Ahmad Shah Durrani
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| Ahmad Shah Durrani احمد شاه دراني | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Padishah Ghazi Shāh Durr-i-Durrān ("King, Pearl of Pearls") | |||||
 Portrait of Ahmad Shah Durrani, c. 1757, Bibliothèque nationale de France | |||||
| 1st Emir of the Durrani Empire | |||||
| Reign | July 1747–4 June 1772 | ||||
| Coronation | July 1747 | ||||
| Predecessor | Position established | ||||
| Successor | Timur Shah Durrani | ||||
| Born | Ahmad Khan Abdali 1720–1722 Herat, Sadozai Sultanate of Herat (present-day Afghanistan) or Multan, Mughal Empire (present-day Pakistan) | ||||
| Died | (aged 49–52) Maruf, Kandahar Province, Durrani Empire (present-day Afghanistan) | ||||
| Burial | June 1772 | ||||
| Spouse | |||||
| |||||
| Dynasty | House of Durrani | ||||
| Father | Mohammad Zaman Khan Abdali | ||||
| Mother | Zarghona Anaa[1] | ||||
| Religion | Sunni Islam | ||||
| Royal seal |  | ||||
Ahmad Shāh Durrānī (Pashto: احمد شاه دراني; Persian: احمد شاه درانی), also known as Ahmad Shāh Abdālī (Pashto: احمد شاه ابدالي), was the founder of the Durrani Empire and is often regarded as the founder of modern Afghanistan.
Name and title
His birth name was Ahmad Khan, born into the Abdali tribe. After his Jirga in 1747, he became known as Ahmad Shah. His tribe followed suit, changing the name from Abdali to Durrani.[2][3][4] Afghans often call him Ahmad Shāh Bābā, meaning "Ahmad Shah the Father".[5][6]
In historical sources, his tribe name is interchangeably used between Abdali and Durrani, with other common names for him being Ahmad Shah Abdali.[2][7][2]
Early life
Ahmad Shah was born between 1720–1722 in either Herat, Afghanistan, or Multan, Pakistan. Sources are disputed on where he was born.[8] Contemporary scholarship came to the consensus that Ahmad Shah was born in Multan, but this is disputed by Nejatie, who states that the majority of sources from Ahmad Shah's time state that he was born in Herat, rather than Multan, including the Tarikh-i Ahmad Shahi.[9]
His father, Zaman Khan, was the ruler of the Sadozai Sultanate of Herat. Zaman Khan had died in 1721, leading to Ahmad Shah being raised alongside his brother Zulfiqar Khan in Shindand and Farah. In the mid 1720s, Zulfiqar Khan was invited to rule Herat. Nothing else is heard of Ahmad Shah until 1731–1732, when Zulfiqar Khan was defeated by Nader Shah, forcing both Zulfiqar Khan and Ahmad Shah to flee to Kandahar, where they remained political prisoners of Hussain Hotak.[10][11][12]
After Nader Shah conquered Kandahar, Ahmad Shah and Zulfiqar Khan were freed. Ahmad Shah spent much of his early life in the service of Nader Shah. Accompanying him on his invasion of India, Ahmad Shah was later resettled in Mazandaran alongside his brother. After his brothers death, Ahmad Shah enlisted in the Afsharid military in 1742. Some sources suggest that it was only Zulfiqar Khan that left for Mazandaran, while Ahmad Shah remained in Nader Shah's service as an officer.[13][14][15]
During Nader Shah's invasion of India, Ahmad Shah personally commanded a regiment of Durrani tribesmen. Ahmad Shah's forces committed massacres and sacked Delhi alongside Nader Shah's forces in 1739.[16] According to legend, Nizam ul-Mulk, the Mughal governor of Hyderabad, who was an expert in physiognomy, predicted that Ahmad Shah would become king. Nader Shah took notice of this and also believed in the prophecy, supposedly clipping a piece of Ahmad Shah's ears, and remarking "When you become a king, this will remind you of me". Nader Shah also requested that Ahmad Shah be generous with his descendants.[17][18] Nejatie is skeptical of the account.[19]
In 1744, Ahmad Shah was promoted to a personal staff of Nader Shah. In a campaign against the Ottomans, Ahmad Shah distinguished himself and was allowed to raise a contingent of 3–4,000 Durrani tribesmen by Nader Shah. Ahmad Shah's contingent became one of Nader Shah's most trusted, utilizing them to shatter the power of his other commanders due to his perception that they were planning to rebel or kill him.[20][3]
Death of Nader Shah
In June 1747, Nader Shah was convinced that his personal guard intended to assassinate him. As a result, he summoned Ahmad Shah and other loyal commanders. Nader Shah ordered Ahmad Shah to assemble his Durrani regiments, and to arrest his personal guard. If the personal guard resisted, Ahmad Shah was given permission to kill them all. He was ordered to do this at first light. Nader Shah then chose to sleep with his favorite wife, but did so outside the royal tent, where the same guards he accused of treachery presumed night duty, while Ahmad Shah with his regiments were established at the defenses of the camp.[21]
News of Nader Shah's plan leaked, with the conspirators being forced to act. Four conspirators entered the royal enclosure and entered Nader Shah's tent, assassinating him.[22][23]
Poetry
Durrani wrote a collection of odes in his native Pashto. He was also the author of several poems in Persian. One of his most famous Pashto poems was Love of a Nation:[24][25][26]
ستا د عشق له وينو ډک سول ځيګرونه
By blood, we are immersed in love of you
ستا په لاره کښې بايلي زلمي سرونه
The youth lose their heads for your sake
تا ته راسمه زړګی زما فارغ سي
I come to you and my heart finds rest
بې له تا مې اندېښنې د زړه مارونه
Away from you, grief clings to my heart like a snake
که هر څو مې د دنيا ملکونه ډېر سي
Whatever countries I conquer in the world,
زما به هېر نه سي دا ستا ښکلي باغونه
I will never forget your beautiful gardens
د ډیلي تخت هېرومه چې را ياد کړم
I forget the throne of Delhi when I remember,
زما د ښکلي پښتونخوا د غرو سرونه
The mountain tops of my beautiful Pashtunkhwa
د فريد او د حميد دور به بيا سي
The eras of Farid [Sher Shah Suri] and Hamid [Lodi] will return,
چې زه وکاندم پر هر لوري تاختونه
When I launch attacks on all sides
که تمامه دنيا يو خوا ته بل خوا يې
If I must choose between the world and you,
زما خوښ دي ستا خالي تش ډګرونه
I shall not hesitate to claim your barren deserts as my own
In popular culture
- In the 1994 television series The Great Maratha, the character of Ahmad Shah Durrani is portrayed by Bob Christo.[27]
- In the 2019 Bollywood war drama Panipat film, Ahmad Shah Durrani appears as the main antagonist who invades the Maratha Empire, and is portrayed by Sanjay Dutt.[28]
See also
References
Notes
Citations
- ^ "Afghan first lady in shadow of 1920s queen?". 1 October 2014. Archived from the original on 23 October 2019. Retrieved 4 June 2020 – via www.aljazeera.com.
- ^ a b c Mehta 2005, p. 246.
- ^ a b Barfield 2022, p. 98.
- ^ Balland 1995.
- ^ Singh 1959, p. 459.
- ^ Runion 2007, p. 71.
- ^ Chaurasia 2002, p. 321.
- ^ Nejatie 2017, p. 287.
- ^ Nejatie 2017, p. 287-293.
- ^ Nejatie 2017, p. 294.
- ^ Singh 1959, p. 15-16.
- ^ Lee 2022, p. 87.
- ^ Nejatie 2017, p. 296-298.
- ^ Singh 1959, p. 18.
- ^ Lee 2022, p. 91.
- ^ Mehta 2005, p. 247.
- ^ Nejatie 2017, p. 300.
- ^ Singh 1959, p. 19.
- ^ Nejatie 2017, p. 302.
- ^ Lee 2022, p. 100.
- ^ Lee 2022, p. 102.
- ^ Lee 2022, p. 102-103.
- ^ Singh 1959, p. 21-22.
- ^ "Ahmad Shah Durrani (Pashto Poet)". Abdullah Qazi. Afghanistan Online. Archived from the original on 8 September 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
- ^ "A Profile of Afghanistan – Ahmad Shah Durrani (Pashto Poet)". Kimberly Kim. Mine Action Information Center. Archived from the original on 22 May 2009. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
- ^ Akbar, Said Hyder (December 2008). Come Back to Afghanistan: A California Teenager's Story. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 9781596919976. Archived from the original on 17 October 2023. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
- ^ "Mr Christos Mojo". The Indian Express. 6 March 2011. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
- ^ "Ashutosh Gowariker's period drama 'Panipat' first poster is out". connectgujarat.com. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
Bibliography
- Barfield, Thomas (6 December 2022). Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History, Second Edition. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-23856-2.
- Singh, Ganḍā (1959). Ahmad Shah Durrani: Father of Modern Afghanistan. Asia Publishing House. p. 457. ISBN 978-1-4021-7278-6. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
- Runion, Meredith L. (2007). The history of Afghanistan. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-33798-7. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
- Mehta, Jaswant Lal (1 January 2005). Advanced Study in the History of Modern India 1707-1813. Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. ISBN 978-1-932705-54-6.
- Balland, Daniel (15 December 1995). "DORRĀNĪ". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Archived from the original on 9 October 2023. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
- Chaurasia, Radhey Shyam (2002). History of Medieval India: From 1000 A.D. to 1707 A.D. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. ISBN 978-81-269-0123-4.
- Nejatie, Sajjad (2017). The Pearl of Pearls: The Abdālī-Durrānī Confederacy and Its Transformation under Aḥmad Shāh, Durr-i Durrān (PhD). University of Toronto. p. 293. Archived from the original on 4 February 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
- Lee, Jonathan L. (8 March 2022). Afghanistan: A History from 1260 to the Present. Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-78914-019-4.
 Hotak Empire | |
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 Durrani Empire | |
 Barakzai Emirate | |
 Barakzai Kingdom | |
 Saqqawist Emirate (unrecognized) | |
| Barakzai Kingdom (restored) | |
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Durrani dynasty (1747–1842) | ||
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