ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>AHMAD SH&#256H DURR&#256N&#298 (1722-1772)</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="AHMAD,SHH,DURRN*,Person,Person"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279AHMAD SH&#256H DURR&#256N&#298 (1722-1772), the first of the Saddoza&#299 rulers of Afghanistan and founder of the Durr&#257n&#299 empire, belonged to the Saddoza&#299 section of the Popalza&#299 clan of the Abd&#257l&#299 tribe of Af<u>gh</u>&#257ns. In the 18th century the Abd&#257l&#299s were to be found chiefly around Her&#257t. Under their leader Zam&#257n <u>Kh</u>&#257n, father of Ahmad <u>Kh</u>&#257n, they resisted Persian attempts to take Her&#257t until, in 1728, they were forced to submit to N&#257dir Sh&#257h. Recognizing the fighting qualities of the Abd&#257l&#299s, N&#257dir Sh&#257h enlisted them in his army. Ahmad <u>Kh</u>&#257n Abd&#257l&#299 distinguished himself in N&#257dir's service and quickly rose from the position of a personal attendant to the command of N&#257dir's Abd&#257l&#299 contingent in which capacity he accompanied the Persian conqueror on his Indian expedition in 1739. In June 1747, N&#257dir Sh&#257h was assassinated by Qizilb&#257sh&#299 conspirators at Kuch&#257n in <u>Kh</u>ur&#257s&#257n. This prompted Ahmad <u>Kh</u>&#257n and the Af<u>gh</u>&#257n soldiery to set out for Qandah&#257r. On the way they elected Ahmad <u>Kh</u>&#257n as their leader, hailing him as Ahmad Sh&#257h. Ahmad Sh&#257h assumed the title of Durr-i-Durr&#257n (Pearl of Pearls) after which the Abd&#257l&#299 tribe were known as Durr&#257n&#299s. He was crowned at Qandah&#257r where coins were struck in his name. With Qandah&#257r as his base, he easily extended his control over <u>Gh</u>azn&#299, K&#257bul and Pesh&#257war. As for himself, he, as heir to N&#257dir Sh&#257h's eastern dominions, laid claim to the provinces which N&#257dir had wrested from the Mu<u>gh</u>al emperor. He invaded India nine times between 1747 and 1769. He set out from Pesh&#257war on his first Indian expedition in December 1747. By January 1748, Lahore and Sirhind had been captured. Eventually Mu<u>gh</u>al forces were sent from Delhi to resist his advance. Lacking artillery and vastly outnumbered, he was defeated at M&#257n&#363pur in March 1748 by Mu'&#299n-ul-Mulk, the son of the Waz&#299r Qamar ud-D&#299n who had been killed in a preliminary skirmish. Ahmad Sh&#257h retreated to Afghanistan and Mu'&#299n ul-Mulk was appointed governor of the Punjab. Before Mu'&#299n ul-Mulk could consolidate his position, Ahmad Sh&#257h, in December 1749, again crossed the Indus. Receiving no reinforcements from Delhi, Mu'&#299n ul-Mulk was forced to make terms with him. In accordance with instructions from Delhi, Ahmad Sh&#257h was promised the revenues of the Chah&#257r Mah&#257l (Gujr&#257t, Aura&#7749g&#257b&#257d, Si&#257lko&#7789 and Pasr&#363r) which had been granted by the Mu<u>gh</u>al emperor Muhammad Sh&#257h to N&#257dir Sh&#257h in 1739. The non-payment of the revenues of the Chah&#257r Mah&#257l was the reason for his third Indian expedition of 1751-52. Lahore was besieged for four months and the surrounding country devastated. Mu' &#299n ul-Mulk was defeated in March 1752, but was reinstated by Ahmad Sh&#257h to whom the emperor formally ceded the two <i>s&#363bahs</i> of Lahore and Mult&#257n. During this expedition Kashm&#299r was annexed to the Durr&#257n&#299 empire. By April 1752 Ahmad Sh&#257h was back in Afghanistan. Mu'&#299n ul-Mulk found the Punjab a troublesome charge and his death in November 1753 only served to intensify the anarchy. All power was for a time in the hands of his widow, Mu<u>gh</u>l&#257n&#299 Begam, whose profligacy signalled many a rebellion. The Mu<u>gh</u>al Waz&#299r Im&#257d ul-Mulk took advantage of this anarchy to recover the Punjab for the empire and entrusted its administration to &#256d&#299n&#257 Beg. Ahmad Sh&#257h immediately set out to recover his lost province. He reached Lahore towards the end of December 1756, and, after an unopposed march, entered Delhi on 28 January 1757. The city was plundered and the defenseless inhabitants massacred. A similar fate befell the inhabitants of Mathur&#257, Vrind&#257van and &#256gr&#257. Towards the end of March 1757, an outbreak of cholera amongst his troops forced Ahmad Sh&#257h to leave India. The territory of Sirhind was annexed to the Af<u>gh</u>&#257n empire. Naj&#299b ud-Daul&#257, the Ruh&#299l&#257 leader who had supported him, was left in charge of Delhi and his own son, Taim&#363r, appointed viceroy of the Punjab. He had no sooner left India than the Sikhs, together with &#256d&#299n&#257 Beg, rose in revolt against Taim&#363r. Early in 1758 &#256d&#299n&#257 Beg invited Mar&#257&#7789h&#257s to expel the Af<u>gh</u>&#257ns from the Punjab. This was accomplished by the Mar&#257&#7789h&#257s who actually crossed the Indus and held Pesh&#257war for a few months. These events brought Ahmad Sh&#257h to India once again (1759-61). The Mar&#257&#7789h&#257s rapidly evacuated the Punjab before the Af<u>gh</u>&#257n advance and retreated towards Delhi. They were routed with enormous losses at P&#257n&#299pat on 14 January 1761.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;After P&#257n&#299pat the main factor to reckon with was the growing power of the Sikhs who had constantly been assailing Ahmad Sh&#257h's lines of communication. It was against them that the Af<u>gh</u>&#257n invader's sixth expedition (1762) was specifically directed. News had reached him in Afghanistan of the defeat, after his withdrawal from the country, of his general, N&#363r ud-D&#299n B&#257meza&#299, at the hands of the Sikhs who were fast spreading themselves out over the Punjab and had declared their leader, Jass&#257 Si&#7749gh &#256hl&#363v&#257l&#299&#257, king of Lahore (1761). To rid his Indian dominions of them once for all, he set out from Qandah&#257r. Marching with alacrity, he overtook the Sikhs as they were withdrawing into the M&#257lv&#257 after crossing the Sutlej. The moving caravan comprised a substantial portion of the total Sikh population and contained, besides active fighters, a large body of old men, women and children who were being escorted to the safety of the interior of the country. Surprised by Ahmad Sh&#257h, the Sikhs threw a cordon round those who needed protection, and prepared for the battle. Continuing their march in this form, they fought the invaders and their Indian allies desperately. Ahmad Sh&#257h succeeded, in the end, in breaking through the ring and glutted his spite by carrying out a full scale butchery. Near the village of Kup, near M&#257lerko&#7789l&#257, nearly 25, 000 Sikhs were killed in a single day's battle (5 February 1762), known in Sikh history as Va&#7693&#7693&#257 Ghall&#363gh&#257r&#257, the Great Killing. But the Sikhs were by no means crushed. Within four months of the Great Carnage, the Sikhs had inflicted a severe defeat on the Af<u>gh</u>&#257n governor of Sirhind. Four months later they were celebrating D&#299v&#257l&#299 in the Harimandar (Amritsar) which the Sh&#257h had blown up by gunpowder in April 1762, and were fighting with him again a pitched battle forcing him to withdraw from Amritsar under cover of darkness (17 October). Ahmad Sh&#257h left Lahore for Afghanistan on 12 December 1762.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Ahmad Sh&#257h planned another crusade against the Sikhs and he invited this time his Bal&#363ch ally, Am&#299r Nas&#299r <u>Kh</u>&#257n, to join him in the adventure. He started from Afghanistan in October 1764 and reaching Lahore attacked Amritsar on 1 December 1764. A small batch of thirty Sikhs, in the words of Q&#257z&#299 N&#363r Muhammad, the author of the <i>Ja&#7749gn&#257mah, </i> who happened to be in the imperial train accompanying the Bal&#363ch division, "grappled with the <i><u>gh</u>&#257z&#299s</i>, split blood and sacrificed their own lives for their Gur&#363. " Ahmad Sh&#257h came down to Sirhind without encountering anywhere the main body of the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257. This time he went no farther than Sirhind. As he was marching homewards through the Jalandhar Do&#257b, Sikh <i>sard&#257rs, </i> including Jass&#257 Si&#7749gh &#256hluv&#257l&#299&#257, Jass&#257 Si&#7749gh R&#257mga&#7771h&#299&#257, Cha&#7771hat Si&#7749gh Sukkarchakk&#299&#257, Jha&#7751&#7693&#257 Si&#7749gh Bha&#7749g&#299 and Jai Si&#7749gh Kanhaiy&#257 kept a close trail constantly raiding the imperial caravan. Their depredations caused great annoyance to the Sh&#257h who lost much of his baggage to the Sikhs. The floods in the River Chen&#257b took a further toll of his men and property, and he returned to Afghanistan mauled and considerably shaken.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The fear of his Indian empire falling to the Sikhs continued to obsess the Sh&#257h's mind and he led out yet another punitive campaign against them towards the close of 1766. This was his eighth invasion into India. The Sikhs had recourse to their old game of hide-and-seek. Vacating Lahore which they had wrested from Af<u>gh</u>&#257n nominees, K&#257bul&#299 Mall and his nephew Am&#299r Si&#7749gh, they faced squarely the Af<u>gh</u>&#257n general, Jah&#257n <u>Kh</u>&#257n at Amritsar, forcing him to retreat, with 6, 000 of the Durr&#257n&#299 soldiers killed. Ahmad Sh&#257h offered the governorship of Lahore to Sikh <i>sard&#257r</i>, Lahi&#7751&#257 Si&#7749gh Bha&#7749g&#299, but the latter declined the proposal. Jass&#257 Si&#7749gh &#256hl&#363v&#257l&#299&#257, with an army of 30, 000 Sikhs, roamed about the neighbourhood of the Af<u>gh</u>&#257n camp plundering it to his heart's content. Never before had Ahmad Sh&#257h felt so helpless. The outcome of the unequal, but bitter, contest now lay clearly in favour of the Sikhs. The Sh&#257h had realized that his Indian dominions were now at the mercy of the Sikhs and he bowed to the inevitable. His own soldiers were getting restive and the summer heat of the Punjab was becoming unbearable. He, at last, decided to return home, but took a different route this time to avoid molestation by the Sikhs. As soon as Ahmad Sh&#257h retired, Sikhs reoccupied their territories.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Sh&#257h led out his last expedition in the beginning of 1769. He crossed the Indus and the Jehlum and reached as far as the right bank of the Chen&#257b and fixed his camp at Juk&#257l&#299&#257&#7749 to the northwest of Gujr&#257t. By this time the Sikhs had established themselves more firmly in the country. Moreover, dissensions broke out among the Sh&#257h's followers and he was compelled to return to Afghanistan.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;On Ahmad Sh&#257h's death in 1772 of the cancerous wound said to have been caused on his nose by a flying piece of brick when the Harimandar S&#257hib was destroyed with gunpowder, his empire roughly extended from the Oxus to the Indus and from Tibet to <u>Kh</u>ur&#257s&#257n. It embraced Kashm&#299r, Pesh&#257war, Mult&#257n, Sindh, Bal&#363chist&#257n, <u>Kh</u>ur&#257s&#257n, Her&#257t, Qandah&#257r, K&#257bul and Bal<u>kh</u>.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Ganda Singh, <i>Ahmad Shah Durrani</i>. Bombay, 1959<BR> <li class="C1"> Gupta, Hari R&#257m, <i>History of the Sikhs</i>, vol. II. Delhi, 1978<BR> <li class="C1"> Sarkar, Jadunath, <i>Fall of the Mughal Empire</i>, vol. II. Delhi, 1971<BR> <li class="C1"> Khushwant Si&#7749gh, <i>A History of the Sikhs</i>, vol. I. Princeton, 1963<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">B. J. Hasrat<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>