Afghanistan
Since before the sixteenth century, several factions of dominate powers from the Mughul Indian Dynasty, the Safavid Empire of Iran and Turkic horsemen from the north, contested to varying degrees for possession over what is modern day Afghanistan. A rough demarcation of how the area was split was that Herat and the lower Helmad region fell under Safavid rule. The all important Kyber Pass that facilitated passengers along the Silk Road as well as Kabul belonged to the Moghul Indian power. While the few northern towns including Kunduz and Balkh near Hindu Kush were territories of the regional Turkic warriors including Uzbek tribesman.
These groups were predominantly overseers who taxed and utilized what was to be gained in defending these separate regions against their neighboring adversaries. The majority of the interior population were merely subjects of this distant ruling class. The local population had for centuries been mostly Pashtun whose personages can be traced back to a shared lineage of a man named Qais. Anesestral similarities were thus reckognized amongst these tribesmen although this bond rarely superseded the allegiance that was demanded by their vassal protectors. A second major characteristic of the population was that Islam is said to have been first adopted in the far region of the continent by these people shortly after the time of Prophet Mohammad.
During this history of the Pashtun people, a variety of tribal existences naturally emerged with hereditary differences forming that altered the purity of blood lines particularly during centuries of migration and intermarriage with invading groups. Those of whom having since the seventeenth century, represented the much of the Pashtun tribal factions include the Abdalis in the West, the Yusefzai in the east as well as a broken lineage of several other groups who are of major importance. The latter group includes the Gurgusht, Ghilzais and Karlanis of the Northwest Frontier.
How the societies of these different groups managed themselves was largely a result of which power oversaw them. An accepted way of life for these tribes was mostly obedience to their protector who in primitive ways would attempt to defend each region from invasion. What was owed in exchange for ruling the local lands included frequent payments of agriculture, livestock and even tribesmen to be used as mercenaries.
A turning point that effected most of the Middle East during the eighteenth century would prove to be fundamental for Afghanistan in breaking the non indigenous rule after conditions allowed for a local leader to formatively shape the beginnings of an autonomous state.
It began during the early 18th century as a series of struggles occurred that limited the stronghold of Safavid power that had up until then, proven itself dominant across most of central Asia. An important town of Kandahar in the Southeast had seen the grip of Mughal control subside and become governed by the Safavid rulers of Iran. But a local Ghilzi tribesman had fomented significant popularity as a local authority over the people. Seeing a potential power struggle, the appointed governor of Kandahar sent this tribal leader, Mir Veis, to the Persian capital of Isfahan primarily to cottle his allegiance. To the detriment of the larger Safavid ambitions in the area, Mir Veis, a Sunni, gained respect from the Shah in Isfahan by exhibiting piety and making the Haj pilgrimage. He was able to gather support in Isfahan and lead a rebellion over the Shiite, Safavid governor in Kandahar that quickly spread to revolts among other Afghan tribesman in an impactful claim for power.
The uprising in Kandahar instigated retaliation by Safavid armies that were sent from the Persian Capital to reclaim control. But large populations under Safavid control in Baluchistan, Khorasan and Bahrain heeded this example set by Mir Veis and local rebellions culminated to invoke a rapid hold on power by local Sunni, Afghans. Mir Veis’s son, Mahmud Ghilzai, further amassed the disparate support from these areas and was able to lead a large attack against the Shah’s authority in Isfahan. This effort succeeded in quarantining the army for six months in 1722 that eventually capitulated Safavid control to the ambitious young Pashtun warrior.
The Ottoman’s feared such a change as they had been supportive of the Shah and Safavid rule. The weakening of central leadership also preempted Peter the Great of Russia to expand slightly greater influence in the area yet Ottoman leadership prevailed with little opposition among the steppes to the north of Persia.
But in 1726 a resurgent figure of the old dynasty named Nader Qoli allied himself with the son of a former Safavid Shah named Tahmasp, who had managed to elude the Ottoman and Afghan forces in Northern Persia during the Ghilizi uprising. Nader and Tahmasp launched a commanding force to reconquer small areas and strengthen the military under Nader’s tactful ambition that led to reclaiming what had briefly been lost to the Ghilizi Afghan tribesman. By 1729 Isfahan was back under control of the younger Shah Tahmasp and the proven General Nader secured tax collecting authority over parts of his conquest.
Unbeknownst to Nader, the Shah Tahmasp waged battles with Ottomans, leading to a mild Ottoman victory which could be viewed as nothing but a setback to the ambitious plans for dominance. A more fervently invigorated General Nader thus redirected his attention westward by leading a campaign against the Ottomans in Iraq, Turkey and central Persia. With the commissioning of large numbers of troops who were groomed in a more modern style of warfare managed to effectively claim large areas of formerly controlled Ottoman land near the Gulf to the Caspian Sea and east to the Zagros Mountains.
Upon having asserted these greater territorial claims for Persia, the determined commander’s next move was further east into Herat, Kandahar, and Kabul. Further to the east Shah Nader led his massive army into the fierce Moghul territory near Delhi and despite inferior numbers was able to conquer the eastern border of present day Pakistan. The treasures held by the Moghul dynasty in that area were vast. Rather than annexing this territory in the east, he instead secured the treasure to help fund his expansion westward into the Ottoman Arab territory. His position to have exerted a larger occupying stake in the Moghul area near India may have brought to realization a strategy that was envisioned for an expansive empire facilitating trade from Baghdad to India with a convertible currency to the Indian rupee. This plan diminished however as General Nader learned of an ordered execution by his son upon the Shah Tahmasp and a successor Abbas. Nader suspected a threat to his own rule. Nader’s concentration thus focused westward and upon the return from Delhi, he stripped his son of military command in the west and called for a campaign of 375,000 soldiers including Kurds against Ottoman Iraq.
The military tactics he employed were more in line with the developments that had been used by the Europeans in the previous century involving armed troops with guns that required tactics and strenuous training. Encroachment into the Ottoman land was victorious in acquiring large parts of rural land and the town of Kirkuk but Basra, Baghdad and Mosul upheld their defense and sent the somewhat aging Nader back to his encampment near Isfahan and Shiraz.
He became forced to quell skirmishes in local areas close to his command due to disgrunteldness over the costs of war. He often reacted with little compassion which only acerbated local retaliation even more in the year’s before his death in 1747 when he was assassinated several years after making a treaty with the Ottomans.
Nader Shah's death further weakened and disbanded many factions of his massive military. Several former commanders, including Amad Khan of the Abdali tribe, who had presided over the Afghan fighters during the decades of campaigning, traversed back east and fought some battles along the way. One importantly decisive battle by Khan's forces in route back to Kandahar resulted in attaining a valuable Delhi treasure that would secure a fortuitous possession for Khan and his fellow Pashtuns. Upon return, Khan of Abdali was quickly elected to be the first shah of what was proclaimed as the Durrani, 'Pearl of Pearl', Dynasty that established control over much of modern day Afghanistan. Combining his many resources of proven military leadership, astounding wealth stemming from years of successful wars and the popular local support helped to soon expand his role far beyond Qandahar.
The land stretching northwest towards the town Herat was had been among the territorial reaches of Persia. But now this tribal land provided an opportunity for Ahmad himself to rule as Persia was absent of a leader capable of governing an area so far from it's capital. To the south was the Waziristan region, comprised of Pashtun tribes. Extending to the north was similarly a predominate population of various tribal Pashtuns of whom Ahmad Shah was highly capable of extending his leadership over. This geographical area, largely resembling the modern day border of Afghanistan came to represent the heartland of the Durrani Empire.
But more distant areas would soon come under the indirect control of this expanding state. First however, establishing the primary region capable of protecting itself and developing a power base influential enough as to not quickly crumble or be overtaken was a prime necessity.
The significant wealth that Amad Shah had accumulated throughout his tenure as a top general with Nader Shah provided significant clout in his ability to preside over a developing central Asian Dynasty. Expenses would be vast, mostly for the cost of military maintenance which continued to be a core aspect during Amad Shah's rule.
The establishment of majils or councils was a smart way of instilling limited authority to members of the various Pashtun tribes throughout the region. The majile system preserved the ultimate authority of Amad Shah but permitted a meaningful voice for fellow Pashtuns at regularly held tribunals to apprise the central leader of qualms or items deemed important. The coalescing of the Pashtun tribes was an important feature of ensuring a strong central rule, otherwise struggles were likely to ensue for ultimate authority if an order of balance wasn't maintained among them.
Thus the majiles prevailed rather effectively under Amad Shah's 25 years of power allowing the large Ghilzai Pashtun tribes who once comprised part of the important Ghaznavid Turkish Empire of the eleventh century to refrain from attempting a power grab. Even within the separate Durrani clan of Pashtun of whom Amad Shah belonged, their existed several other important tribes whose cooperation with each other as we'll later see wasn't always peaceful. So this rather effective way of preventing internal struggle allowed the ruler to concentrate military efforts on more distant areas like northern Kosaran which at the time was held feebly by Uzbek tribesman around the town of Bukhara.
The Uzbeks were a Turkic group of people who resided among a sizeable central region comprised of rocky plains south of the Oxus River. Being of a Turkish descent, their lifestyle was a brash existence consisting of expert horseback riding and centuries of maintaining autonomy in the areas north of frequently Persian controlled territory. With Nader Shah having been a Turkish tribesman himself from farther to the west at Mashhad, he had managed to claim much of the land where the Uzbeks inhabited. Thus Amad was able to capitalize on the military influence of his former general and exercise a meaningful ability for collecting revenue and presiding control over this group initially. Later in his rule though, the Uzbek amir would challenge Durrrani power for it's land and result in the signing of a treaty establishing what now exists as the border between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
To the east were the Punjabi of present day Pakistan. Even further to the east were the remains of the once influential Mughal Empire that had been founded by Babur Mughal in the mid sixteenth century before extending it's ancestral lineage through male heirs for the next several centuries. The Mughal Indian region had by the mid eighteenth century receded back east of the Indus River consisting largely of Hindi, Sikhs and other groups with Delhi as it's capital.
For these surrounding areas, the sheer military strength that Amad Shah compiled provided a successful ability in keeping the territory indirectly ruled and subservient to monetary rumination.
The taxing authorities consisted usually of groups of a dozen or more horse mounted officials who would disperse to various towns and homes within a particular region of the empire to consulate with the male protector of the property. Within the area of the Durranni Empire, for example, the male tenant of the property would be required to submit what goods were asked of him to satisfy the demands of the collectors. Payment in non-currency would be accumulated among the surrounding areas and taken to the Bazaar merchants in Kabul where exchange was made for currency or other items deemed necessary by the authorities for financing the state. A major expense was the payment of jagirs which were a soldier's salary. As Amad Shah enlisted a large army to maintain a rather expansive territory, this was one of the primary costs during his reign.
A basic description of Amad's pecuniary policy is that he would rely upon western groups from the empire to supply his military service while keeping their taxes otherwise low. These groups either were typically some form of Pashtun or Persian ethnicity and with generations of hereditary fighting experience. To the east in Punjab territory of present day Pakistan, he sought more financial concession as their loyalty in battle could not be as trusted as those of the west. Additionally the wealth of the east of the Mughal Indu Dynasty was far more vast than the nomadic pastoral people on the western bordering land of Persia. So seeking defensive power in the west from Pashtun inhabited territory and sufficient finances from the east helped maintain a balanced operation of this first generational Durrani rule.
Succession was passed to Timur Shah who had to first convincingly prove the claim against his brother as in fighting or transitry struggles upon the death of a former ruler was so common during Dynastic rule.
Timur Shah demonstrated nothing of the strong military leadership style of his father. He presided over the external territories in the north and east with a passive style that was largely insufficient to maintain effective rule. His priority focused on maintaining a central order to preserve his position of power among the advisers and other Pashtun groups including the Ghilzais as well as other Durrani tribes. Thus the central bastion of influence for the eastern lands of Peshwar, Lahore, and Delhi east of the Indus River fell back within the Punjab control.
What would present Timur with more pressing concern was rivalry within his own position of internal command. Amad Shah and his heirs were of the Sadozai lineage of Durrani Pashtun.
This tribal ancestry represented one of the two largest sects but was rivaled by the other Durrani group known as the Karadzai. This second group was a powerful, once rival clan who would exert efforts to position their way into more control beyond just the order of the majiles tribunal. This would be a timely process predicated upon a litany of situations and local rulers that would for nearly half a century involve some shared control over the Empire until power would eventually be seized away from the Sadozai bloodline. The Barakzai's weren't quick in attempting to strip the Sadozai family from their authority because such a move would lessen the credibility of Duranni the state as Amad Shah had so valiantly founded it several decades before.
Thus even after the rule of Timur Shah, which ended in 1793 with no appointed successor, precluded the Barakzai clan from attempting to claim ultimate authority rather leaving the position open for the four sons of Timur to battle over who ascend to power. The administrative courts were presided over predominately by members of Sadozai tribes while the majiles of various Pashtun tribes continued having some degree of say so in the dynasty. Yet an alliance had become more closely bridged between Shah Zamad, one of Timur's sons, and with members of the Barakzai tribes notably Payinda Khan. Payinda was promoted to an offical office by Zamad as he was the first of the brothers to occupy the power in 1793. Aided in his ascension by the assistance of Payinda Khan, Zamad in 1793 was the first of the brothers to succeed Timur and he promoted Payinda to official office. However this was short lived appointment as Zamad had Payinda killed soon after.
Revenge from fellow Barakzai family members ensued resulting in the blinding of Zamad Shah and the enthronement of another brother, Mahmud, in 1800. A rather savage form of partnership prevailed for Shah Mahmud with that of the Barakzais over the next eighteen years. This once rival tribe of the Sadozais had now seated themselves within an influenctial dynastic position of power in Afghanistan which provided a shared authority but also fostered significant suspicious that each other would undue the other if the threat of rivalry became too severe.
Ultimately, this occurred in 1818 as Mahmud, ordered a brutal slaying of Fatih Hakahn an appointed Baradzai clansmen. Retaliation thus was imminent and the pattern of unsustainable alliances between rival Pashtun tribes during this period continued. Not feeling compelled to quickly seize empowerment of the state, the Barakzai's kept a balance of power by occupying important seats within the Kabul ministries but allowing a successor Sadozai family member to occupy the figurehead position of Shah.
A Barakzai though did ascend to preeminent authority in 1826 under Dost Mohammad at a time when the once strong Durrani Empire had merely to downsized to what was more accurately the Kingdom of Kabul.
Amidst the misguided continuation of the state and extremes of violence in vying for authority, rivalry would persist even among the Baradzai. The notion of hereditary claims continued playing an important part in Afghanistan yet managed to uphold a Durrani lineage rather than ceding authority to one of the other major Pashtun groups like the Ghilzais. Soon though the British would summon an army from their colonial territory in Bengal, India and present a whole new assortment of problems.