The story
In 1747 Ahmad Khan, a young Pashtun commander, was chosen as king at an assembly of tribal leaders near Kandahar. He took the title Durr-i-Durran, 'pearl of pearls', and his Abdali tribe became known as the Durrani. The kingdom he founded grew into the Durrani Empire, which many Afghans regard as the origin of the modern state of Afghanistan.
Ahmad had served in the army of Nader Shah, the Persian conqueror who sacked Delhi in 1739 and carried off its treasures. When Nader was assassinated in June 1747, the empire he had built fell apart overnight. Ahmad led the Afghan cavalry back to Kandahar, taking with him a large share of the treasure, which is said to have included the Koh-i-Noor diamond. He then expanded quickly, taking Kabul, Ghazni, Lahore and Kashmir, and invaded northern India repeatedly. In 1761 he defeated the Maratha army at the Third Battle of Panipat. At its height the empire reached from eastern Iran to Delhi and from the Amu Darya to the Arabian Sea. After Ahmad Shah died in 1772 it decayed, and in 1826 the Barakzai dynasty took over.
Why it mattered
- The Durrani Empire created a Pashtun-led state whose core, and later borders, formed modern Afghanistan.
- Its victory at Panipat in 1761 broke Maratha power in the north and helped open India to British expansion.
- Afghanistan's later position as a buffer between the British and Russian empires grew out of this state.
Sources
- Ahmad Shah Durrani Britannica
- Dorrani Encyclopaedia Iranica
- Third Battle of Panipat Britannica
Drafted by AI (Claude) from the sources above and checked against them by AI; no historian has reviewed this page. Spot a mistake? Suggest a correction. How pages are made
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