State and Tribe in

Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
 State and Tribe in
Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
The Reign of Amir Dost Muhammad
Khan (1826-1863)

Christine Noelle

Routledge
Taylor&Francis Croup
LONDON AND NEW YORK
 First published in 1997
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016
Transferred to Digital Printing 2008
0 1997 Christine Noelle
Typeset in Sabon by Laserscript, Mitcham, Surrey
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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ISBN 0-7007-0629-1

Frontispiece (from upper left to lower right):

Ghulam Haidar Khan, Amir Dost Muhammad Khan, Muhammad Akram Khan and
'Abd al-Ghani b. Nawwab 'Abd al-Jabbar Khan, sketched by Emily Eden in 1841
0 Copyright Stiftung Bibliotheca Afghanica, Liestal
Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint
but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent
 CONTENTS

...
Acknowledgements Vlll
Preface ix
Abbreviations xi
Introduction xiii

1 DOST MUHAMMAD KHAN'S FIRST REIGN AND THE

FIRST ANGLO-AFGHAN WAR
The Political Setting in the Early Nineteenth Century
The Alikozais
The Popalzais
The Barakzais
Dost Muhammad Khan's Assumption of Power
The Power Struggle among the Muhamrnadzais 1818-1 826
The Beginnings of Muhammadzai Rule
Dost Muhammad Khan's Person
Dost Muhammad Khan's Sphere of Influence 1826-1839
Kabul in the Early Nineteenth Century
The Qizilbash
Sunni-Shi'a Frictions
Kohistan
Bamiyan and Bihsud
Dost Muhammad Khan's Consolidation of Power
The First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842) and Amir Dost
Muhammad Khan's Resumption of Power
The Events Leading up to the British Invasion
Amir Dost Muhammad Khan? Perspective
The British Occupation of Afghanistan
The Principal Participants in the Uprising of 1841-1842
Administrative Measures Taken by Dost Muhammad Khan
after his Resumption of Power
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
2 AMIR DOST MUHAMMAD KHAN'S POLICIES IN
TURKISTAN
Afghan Turkistan - The Geographical and Ethnographical Setting 60
Physical Features 60
The Inhabitants 63
Historical Overview
The Origin of the Uzbeks
The Chingizid System of Government
The Rise of Amirid States
Afghan Turkistan under the Sadozais
The Uzbek Principalities of the Early Nineteenth Century 74
Maimana 75
Qilich 'Ali of Tashqurghan 77
Mazar-i Sharif and Balkh 78
Mir Murad Beg of Qunduz 80
Mir Wali of Tashqurghan 85
Dost Muhammad Khan's Intervention in Turkistan 87
The Beginnings of Afghan Administration 87
The Extension of Afghan Authority in Western Turkistan 91
The Conquest of Qunduz 97
The Effects of the Afghan Administration 101
Administrative Measures Taken by the Afghan Government 102
The Sociopolitical Setting in Qataghan and Badakhshan 106
The Organization of the Afghan Administration 115

3 THE POSITION O F THE PASHTUN TRIBES IN THE

MUHAMMADZAI STATE 123
Pashtun Organization in the Light of Modern Anthropology 125
The Concept of 'Tribe' 125
The Pashtuns 133
The Yusufzais of Swat 138
The Mohmand Agency 145
The Pashtun Tribes of Khost 150
The Ghilzais 153
The Pashtuns in History
The Border Tribes
The Tribes of the Khyber Region
Kurram, Khost and Zurmat
Bajaur
The Mohmands of Laclpura
 Contents
The Western Reaches of the Kabul River 190
Kunar 191
The Jabbar Khel Ghilzais 195
The Babakr Khel Ghilzais 198
The Hotak and Tokhi Ghilzais 207
The Historical Origins of the Leading Families 208
The Position of the Leadership in the Early Nineteenth Century 211
Dost Muhammad Khan? Policies towards the Hotaks and
Tokhis 215
Revenues Raised among the Ghilzais 219

4 DOST MUHAMMAD KHAN'S OCCUPATION OF QANDAHAR

AND HIS ADMINISTRATION 228
The Durranis 229
Durrani History and Organization 229
The Policies of the Qandahar Sardars 235
Dost Muhammad Khan's Occupation of Qandahar 240
Dost Muhammad Khan's Administration 248
The Structure of Dost Muhammad Khan's Government 250
The Army 258
The AmirS Revenues 267
The Role of the Ulama 276
Trade 280

5 CONCLUSION 290

Notes
Glossary
Appendix A:Maps
Appendix B:Genealogical Tables
Appendix C:Currencies
Appendix D:The Service Grants Made by Ahmad Shah in the
Qandahar Region
Appendix E: The IJrban Population of Afghan Turkistan
Bibliography
Index
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The present work has grown out of a PhD dissertation submitted at U. C.

Berkeley in 1995. My endeavor to gain a better understanding of the
political setting in nineteenth-century Afghanistan has not only taken me
across continents but has in many ways constituted a journey into the past
for me. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who
undertook to be my travelling companions in this process. I am grateful to
my supervisors at U. C. Berkeley, Professors Hamid Algar, Ravan A. G.
Farhadi and Ira Lapidus for their willingness to follow the circuitous route
my project often took, in particular during its early stages. Professors
Ludwig Adamec, Ashraf Ghani, Hasan Kakar, Sayed Qassem Reshtia,
Anuradha Sareen, Tilak Raj Sareen, Nazif Shahrani, Kulbhushan Warikoo
and Malcolm Yapp gave me valuable guidance in the formulation of my
research topic and directed me to relevant source materials. Ivan Midgley's
constructive criticism helped me to keep my bearings throughout the
writing process. I also wish to thank my family and my friends for their
encouragement and confidence in my work, and for keeping me in touch
with the present as well.
My research in London and Delhi was made possible by a Fulbright-
Hays DDRA grant in 1989-90. I am indebted to Professor Bert G. Fragner
and the Otto Friedrich Universitat of Bamberg for supporting the latest
phase of my research and writing. Special thanks go to the personnel of the
India Office Library in London, the National Archives of India at Delhi and
the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich. The frontispiece of this book
was reproduced with the permission of the Bibliotheca Afghanica in Liestal,
Switzerland. I am grateful to Malcolm Yapp, Jonathan Lee, E. J. Brill and
the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies for the permission to reproduce maps
and charts.
Finally, I would like to thank Malcolm Campbell of Curzon Press and
Laserscript for their attentiveness and patience in seeing the publication of
this work through.
 PREFACE

Afghanistan - Land of Legends! Legends of the Afghans' unquenchable

spirit of freedom; legends of the Pashtuns' proud customary law unbroken
by the precepts of orthodox Islam; legends of 'Afghanistan' a historical
entity, which can be traced to antiquity by a variety of other names: Ariana,
subjugated by the Achaemenids; Bactria, the glorious empire of the
Kushans; Khurasan, oppressed by the Sasanians, unconquered by the Arabs;
the mighty and glorious empire of Mahmud of Ghazna; periods of
oppression by the Mongols, Turkmens and Safavids; the foundation of
Afghanistan by Ahmad Shah Durrani in the mid-eighteenth century; later,
freedom struggles against the British; and, finally, resistance to the Soviet
Union. The Afghans: a people often oppressed and tormented, but
ultimately invincible!
So much for the legends. The author of the present work has employed
the tools, knowledge and ardour of an academic historian to retrieve
historical fact from the twilight of legends. The political entity founded as
Afghanistan in 1747 - formally a royal dominion based on tribal affiliation
with the other Pashtun tribes - was in fact one of many political formations
which were based on the military clout of tribal confederacies and afflicted
by an inherent instability. The military prowess of these confederacies was
constantly on the verge of being paralysed by political altercations breaking
out among the component tribes.
By the beginning of the nineteenth century it seemed as though Afghanistan
had already reached the end of its history. Internal discord had rendered the
empire powerless, the rich Indian provinces had been lost. Then in 1826 a
ruler came to power who did not rest his attempt at state building solely on
the question, 'State or tribe?', but rather sought to extend his base of power
beyond tribal allegiances. Dost Muhammad Knan, a Pashtun from the
Muhammadzai lineage, proclaimed himself amir al-mu2menin, 'commander
of (all) the faithful', staged jihad (against the heathen Sikhs) and set out to
undermine the monopoly that the tribal warriors held over military affairs.
Attempts at structural modernization and the first major confrontation with
the British colonial empire were soon to follow.
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
The creation and maintenance of a precarious balance between
honouring Pashtun tribal loyalties and transforming the non-Pashtun
population into obedient subjects - this was the task Dost Muhammad
Khan's political establishment recognized and tried to implement. In these
policies we may discern the political beginnings of modern Afghanistan, for
Dost Muhammad Khan's dynasty lasted one and a half centuries, twice as
long as the once so powerful Soviet Union. The dichotomy between the
martial power of Pashtun tribes and the endeavour of the non-Pashtun
ethnic groups to be placed on an equal footing has not been solved to the
present day. In Dost Muhammad Khan's time this problem was first
understood.
Christine Noelle has successfully probed this decisive period of Afghan
history. The resulting book is the first systematic analysis of the beginnings
of a state system that since the 1930s has been seeking to realise itself as a
modern nation-state, fluctuating between tribalism and ethnic pluralistic
participation. This book teaches us much more about Afghanistan than the
existing wealth of romanticising descriptions, all of which fail to appreciate
the salience of politics in society and thus continue to give sustenance to the
legends. I consider this book an auspicious step towards the unveiling of the
history of Afghanistan.
Professor Dr Bert Georg Fragner
Department of Iranian Studies
O t t o Friedrich University at Bamberg
1997
 ABBREVIATIONS

1. PRINTED BOOKS
EI (1,2, G, S) 1: Encyclopaedia of Islam. 1st ed.
2: Encyclopaedia of Islam. New ed.
G: German Edition
S: Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam.
Leiden: E. J. Brill
EIr Encyclopaedia Iranica. Edited by Ehsan Yarshater. Lon-
don: Routledge and Kegan Paul
Gaz I-VI Adamec, Ludwig (1972-1985), Historical and Political
Gazetteer of Afghanistan. 6 vols. Graz: Akademische
Verlags- und Druckanstalt.
SM Sultan Muhammad (ed.) (1980), The Life of Abdur
Rahman, Amir of Afghanistan. 2 vols. Karachi: Oxford
University Press.
ST Faiz Mul).ammad (1912), Siriij al-tawiirfkh. Kabul: Govern-
ment Press.
TB Badakhshi, Mirza Sang Mul).ammad and Mirza Afzal cAli
Beg Surkh Afsar (n.d.), Tiirfkh-i Badakhshiin, edited by
Mamlchihr Sutiida.
TSu Sultan Mul).ammad Khan b. Musa Durrani (1881), Tiirfkh-i
sultiinf. Bombay: Karkhana-yi Mul).ammadi.
IT cAbd al-Ral).man Khan (n. d.), Tiij al-tawiirfkh, ya cnf
sawiini~-i Cumrf-yi a clii~azrat Amfr CAbd al- Ra~miin Khiin.
Kabul.

2. ARClllVAL RECORDS
ABC Afghan Boundary Commission (1885-1886)
AJN Abstract of Jalalabad News
AKN Abstract of Kabul News
EJN Extracts from Jalalabad News

Xl
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
EKN Extracts from Kabul News
EQN Extracts from Qandahar News
JI Jalalabad Intelligence
IN Jalalabad News
KD Kabul Diary
KI Kabul Intelligence
KN Kabul News
QM Qandahar Mission
QN Qandahar News

3. PERIODICALS
Afghanistan J. Afghanistan Journal
AQR Asiatic Quarterly Review
BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
HJ Historical Journal
JASB Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal
JRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
JRGS Journal of the Royal Geographical Society London
RGS Royal Geographical Society London

xu
 INTRODUCTION

This study aims at reconstructing the political setting in Afghanistan during

the reign of the first Muhammadzai ruler, Amir Dost Muhammad Khan (r.
1826-1863). Apart from establishing a chronological framework for the
period in question, it explores the relationship between the Amir and the
groups he sought to control both from the perspectives of the center and the
periphery. By taking a detailed look at the workings of the Muhammadzai
system of government and the ways in which it affected the local leadership,
I hope to create an understanding of the configurations of power prevailing
in nineteenth-century Afghanistan.
In the previous century, the term 'Afghan' was reserved for the large
ethnic group generally known as 'Pashtun' today, of which the Abdalil
Durrani and Ghilzai confederacies formed two major components. The
other Pashtun groups to be discussed are the so-called eastern or border
tribes located on the fringe of the territories claimed by the Sikhs and, after
1849, by the British. Apart from its crystallization as an ethnic term, the
designation 'Afghan' had also gained a political connotation with the rise of
the Sadozai empire in the middle of the eighteenth century. In 1747 Ahmad
Khan, a member of the Sadozai subdivision of the AbdaliJDurrani
confederacy, used the disintegration of Nadir Shah's empire to lay claim
to the lands east of Nishapur, in the conquest of which he had assisted the
Iranian king less than a decade earlier. While the Durrani empire originated
with the ascendance of Ahmad Khan, later Ahmad Shah, the political role
of the Sadozais and other influential Durrani and Ghilzai tribes can be
traced to the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, when their
chiefs acted as intermediaries for Mughal and Safawid interests. Like
Ahmad Shah, the leaders of these groups had played a prominent role in
Nadir Shah's army, and the Sadozai king could only maintain his claims to
supremacy over them by making them privileged partners of his
expansionist policies.
During the period which forms the focus of this study, the ruling Sadozai
family was deposed by another influential Durrani subdivision, the
Muhammadzai Barakzais. This transition of power was accompanied by
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
a prolonged period of civil war which not only weakened the state-
supporting Durrani elite but also left the new ruler of Kabul, Amir Dost
Muhammad Khan, with considerably fewer resources than his Sadozai
predecessors. In his endeavor to consolidate his authority, the Amir
alternately resorted to strategies of conciliation and confrontation. The first
group affected by his policies were his half brothers and nephews holding
Peshawar, Jalalabad, Ghazni and Qandahar. In the second place, the Amir's
increasing reach into the rural areas located between these urban seats of
power brought him into closer contact with the tribal groups controlling
the approaches to Kabul. For this reason, the analysis of the political
circumstances characterizing Dost Muhammad Khan's reign requires an
understanding of the position and strength of the groups he was interacting
with. Wherever a sufficient density of data has allowed me to do so, I have
attempted to shed light on their internal organization, the contours of the
local leadership and its attitudes towards the central rulers.
Not all the groups Dost Muhammad Khan interacted with may be
termed 'tribal'. Yet, given the British preoccupation with the Pashtuns,
there is a greater amount information available on these groups, considered
'tribes' par excellence, than the 'peasantized' Tajiks, Farsiwans and Hazaras
inhabiting the core region of the Muhammadzai kingdom.' North of the
Hindu Kush, in the area known as Lesser Turkistan, the Amir encountered
ethnic groups of Turkic origin, such as the Uzbeks and Turkmens. In the
twentieth century, only certain Uzbek groups, such as the Qataghan of the
Qunduz region, have been classified as 'tribal'. During the period prior to
the Muhammadzai invasion of 1849 the Uzbeks of Lesser Turkistan derived
their political identity from their affiliation with one or the other of a
number of independent or semi-independent khanates which had sprung up
with the decline of Bukharan authority from the late seventeenth century
on.
Dost Muhammad Khan seems to have considered the petty Uzbek
principalities in the north less formidable adversaries than the powerful
Pashtun groups controlling the southern trade route with Qandahar. At any
rate, his military campaigns against Balkh from 1845 on preceded his
attempts to enforce his authority among the Hotak and Tokhi Ghilzais by
several years. Beyond this, however, there is no evidence that the Amir's
military progress and the local responses it elicited took a radically different
form in Lesser Turkistan than in the Pashtun areas experiencing royal
pressure for revenues. In other words, local reactions to Dost Muhammad
Khan's presence were apparently less affected by 'ethnic' factors than the
wider political setting which determined the strength of the government
presence and the range of strategies open to those resisting it. For the
Uzbeks of Lesser Turkistan, Bukhara in the north and Herat and Iran in the
west represented alternative centers of power, particularly during the first
half of the nineteenth century. South of Kabul, the Hotak and Tokhi
 Introduction
Ghilzais profited from the rivalry between the Amir and his half brothers at
Qandahar, who in turned received backing from the Qajar rulers of Iran.
With the incorporation of Qandahar into Dost Muhammad Khan's realm,
the region bordering on Herat became the scene of shifting allegiances.
Located along the fringes of British control, the Pashtuns in particular
held the colonial imagination. While offering valuable insights into Pashtun
history and organization, travelogues and political reports from the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have also had the effect of creating
some of the most enduring stereotypes. The notions of the greater group of
Pashtuns as 'republican', 'turbulent' and 'hungry' hillmen still influence
some of the modern historiography, which continues to play on the
fascination the 'Khyber' exercises on western minds to the present day. In
this body of literature, all of Afghanistan is incorporated into the local
perspective of British frontier officials and is thus viewed as an extension of
the circumstances prevailing in the region immediately west of Peshawar.
Waller, for example, holds the 'crazy-quilt tribal structure' of Afghanistan
responsible for the frustrated British efforts to reestablish the Sadozai ruler
Shah Shuja' during the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1839-1842.2 In the same
vein, Singer characterizes Dost Muhammad Khan's reign subsequent to this
war as 'devoted to the traditional Pushtun pastime of family and tribal
feuding'. 3 The idea of Afghan invincibility is reinforced by modern Afghan
and Soviet historians, who, rather than emphasizing the unpredictability of
tribal politics, view the determined resistance of the Afghan 'masses' to
colonialization as epitomized by the First and Second Anglo-Afghan Wars
of 1839-1842 and 1878-1880 in the light of nascent Afghan nationalism
and patriotism. The premises of both approaches certainly contain a grain
of truth. The creation of the Afghan state in its present outlines was brought
about in great part by the difficulty the Afghan terrain presented, both
geographically and politically speaking, in the face of foreign intervention.
Even more so, however, Dost Muhammad Khan owed his success in
consolidating his authority to a switch in British outlook from a program of
'forward policy' to one of 'masterly inactivity'.
This study is less concerned with the factors determining British policy
towards Afghanistan than the internal circumstances prevailing within the
country. Even so, the formative role the British played in shaping the
political landscape in the wider region and the resulting historical narrative
cannot be ignored. In Afghanistan, we encounter a curious deficit in this
respect. Just as this country was never properly incorporated into the
British empire, it remained in many ways veiled to the penetrating colonial
eye. While the Indian historian constantly encounters the colonial heritage
in the form of a well established discourse, the student of Afghan history is
largely preoccupied with the elementary task of reconstructing the bare
bones of the historical narrative on the basis of thin and often contradictory
data. This holds particularly true for the period prior to the reign of Amir

xv
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
'Abd al-Rahman Khan (1880-1901), which has so far only been dealt with
in the course of general historical overviews or in the light of the two focal
points of British interest, the First and Second Anglo-Afghan Wars. Another
,general shortcoming of the existing historiography on Afghanistan is that it
mostly takes the viewpoint of the center. From this perspective, the 'tribes'
generally assume phantom-like characteristics, appearing on the horizon of
the narrative seemingly only when it is their business to 'vex' the
government, subsequently withdrawing to some elusive 'island of
di~affection'~ again.
There are a number of notable exceptions to this rule. Apart from his
research concerning British policymaking, Yapp has devoted several
detailed studies to the local responses the British presence elicited during
the First Anglo-Afghan War. For the region north of the Hindu Kush,
Holzwarth's and Grevemeyer's works on the historical developments in
Badakhshan need to be mentioned. The political setting of Lesser Turkistan
has recently been analyzed by Lee and McChesney. The goal of my work is
to provide a fuller picture concerning the relationships of power prevailing
in all the provinces making up Dost Muhammad Khan's realm. For this
purpose, I have attempted to elucidate both the perspectives of the
government and the groups it was interacting with. The contact between
these two entities being mediated by the local leadership, I have paid special
attention to its historical origins and the ways its position and outlook were
affected by Dost Muhammad Khan's expansion of authority. In the study of
Lesser Turkistan, I have combined the information available from the
published histories with my own data gleaned from British documents and
Persian sources. My analysis of the Amir's relationship with the Pashtuns
rests in great part on hitherto unpublished materials and thus sheds light on
a domain that has largely been uncharted so far. My aim in presenting these
materials is to place the discussion concerning the interaction between state
and tribe in nineteenth-century Afghanistan on a firmer footing, to furnish
background information for the developments during the present century,
and, finally, to allow comparisons with tribalism in other Middle Eastern
countries.
Throughout my research I have been intensely aware of the problems
besetting any endeavor to establish a 'grip' over or to impose 'order' on a
setting as large and variable as that of Afghanistan. In the chapter
concerning the position of the Pashtuns my approach has been guided in
great part by Janata's warning against an uncritical generalization of locally
observed phenomena, which ignores differences inherent in the political
organization of sedentary and nomadic groups, the uneven impact of
colonialization, as well as historical developments which tend to give each
region its unique tamp'.^ The historical case materials I have put together
corroborate Janata's statement. Labels like 'segmentary' and 'acephalous',
as generally applied to the Pashtuns, only assume meaning if linked to a
 Introduction
careful analysis of the socioeconomic and political circumstances that
produce a specific tribal texture. While all Pashtun tribes formally adhered
to the genealogical principles typical of the segmentary lineage organiza-
tion, only the groups located at a certain, and, at Dost Muhammad Khan's
time, 'safe' distance from the seats of government approximated the ideal of
balanced opposition closely. Among the Pashtun tribes maintaining a
greater degree of interaction with the Amir, by contrast, the factors shaping
the nature of leadership and tribal identity tended to be of a political origin.
Thus the powerful Pashtun tribes, which were arranged along the major
trade routes like 'pearls on a string', were characterized by a much greater
amount of internal stratification than their counterparts in the more
inaccessible regions. While genealogical reasoning continued to inform the
tribal world view of the prominent sections of the Mohmand, Ghilzai and
Durrani Pashtuns, it served primarily to bolster the hereditary prerogatives
of entrenched leading lineages. Though subject to constant competition,
positions of paramount leadership were only accessible for members of the
local elite. This is not to say that contenders for power could not rely on
segmentary processes of fission and fusion to work in their favor. In
addition to proving their qualities as leaders, however, they had to be able
to point to a suitable pedigree and to demonstrate their ability to garner
external support, e.g. through connections with the royal court. The last
element added importance to matrilateral ties, the significance of which is
generally obscured by the emphasis segmentary ideology places on
patrilineal descent.
Therefore, tribalism in nineteenth-century Afghanistan may be looked at
from different angles. On the one hand, the lack of political centralization
prevailing in Dost Muhammad Khan's kingdom lends itself to interpreta-
tions in the light of the theory of segmentary lineage organization and the
related concept of 'political segmentation'. Unable to enforce a steady
government presence 'on the ground', the Amir had to rely on the assistance
of local middlemen to give substance to his claims to authority. This web of
personal loyalties could only be maintained by the distribution of privileges,
and its stability was a function of the king's ability to obtain and dispense
~ e a l t h On
. ~ the other hand, this royal largesse fostered inequalities on the
tribal level, as the recipients of such government favors acquired a social
standing far above that of their fellow tribesmen. Government patronage
thus had a fundamental impact on the local configurations of power,
bringing forth an entrenched and hereditary leadership.
While I have attempted to weave the available data into a narrative from
the local point of view, I have consciously abstained from 'streamlining'
them to fit one theory or another. Rather, it is my object to convey a sense of
the cumulative processes at work in Dost Muhammad Khan's kingdom by
depicting a whole range of tribal settings. This conceptual framework has
to be reconciled with the need to keep track of the impulses emanating from
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
the royal capital. Accordingly, I have attempted to link the description of
the sociopolitical circumstances in the periphery with a chronological
account of the Amir's consolidation of power, the milestones of which were
the conquests of Balkh, Qandahar and Herat in 1849, 1855 and 1863
respectively.
Chapter 1 depicts the political setting in Afghanistan at the time of Dost
Muhammad Khan's rise to power, tracing the origins of the prominent
Durrani and Qizilbash leadership and investigating its position up to the
conclusion of the First Anglo-Afghan War. Furthermore, the data collected
by the British observer Masson allow a fairly detailed description of the
Hazara region of Bihsud at the time of Dost Muhammad Khan's first reign.
Chapter 2 begins with a description of the origins of the Uzbek elite of
Lesser Turkistan and discusses its changing status under Muhammadzai
rule.
Chapter 3 analyzes the internal organization of a number of Pashtun
groups and sheds light on their position during the reigns of Dost
Muhammad Khan and his successor Sher 'Ali Khan.
Chapter 4 discusses the fortunes of the Durrani leadership of Qandahar
and, returning to the viewpoint of the center, explores the nature of Dost
Muhammad Khan's administration.
This narrative does not include a detailed description of the situation of
Herat, which was incorporated into the Muhammadzai domain only
thirteen days prior to Dost Muhammad Khan's death. The political events
which befell this city between 1796 and 1863 have been treated in a
detailed fashion by Champagne. From the viewpoint of the Muhammad-
zais, Herat only assumed critical importance during the era of Amir Sher
'Ali Khan (1863-1878), the analysis of which will be reserved for a future
date.

A NOTE O N THE SOURCES

Given the fragmentary and often contradictory nature of the available
sources concerning Dost Muhammad Khan's reign, this study represents an
attempt at describing the political setting in nineteenth-century Afghanistan
as closely as possible on the basis of a variety of materials. The sources I
have consulted fall into four major categories: works produced by Afghan
authors, mostly unpublished British documents, reports published by
British officials and other European observers, and modern ethnographic
studies.
In 1864-65 Sultan Muhammad b. Musa Barakzai wrote Tarikh-i sultani
(TSu) concerning the history of the Pashtuns from their genealogical
beginnings to the First Anglo-Afghan War. The most valuable Afghan
source is Siraj al-tawarikh (ST), a chronicle of Afghan history beginning
with the ascendancy of Ahmad Shah Sadozai, which was compiled by Faiz
 Introduction
Muhammad b. Sa'id Muhammad Mughul, a scholar in the service of Amir
Habibullah Khan, in the early twentieth century. Dost Muhammad Khan's
period is also discussed in the introductory chapters of a number of other
histories produced by Afghan authors. The Tarikh-i padshahan-i
muta3akhir was written roughly at the same time as Siraj al-tawarikh by
Mirza Ya'qub 'Ali Khafi (b. 1850), a former official of Amir Sher 'Ali Khan,
who had to flee to Samarqand following Sardar Muhammad Ishaq Khan's
unsuccessful rebellion in 1888. Nur Muhammad Nuri of Qandahar devoted
a biography entitled Gulshan-i imarat to his contemporary Sher 'Ali Khan,
which spans the period from the birth of the future Amir in 1823 to the first
two years of his second reign beginning in 1868. Muhammad Yusuf Riyazi
Harawi (1873-1911) described the events unfolding in the region of Herat
between 1792 and 1906 in a work entitled 'Ain al-waqayic. The events
accompanying the decline of Sadozai power and the rise of the
Muhammadzais in the early nineteenth century have been described by
one of the central historical figures, Shah Shuja' Sadozai.' Also noteworthy
are two epics commemorating the events of the First Anglo-Afghan War, the
Akbarnama by Hamid Kashmiri and the Jangnama by Muhammad Ghulam
Kohistani Ghulami. Taj al-tawarikh (TT),the autobiography of Amir 'Abd
al-Rahman Khan, provides some insights into the early policies of the
Muhammadzai Sardars in Lesser Turkistan. In the 1920s Burhan al-Din
Kushkaki, an official at Amir Amanullah Khan's court, produced the
Rahnama-yi Qataghan w a Badakhshan, a gazetteer containing useful
information concerning the political history and administration of this
region. The historical events of Badakhshan in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries are described in Mirza Sang Muhammad Badakhshi's
Tarikh-i Badakhshan. The data available from the older Afghan sources has
been rounded off and commented upon by modern Afghan historians, such
as Farhang, Ghubar, Habibi, Kakar, Kohzad and Reshtia. Fofalzai's detailed
studies of the reigns of Timur Shah and Shah Zaman provide a useful basis
for understanding the Sadozai state system. Unfortunately, the present
political situation in Afghanistan has made it impossible for me to gain
access to Afghan archival sources. Another set of Persian sources, the works
by nineteenth-century Iranian authors dealing with the events in western
Afghanistan and Lesser Turkistan, has not been utilized to the extent it
deserves.
The greater part of my data concerning the political setting in
Afghanistan has been derived from sources of European, mostly British
provenance. My access to Russian works has been restricted to works
available in English translation. In the course of my research at the India
Office Library (IOL) in London and the National Archives of India (NAI) in
Delhi I had the opportunity to study mostly unpublished British records.
The respective holdings of of IOL and NAI have been discussed in a
detailed fashion by Hall (1981) and Kakar (1979). At the IOL I studied the
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
Elphinstone Collection, i. e. the materials gathered by the Elphinstone
Mission to Shah Shuja"s court in 1808-9, and the Masson Papers named
after the British national who first visited Afghanistan in the late 1820s,
resided in Kabul from 1832 to 1838, and became a British newswriter in
1835. At the IOL, the unpublished newsletters and diaries produced by
British agents with increasing frequency and detail from the 1830s on are
contained in large volumes entitled 'Secret Letters and Enclosures from
India' and are coded as L/P&S/5. The political and secret correspondence
conducted with India after 1875 forms the L/P&S/7 series. The official
memoranda are included in L/P&S/18. At the National Archives of India,
the proceedings of the Foreign and Political Department of the Government
of India contain all the correspondence of Britain, India and Afghanistan.
They are primarily organized under the headings For. Sec., For. S. I., For.
Pol. A and are indexed according to topic.
The third category of my sources is made up by works mostly published
in the British Empire in the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. Among these, three kinds may be distinguished:
a) the narratives produced by members of official missions to Afghanistan,
such as the ones headed by Elphinstone in 1808-9, Burnes in 1832-33
and 1837-38, and Lumsden in 1857-58;
b) the reports by British officials either stationed inside Afghanistan during
the first two Anglo-Afghan wars or, during more peaceful periods,
assigned to posts along the British frontier;
c) travelogues written by private visitors to the region, such as VambCry,
Ferrier etc.
Another invaluable published spurce is Adamec's Historical and Political
Gazetteer of Afghanistan, in which a great part of the information available
from the above three sources is incorporated.
While there is thus no lack of contemporary materials, they tend to be of
varying usefulness. Many of the observations, mostly made in the course of
journeys or based on second-hand information, lack depth and accuracy. In
order to gain a better understanding of the factors shaping tribal
organization I have turned to a fourth category of source materials, recent
ethnographic studies. Apart from providing insights into present-day styles
of leadership and their origins, the works of Centlivres, Centlivres-Demont
and Rasuly-Paleczek on the Uzbeks, and Ahmed, Anderson, Barth,
Christensen, Glatzer and Lindholm on the Pashtuns also contain useful
information concerning the historical events of given regions. The materials
compiled by Rasuly-Paleczek on the basis of interviews with the leadership
of the Chechka Uzbeks, for example, provide a glimpse of the historical
developments of the Qataghan region otherwise not available from written
sources. Tapping the tribal perspective in this manner provides an
alternative narrative to the one presented by the court historians, who,
 Introduction
relating history from the viewpoint of the government, project the idea of
the Muhammadzai state as a unified system. The tribal perspective, on the
other hand, is strongly informed by the way a given group perceives its
position in the world. Accordingly, historical events tend to be ordered to
conform with tribal ideals of self-determination. While providing insights
into local politics, the resulting narrative hardly reflects larger political
processes at work.
This brings up the question of the relationship between 'oral' and
'written' information in the sources consulted. The court historian Faiz
Muhammad is a case in point. Describing the political setting of
Afghanistan from the goverment perspective, he relied on written sources
like the Imam al-Din Husaini's Tarikh-i husain shahi, Muhammad Hayat
Khan's Hayat-i afghani, and Tarikh-i sultani, as well as court documents.
His information concerning Herat was derived in part from Iranian sources,
such as Riza Quli Khan's Rauzat al-safa-yi nasiri and Muhammad Taqi
Sipihr Lisan al-Mulk's Nasikh al-tawarikh. At the same time, there are
indications that Faiz Muhammad also had access to oral information. He
was personally acquainted with some of the younger members of the
Muhammadzai family, such as Sardars Muhammad Yusuf Khan b. Amir
Dost Muhammad Khan (b. 1845) and Nur 'Ali Khan b. Sher 'Ali
Qandahari. Their reminiscences, as well the oral accounts of earlier events
current in their families, were incorporated into Siraj al-tawarikh. This
might help to explain why many of the dates given are inaccurate.
Among the British authors, Faiz Muhammad's counterpart is Raverty
(1888), who attempted to reconstruct local Pashtun history on the basis of
Persian sources partly dating back to Mughal times. Court documents
obtained by the British during the First and Second Anglo-Afghan Wars also
belong to the category of written information. With most of the British
literature, however, one cannot help being struck by the 'oral' nature of the
information collected. Apart from repeating the correspondence read at the
Amir's court, the reports submitted by British and Indian officials ring with
gossip and rumors and often echo the particular biases of their informants.
As a rule the written sources the British observers came across were few and
far between. Lord, a member of Burnes's mission of 1837-38 summed up
his efforts to reconstruct the political career of the Uzbek ruler Mir Murad
Beg in the early nineteenth century in the following manner:
My materials . . . have been altogether traditionary, and have been
derived from some of the principal actors in the latter scenes described, of
whom I may particularize the Meer himself, his brother Mahomed Beg,
and his former rival but present subject Meer Walee. For documentary
evidence I made every search but totally without success, unless indeed
we except an old deed of the sale of land which I got from the Meer
himself, and a list of the Oorooghs into which the tribe was divided.. .*
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
During the period prior to the First Anglo-Afghan War, British
intelligence concerning the internal political developments of Afghanistan
was generally poor. The occupation of Afghanistan in 1839 and the
missions preceding it, by contrast, furnished the Indian government with a
unique opportunity to gather information. With the withdrawal of the
British troops in 1842 the flow of political news all but dried up again. This
situation improved somewhat in 1849, when the annexation of Punjab
brought the British into immediate contact with the Afghan frontier. From
this point on, the political diaries compiled at Peshawar and the reports
submitted by newswriters based in Kabul, Jalalabad and Qandahar began
to furnish a greater variety of news. Another source of information were a
number of informants, including members of the royal family, who
corresponded with the British representatives stationed on the frontier.
Even so, the British authorities were far from satisfied with the kind of
intelligence they received. O n the occasion of the conclusion of the Anglo-
Afghan Treaty of 1855, Governor General Dalhousie expressed the hope
that the improved relations with the Afghan government also offered
brighter prospects for the British endeavor to gain more accurate
information on Afghanistan and Central Asia, as, in his opinion, the
reports submitted by the newswriter stationed in Kabul had been 'of very
little authority or value's0 far.9 Indeed the ratification of this treaty in 1856
gave the British representative Khan Bahadur Fatih Khan Khatak and other
members of his mission the opportunity to visit Qandahar and to gather
information concerning Dost Muhammad Khan's government.1° The
Anglo-Afghan Treaty of Friendship concluded in 1857 stipulated that a
British mission was to monitor the expenditure of British subsidies for the
modernization of the Afghan army. This led to the Qandahar Mission under
Lumsden in the spring of 1857, which, owing to the Indian Mutiny
breaking out shortly afterwards, was to remain in Qandahar for a little over
a year. The treaty of 1857 also provided for the exchange of representatives
(wakils) between Kabul and Peshawar. The wakils deputed to Kabul during
Dost Muhammad Khan's time were Faujdar Khan (1857-1860) and
Bahadur Ghulam Hasan Khan 'Alizai (1860-1865), who allegedly were
Pashtuns from Multan." The presence of these wakils at Kabul had the
effect that the ordinary newsletters were complemented by the so-called
Kabul Diary.
While the quantity of information available to the British authorities
thus increased significantly, the general problems besetting their efforts to
gain reliable intelligence remained much the same. For one thing, the British
observers found themselves closely monitored by the Afghan government,
which also determined the flow of news. In Qandahar, the Lumsden
Mission was housed within the citadel and was 'completely shut in from
access to, or communication with, the city, except through the heir-
apparent's guards.. . 'I2 Pointing to the necessity to protect the members of
 Introduction
the mission from an allegedly hostile, truculent and fanatic population, the
heir apparent Sardar Ghulam Haidar Khan effectively controlled all their
outside contacts:
we can only derive information from such men as the it may suit the
Sirdar's views to allow to come to me [Lumsden], and the greatest
caution is necessary to avoid raising suspicion. For although we are at
liberty to run about the country as much as we please, still there is no
disguising the fact that all who approach us are watched with extreme
jealousy.13
The local newswriters and the wakil at Kabul faced similar restrictions. Up
to the time of Dost Muhammad Khan's successor Sher 'Ali Khan it was
generally understood that any British Indian agent 'who took a perfectly
independent tone at Cabul and made no secret of reporting regularly to his
Government without reference to the wishes of the Ameer all information
that he believed to be correct would very shortly find his position
unbearable.'14 Acutely aware of their precarious position, the British agents
mostly relied on the news fed to them by the royal court and did not dare to
cultivate alternative sources of information openly.
The second problem the British faced was that the information obtained
did not cover all regions of Afghanistan in an even manner. Thus the
intelligence gathered from court proceedings and bazaar rumors at Kabul,
backed up by news from Jalalabad and Peshawar, generally proved to be
fairly reliable for the areas bordering on British India. With increasing
distance from the British seats of administration, however, the available
information became more sketchy. Just as the Amir or his representatives
determined what kinds of news were communicated to the wakil or local
newswriter, his provincial governors, such as Sardar Muhammad Afzal
Khan in Turkistan, controlled the flow of information to the capital. As
Turkistan was separated from Kabul by difficult communications,
occasional reports by the merchants plying the trade route to Bukhara
provided the only alternative source of information. Another difficulty in
the study of British documents is the lack of homogeneity. The primary
concern of the newswriters was to depict the crises besetting Dost
Muhammad Khan's administration. Routine aspects of government, by
contrast, seem to have appeared less noteworthy to them. As a result, rural
settings only entered the narrative when their inhabitants attracted royal
attention by rebellious behavior. Once the crisis was resolved from the
government point of view, the circumstances in the area in question also
ceased to be a newsworthy item. For this reason, conclusions concerning
the nature of Dost Muhammad Khan's government have to be based at least
in part on negative inferences. For example, if there was no news on
Ghazni, it is likely that the routine administrative procedures were taking
their ordinary course.
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
Because of the dependance of the British newswriters on information
made available to them by the royal or provincial governments, their
reports do not display a strikingly different perspective from native court
historians like Faiz Muhammad. Like Siraj al-tawarikh the British
documents chronicle events and shifts in power without yielding much
information on the underlying processes which gave rise to these
developments. However, their preoccupation with crises sets the British
sources apart from the native chronicles. While the British reports
emphasize moments of instability both in the center and the periphery,
Faiz Muhammad rarely casts doubt on Dost Muhammad Khan's scope of
authority. From his point of view, even nominal pledges of allegiance to the
Amir are equated with 'obedience', and uprisings are categorized as
instances of 'treason' deserving the royal punishment which inevitably
follows. The British documents also differ from Faiz Muhammad's
narrative in that-within the limitations described above-they pay greater
attention to local affairs.
Most of my information concerning individual tribal groups has been
gleaned from published and unpublished British sources. Thus we come up
against the phenomenon that, although Afghanistan was never 'swallowed
up' by the British Empire or incorporated as fully into the colonialist
discourse as neighboring India, most of the data available concerning its
history in the nineteenth century have been processed and passed along by
British observers. The relative weight of the existing British narrative is also
reflected in the histories produced by modern Afghan authors. My work is
innovative in that it uses hitherto largely unstudied documents to
investigate the local responses Dost Muhammad Khan's policies elicited.
At the same time, my reliance on British sources places this study firmly
within the context of the existing historiography on Afghanistan. Given the
nature of my sources, it is evident that the political landscape as I have
reconstructed it is profoundly influenced by the perspective of British
colonialists, whose perceptions were shaped in great part by their cultural
background and the political imperatives of their time. Following
Lindholm's dictum that colonial ethnography is not merely to be seen as
'commentary upon itself'," I have endeavored to strip away this layer of
colonial biases and to sift out the information relevant for my project of
mapping the relationships of power in nineteenth century Afghanistan.
 Chapter 1
DOST MUHAMMAD KHAN'S
FIRST REIGN AND THE FIRST
ANGLO-AFGHAN WAR

T H E POLITICAL SETTING I N THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY

Dost Muhammad Khan was formally proclaimed ruler of Kabul in 1834-5.
But his reign unofficially began in 1826, when he was able to gain control
of this city after a prolonged civil war. The first part of this chapter is
concerned with the circumstances accompanying his rise to power, which
marked the end of Sadozai supremacy and the beginning of the
Muhammadzai era. In the second part, I will discuss the unsuccessful
attempt of the British to reestablish the Sadozai ruler Shah Shuja' in the
course of the First Anglo-Afghan War. The legitimacy of Dost Muhammad
Khan's claims to kingship was not only challenged by his half brothers but
was also called into question by the remaining Durrani elite, which had
entertained close links with the Sadozai dynasty. This is not to say that Dost
Muhammad Khan and his relatives were newcomers to the political arena
in Afghanistan. As will be seen from my introductory discussion concerning
the prominent subdivisions of the Durrani confederacy, the claims of the
Muhammadzai Barakzais to leadership among the Durranis were as old as
those of the Sadozais.
Shah Mahmud, the last sovereign Sadozai ruler of Kabul, was deposed
in 1818, but the crumbling of Sadozai power had already begun in the
final decade of the eighteenth century at a time when the Sadozai empire
was barely fifty years old. Its founder, Ahmad Shah Sadozai had gainded
ascendancy in Afghanistan in 1747, at a period when the equilibrium of
power which had previously existed between the Safawids of Iran, the
Mughals of India and the Uzbek khanate of Transoxania had dissolved.
In the political vacuum resulting from the demise of the Safawid dynasty
and the abrupt end of Nadir Shah's efforts at empire building, Ahmad
Shah assumed leadership over the Pashtun contingents which had
formerly served in the Nadirid army and made them privileged partners
of his expansionist policies. While deriving a great part of his strength
from his close linkage with the chiefs of the Durrani and Ghilzai
confederacies, Ahmad Shah sought to balance their influence by forming
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
a personal bodyguard of tribal outsiders, the Qizilbash of Iran. His son
Timur Shah (1772-1793) continued this policy, extending the Qizilbash
force in his service and primarily relying on this group in administrative
matters.
In 1762, at the height of Ahmad Shah's power, the Afghan empire
included Kashmir, Punjab, Sind, Baluchistan, and part of Khurasan.
Controlling the trade routes linking Iran, Central Asia and Eastern
Turkistan with India, it was, next to the Ottoman empire, the largest state
in the Middle East. Yet by the 1820s the core regions of the Sadozai empire
had broken up into several independent principalities. While Kabul and
Qandahar were held by two competing sets of Muhammadzai brothers,
Herat had become the last bastion of Sadozai authority. North of the
Hindu Kush, a number of Uzbek khanates had reasserted their
independence. In the west, parts of Khurasan had fallen to the Qajar
dynasty of Iran.' East of the Khyber Pass, the Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh (r.
1801-1839) had gained control of the revenue-rich Indian provinces.2
What were the causes of this dramatic disintegration? To begin with, the
Sadozai empire had been built on Ahmad Shah's ability to garner tribal
support by offering the prospect of profitable military campaigns to India.
Securing these conquests was a more difficult matter, and the allegiance of
the provincial governors tended to waver with each indication of weakness
at the center. Thus the maintenance of this sphere of influence required
constant efforts. Already in 1767 the Sikhs were able to wrest Lahore from
Afghan controL3 Ahmad Shah's successor Timur had to contend with
resistance in Khurasan, Turkistan, Kashmir, Baluchistan, and Sind
throughout his reign. This situation was exacerbated with the power
struggles breaking out after Timur Shah's death. While his successor Shah
Zaman was able to establish his claims to kingship over the opposition of
his elder half brother Humayun, he continued to face the rivalry of another
influential set of half brothers, Shah Mahmud and Haji Feroz al-Din. In the
course of the ensuing conflicts, Shah Zaman relied on the assistance of Dost
Muhammad Khan's father, Payinda Khan Muhammadzai. Ironically, his
reign came to an end in 1799 when, fearing the immense influence of
Payinda Khan, he executed the man who had protected his claims to
kingship in the first place. This process was to repeat itself under Shah
Zaman's successor Shah Mahmud, who gained royal authority twice with
the support of Payinda Khan Muhammadzai's eldest son Fatih Khan. His
reign, and Sadozai supremacy over Afghanistan, dissolved after he ordered
Fatih Khan to be blinded and killed in 1818.
Between 1800 and 1818, Afghanistan was the scene of the rivalry
between Shah Zaman's full brother Shah Shuja' on the one hand and Shah
Mahmud and his son Kamran on the other. Another contender for power
was Shah Zaman's eldest son Qaisar Mirza. In the unfolding game of
constantly shifting coalitions, Fatih Khan Muhammadzai assumed a central
 Dost Muhammad Khan's First Reign
position. Fatih Khan's growing political influence was in turn resented by
certain powerful Durrani and Ghilzai leaders, who, fearing the loss of their
traditional privileges, espoused the cause of Shah Shuja'. In revenge for the
death of his father at the hands of Shah Zaman, Fatih Khan brought Shah
Mahmud to power for the first time in 1800. Shah Mahmud's first reign
lasted only until June 1803, when a Sunni-Shi'a riot encouraged by
members of the Durrani leadership allowed Shah Shuja' to gain control of
the capital. In 1809 Kabul passed to Shah Mahmud's possession again, who
strongly relied on the political acumen of his wazir Fatih Khan for the
administration of his realm. Throughout these events, Shah Mahmud's full
brother Haji Feroz al-Din had been able to hold on to the government of
Herat, maintaining a precarious independence between the interests of the
rulers of Kabul and Teheran. But in 1817 Haji Feroz al-Din, seeking to
develop a counterpoise to the increasing pressure exerted on his dominion
by the Qajar ruler Fath 'Ali Shah, turned t o Shah Mahmud for assistance.
This gave Fatih Khan Muhammadzai and his youngest brother Dost
Muhammad Khan the opportunity to gain control of Herat and to engage
in a battle with the Iranian army under the Qajar governor of Mashhad,
Hasan 'Ali Mirza Shuja' al-Saltana.4 Fatih Khan's political and military
success notwithstanding, Shah Mahmud gave in to the resentment harbored
by his son Kamran and other members of the Durrani elite and ordered
Kamran to remove Fatih Khan from power. Fatih Khan's blinding and
execution in 1818 triggered a rebellion by the remaining Muhammadzai
brothers, which eventually led to Dost Muhammad Khan's proclamation as
Amir.
In the following, I will take a more detailed look at the events
summarized above, shifting the focus of my discussion from the ruling
Sadozai family to the most prominent sections of the state-supporting
elite. Among the Abdalis/Durranis, the Alikozai, Popalzai and Barakzai
subdivisions were most closely associated with Nadir Shah Afshar and
the early Sadozai kings and were able t o gain privileges disproportionate
to their numerical strength. I will outline the careers of some of the most
prominent members of these subdivisions in order to introduce the
reader to some of the influential contemporaries and rivals of the
Muhammadzai family. As will be seen below, the Alikozais were to
retain an influential position in Herat, acting as ministers and eventually
seizing the authority there for themselves. In Kabul, the interests of the
Bamizai Popalzais were pitted against those of Fatih Khan's family. The
historical narrative touched upon in the sections concerning the
Alikozais and Popalzais will be expanded upon in the description of
the Muhammadzai rise to power. In order to provide a frame of
reference for the events to be discussed below, I would like to begin by
recapitulating the milestones of Afghan history in the eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries:
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
170819 Qandahar breaks away from Safawid rule
1716117 Herat asserts its independence from the Safawids5
1722-1 729 Hotak rule at Isfahan
February 1732 Nadir Shah Afshar occupies Herat
March 1738 Nadir Shah Afshar conquers Qandahar
1747-1772 Ahmad Shah Sadozai
1772-1793 Timur Shah Sadozai
1793-1800 Shah Zaman Sadozai
1800-1803 Shah Mahmud Sadozai
1803-1809 Shah Shuja' Sadozai
1809-1 8 1 8 Shah Mahmud Sadozai's second reign

The Alikozais
In the early nineteenth century, the Alikozais were estimtated at 10,000
fa mi lie^.^ The most prominent families among them played an important
role in Durrani politics even before Nadir Shah's assumption of power. In
the early 1720s, 'Abd al-Ghani Khan Alikozai (the maternal uncle of
Ahmad Shah) was instrumental in promoting Zulfaqar Khan (Ahmad
Shah's elder brother) to a leading position among the Abdalis. During Nadir
Shah's reign 'Abd al-Ghani Khan became the governor of Qandahar
province. At the beginning of the Sadozai era he refused to relinquish
control of the city of Qandahar to the newly proclaimed king, Ahmad Shah,
and was killed. When Ahmad Shah set out to erect a new capital in the
vicinity of Qandahar in the early 1760s, 'Abd al-Ghani's descendants forced
him to postpone his plans by refusing to let him build on their land.' In
1799 two Alikozai leaders were part of an unsuccessful plot hedged in
Qandahar by Payinda Khan Muhammadzai and a number of Durrani and
Qizilbash nobles, which aimed at deposing Shah Zaman and killing his
minister Wafadar Khan but resulted in the execution of the noblemen
involved i n ~ t e a d . ~
In the 1820s the Alikozais moved to center stage in the politics of Herat.
'Ata Muhammad Khan, a member of the Naso section of the Alikozais and
descendant of Sardar 'Abd al-Ghani Khan, had been influential during Shah
Mahmud's second reign in K a b ~ lIn . ~late 1818 Shah Mahmud lost control
of Kabul and Qandahar and was forced to settle in Herat, 'Ata Muhammad
Khan served him as minister until his death in 1828/9.1° 'Ata Muhammad
Khan was succeeded by his nephew Yar Muhammad Khan (d. 1851) whose
father 'Abdullah Khan had been governor of Kashmir at the time of Shah
Zaman and during Shah Mahmud's last reign. Yar Muhammad Khan, who
was to become known as an able and ruthless administrator, assisted Shah
Mahmud's son Kamran in removing his father from power. Once Kamran
was installed as ruler of Herat, Yar Muhammad virtually controlled all
sectors of the government. In early 1842 he had Kamran killed and assumed
 Dost Muhammad KhanS First Reign
full authority. The ministership of 'Ata Muhammad Khan and Yar
Muhammad Khan not only furthered the interests of those linked
immediately to their family interests but also brought many members of
the greater group of Alikozais to Herat."

The Popalzais
In the early nineteenth century, the Popalzais were thought to number
12,000 families. Among them the Sadozai and Bamizai subdivisions, being
closely related to Ahmad Shah by genealogical links, occupied a prominent
position at the Sadozai court.12 Officially known as 'Khan-i Khanan', Jahan
Khan Popalzai acted as Ahmad Shah's war minister and commander in
chief of the army. Fatihullah Khan Kamran Khel Sadozai held the title
'Wafadar Khan' and was highly influential at the courts of Ahmad Shah and
Timur Shah. His son Rahmatullah Khan was closely connected with Shah
Zaman and, depriving Payinda Khan Muhammadzai of his ministership in
1799, prepared the ground for his rebellion and subsequent execution.
Rahmatullah Khan was executed in 1801 at the beginning of Shah
Mahmud's first reign. His son Nawwab Muhammad 'Usman was influential
during Shah Shuja6's first reign from 1803 to 1809 and was awarded the
title 'Nizam al-Daula'. During the First Anglo-Afghan War, his ill-fated
policies as Shah ShujaC'sminister were to trigger the great uprising which
put an end to the British presence in Afghanistan.13 Among the Bamizais,
the person of 'Abdullah Khan Ayubzai Bamizai needs to be mentioned.
During Ahmad Shah's and Timur Shah's time he held a number of positions,
among them those of ishik aqasi (chief master of ceremonies) and
diwanbegi (highest civil magistrate). In 1785 'Abdullah Khan was
succeeded by his son 'Alam Khan, who was active in the politics of the
Sadozai empire until the early part of Shah Mahmud's second reign.14
The most influential and, in many ways, controversial figure in the
politics of early nineteenth-century Afghanistan was Sher Muhammad
Khan, the third son of Bagi Khan Salihzai Bamizai. Between 1738 and 1747
Bagi Khan acted as a military commander in Nadir Shah's army. At the time
of Ahmad Shah's rise to power Bagi Khan was the first Durrani noble to
pledge allegiance and was appointed as prime minister with the title 'Ashraf
al-Wuzara'. Henceforth known as Shah Wali Khan, Bagi Khan was
instrumental in establishing Ahmad Shah's authority in Afghan Turkistan
and Bamiyan in 1751. In return, he received rich tracts of land in Gulbahar.
At the beginning of Timur Shah's reign, Shah Wali Khan was executed
because he had supported Sulaiman Mirza, his son-in-law and Timur's elder
brother, as rival contender for the throne."
After Shah Wali Khan's death, Sher Muhammad resided in Baluchistan.
In 1773 he interfered in favor of Timur Shah during a rebellion by Sardar
'Abd al-Khaliq Khan Sadozai and his brother at Qandahar and was restored
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
to his father's possessions. Even so, he received no office or title from Timur
Shah and played no political role. Sher Muhammad Khan's situation
improved significantly when Shah Zaman came to power in 1793. From
this point on he was allowed to assume the title of his father, Ashraf al-
Wuzara, and acted as commander-in-chief of the army. Furthermore, Shah
Zaman gave him the title Mukhtar al-Daula and recognized him as leader
of the Bamizais.16
During Shah Mahmud's first reign, Sher Muhammad Khan retained his
titles, position, and salary. Although he played a great role in subduing the
Ghilzai rebellion in 1801, he found his position at court increasingly eclipsed
by Fatih Khan Muhammadzai, who usurped his title as Shah Mahmud's
minister. Closely linked to the Sunni faction of Kabul, he was instrumental in
inciting the Sunni-Shi'a riots of 1803 that led to the downfall of Shah
Mahmud. Having thus elevated Shah Shuja' to the throne, he was again
appointed to the positions he held under Shah Zaman." Moreover, he
controlled the revenues of Sind." In 1807 Shah Shuja' deputed Sher
Muhammad Khan Bamizai to Kashmir to deprive Shah Mahmud's appointee
'Abdullah Khan Alikozai of the governorship of that province. Subsequently,
Sher Muhammad Khan's son 'Ata Muhammad Khan was made governor of
Kashmir. Sher Muhammad Khan's career ended when he was killed in battle
after an unsuccessful attempt to depose Shah Shuja' by proclaiming Shah
Zaman's eldest son Qaisar Mirza king in 1807/8.19
Despite his father's defeat and death 'Ata Muhammad Khan Bamizai
continued to hold the government of Kashmir for the first few years of Shah
Mahmud's second reign. Around the year 1813 he was defeated by an
alliance between Fatih Khan Muhammadzai and Ranjit Singh and had to
give up the government of the province to Fatih Khan's brother Muhammad
'Azim Khan." Nevertheless, he was able to assume an important position
among Shah Mahmud's courtiers after his return from Kashmir. Having had
the hereditary title of his father, Mukhtar al-Daula, bestowed on him, he
was put in charge of the affairs at Kabul. Together with his namesake 'Ata
Muhammad Khan Alikozai, he became a formidable antagonist of Fatih
Khan Muhammadzai, playing an instrumental role in his eventual removal
from power. After the blinding and death of Fatih Khan in 1818 'Ata
Muhammad Khan Bamizai retained his influence in Kabul as the advisor of
Shahzada Jahangir, Shah Mahmud's grandson. Given his strong links with
the Sunnis of Kabul, he became an important mediator in the ensuing
power struggle between the Muhammadzais and Sadozais. Aiming to carve
out independent authority over Kabul for himself, he attempted to play off
the ruling family against the brothers of Fatih Khan by pretending to hold
Kabul in favor of the former while entering secret negotiations with the
latter. Rather than attaining his goal, however, he was blinded by Fatih
Khan's brother Pir Muhammad Khan Muhammadzai in revenge for his role
in the blinding of Fatih Khan." 'Ata Muhammad Khan thus lost his
 Dost Muhammad Khan's First Reign
political clout and the remaining brothers of Fatih Khan became the
strongest political force in Kabul. During the final phase of the First Anglo-
Afghan War another member of Sher Muhammad Khan Bamizai's family
was to assume an influential position. 'Ata Muhammad Khan's brother
Ghulam Muhammad was one of the main participants of the uprising of
November 1841 and its aftermath.

The Barakzais
The most influential section of the Barakzais were the Muhammadzais. If
contemporary sources are to be trusted, the population of this group
increased significantly between the eighteenth century and the second half
of the nineteenth century. According to these estimates, the Muhammadzais
had numbered only four to five thousand families in the eighteenth century,
but amounted to 30,000 families during Amir Dost Muhammad Khan's
second reign.22 In great part, this population growth may be attributed to
the patronage the greater group of Muhammadzais enjoyed under the
leadership of the descendants of Payinda Khan. After Nadir Shah's death,
Payinda Khan's father Haji Jamal Khan had been the most powerful
contender for leadership among the Abdalis. However, he had to relinquish
his claims to authority in view of the religious legitimization given to
Sadozai rule. Another argument in Ahmad Khan's favor was that his
ancestors had occupied a more prominent position among the Abdalis
during Safawid times. Haji Jamal Khan accepted the selection of Ahmad
Khan as king and under his leadership the Barakzais played an important
role in the military, holding the hereditary position of topchibashi
(commander of artillery).23
At the time of Haji Jamal Khan's death in 1770/71, Ahmad Shah
bestowed the leadership of the Barakzais on Haji Jamal's eldest son
Rahimdad Khan and assigned a generous allowance to him. When Timur
Shah became king he initially confirmed Rahimdad Khan in this position. In
1774, however, Rahimdad Khan was divested of his position, title and jagir.
In his stead, Timur Shah appointed Payinda Khan, Haji Jamal's fourth son
and Rahimdad Khan's half brother, to the leadership of the Barakzais and
awarded the title 'Sarafraz Khan' to him in 1775.24Payinda Khan soon
assumed an active role in government matters. After he had successfully
contained a rebellion in Kashmir and collected the revenues of Quetta and
Sialkot, he was awarded the leadership (sardari) of the Ghilzais." He also
was instrumental in quelling a rebellion by Timur Shah's son 'Abbas.
Payinda Khan's role in securing the throne for Timur Shah's son Shah
Zaman has been mentioned above. During Shah Zaman's reign, Payinda
Khan's salary was the highest in the country. Furthermore, he was awarded
the sardarship over all tribal groups in addition to the Ghilzais and
Durranis, that is, the Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, e t ~ . ' ~
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
Despite his powerful position at Shah Zaman's court, Payinda Khan
viewed himself first and foremost as a tribal leader who derived his strength
from his standing among his own kinsmen. For this reason, he opposed
Shah Zaman's unprecedented efforts to weaken the influential Durrani
leaders by taking away their hereditary government posts. Payinda Khan's
resistance to these measures caused Shah Zaman to make Rahmatullah
Khan Kamran Khel Sadozai ('Wafadar Khan') his new chief minister. In
1799 Payinda Khan, stripped of all his offices, joined other disenchanted
chiefs in a plot aiming at replacing Shah Zaman with his brother Shahzada
Shuja'. In an attempt to revitalize the claims of the Durrani leadership to
equal standing with the kings, the conspiracy also aimed at making the
assumption of royal power contingent on the confirmation by the tribal
nobility.17 The revelation of this plan by the munshi bashi Muhammad
Sharif Khan Qizilbash to Wafadar Khan gave Shah Zaman a welcome
pretext to execute Payinda Khan and his fellow conspirators, thus doing
away with a number of influential nobles at court. If Shah Zaman aimed at
curtailing Muhammadzai power by executing Payinda Khan, he failed
miserably. Rather than disappearing from the political arena, Payinda
Khan's sons increasingly dominated the politics of Afghanistan from the
turn of the nineteenth century on.
On his death, Payinda Khan left behind twenty-one sons and several
daughters. As many of them figure largely in the following narrative, it will
be worthwhile giving a complete listing of their names, dates, and their
maternal descent here:
1)Fatih Khan (1778-1 818) mother Muhammadzai
2 ) Timur Quli Khan (1780-1822)
3) Muhammad 'Azim Khan (1785-1 823) mother Nusratkhel
('Sardar-i Kalan')
4 ) Nawwab Asad Khan (1778- ?)
5 ) Nawwab 'Abd al-Samad Khan (1785-1828) mother Barakzai
6) Tura Baz Khan (1795- ? )
7) Nawwab 'Abd al-Jabbar Khan (1782-1854) mother Kohistani
8 ) Purdil Khan (1785-1830)
9) Sherdil Khan (1786-1826)
10) Kuhandil Khan (1793-1855) mother Idukhel Hotak
11)Rahmdil Khan (1796-1859)
12) Mihrdil Khan (1797-1855)
13) 'Ata Muhammad Khan (1786-1824)
14) Yar Muhammad Khan (1790-1828)
1 5 ) Sultan Muhammad Khan (1795-1 861) mother Alikozai
16) Sa'id Muhammad Khan (1797-1860)
17) Pir Muhammad Khan (1800-1871)
 Dost Muhammad Khan's First Reign
18) Dost Muhammad Khan (1792-1863) mother Jawansher
19) Amir Muhammad Khan (1794-1 834) Qizilbash
20) Jum'a Khan (1800-1871) mother Tajik
21) Islam Khan ( ? - ?) mother Siyahposh Kafir2'
Although Shah Zaman had given orders for the arrest of all Barakzai
leaders, Payinda Khan's eldest son Fatih Khan, along with his brothers Asad
Khan, Purdil Khan, and Sherdil Khan, as well as approximately 85 Barakzai
and 'Alizai followers, was able to escape to Iran.29In the following years, he
not only revenged his father's death by having Shah Zaman blinded but
succeeded in bringing Shah Mahmud to the throne twice. Popularly known
as 'Tajbakhsh', he received the title of 'Shahdost' from Shah Mahmud and
served as wazir during both of his reigns.30 Particularly during Shah
Mahmud's second reign, Sardar Fatih Khan' s power increased consider-
ably. Because of Shah Mahmud's lack of interest in government matters he
became the virtual ruler of the country, to the chagrin of Shah Mahmud's
son Shahzada Kamran.
Fatih Khan's rising fortune also benefitted his relatives, whom he
appointed as governors in various important provinces. Muhammad 'Azim
Khan became governor of Peshawar in 1809. After Fatih Khan's conquest
of Kashmir and the deposal of 'Ata Muhammad Khan Bamizai,
Muhammad 'Azim Khan gained the governorship there. Derajat and Sind
were governed by Nawwab Asad Khan and Nawwab Samad Khan
respectively. Sardar Rahmdil Khan was entrusted with the government of
Baluchistan and resided at Shikarpur. Sardar Purdil Khan received control
of Qandahar. Their full brothers Sherdil and Kuhandil governed Ghazni
and Bamiyan. Nawwab Asad Khan's son Nawwab Muhammad Zaman
Khan was in charge of Jalalabad.31 During Shah Mahmud's second reign,
Dost Muhammad Khan, who had been only seven years old when his
father was executed by Shah Zaman, began to assume political functions.
Thanks to Fatih Khan's influence at court, the young Dost Muhammad
received the title 'Sardar' from Shah Mahmud and was made naJib
(deputy) of Kabul. Sometime in 1813 he added the governorship of
Kohistan to his duties.32 Although Fatih Khan frequently changed
appointments in order to prevent his brothers from concentrating too
much power in their hands, they were able to carve out important bases
and grouped themselves on the basis of maternal descent.33 Purdil Khan
and his younger brothers, for example, were to become increasingly
powerful in the Qandahar region. Sardar 'Ata Muhammad Khan and his
younger brothers were centered in Peshawar. Dost Muhammad Khan was
to receive a large measure of support from Kohistan and the city of Kabul
in his quest for power.
Like his father, Fatih Khan was to become the victim of his own success.
The main factor leading to his downfall 1818 was the resentment Shah
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
Mahmud's son Kamran and other Durrani nobles harbored against the
Muhammadzai leader. Kamran, who had been deprived by Fatih Khan of
all access to government offices, seized upon the news of Dost Muhammad
Khan's misbehavior in the harem of Haji Feroz al-Din and his son Malik
Qasim t o weaken Shah Mahmud's trust in Fatih Khan. Hearing that Dost
Muhammad Khan had insulted Malik Qasim's wife, who was Kamran's
sister, Shah Mahmud agreed to have Fatih Khan removed from power.34
Kamran went to Herat and addressed a letter to Hasan 'Ali Mirza, the
Qajar governor of Khurasan, apologizing for Fatih Khan's aggressive
behavior and alleging that the minister had acted without the consent of the
Sadozai government. Fath 'Ali Shah, who had recently arrived in Mashhad
responded by asking Kamran t o demonstrate the seriousness of his
accusations against Fatih Khan either by handing him over as a prisoner
or by blinding him. Kamran took the letter from the Qajar king as a further
pretext to execute his designs against Fatih Khan, in effect bringing about
the demise of the Sadozai empire.35

DOST MUHAMMAD KHAN'S ASSUMPTION O F POWER

The blinding and subsequent execution of Fatih Khan in 1818 led to, as
Reshtia has characterized it, a period of 'civil war' (khana jangi) among the
Muhammadzais and the break up of Afghanistan into 'tribal principalities'
(muluk al-tawaJifi).Immediately after Fatih Khan's imprisonment at Herat,
the energies of his remaining brothers were primarily directed against Shah
Mahmud and Kamran. Sherdil Khan and Kuhandil Khan fled from Herat to
Fatih Khan's mother Bibi Ade residing in the fort of Nad 'Ali near Seistan
and began to gather followers. From Kashmir, the eldest remaining brother,
Sardar 'Azim Khan coordinated the activities of his brothers Dost
Muhammad Khan, Yar Muhammad Khan and Nawwab 'Abd al-Jabbar
Khan. For a while, he even considered cooperating with Shah S h ~ j a ' . ~ ~
Once Shah Mahmud and Kamran had been forced to withdraw to Herat,
the Muhamrnadzai brothers began to compete with each other for the
possession of Kabul.

The Power Struggle among the Muhammadzais (1818-1826)

While Shah Mahmud had effectively lost control over Kabul in 1818, the
Muhammadzai parties contending for power there formally continued to
adhere to the notion of Sadozai supremacy by making a number of Sadozai
princes figureheads for their political ambitions. As it is beyond the scope of
this work to give a detailed account of the frequent shifts of authority which
befell Kabul between 1818 and 1826, I will restrict my discussion to some
of the milestones in this period of seemingly unceasing conflict. Let us start
with a chronological overview of the lords of Kabul:
 Dost Muhammad Khan's First Reign

1818: 'Ata Muhammad Khan Bamizai holds Kabul in the name of

Shahzada Jahangir b. Kamran b. Shah Mahmud;
1818: Dost Muhammad Khan occupies Kabul, sets up Sultan 'Ali b.
Timur Shah
late 1818 - early 1823: Muhammad 'Azim Khan rules in the name of
Shahzada Ayub b. Timur Shah.
1823: Muhammad 'Azim is succeeded by his son Habibullah Khan; end
of Sadozai rule: Shahzada Ayub is imprisoned and his son Shahzada Isma'il
is killed;
1823124 Habibullah is deposed by Sherdil Khan;37
1824: Yar Muhammad Khan;
1824-1 826: Sultan Muhammad Khan.
Although Muhammad 'Azim Khan's claims to leadership were generally
disputed by his brothers, his four-year reign in Kabul was a period of
comparative stability. From 1819 until 1823 the remaining Muhammadzai
Sardars had to content themselves with the bases of power they had carved
out for themselves during Shah Mahmud's second reign. The 'Dil' brothers,
for example, had been able to regain control over Qandahar with Barakzai
support in 1818. With the exception of the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-
1842), they were to control Qandahar and its surroundings well into Dost
Muhammad Khan's second reign (1843-1863). In the 1820s and 1830s
they governed not only the fertile districts in the immediate vicinity of the
city but also Deh Raud, Zamindawar, and the Hazara territories north of
Qandahar. The districts under their authority in the south included
Garmser, Shorabak, Pishin, and Sibi. Sind was able to break away from
their control with Sherdil Khan's death in August 1826. The two eldest of
the Qandahar Sardars, Purdil Khan and Sherdil Khan, were serious
contenders for authority in Kabul. After Muhammad 'Azim's death in
1823, Sherdil Khan intervened in Kabul successfully to prevent Dost
Muhammad Khan from taking control there. While he thus asserted the
superiority of the Qandahar Sardars' claims to authority and was
instrumental in redistributing the power among the other brothers of Fatih
Khan, he was unable to gain a permanent foothold in Kabul. Nevertheless it
was only after his death in 1826 that Dost Muhammad Khan could make a
more successful bid for power in the former capital. After Purdil Khan's
death in 1830, Sardars Kuhandil Khan, Rahmdil Khan, and Mihrdil Khan
became the leading figures of Q a n d a h a ~ ~ *
Peshawar continued to be held by 'Ata Muhammad Khan and his full
brothers. At the time of 'Ata Muhammad Khan's death in 1824, his younger
brother Yar Muhammad Khan became a tributary of Ranjit Singh,
undertaking to pay a yearly tribute of 110,000 rupees. After his death in
1828, his full brother Sultan Muhammad Khan formally continued as
governor of Peshawar, sending one of his sons as hostage to Lahore. In
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
1834 Ranjit Singh assumed direct control of P e ~ h a w a r .The ~ ~ Afghan
governors displaced by Ranjit Singh returned to Kabul. Nawwab 'Abd al-
Jabbar Khan, who had succeeded Muhammad 'Azim Khan as governor of
Kashmir, received the government of 'Ghilzai', i.e, Laghman, from
Muhammad 'Azim Khan after losing Kashmir to Ranjit Singh in 1819.
Nawwab Muhammad Zaman Khan was expelled from Dera Ghazi Khan
and Dera Isma'il Khan in 1819 and 1821 respectively and assumed his
former position as governor of Jalalabad. Nawwab Asad Khan and
Nawwab 'Abd al-Samad Khan resided in Kabul with Muhammad 'Azim
Khan.40
In comparison with his brothers, Dost Muhammad Khan operated from
a relatively disadvantaged position. He had lost the protection of Fatih
Khan and had only one full brother supporting him. In addition, he was
generally looked down upon by his other brothers because of his relative
youth and the inferiority of his maternal descent.41But in the long run, this
apparent weakness was to become a source of strength for Dost
Muhammad Khan. In the struggle for the possession of Kabul, his links
with his maternal relatives, the Qizilbash of Kabul, and the central role he
had played in Fatih Khan's administration were eventually to give him an
edge over his rivals. Another factor working in Dost Muhammad Khan's
favor was his restless political ambition. Rather than contenting himself
with the possession of Ghazni, which Muhammad 'Azim had assigned to
him in 1819, Dost Muhammad Khan seized every opportunity to make his
influence felt in the changing coalitions among his brothers, all the while
skillfully evading all their efforts to eliminate him from the political arena.
In 1819, shortly after Muhammad 'Azim's assumption of power in
Kabul, Dost Muhammad, along with Sherdil Khan and Pir Muhammad
Khan, undermined his revenue collection in Sind by making a separate
agreement with the local Mirs. After a vain attempt to garner further
support from the Qandahar Sardars in his rebellion against Muhammad
'Azim Khan, Dost Muhammad Khan went on to Kohistan to seek
assistance there. Owing to the mediation of Nawwab 'Abd al-Samad,
however, he was prevailed upon to give up this effort and to leave for
Peshawar. Shortly afterwards, Dost Muhammad Khan was able to regain
Ghazni. He made his brother Amir Muhammad Khan governor there and
remained a thorn in Muhammad 'Azim Khan's side until the latter's
unsuccessful campaign against the Sikhs and subsequent death in 1823.42
With Muhammad 'Azim Khan's death the precarious equilibrium that
had prevailed among the various sets of Muhammadzai brothers was upset
and the struggle for Kabul resumed with increased intensity. Fearing the
rivalry of the Sadozai prince Isma'il (the son of Ayub Shah), Muhammad
'Azim Khan's son and successor, Habibullah Khan, called the Qandahar
Sardars for help. Motivated by the desire to assert their leading position
among the other brothers of Fatih Khan and to possess themselves of the
 Dost Muhammad Khan's First Reign
remaining 900,000 rupees of the treasure Muhammad 'Azim had amassed
in Kashmir, Purdil Khan and Sherdil Khan were quick to react. Purdil Khan
went t o Kabul and removed the last vestiges of Sadozai rule by imprisoning
Ayub Shah and killing Shahzada Isma'il. Nevertheless, he hesitated to
assume full authority and, having confirmed Habibullah Khan as ruler of
Kabul, returned to Qandahar.
Less than six months later, Habibullah again requested the assistance of
the Qandahar Sardars, this time to curb the growing influence of Dost
Muhammad Khan. The available information concerning the political
maneuvering and intrigues which followed during the next few months is
contradictory. All sources agree, however, that Habibullah Khan, rather
than being strengthened by Sherdil Khan, was imprisoned and removed to
Logar. At the same time, Sherdil Khan's foothold in Kabul remained
precarious, and he found himself locked into a lengthy military
confrontation with the Peshawar Sardars, Dost Muhammad Khan and
the Qizilbash. Finally, Nawwab Jabbar Khan and Nawwab Samad Khan
were able t o negotiate an agreement whereby the remaining Muhammadzai
brothers accepted Sherdil Khan's claims t o leadership. Despite this political
success Sherdil Khan contented himself with the possession of the treasure
left by Muhammad 'Azim Khan and handed over the control of Kabul t o
the Peshawar Sardars Yar Muhammad Khan and Sultan Muhammad Khan.
According t o Faiz Muhammad Khan, Sherdil Khan's decision to leave
Kabul had to be attributed in great part to the fact that the extortionate
policies of his maternal uncle, Khuda Nazar Khan Ghilzai, had turned
public opinion against the Qandahar Sardars. Under the pretext of
recovering Muhammad 'Azim Khan's possessions, Khuda Nazar Khan
had deprived a great part of the citizens of Kabul of their movable
property.43
With Sherdil Khan's return t o Qandahar, the distribution of territories
among the Muhammadzai brothers appeared to be unchanged. At the same
time, Dost Muhammad Khan's had consistently widened his political base
in and around Kabul since Muhammad 'Azim's death. During the latest
struggles for control over Kabul both Habibullah and Sherdil Khan had
come t o consider him so dangerous that two plots were hatched to have him
blinded. Rather than being removed from the political scene, however, Dost
Muhammad Khan had been able to expand his sphere of influence from
Ghazni to the immediate vicinity of Kabul by gaining control of Kohistan.
Another crucial factor adding to his political stature was his intimate link
with the Qizilbash of Kabul through his mother's relations. This connection
had become even stronger with his wedding to the Qizilbash widow of
Muhammad 'Azim Khan, the daughter of Sadiq Khan Jawansher, during
the early phase of his confrontation with Sherdil Khan. As seen above, Dost
Muhammad Khan had been able to rely on Qizilbash support during his
military contest with Sherdil Khan.
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
Sardar Yar Muhammad Khan's reign in Kabul was of brief duration. He
was summoned to Peshawar by his fatally ill brother 'Ata Muhammad
Khan in 1824 and relinquished the government of Kabul in favor of his
younger brother Sultan Muhammad Khan. With the death of Sherdil Khan
in 1826, Dost Muhammad Khan began to interfere with the affairs of
Kabul once again, playing on ethnic divisions among the population of
Kabul. While Sultan Muhammad Khan emphasized his links with the Sunni
population of the city, Dost Muhammad Khan again brought his Qizilbash
allies into the field. In particular, the support rendered by his maternal uncle
Mahmud Khan Bayat tipped the scales in favor of Dost Muhammad Khan.
Finding himself besieged in the Bala Hisar, Sultan Muhammad Khan agreed
to hand over the reins of the government of Kabul to Dost Muhammad
Khan in exchange for receiving 100,000 rupees a year of its revenues.
Shortly afterwards a cholera epidemic cut short Purdil Khan's renewed
attempt to interfere militarily. Thus Dost Muhammad Khan was able to
assume control of Kabul in 1826.44

The Beginnings of Muhammadzai Rule

In the course of the shifting configurations of power between 1818 and
1826, Dost Muhammad Khan had gradually been able to tighten his grip
over Kabul. His base in Kohistan, his temporary alliance with Aminullah
Khan Logari, and his connection with the Qizilbash of Kabul had cleared
the way for his assumption of power at the former Sadozai capital. Even so,
his position remained insecure. It was disputed not only by his
Muhammadzai half brothers but also the greater group of Durranis. While
the Qizilbash had played a crucial role in bringing Dost Muhammad Khan
to power, their support for him was far from unequivocal. In 1827 Husain
Quli Khan Jawansher was sent to the court of Fath 'Ali Shah bearing a
message from the Qizilbash offering their assistance in case of a Qajar
attack on Kabul.45 When Shah Shuja' attempted to regain power by
attacking Qandahar in June 1834, a sizeable section among the Qizilbash
military leaders considered taking over Kabul in his name.46On the eve of
the First Anglo-Afghan War, the Jawansher chief Khan Shirin Khan (d.
1859) intimated his pro-British sentiments both to Alexander Burnes and
Shah S h ~ j a ' . ~ '
But Muhammadzai claims to authority were not only disputed by
outsiders. The Muhammadzai Sardars themselves were reluctant to portray
themselves as successors to the Sadozai monarchy and avoided the question
of their legitimacy as rulers. Despite his influential position under Shah
Mahmud, Fatih Khan had made no attempt to assume kingship for himself.
Although his death brought about an open confrontation between the
Sadozais and the Muhammadzais, none of his brothers dared to
disassemble Sadozai authority openly. Immediately after Fatih Khan's
 Dost Muhammad Khan's First Reign
death Muhammad 'Azim Khan and Dost Muhammad Khan sided with
Shah Shuja'. But this coalition came to an end because of Shah Shuja"s
absolute claims to power.48During the early phase of the struggle for Kabul,
Dost Muhammad Khan and Muhammad 'Azim Khan propped up
Shahzada Sultan 'Ali and Shahzada Ayub respectively as figureheads. In
1823 the Muhammadzai brothers finally gave up the pretense of acting in
the name of a Sadozai ruler. Even so, they were strongly aware that they
lacked the legitimacy Ahmad Shah's descendants had enjoyed.
In the late 1820s Masson reported that the Durranis in Qandahar
attributed Purdil Khan's extortionist government practices to the fact that
he considered himself an usurper and therefore attempted to amass as much
wealth as possible before being deprived of his ill-gotten government by a
more legitimate ruler. Meanwhile, in Kabul, Dost Muhammad Khan
studiously avoided using or maintaining edifices reminiscent of Sadozai
rule. Some buildings, including the former daftar khana (record office),
were even ordered to be torn down.49 When Dost Muhammad Khan
assumed control of Kabul in 1826 he made no claims to formal kingship.
Only in 1834 or early 1835 his avowed plan to engage in jihad against the
Sikhs offered the opportunity to seek religious sanction for his rule and to
widen his fiscal base. On the basis of the notion that martyrdom and its
heavenly rewards could only be attained if jihad was fought under the
leadership of a lawful king, Dost Muhammad assumed the title amir al-
muaminin, 'commander of the faithful.'
Given the political climate of Kabul in the 1830s, two features of Dost
Muhammad Khan's coronation stand out, both of which reflect his attempt
to gain legitimacy without evoking the all too recent fall of Sadozai rule.
First, the choice of the title 'Amir' is noteworthy. Conferred by the eldest
son of Sayyid Ahmad Mir Aqa, who was the mir wa'iz (headpreacher) of
Kabul, this title gave royal authority and religious legitimacy to Dost
Muhammad Khan's reign. His coronation was followed by the typical
expressions of royal authority, the striking of coins and the reading of the
khutba in his name." While Dost Muhammad Khan was thus able to
portray himself as a lawful ruler, his selection of the title 'Amir' also
avoided any association with the previous Sadozai rulers, all of whom had
carried the title 'Shah'.
The second interesting element of Dost Muhammad Khan's coronation is
that it was closely modeled on the nomination of Ahmad Shah, the founder
of the Sadozai dynasty. After Nadir Shah's death in 1747 his principal
Afghan officers had formed a jirga (council) in the tomb of Shaikh Surkh at
Kushk-i Nakhud, located thirty-five miles from Qandahar, in order to elect
a new leader. As no consensus could be reached for nine days, the deadlock
was finally resolved by a well-known darwesh called Muhammad Sabir
Shah, who pointed out Ahmad Khan Sadozai's superior qualities and
caused him to be nominated as leader of the Pashtuns. When Ahmad Khan
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
showed reluctance to accept this position Sabir Shah raised a small platform
of earth, seated him on it, tucked a few barley shoots from an adjoining
field into his turban, and proclaimed him padshah durr-i dauran, 'pearl of
the age'.'' While Ahmad Shah's nomination was followed by a pompous
coronation after his conquest of Qandahar, Dost Muhammad Khan chose
to emulate the earlier, highly evocative nomination event for his coronation.
Departing from the Sadozai custom of grandiose coronation processions,
his proclamation of kingship appeared muted and was devoid of all
'expressions of joy,' such as discharges of artillery. Towards the evening,
Dost Muhammad proceeded t o the 'Idgah a t Siyahsang (located
approximately three miles from Kabul), where the presence of a number
of relatives and tribal chiefs recreated the setting of the original council that
had nominated Ahmad Shah. The son of Mir Wa'iz placed two or three
blades of grass in his turban, proclaimed him padshah with the title Amir
al-Muminin, and exhorted those present to contribute to the planned jihad
against the Sikhs.j2
By modeling his coronation on Ahmad Shah's nomination Dost
Muhammad attempted to refocus public attention from the recent demise
of Sadozai rule to the beginnings of Afghan statehood when all Pashtun
leaders had operated on an equal footing. This point was also made by
those in favor of Dost Muhammad Khan's kingship, who emphasized the
fact that his paternal grandfather Haji Jamal Khan had been the strongest
candidate for leadership among the Pashtuns prior to the intervention by
Sabir Shah. Rather than contending with his public image as usurper, Dost
Muhammad Khan could thus bypass recent events in favor of historical
Muhammadzai claims to power.j3 Despite his attempt to hark back to the
beginnings of Afghan statehood, Dost Muhammad Khan departed from
Ahmad Shah's example in choosing the title Amir al-Muminin. His
allegiance to Sabir Shah notwithstanding, Ahmad Shah was given the title
durr-i dauran, 'pearl of the age'. Rather than giving religious legitimacy, this
title reflected his claims to royal leadership among his fellow tribesmen,
who, henceforth assuming the name 'Durrani', were transformed into a
state supporting elite. Dost Muhammad Khan, on the other hand,
desperately needed the support of the ulama of Kabul in his attempt to
secure his rule and to widen his material base of support. Although he had
begun to show a more keen interest in religion after becoming ruler of
Kabul, it seems probable that exigencies of his time, including the projected
jihad against the Sikhs, played a greater role in the assumption of the title of
Amir al-Muminin.
In part, the simplicity of Dost Muhammad's coronation ceremony may
be attributed to the fact that he lacked the economic resources for a more
grandiose celebration. More likely, however, he limited the scale of his
celebration voluntarily in order to avoid an open confrontation with the
still powerful Qandahar Sardars. Others of his relatives chose to withhold
 Dost Muhammad Khan's First Reign
even their nominal support by staying away from the ceremony. This was
the case with Sultan Muhammad Khan, who had resided in Kabul since his
expulsion from Peshawar in 1834. While Dost Muhammad was thus able
to assume kingship without great celebration or encountering significant
opposition, the stability of his reign seemed little improved. Attempts to
raise greater government revenues in the name of jihad met with little
success and a great part of his war chest of nearly 500,000 rupees had to be
collected by extorting compulsory loans from merchants, both Muslim and
Hindu, and levying two years' jizya, or capitation tax, on all of the Hindus
in Kabul, Ghazni, and Jalalabad. Likewise, the number of ghazis (religious
warriors) raised in the name of jihad was much smaller than Dost
Muhammad Khan had anticipated. After the failure of the first military
campaign against the Sikhs in 1835 Dost Muhammad Khan still found
himself in enormous economic difficulties, facing the necessity of reducing
his army while having to provide financial support for recently arrived
members of the former Peshawar d a r b a ~ . ' ~
Apart from economic considerations, it is not clear whether Dost
Muhammad Khan's stature had become enhanced in public opinion as a
result of his formal assumption of kingship. Josiah Harlan, who became the
general of the regular Afghan troops in the late 1830s, documents that Dost
Muhammad was haunted by the spectre of Sadozai superiority even in his
own harem. Agha Taj, daughter of Shahzada 'Abbas and granddaughter of
Timur Shah, had been forcefully married by Dost Muhammad Khan on the
occasion of her father's flight to Lahore. Although she gave birth to several
children, she never ceased to remind her husband of his inferior origin by
calling him her 'slave' and addressing him by the diminutive nickname
'Dosto."' It is also questionable whether Dost Muhammad Khan perceived
himself as a lawful ruler. In 1839, when the British advanced on Kabul to
reinstate Shah Shuja', Dost Muhammad Khan readily offered to surrender to
Shah Shuja's authority in exchange for receiving Fatih Khan's title of w a z i ~ . ' ~

Dost Muhammad Khan's Person

Born on 8 Jumada I 1207123 December 1792, Dost Muhammad Khan was
only seven years old when his family was dispersed in the aftermath of
Payinda Khan's execution. Because of the unsettled circumstances of his
early years, Dost Muhammad Khan, unlike his elder brothers, received no
formal education. After Fatih Khan's and Shahzada Mahmud's conquest of
Qandahar in 1800, he became his eldest brother's personal attendant and
close companion. In the course of the intrigues surrounding Shah ShujaL's
reign from 1803-1809, he began to play an active role alongside Fatih
Khan. During Shah Mahmud's second reign he became a prominent
military leader and gained important political offices, such as the
deputyship of Kabul and the governorship of Kohistan.j7
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
The most detailed descriptions of Dost Muhammad Khan's appearance
and comportment were given by foreign vistors who came to Kabul in the
1830s. Mohan La1 noted Dost Muhammad Khan's 'tall stature and haughty
countenance,' as well as his 'proud tone of speech.'s8 Alexander Burnes was
impressed with his accomplished manners and address.j9 The American
mercenary Josiah Harlan, on the other hand, observed his 'boisterous and
energetic' temperament in conversation and his susceptibility to flattery.
Harlan, who claims to have been assigned a seat of honor next to the Amir,
apparently had ample opportunity to observe his features and clothing in
minute detail. He furnishes us with an account which displays an interesting
mixture of western prejudice and medical precision:
The Ameer is.. . in vigorous health. When he stands erect his height is
six feet, but there is a slight stoop in the neck arising from a rounded
contour of the shoulders, characteristic of his family, which militates
against the commanding appearance his person is otherwise formed to
impress when animated by conversation or excited by passion. He has
large features and a muscular frame; a heavy tread in his walk, placing
the sole of his foot all at once flat upon the ground, which indicates
that the instep is not well arched.. . The nose is aquiline, high, and
rather long, and finished with beautiful delicacy; the brow open,
arched and pencilled; the eyes are hazel-gray, not large, and of an
elephantine expression; the mouth large and vulgar and full of bad
teeth; the lips moderately thick; ears large. The shape of the face is
oval, rather broad across the cheeks, and the chin covered with a full
strong beard, originally black, now mixed with gray hairs.60
Probably the most favorable description of the Amir was given by Wood,
who accompanied Burnes to Kabul in 1837. He was particularly impressed
with Dost Muhammad Khan's intelligence and his ability to engage his
guests in conversation:
Dost Mohamed Khan is about forty-five years of age, and looks worn
out and aged before his time. His frame is large and bony, and all his
features strongly marked. There is a sternness in the general
expression of his features, which is increased by his flowing, jet-
black beard, but his countenance is lighted up by eyes of peculiar
brilliancy and intelligence: when he fixes them upon those by whom
he is addressed, they actually seem to flash with approbation or
dissent ... the various subjects on which he spoke, the good sense of
his remarks, and the readiness of his replies, proved that his
conversational talents were of no mean order. When any of us
addressed him, he sat with his eyes rivetted upon the speaker, and his
whole soul appeared absorbed by the subject: when he himself spoke,
though he did not resort to Persian gesture, nor assume the solemnity
 Dost Muhammad Khan's First Reign
of a Hindu rajah, there was that in his manner and tone of voice
which enforced a t t e n t i ~ n . ~ '
All visitors to Dost Muhammad Khan's court concurred with Harlan's
observation that the Amir's dress was 'unaffected and plain.'62 Masson
noted the simplicity of Dost Muhammad Khan's attire of white linen,
contrasting it favorably with the 'gay dresses' of the chiefs surrounding him,
in particular Muhammad 'Azim's son Habibullah Khan. According to
Masson, Dost Muhammad Khan made every effort to portray himself as a
sober and just ruler. After his assumption of power at Kabul, he 'abjured
wine and other unlawful pleasures' and dedicated himself fully to
government measures. The choice of his plain dress may have been another
expression of his newly found sobriety and a means to set himself apart
from the bad reputation that clung to some of his brothers. He clearly
disassociated himself from his brother Sultan Muhammad Khan, who was
infamous for his poor government of Peshawar and environs. Alluding to
Sultan Muhammad's love of fine robes, which had earned him the popular
nickname 'Telai' ('golden'), Dost Muhammad Khan derisively called him
'Sultan Bibi' ('lady').63
In the early years of his reign Dost Muhammad Khan also made up for
his lack of education. Tutored by Naib Muhammad Akhundzada, the Amir
read a section of the Koran every day after the morning prayer. This was
followed by lessons in history and poetry. Due to his long military career,
Dost Muhammad Khan not only spoke Persian and Pashtu but also Punjabi
and Turkish. Mohan La1 even credits him with knowledge of the Kashmiri
language.64This, in addition to his literary studies, allowed him to attend to
important government matters independent of his Qizilbash mirzas
(secretaries), who otherwise controlled all the home and foreign
c o r r e s p ~ n d e n c eMasson
.~~ notes that important government functionaries,
such as Mirza 'Abd al-Sami' and Haji Khan Kakar had pushed for Dost
Muhammad Khan's coronation in part because they hoped that his more
formal position would divert his attention from the business of government
and would give them greater freedom in decision making. Rather than
becoming a 'slave to etiquette,' however, Dost Muhammad Khan devoted
himself with even greater ardor to the administration of his realm after
assuming kingship.66
Another aspect in Dost Muhammad Khan's demeanor which did not
change with his coronation was his accessibility both to common man and
noble. Immediately after having been proclaimed Amir, he
protested to his friends, that he would not become a king after the
manner of the Suddoo Zyes, to be secluded in his haram and to take
no cognizance of public affairs - that he should take the same concern
in the affairs of the country as formerly, and that all classes of people
should have access to him.67
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan
Harlan reported that the Amir understood the needs of all classes of the
population, as the tumultuous years of his youth had brought him into
contact with people from all backgrounds. On Fridays a general court (bar-
i ' a m m ) was held during which 'the gateway.. . was thrown wide open and
the doorkeeper withdrawn. Every one who had a cause to urge or curiosity
to gratify might come into the presence without impediment. The Ameer
heard all complaints in person, attended by the C a ~ z e e . In
' ~ his
~ evaluation
of Dost Muhammad Khan's reign, Faiz Muhammad even claims that the
Amir did not designate a certain day as bar-i ' a m m but was always
available to his subjects, be it in court, in his private quarters, or in the
street.69 While this statement may be exaggerated, it underlines Dost
Muhammad Khan's general reputation for tolerance and patience, which
allowed even Hindus to approach him in the street 'with the certainty of
being attended to."' La1 furnishes another example of the Amir's
accessibility: 'any man seeking for justice may stop him on the road by
holding his hand and garment, once his beard, may abuse him for not
relieving his grievances, and the Amir will continue to listen to him
without disturbance or anger.'"
Although Dost Muhammad Khan's popularity was more or less limited
to the general populace, he was able to placate members of the nobility to a
certain degree by treating them as equals at court. Departing from Sadozai
customs, the Amir did away with elaborate ceremonial. Seated on a felt rug,
he would rise fully to greet his brothers and his nephew Muhammad
Zaman Khan. On the entrance of other dignitaries he would come up on his
knees or incline his body slightly in a mock attempt to do so. The chiefs
composing his court, on their part, entered freely with a bow and uttered
the usua.1 salutation of salam 'alaikum while touching their forehead with
the fingers of the right hand. Then they were conducted by the master of
ceremonies to their seats to the left or right of the Amir.72 The informal
character of court proceedings during Dost Muhammad Khan's early rule is
also reflected by the events following his coronation. According to Masson,
the darbar was 'the scene of much mirth, if not buffoonery' for some days
afterwards. Apparently the only change in ceremonial instituted was that
Dost Muhammad Khan was henceforth to be addressed as 'Amir Sahib'
instead of 'Sardar.' In a playful attempt to enforce this new rule it was
decided that chiefs who lapsed into the old form of address were to be fined
one rupee.73
Although most of the tribal leaders were not entirely won over by Dost
Muhammad Khan's emphasis on his role as primus inter pares, they could
not help but note a stark contrast between his easy manners and the strict
ceremonial instituted by Shah Shuja' during his reign with British backing
from 1839-1842. Possibly in an attempt to hark back to past Sadozai
splendor, Shah Shuja' was as remote from his subjects as Dost Muhammad
Khan had been accessible to them. Even the nobility had difficulty gaining
 State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan

DOST MUHAMMAD KHAN'S SPHERE O F INFLUENCE 1826-1839

After his assumption of power at Kabul Dost Muhammad Khan directed
most of his efforts to the establishment of a regular army. By 1832 his army
consisted of 9,000 cavalry and 2,000 infantry and was considered the
strongest military force within Afghani~tan.'~While Dost Muhammad
Khan's relative military strength discouraged further attempts by his
brothers to take over Kabul, his own sphere of influence remained limited
to the vicinity of the former Sadozai capital during the early years of his
reign. In the late 1820s his authority ended twenty miles south of Kabul.
The base of the Hindu Kush formed the northern boundary of his realm.
Until 1826 Parwan was held by his rebellious nephew, Habibullah, whose
force included Uzbeks and H a z a r a ~ . ~Although
' Dost Muhammad Khan
controlled Bamiyan, the routes leading there were in Hazara hands. In the
east, his supremacy ended at the Jagdalak Pass. Jalalabad and Laghman
remained under the authority of Nawwab Muhammad Zaman Khan and
Nawwab 'Abd al-Jabbar Khan. The revenues of Balabagh were collected by
Nawwab 'Abd al-Samad Khan's son Muhammad 'Usman Khan. Governed
by Dost Muhammad Khan's full brother Amir Muhammad Khan, Ghazni
formally belonged to the Amir's sphere of influence. Nonetheless, Amir
Muhammad Khan exercised 'absolute power' at Ghazni and it is doubtful
whether he submitted revenue payments to Dost Muhammad Khan." Apart
from formalities, such as the striking of coins and the reading of the khutba
in the Amir's name, the early Muhammadzai kingdom thus only had
'miniature' resemblance with the empire it had replaced.82 In the course of
the 1830s Dost Muhammad Khan was able to gain direct control over
Jalalabad and Ghazni. While tracing the events accompanying his
consolidation of power, this section will focus on the political setting in
the regions forming the core of this possession, that is, Kabul, Kohistan and
Bamiyan.

Kabul in the Early Nineteenth Century

The changing political constellations in the early nineteenth century
coincided with a sharpening sense of ethniclreligious divisions among the
various segments of the population in and around Kabul. Cultivating links
with one or the other of the local groups, the contestants for power played
on, and in effect enhanced, existing rivalries. This brought about an
increasing polarization along confessional lines, pitting the Shi'i Qizilbash
and Hazaras against the Sunni inhabitants of Kabul and Kohistan. The
divisions between the various ethnic groups were also reflected by spatial
boundaries. Therefore, I will begin with a description of Kabul and its
population before moving on to the narrative of the political developments
of the early Muhammadzai period.