dead...his beard was thich jet black and shortened a little by the obliquely upwards, but turned again at the corners....The eyelashes and the edges of his eyelids were blackened with antimony" He also described Shuja's voice as "loud and sonorous".
After coming to power in 1803, Shuja ended the "blood feud" with the Barakzais and also forgave them. To create an alliance with them, he married "their sister" Wa'fa Begum.
Career Depositions, imprisonments and alliances Shuja Shah was the governor of Herat and Peshawar from 1798 to 1801. He proclaimed himself as King of Afghanistan in October 1801 (after the deposition of his brother Zaman Shah), but only properly ascended to the throne on July 13, 1803. Shuja allied Afghanistan with the United Kingdom in 1809, as a means of defending against an invasion of Afghanistan and India by Russia. In June, 1809, he was overthrown by his predecessor Mahmud Shah and went into exile in India, where he was captured by Jahandad Khan Bamizai and imprisoned at Attock (1811 – 2) and then taken to Kashmir (1812 – 3) by Atta Muhammad Khan. When Mahmud Shah's vizier Fateh Khan invaded Kashmir alongside Maharaja Ranjit
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Singh's army, he chose to leave with the Sikh army. He stayed in Lahore from 1813 to 1814. In return for his freedom, he handed the Koh-i-Nor diamond to Maharaja Ranjit Singh and gained his freedom. He stayed first in Punjab and later in Ludhiana with Shah Zaman. The place where he stayed in Ludhiana is presently occupied by Main Post Office near Mata Rani Chowk and a white marble stone inside the building marking his stay there can be seen. In 1833 he struck a deal with Maharaja Ranjit Singh of the Punjab: He was allowed to march his troops through Punjab, and in return he would cede Peshawar to the Sikhs if they could manage to take it. In a concerted campaign the following year, Shuja marched on Kandahar while the Sikhs, commanded by General Hari Singh Nalwa attacked Peshawar. In July, Shuja Shah was narrowly defeated at Kandahar by the Afghans under Dost Mohammad Khan and fled. The Sikhs on their part reclaimed Peshawar. In 1838 he had gained the support of the British and the Sikh Maharaja Ranjit Singh for wresting power from Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzai. This triggered the First Anglo-Afghan War (1838 – 1842). Shuja was restored to the throne by the British on August 7, 1839,[8] 30 years after his deposition, but did not remain in power when the British left. He was assassinated by Shuja ud-Daula, on April 5, 1842. Ali Shah Durrani Sultan Ali Shah Durrani was ruler of the Durrani Empire from 1818 to 1819. He was the son of Timur Shah Durrani, and the penultimate Durrani Emperor. He was deposed by his brother Ayub Shah. Ayub Shah Durrani Ayub Shah, a son of Timur Shah, ruled Afghanistan from 1819 to 1823. The loss of Kashmir during his reign opened a new chapter in neighboring Indian history. In 1823, he was imprisoned by the Barakzai, marking the end of the Durrani dynasty. He fled to Punjab after buying his freedom and died there in 1837.
According to historian Will Durant, "The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history". By the estimate of Koenraad Elst the population of Indian subcontinent reduced by almost 80 million between 1000 and 1525.[108] In course of their conquests and rule in India, the number of Muslims in India increased through Immigration and Conversion. The Ancient Indian Kingdoms in Afghanistan and Pakistan 105 | P a g e
became Muslim majority areas, as did the Eastern Part of Bengal. This would ultimately lead to the Partition of India in 1947 after the end of British rule. Conversion theories Considerable controversy exists both in scholarly and public opinion as to how conversion to Islam came about in Indian subcontinent, typically represented by the following schools of thought 1. Conversion was a combination, initially by violence, threat or other pressure against the person. 2. As a socio-cultural process of diffusion and integration over an extended period of time into the sphere of the dominant Muslim civilization and global polity at large. 3. That conversions occurred for non-religious reasons of pragmatism and patronage such as social mobility among the Muslim ruling elite 4. That the bulk of Muslims are descendants of migrants from the Iranian plateau or Arabs.
5. Conversion was a result of the actions of Sufi saints and involved a genuine change of heart. An estimate of the number of people killed remains unknown. Based on the Muslim chronicles and demographic calculations, an estimate was done by K.S. Lal in his book Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, who claimed that between 1000 CE and 1500 CE, the population of Hindus decreased by 80 million. Although this estimate was disputed by Simon Digby in (School of Oriental and African Studies), Digby suggested that estimate lacks accurate data in pre-census times. In particular the records kept by al-Utbi, Mahmud al-Ghazni's secretary, in the Tarikh-i-Yamini document several episodes of bloody military campaigns. Hindus who converted to Islam however were not completely immune to persecution due to the caste system among Muslims in India established by Ziauddin al-Barani in the Fatawa-i Jahandari, where they were regarded as an "Ajlaf" caste and subjected to discrimination by the "Ashraf" castes. Critics of the "religion of the sword theory" point to the presence of the strong Muslim communities found in Southern India, modern day Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, western Burma, Indonesia and the Philippines coupled with the distinctive lack of equivalent Muslim communities around the heartland of historical Muslim empires in South Asia as refutation to the "conversion by the sword theory". The legacy of Muslim conquest of South Asia is a hotly debated issue even today. Not all Muslim invaders were simply raiders. Later rulers fought on to win kingdoms and stayed to create new ruling dynasties. The practices of these new rulers and their subsequent heirs (some of whom were borne of Hindu wives of Muslim rulers) varied considerably. While some were uniformly hated, others developed a popular following. According to the memoirs of Ibn Battuta who traveled through Delhi in the 14th century, one of the previous sultans had been especially brutal and was deeply hated by Delhi's population. His memoirs also indicate that Muslims from the Arab world, Persia and Turkey were often favored with important posts at the royal courts suggesting that locals may have played
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