Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a region of Central Asia. The Muslim conquest reached it in the first centuries AH. Kabul resisted Islamization longer than the other eastern provinces, and the Ghaznawids, Ghurids, Karts and Timurids ruled it in turn.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.) treats the history of the region from the Islamic conquest. Its provinces were quickly overrun, and one wave of the invasion passed through Sijistan. Attempts to conquer Kabul from there failed until the rise of the Saffarids, and Kabul resisted Islamization longer than the other eastern provinces, until the Ghaznawids completed it. In the middle of the 4th/10th century Alp-takin seized Ghazna and built an independent principality, inherited by Ishaq and then by his slaves Balka-takin and Subuk-takin, the founder of the Ghaznawid dynasty. The armies of Mahmud of Ghazna were mainly Turkish, though the name Afghan appears in the historians of this time. By the end of his life Mahmud ruled Khurasan, part of Jibal and Tabaristan, the whole of the Panjab, and the core, Afghanistan. ¹

The Ghurids, probably of Tajik origin, drove out the Ghaznawids after long struggles, and built an empire in India that their Turkish slaves inherited. The Mongols conquered Ghur and Ghazna after Chingiz Khan's invasion, and the Kart dynasty of Tajik origin ruled much of the country under the Ilkhans for nearly two hundred years until Timur ended it. Under the Timurids Kabul and Kandahar became important and Pir Muhammad governed them for Timur. The article's first part ends with the Timurid period. ²

After the murder of Pir Muhammad, Khalil was deprived of the throne and Shah Rukh became supreme ruler. His reign of about forty years brought peace, and the country recovered from the devastation of the last years. Husayn Baykara ruled Khurasan, Sistan, Ghur and Zamindawar from Herat, which reached the height of its fame as a centre of poetry, learning and art. Under pressure from the Uzbeks of Shaybani, parts of Afghanistan dissolved into separate principalities, not under native rulers. Babur took Kabul in 910/1505 from Mukim, son of Arghun, and assumed the title of padishah. Kabul stayed under Babur and his successors, the emperors of India, for more than two hundred years, until the invasion of Nadir Shah. ³

The Arghun dynasty, founded by Dhu 'l-Nun Beg Arghun, a descendant of the Ilkhans, took Kandahar as its capital and extended its rule to the Bolan pass and Sibi. In 904/1498–9 it invaded Herat with an army of Tajiks and Afghans from Ghur, Zamindawar and Kandahar. Shaybani killed Dhu 'l-Nun Beg in battle and took Herat in 913/1507. Babur, claiming the heritage of Timur, took Kandahar from the Arghuns in 928/1522 after two attempts, and his later campaigns in India ended the Lodi Afghan kingdom. In 916/1510 Shah Isma'il defeated and killed Shaybani near Merv, and Herat passed to the Safavids. After Babur's defeat at Ghazdawan in 918/1512 he had to restore order in Kabul, where the Yusufzai Afghans had moved into the Peshawar valley. ⁴

Afghanistan then entered a more settled period, divided between the Mughal and Safavid empires: Herat and Sistan stayed with Persia, and Kabul and the east with India. ⁵

Kabul remained part of the Mughal empire, while Kandahar belonged sometimes to one power and sometimes to the other. The Mughal emperors' power was restricted to the south of the Hindu Kush, and north of it Sulayman Mirza founded a Badakhshan dynasty, while the rest of the country stayed under the Shaybanids. Humayun, after losing India to the Sur Afghans under Shir Shah, took refuge in Persia and regained Kandahar in 952/1545 with Persian help; he then took Kabul and his son Akbar. Tahmasp recovered Kandahar in 965/1558, and it stayed under Persia until Akbar took it in 1003/1621. Shah Jahan took it in 1047/1637, but the Safavid king 'Abbas II retook it in 1058/1648, and it never again belonged to the Mughals; Aurangzib's and Dara Shukoh's expeditions failed in 1062/1652. ⁵

In this period the Afghan tribes steadily grew in numbers and influence. The Abdalis and Ghalzais spread from their mountains into the fertile lands of Kandahar, Zamindawar and the Tarnak and Arghandab valleys, while the Tajik population that had borne the Mongol invasions lost ground. The mountain tribes kept practical independence: in 994/1586 the Yusufzais of Swat and Bajaur defeated an army of Akbar and killed the general Raja Birbal, and in 1114/1702 Purdil Khan, an Afghan commander, was killed with his troops on the road from Khost to Kabul. In the Kandahar province the changes between Indian and Persian rule let the powerful tribes play one against the other, and the Abdalis obtained concessions from Shah 'Abbas the Great. ⁶

The Ghalzais of Kandahar rose under Mir Wais, who won the confidence of the Persian king Shah Husayn after the Persians sent Gurgin Khan to arrest him, murdered Gurgin Khan at a banquet and seized Kandahar. His son Mahmud established himself as ruler and conquered Persia. The Abdalis of Herat became practically masters of that province and held their own until Nadir Shah. Nadir broke the Ghalzai power, took Kandahar in 1150/1738 after a year's siege, and advanced on Kabul, which fell at once in 1151/1738; Kabul was finally severed from the Mughal empire. Nadir invaded India in 1152/1739, received the territory west of the Indus with the province of Kabul, and relied on his Afghan troops, especially the Abdalis, whose young chief Ahmad Khan rose high in his army. ⁷

When Nadir was assassinated, Ahmad Shah, with a strong body of Abdalis, seized a treasure convoy and made his way to Kandahar, where he made himself king. He obtained all the eastern part of Nadir's empire up to the Indus, and Herat followed. He protected Shahrukh, Nadir's blinded grandson, and maintained him as a nominal ruler in Khurasan until Agha Muhammad Qajar killed him after Timur Shah's death. Ahmad Shah made Kandahar his capital, named Ahmadshahi on his coins, took the title Durr-i Durran, and his tribe, the Abdalis, became known as the Durranis. Harat was treated as an integral part of the Durrani monarchy, and the old kingdom of Khurasan remained divided between Persia and Afghanistan. ⁸

Ahmad Shah extended his dominions far beyond the Indus, added Kashmir, Lahore and Multan, and occupied Delhi more than once; his defeat of the Marathas at Panipat in 1174/1761 was a turning point, but he added no provinces beyond the Panjab. His successor Timur Shah moved the capital to Kabul and reigned for about twenty years, during which the monarchy declined: the Sikhs took Multan in 1196/1781, the Talpur amirs of Sind defeated Timur Shah's generals, and the Mangit amir of Bukhara kept his conquests. Power in the Durrani clans passed to the Barakzays. Timur Shah died in 1207/1793, and his son Zaman Shah, dethroned by his brother Mahmud in 1215/1800, invaded India in folly and clashed with the English, while Persia's Qajar ruler took Mashhad and killed the blind Shah Rukh. ⁸

After a conspiracy of the Barakzay leader Payinda Khan, his son Fath Khan persuaded Mahmud to appeal to the Durranis against Zaman Shah, who was unpopular with them. Mahmud took Kandahar, and when he advanced on Kabul Zaman Shah fled and was captured. Shuja' al-Mulk proclaimed himself king at Peshawar, took Kabul in 1218/1803, imprisoned Mahmud and released the blind Zaman Shah. The kingdom then passed from pretender to pretender, until Fath Khan defeated Shuja' at Nimla in 1224/1809 and restored Mahmud, whose second reign depended on Fath Khan's great power. Fath Khan's brothers held office: Dost Muhammad took the high posts, and Herat, which had become independent, was reconquered in 1232/1816. ⁹

The Muhammadzay Barakzays of Kandahar rose with Hajji Jamal Khan, who served Ahmad Shah, and his grandson Payinda Khan, who served Timur Shah and was executed in 1214/1800 for his intrigues with Mahmud. Dost Muhammad, after Fath Khan's execution in 1234/1818–9, drove Mahmud out of Kabul. Formally he took the style of amir of Kabul in 1254/1838, though he and his successors until Habibullah took no title of shah. The outer provinces were lost: the Sikhs took Multan in 1233/1818, Kashmir and Dera Ghazi Khan in 1235/1819, Dera Ismail Khan in 1236/1821, and Peshawar in 1250/1834. Dost Muhammad's brother Kuhandil Khan held Kandahar. Herat was taken by the Persians after the murder of Kamran in 1258/1842, and recovered by Dost Muhammad only in 1280/1863. ⁹

Shah Shuja' sought British help, and when Russian influence grew and the Persians besieged Herat in 1253/1837, the Indian government backed his claims. An Anglo-Indian army took Kandahar in early 1839 and Kabul, where Shuja' was placed on the throne in 1839. Dost Muhammad fled to Bukhara, then surrendered. The British abandoned Kabul in 1841, and their army was almost annihilated in the Khurd Kabul pass, in operations led by Muhammad Akbar Khan. The British reoccupied Kabul in 1842, Shuja' had been murdered, and they left Afghanistan, taking Zaman Shah with them. Dost Muhammad was sent back as the only man who could establish a firm government. He kept friendly relations with Britain, except during the Sikh war of 1849, reconquered Balkh, Khulm, Kunduz and Badakhshan in 1850–55, and died at Herat in 1280/1863 soon after retaking it from the Persians. His fifth son, Shir 'Ali, designated as successor, fell into civil war with his elder brothers and with 'Abd al-Rahman, and was defeated in 1283/1866. ¹⁰

Shir 'Ali recovered Kandahar and Kabul for his father, held the whole of Afghanistan and met the viceroy Lord Mayo at Ambala in 1286/1869, but resented the lack of a firm promise of support. The arbitration on the Sistan border (1290/1873) gave much fertile land to Persia, and he began to negotiate with Russia and refused a British embassy. These causes led to the war of 1878–80: the British took Kabul, Shir 'Ali fled to Mazar-i Sharif and died in 1296/1879. Ya'qub Khan's treaty of Gandamak (May 1879) ceded territory near the Bolan pass and the Kurram valley; the massacre of the British mission at Kabul led to renewed war, Ya'qub was deposed and removed to India, and 'Abd al-Rahman was made amir in 1297/1880. The British withdrew after the battle of Maiwand, and the country, Kandahar included, was made over to 'Abd al-Rahman. ¹⁰

'Abd al-Rahman preserved the independence and integrity of the country, and on his death in 1319/1901 passed an undisputed authority to Habibullah. A Russo-British agreement removed fears of annexation, and in 1323/1905 the amir confirmed the treaty whereby the government of British India controlled Afghanistan's foreign relations for an annual subsidy. Afghanistan was neutral in the First World War. Habibullah was shot in 1337/1919; his son Aman Allah won the army's support and imprisoned his rival uncle, then declared war on British India, and the Treaty of Rawalpindi (August 1919) recognised Afghan independence. Treaties with the USSR and Britain followed in 1921. A constitution was promulgated in 1922, and Aman Allah's reforms in 1923–1928 provoked tribal risings. In January 1929 the Tajik bandit Bacha-i Saqqao seized Kabul; Aman Allah fled to Kandahar, and in October 1929 Nadir Khan, of the Muhammadzay Barakzays, was proclaimed king as Nadir Shah at Kabul, after a force of Wazirs and Mahsuds had occupied the city. ¹¹

King Nadir Shah was assassinated in the palace of Dilkush on 8 November 1933 by a member of a leading family who had provoked a blood-feud. His son Muhammad Zahir, aged nineteen, was proclaimed successor by his uncles, and the eldest of them, Sardar Muhammad Hashim Khan, exercised a virtual regency until 1946. Tribal risings were suppressed, and military, educational and economic development was pursued. Afghanistan entered the League of Nations in 1934, signed the Sa'dabad pact with Turkey, Iraq and Iran in 1937, and negotiated a trade agreement with the USSR in 1936. It stayed neutral in the Second World War. In 1947 the northern frontier was settled by agreement with the USSR, and the dispute with Iran over the Helmand was settled by American arbitration. The problem of the unsubdued tribes of the former North-West Frontier continued to disturb relations between Afghanistan and the new Pakistan. ¹¹