Aryans and Achaemenids (c. 1500 B.C.–330 B.C.)
A pastoral, cityless, people led by heroic warriors riding two-horsed chariots came out of the north to shatter the great cities of the Indus Valley. In the sacerdotal writings of the Vedic Aryans, the Rigveda, we read of the Kubha (Kabul) River and know of their passage through Afghanistan sometime around 1500 B.C. In the related Persian hymns of the Avesta, we read of Bakhdi (Balkh) “the beautiful, crowned with banners” and of Zarathustra Spitama (Zoroaster), the great politico-religious leader who lived in Balkh sometime between 1000 and 600 B.C.
The Aryans found the northern plains ideal for their flocks of sheep and goats. Many settled here and prospered. As the years passed, however, the various Aryan tribes frequently fought among themselves, encouraging the subjugated indigenous tribes to rise in revolt. Predatory raids by bands of horse-riding nomads from across the Oxus added to the turmoil. Keeping the Aryan herdsmen from their grazing lands, the nomads demanded, and began to receive, tribute for grazing rights. Aryan independence seemed doomed. It was then that Zoroaster came forth to exhort the people to unite, in the name of the god Ahuramazda.
Victorious, Zoroaster then advised his followers to develop agriculture in addition to herding if they wished to remain independent and grow strong. The fertile plains of Bactria blossomed and the land prospered.
Successive waves of Aryan migrations from Trans-Oxiana, finding the Afghan area occupied by the Vedic Aryans, moved west, onto the Iranian Plateau, where they evolved from a semi-nomadic state into an extensive empire which eventually stretched from the borders of Greece to the Indus River. The Achaemenid Kings conquered in the name of Ahuramazda and Zoroastrianism was their religion.
Achaemenid campaigns into the Afghan area were undertaken by Darius I (522–486 B.C.), builder of the famous palaces of Susa and Persepolis, and are recorded on his tombstone. To facilitate trade, an imperial highway passed through Afghanistan, along virtually the same route modern highway builders have but recently paved. The excavations at Shahr-i-Kona, the old city of Kandahar, undertaken by the British Institute of Afghan Studies in 1974 (D. Whitehouse) and 1975 (A. McNicoll) indicate that by 500 B.C. Kandahar had replaced Mundigak as the major city of the south. In the north, Soviet excavations at a series of mounds given the general designation of (A)ltyn, not far from the Dashli group above Balkh, revealed a large principal administrative town and a monumental private residence in the Achaemenid style with a central court dominated by a pool or fountain. Outside the residence there was a large columned courtyard divided into two equal sections by a line of rooms possibly used for public audiences by some grandee or noble. There is evidence of a great conflagration which burned the wooden superstructure of the portico surrounding these courtyards. Curiously, it seems to have been set just about the time of Alexander of Macedon’s sojourn in northern Afghanistan. (V. Sarianidi, 1972)
Alexander of Macedon (330–327 B.C.)
Alexander the Great crushed the Achaemenid Empire. By the time he stood on the threshold of Afghanistan the last Achaemenid King, Darius III, lay dead, murdered by his Bactrian allies. Alexander’s armies momentarily exulted in the belief that their task was complete; they yearned to be homeward bound. But the young, ill in his twenties, conqueror dreamed of equaling, if not surpassing the conquests of Darius I. Furthermore, he smarted with anger on hearing that Bessus, murderer of Darius and chief of the Hadrians, had assumed the titles of the Achaemenid kings and was gathering an army.
In 330 B.C. Alexander started east. His direct pursuit of Bessus was, however, checked by revolt in Aria (Herat). Turning south, covering 75 miles in two days, he quickly subdued the surprised rebels and moved on into Drangiana (along the Hilmand) and from there relentlessly pushed on into Arachosia (Kandahar and Ghazni), on to Paropamisadae (Kabul–Charikar), up the Panjsher Valley and over the Khawak Pass to Drapsaka (Kunduz). The two chief cities of Bactria, Aornos (Tashkurghan) and Bactra (Balkh), surrendered without resistance in the spring of 329 B.C.
Establishing a base camp at Bactra, Alexander pursued the rebels across the Oxus. Bessus was captured, put into chains and executed. Some Bactrian chieftains offered their submission and were confirmed in their satrapies; many fought on with the aid of nomadic groups mounted on swift horses. Two years of campaigns brought less than total success. Furthermore, increasing opposition to Alexander’s assumption of god-like airs, and his adoption of Persian dress and court ceremonial led to conspiracies, executions and distressing disquiet within the camp. It was time to move on and Alexander turned to the conquest of India. With characteristic haste he took only ten days to move his army back over the Hindu Kush to the Charikar area.
An estimated 27–30,000 fighting men moved at his command. They followed the Panjsher River to its junction with the Kabul River and then moved on to Jalalabad where Alexander divided this huge force, sending the main army through the Khyber Pass area while he took a small mobile force to deal with the tribes in the mountains above the Kunar River, in the area known today as Nuristan. From here he passed into Swat. Campaigns in the Punjab and in Sind continued until 326 B.C. when his troops, at long last, forced a return to their homeland.
Alexander established several Alexandrias in the Afghan area and many cities in Afghanistan claim the honour of being so founded, but no conclusive archaeological evidence exists. Even Balkh, traditionally thought to be the site of Bactra, has failed to oblige the archaeologists’ spades. Kandahar lays claim to being Alexandria-ad-Arachosia and the discovery there of two inscriptions in the Greek language certainly points to a nourishing Greek community living in old Kandahar. When they came, however, is still debated. Evidence to support the theory that Ai Khanoum (discussed below) may in fact have been first established by Alexander as Alexandria-ad-Oxiana, increases with each year’s excavations, however.
Mauryans and Graeco-Bactrians (305 B.C.–48 A.D.)
Three years after Alexander left India he died in Babylon (343 B.C.) and, while his Companions fought over the division of his conquests, independent local dynasties in the east rose and prospered.
Seleucus, inheritor of Alexander’s eastern conquests, came to establish his authority in Bactria (305 B.C.), but south of the Hindu Kush he lost the Kabul–Kandahar area to the Indian Mauryan Dynasty, which had united the plethora of petty kingdoms in India under their strong and able rule after Alexander left. Having received the southern provinces of Afghanistan from Seleucus in return for 500 elephants and a princess, the Mauryans confirmed local chieftains in their satrapies but continued to regard them with a keen sense of benevolent responsibility, especially during the rule of King Ashoka, the dynasty’s renowned ruler who reigned from 268–233 B.C.
An Ashokan bilingual rock inscription discovered on a boulder near the old city of Kandahar in 1967 is written in Greek and in Aramaic, the official language of the Achaemenids. A lengthier Greek inscription, also found in the old city of Kandahar, in 1963, provided further concrete evidence for an important Greek-speaking community in Kandahar in the middle of the 3rd century B.C. Many had undoubtedly come during the period of Achaemenid rule for the Achaemenids are known to have deported politically dissident Greeks to Bactria. Their number no doubt swelled during and following the advent of Alexander.
The Ashokan Rock and Pillar Edicts which spell out his precepts for a life devoted to charity and compassion toward both man and beast, are well known in India, but these Kandahar Millets are the western-most Edicts to have been found and they are the only ones to use Greek. As such they are an exciting additional illustration of Afghanistan’s traditional role in bringing together east and west.
An Ashokan inscription in Aramaic found in 1969 in Laghman Province indicates that Ashoka also thought of lands far to the West of the Afghan area. Professor André Dupont-Sommer of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Paris, points out that the inscription contains the phrase “At a distance of 200 ‘bows’ this way to (the place) called Tadmor.” Tadmor may be identified as Palmyra, Syria, and the inscription stood beside the highway which led from India to the Middle East. Ashoka’s missionaries travelled the length of this highway and Professor Dupont-Sommer, who also worked on the Dead Sea Scrolls, theorizes that they may have provided the inspiration for such monastic orders as the Essenes, authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls, whose origins continue to mystify scholars.
Though the ideals are similar, the texts on the inscriptions found in Afghanistan are not identical to any of the texts found in India. Ashoka adapted his edicts to meet the cultural patterns of the people to whom they were addressed. Ashoka’s Doctrine of Piety is put forth in the Greek text from the bilingual inscription at Kandahar:
“Ten years (of reign) having been completed, King Piodasses (Ashoka) made known (the doctrine of) Piety to men; and from this moment he has made men more pious, and everything thrives throughout the whole world. And the king abstains from (killing) living beings, and other men and those who (are) huntsmen and fishermen of the king have desisted from hunting. And if some (were) intemperate, they have ceased from their intemperance as was in their power; and obedient to their father and mother and to the elders, in opposition to the past also in the future, by so acting on every occasion, they will live better and more happily.” (Trans. by G. P. Carratelli)
For the people living south of the Hindu Kush, subject to this humanitarian influence from the east, this was a period of tranquility accompanied by prosperity.
In the north, Bactria also prospered but here the cultural orientation was toward the west and the times were turbulent instead of tranquil. A local Bactrian governor eventually declared complete independence from Seleucid rule in 250 B.C. and his successors ultimately expanded Bactrian authority below the Hindu Kush to Kabul and to the cities of the Punjab where Mauryan power had steadily declined since the death of Ashoka.
The search in Afghanistan for a genuine Bactrian city, begun in the 1920s, finally ended in 1965 when French archaeologists began excavations, now under the direction of Paul Bernard, at the mile long mound of Ai Khanoum (Moon Lady, in Uzbaki), at the confluence of the Kokcha and Oxus Rivers, northeast of Kunduz. The 627 magnificent Bactrian coins contained in the Kunduz Treasure recovered (1946) from Khist Tapa at Qala-i-Zal, northwest of Kunduz (now in the National Museum, Kabul), are masterful monuments to the strength of those they portray; they speak of a highly sophisticated culture.
Superbly rich Ai Khanoum yearly adds substance to our knowledge of life in Bactria during the rule of the Bactrians (Chapter 29). The lower levels of the city mound site of Emchi Tepe near Shibarghan excavated by Soviet archaeologists produced many human figurines in Bactrian style, sherds inscribed with Greek characters, plates with central ornamental medallions in relief and other artifacts permitting a dating from the end of the 4th to the end of the 2nd centuries B.C. (I. Kruglikova, 1969–70).
The Bactrian dynasties were beset in later years by internal weaknesses brought on by overextension, personal rivalries, murder and fratricide. Charred beams and great quantities of charcoal throughout the upper levels of Ai Khanoum provide mute evidence of a succession of nomadic invasions at the end of the Second Century A.D. It is hard to imagine the imperious kings of the Bactrian coins in this account of what the nomads saw as they gazed across the Oxus and considered the invasion: “They (the Bactrians) were sedentary, and had walled cities and houses. They had no great kings or chiefs, but some cities and towns had small chiefs. Their soldiers were weak and feared fighting. They were skillful in trade.” (Chinese source, Shih Chi, Book 123).
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| A Coin from the Kunduz Hoard |
The invading nomads crossed the Oxus and submerged Bactria about 135 B.C.; in 48 B.C. the last Greek king, Hermaeus, confined to the valley of Kabul, signed an alliance with the nomad chief, now a king, and peacefully ended Greek rule in the Afghan area.
Kushans (c. 135 B.C.–241 A.D.)
Restless nomadic tribes living in Central Asia had long been of concern to the rulers of Bactria and their relentless encroachments into the settled areas fill the pages of the area’s early history. Real nomadic political power in Afghanistan was, however, first established by the Yueh-chih who, forced from their grazing lands on the Chinese border, enter this story as a loose confederation of five clans. United under the banner of one, the Kushan, they wrote one of history’s most brilliant and exciting chapters in Afghanistan.
Kushan King Kanishka (c. 130 A.D.) was this dynasty’s most forceful and colorful personality. The heart of his empire centered around two capitals: the summer capital of Kapisa, north of Kabul near the modern towns of Begram and Charikar, and Peshawar, the winter capital. Far beyond this, however, from the Ganges Valley to the Gobi Desert, satellite satrapies and independent states bowed to Kushan economic and political influence.
The Second Century A.D. which saw the Kushan Empire reach its greatest heights was a fabulous era in world history: the time of the Caesars in Rome and the Han Emperors in China, both of whom avidly exchanged their most exotic products and greedily eyed the spices, gems and cosmetics of India and Ceylon, the gems and furs of Central Asia. Silk was the major item of this trade and it is reported that it sold for $800,000 a pound in the sybaritic markets of Rome. Situated exactly midway on the great caravan route known as the Silk Route, the Kushans exploited their position and gained vast wealth and with it, great power.
In addition, during the first two centuries of the A.D. era sea trade between the northern and eastern coasts of Africa and India was brisk and prosperous. Sometime in the middle of the 1st century B.C. a Greek sailor named Hippalus discovered that he could take advantage of the monsoon winds and sail from southern Arabia to India in forty days. By 24 B.C. at least 120 ships set sail annually and by the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. ships and fleets had become so large that they were “agitating the white foam,” according to Strabo the geographer. The overland Silk Route takes its name from the most prestigious commodity traded along it. The sea route could therefore be called the Pepper Route, for though the great warehouses in the Indian ports were stocked with pearls and gems, fine fabrics and perfumes, it was the tangy spice from Malabar which was valued above all. In exchange, the merchants from Greece and Alexandria brought wine, metalwork, ceramics, glassware and slaves.
At Kapisa, political and commercial center of the Empire, French archaeologists discovered (1939) a most magnificent Kushan treasure which represents the extent and the richness of this trade in capsule form. Here, in two small rooms, exquisitely carved ivories wrought in classic Indian style were stacked side by side with fine Chinese lacquers and an infinite variety of Roman bronzes, bas reliefs and glass from Alexandria. Obviously, Kapisa’s citizenry had fine taste, and the wealth to indulge it. (On display, National Museum, Kabul; site discussed in section (3), Chapter 5).
The rise to world prominence had wrought great changes on the nomadic Kushans. Having no traditions on which to build a settled way of life, they adapted what they found in ways best suited to their own personality. What emerged was a vibrant and indigenous culture born of the fusion of western-oriented Bactrian ideals with those from eastern-oriented India, interpreted by the forceful, free character born on the steppes of Central Asia. The result was vital and dynamic.
The massive city site of Delbarjin built on the plains northwest of Balkh during the Achaemenid/Bactrian period flourished under Kushan occupation. Wall-paintings depicting the iconography of Buddhism and Hinduism exhibit stylistic affinities with Central Asia (Chapter 21; I. Kruglikova, 1970–present). Delbarjin is a most dramatic monument to Kushan power and culture. The old city of Kandahar was also extensively occupied during this period. An unique soapstone mold depicting a winged lion on an elephant standing on a lotus includes several Buddhist motifs; a stupa/monastery stands on a spur overlooking the city.
The revival of the ancient religion of Buddhism by Kanishka and the attendant emergence of Gandhara art are enduring manifestations of Kushan culture. A new school of Buddhist thought stressing the miraculous life and personality of the Buddha was officially sanctioned at a great council called by Kanishka. This humanization of the Buddha led directly to a desire for a representative figure of the Buddha who had, until this time, been depicted by such symbols as a wheel, an empty throne, a riderless horse, or a foot print. East and West joined in the creation of the familiar Buddha figure and adapted it to fit Indian philosophical ideals.
Scores of missionaries soon travelled the world to spread the word. They followed the caravans along the Silk Route and Buddhism spread from its homeland through Afghanistan to China and the lands of the Far East where it lives today as one of the Twentieth Century’s most vibrant religions.
Along the route they established countless shrines and monasteries and Afghanistan’s landscape is liberally sprinkled with Buddhist Kushan sites: Hadda and Darunta near Jalalabad; Kandahar; Maranjan, Shewaki and Guldara in and near Kabul; Tope Darra, Koh-i-Mari, Shotorak, and Paitava in the Koh Daman; Tapa Sardar in Ghazni; Wardak; Fondukistan in the Ghorband Valley; Bamiyan; Takht-i-Rustam in Samangan; Durman Tapa and Chaqalaq near Kunduz, and Tapa Rustam and Takht-i-Rustam at Balkh. The most recently identified complex, dated by carbon-14 ca. 150 A.D., sits beside the lake of Ab-i-Istada, southwest of Moqor (Dupree, 1974).
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| Tapa-i-Shotor, V1, Hadda |
The central shrines at these religious complexes, called stupas, were lavishly decorated with sculptured scenes from the life of the Buddha. Fashioned from stone, stucco, or, simply from mud and straw, this indigenous art style, among history’s most stimulating and inspiring forms, bears the name of Gandhara Art.
Kanishka’s interest in religion was, however, eclectic. On his coinage the Buddha stands as only one of a wide pantheon of gods and goddesses representing deities of Greek, Persian, Central Asian and Hindu origin. Buddhist iconography is, for instance, totally lacking at Kanishka’s own temple at Surkh Kotal, just north of the Hindu Kush. Excavations began at Surkh Kotal in 1952 under the direction of Daniel Schlumberger. They have disclosed the existence of a purely indigenous religion centered around the cult of fire which may have been dedicated to the worship of Kanishka himself.
A layer of ash at Surkh Kotal speaks silently of the end of this brilliant era and the beginning of an age characterized by warring petty kingdoms. With the demise of the Great Kushans, the centers of power shift outside the area and almost 900 years pass before Afghanistan swings back into the spotlight.
Interim: Sasanian–Samanid
Decadence sapped the power of both China and Rome and gravely disrupted the trade upon which Kushan prosperity depended. At the same time, civil wars following Kanishka’s death so weakened the Kushans that they fell under the sway of the recently established Sasanian Empire of Persia. Reduced to provincial status by the middle of the 3rd century A.D. (241 A.D.) they were subsequently swamped by a new wave of nomadic invasions from Central Asia. The Hephthalites (White Huns) came into Afghanistan about 400 A.D. and ruled for almost 200 years but little outside their ruthless destruction of Buddhist shrines is known of their Afghan sojourn. Thousands of large and small tumuli lying outside Kunduz on the plateau of Shakh Tapa have been identified as Hephthalite tombs by exploratory excavations conducted by French archaeologists under the direction of Marc Le Berre in 1963, and they may some day reveal a fuller picture of the Hephthalites in Afghanistan. For the moment, however, we know only that local strongmen, some now Hinduized, some still adhering to Buddhism, ruled Afghanistan. Tribal independence was the fiercely protected ideal.
The advent of Hinduism is clouded with mystery but Chinese accounts such as Hsuan-tsang’s in the 7th century report Hindu kingdoms in the Kabul, Gardez and Ghazni areas. Accidental finds of marble statuary representing the elephant god Ganesh were found in the Koh Daman and Gardez and some scholars have advanced the theory that the concept of Ganesh actually originated in the Afghan area. The two statues now reside as the principal votive figures in two of Kabul’s largest Hindu temples. A head of Shiva and a large fragmentary piece depicting Shiva’s consort, Durga, slaying the Buffalo Demon, were accidentally retrieved from Gardez; a head of Durga, a beautifully modeled male torso and a large lingam were discovered, also accidentally, in the Tagao Valley, between Gulbahar and Sarobi. All these pieces are now in the National Museum, Kabul.
A sculptured piece representing the Sun God Surya was excavated by French archaeologists at Khair Khana on the outskirts of Kabul in 1934 (J. Carl, DAFA). Most recently, exciting new scientifically excavated evidence has come from the Italian excavations at Tapa Sardar in Ghazni (M. Taddei, IsMEO; section (7), Chapter 9) and the Japanese excavations at Tapa Skandar in the Koh Daman (T. Higuchi, Kyoto). The results of future excavations at these sites are eagerly awaited.
Just 24 km; 15 mi. southwest of Kandahar, not far from Deh Morasi Ghundai, a large cave called Shamshir Ghar, excavated by Dupree in 1950, provides a tantalizing footnote to this confused era. Occupied from the 1st century B.C. to the 13th century A.D., a particularly thick occupation level relates to the Kushano-Sasanian period from 300–700 A.D. It seems unreasonable that people would choose to live in a cave at a time when several large cities like Bost and Zaranj, numerous towns, and countless villages provided more comfortable conditions. Nor could periodic stops by nomads have contributed such a thick level of material. It would seem rather that this was a place of refuge used by the inhabitants of the area while the Hephthalites and Sasanians battled for supremacy and during the early plundering raids by the Arabs which followed. Continuous political upheavals culminating in a Mongol invasion in the middle of the 13th century, the last significant occupation level at Shamshir Ghar, are amply documented by historical accounts.
Arab armies carrying the banner of Islam came out of the west to defeat the Sasanians in 642 A.D. and then they marched with confidence to the east. On the western periphery of the Afghan area the princes of Herat and Seistan gave way to rule by Arab governors but in the east, in the mountains, cities submitted only to rise in revolt and the hastily converted returned to their old beliefs once the armies passed.
The harshness and avariciousness of Arab rule produced such unrest, however, that once the waning power of the Caliphate became apparent, native rulers once again established themselves independent. Among these the Saffarids of Seistan shone briefly in the Afghan area. The fanatic founder of this dynasty, the coppersmith’s apprentice Yaqub ibn Layth Saffari, came forth from his capital at Zaranj in 870 A.D. and marched through Bost, Kandahar, Ghazni, Kabul, Bamiyan, Balkh and Herat, conquering in the name of Islam. He then marched on Baghdad (873) to chastise the Caliph for failing to adequately confirm his authority but in this he was defeated and he returned to northern Afghanistan where another local Islamic dynasty, the Samanids ruling from Bokhara (872–999), contested his authority. Yaqub succeeded in keeping his rivals north of the Oxus River but immediately after his death in 879 the Samanids moved to take Balkh from his brother. Succeeding in 900 A.D., they moved south of the Hindu Kush and extended their enlightened rule throughout the Afghan area. Unlike the dashing, opportunistic soldier-of-fortune Yaqub, the Samanids stood for law and order, orthodoxy in Islam, and a return to cultural traditions. Balkh was a prominent Samanid town, the home of numerous poets including the beautiful but tragic poetess Rabia Balkhi whose tomb was discovered in 1964. The richly decorated remains of the mosque called No Gumbad, Nine Domes, also at Balkh, is an unique and very beautiful example of the highly sophisticated, exuberant Samanid culture.
South of the Hindu Kush, however, allegiance to Samanid authority was vague and constantly contested by revolt, especially in Seistan where a rapid succession of Yaqub’s descendants ceaselessly jockeyed for position and power which they miraculously maintained, albeit tenuously, as provincial officials until 1163. Elsewhere the country was apportioned approximately thus: Bost, Ar-Rukhaj (i.e., Arachosia or Kandahar) and Ghazni were ruled by Turkic princes; Kabul by the Hindu Shahi dynasty; Tukharistan (from Balkh to Badakhshan) had numerous fortified towns with their own princes; and Khurasan, roughly encompassing Meshed, Merv and Balkh with Herat at its center, was governed for the Samanids by a Turkic slave general.
Ghaznavids (962–1186)
The right of these local rulers to rule rested solely upon their personal strength and charisma; seats of power were fair game for anyone strong enough to take them. Taking advantage of this situation, Alptigin, a Turkish slave deposed as Commander-in-Chief of Samanid forces in Khurasan, marched south and established himself as master of the fort of Ghazni in 962 A.D. Alptigin died soon after taking Ghazni, but his successors, particularly his slave, Sebuktigin (977–997), and Sebuktigin’s son, the great Sultan Mahmud (998–1030), moved out to annex Kabul (977), Bost (977–8), Balkh (994), Herat (1000) and parts of western Persia. Thus established, they then carried the banner of Islam on to India during numerous iconoclastic campaigns from which they returned laden with rich booty. Ghazni, until then an insignificant fort-town, became one of the most brilliant capitals of the Islamic world.
Great mosques and sumptuous palaces, surrounded by carefully tended gardens, rose to be adorned with the gold and gems of India. Here the era’s most illustrious poets, artists, architects, philosophers, musicians, historians, artisans and craftsmen gathered under the keen patronage of the court. Two thousand five hundred elephants, symbols of the Sultan’s immense power and prestige, the backbone of his army, lived in fine stables and “his court was guarded by four thousand Turkish beardless slave-youths, who, on days of public audience, were stationed on the right and left of the throne, two thousand of them with caps ornamented with four feathers, bearing golden maces, on the right hand, and the others, with caps adorned with two feathers, bearing silver maces, on the left.” (Juzjani).
In the winter the court moved from chilly Ghazni to the friendly warmth of Bost, as much for the comfort and well-being of their elephants as for their own. The great arch which stands at the foot of the citadel mound at Bost attests to the imposing proportions and lavish decoration expended on the buildings of Bost. North of the fort area the plains are strewn with mounds marking the soldiers’ quarters, Lashkar Gah, and the mile long bazaar, Lashkari Bazaar, where the traders who supplied the troops had their shops. On the banks of the Hilmand River at Lashkari Bazaar nobles vied with one another in building pleasure villas. The monumental walls of these villas stretch for miles along the Hilmand today. They stand tall, and from a distance one anticipates the sound of music signalling the start of gay, convivial festivities. On drawing near, however, they prove but empty shells, stripped of their opulent furnishings by mountain men from Ghor, maddened by insult.
The emptiness and ruin is even more apparent at Ghazni, victim of successive onslaughts, where only two minarets and the tomb of the great conqueror Sultan Mahmud still remain. From mounds of rubble at the feet of the minarets, however, Italian archaeologists, under the direction of Umberto Scerrato, have rescued impressive evidence of the splendor and glory that once radiated throughout the world from this great capital city.
Ghorids (1148–1202)
The Ghorids who delivered the death blow to the Ghaznavids are a classic example of the sometimes independent, sometimes semi-independent local chieftains to which this discussion has referred so often. Living in the high mountains east of Herat where the rugged terrain discouraged outsiders from all but periodic raids for plunder, slaves or tribute, these chieftains dwelt in heavily fortified villages happily engaging in their personal contests. Fortune was a highly mercurial commodity, however, and the rise or fall of an individual was often determined by the vagaries of mere chance.
It is related, for instance, that during the time of the great Caliph Harun al-Rashid (785–809), of Arabian Nights fame, two chieftains of Ghor decided to settle their dispute over paramountcy by placing their case before the Caliph. Though they both joined the same caravan only one caught the shrewd eye of a Jewish merchant who offered, in return for exclusive trading rights in Ghor, to instruct his awkward travelling companion in the intricacies of the sophisticated court life of Baghdad. His pupil listened well during the long, slow journey and on the day of the audience the chief of the House of Shansab of Ghor moved imperiously through the complicated ceremonies, dressed magnificently in robes of highest fashion. His rival, on the other hand, appeared in the “short garments which he was accustomed to wear at home,” impressing no one. And so, it is written, the “Shansabani received all of the territory of Ghor from Caliph Harun-ar-Rashid.” (Juzjani, 1260 A.D.)
The historical accuracy of such tales must, of course, be questioned for when Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi invaded Ghor in 1009 he found the people to be pagan, but the fickleness of fortune is accurately illustrated and Sultan Mahmud did negotiate with a local Shansabani chief ruling at Ahangaran where prized Ghorid arms were manufactured. By the beginning of the 12th century the Shansabani had extended their authority over the other Ghorid chiefs and their power was such that they stood almost as equals with the Ghaznavids on their southern border and the Seljuks on their northern border. Honoring this strength, Malik al-Jibal “King of the Mountain” laid out the foundations of a great capital city called Firozkoh which some believe to have been at Jam where a magnificent minaret now stands. Malik Qutubuddin was unable, however, to finish his city for he had a falling out with his brothers (he had seven) and was forced to leave for Ghazni where he was well received and well respected until Sultan Bahram Shah (1118–1152), jealous of his increasing popularity, served him with a glass of poisoned sherbet (1146). Fratricidal bickerings at home in Ghor were immediately set aside once this heinous insult became known and a relentless enmity between Ghor and Ghazni began, to end in the obliteration of the Ghaznavids.
One by one the brothers left their mountain capital with their armies to engage in a complicated series of maneuvers for revenge and counter-revenge: the first brother captured Ghazni and disdainfully sent his army back to Ghor whereupon the Sultan returned to torture the Ghorid to death; the second brother died on his way to revenge the new death (1149); the third, Alauddin, defeated the Sultan Bahram Shah in the vicinity of modern Kandahar (1151). The Sultan fell back in retreat upon Ghazni which “Alauddin took by storm, and during seven nights and days fired the place, and burnt it with obstinacy and wantonness… During these seven days, the air, from the blackness of the smoke, continued as black as night; and those nights, from the flames raging in the burning city, were lighted up as light as day. During these seven days likewise, rapine, plunder and massacre were carried out with the utmost pertinacity and vindictiveness.” (Juzjani)
Thus Alauddin earned the title of Jahansuz “World Burner”.
These scenes at Ghazni were repeated several times as the army turned to Ghor; the pleasure villas of Lashkar Gah were gutted, the countryside completely ravaged, and at Firozkoh victory towers were built of Ghazni’s soil carried there on the backs of captives whose blood served as mortar.
Turbulent warfare marks the early years of this dynasty and continued until Alauddin’s nephew, Ghiyasuddin (1157–1202), was raised to the throne by the Ghorid army. Under his enlightened direction the House of Ghor and the Afghan area at last knew peace and prosperity, at least for a few years. Ghiyasuddin’s famous brother, Muizuddin, ruled for him at Ghazni and took Ghorid rule into India, while at Bamiyan his uncle built a great city from which Ghorid authority was spread throughout the northern regions of Afghanistan and across the Oxus River as far as Kashghar. At its height the Ghorid Dynasty claimed suzerainty from India to Iraq, from Kashghar to the Persian Gulf.
Ghiyasuddin was an avid builder. The intricately decorated minaret of Jam bears his name as does the arch at the great mosque of Herat, a city he added to his domain in 1175. In this mosque the body of Ghiyasuddin Ghori lies under an unadorned tomb in a special chapel to which the faithful still come to pray.
Rivals to the north, the Khwarizm from south of the Aral Sea, enviously coveted the power and the riches of their Ghorid neighbors. As soon as death removed the strong personality of Sultan Ghiyasuddin (1202) they moved. Muizuddin tried valiantly to stem their advance but Balkh (1205) and then Herat (1206) fell before the Khwarizm Shah. Deserted by his followers, Muizuddin fled first to Ghazni, where his officers denied him entrance, and then into India where he was assassinated on the banks of the Indus. Only at Bamiyan, in the heart of the mountains, did the dynasty survive for a short while and then it too succumbed and the last of the Shansabani rulers was taken north to the Khwarizm capital and there put to death in 1215.
Mongols (1220–1332)
On the eastern borders of the Khwarizm Empire a Mongol chieftain by the name of Temujin, later entitled Genghis Khan, was busily consolidating his power. From him the Khwarizm Shah received the following note: “I am the sovereign of the sun-rise, and thou the sovereign of the sun-set. Let there be between us a firm treaty of friendship, amity, and peace and let traders and caravans on both sides come and go, and let the precious products and ordinary commodities which may be in my territory be conveyed by them into thine, and those in thine into mine.” With the notebearer he sent five hundred camels laden with gold, including a nugget of pure gold as big as a camel’s neck, silver, silks, furs, sable and other “elegant and ingenious” rarities (Juzjani).
Such riches were just too tempting for the Shah’s avaricious border commander. He seized the treasure and, in an attempt to prevent news of his perfidious act from reaching the ears of the Khan, killed all those accompanying the caravan. Or so he thought. He had in fact missed one young camel boy who, taking a steam bath, succeeded in escaping through the chimney to return with the fateful news to his master. Furious, Genghis Khan demanded that the Shah turn over the border commander for punishment but the Shah, sublimely confident of his supreme power, answered by returning the Khan’s messengers with singed beards. Insult having thus been added to theft and murder, the flood gates opened for one of the most catastrophic episodes recorded in the annals of mankind.
Two hundred thousand Mongols marched west to chastise the Khwarizm Shah in the year 1219. By 1221 Balkh, Herat, the Seistan, Ghazni, Bamiyan and all points in between had fallen before the onslaught and “… with one stroke a world which billowed with fertility was laid desolate, and the regions thereof became a desert and the greater part of the living dead and their skins and bones crumbling dust; and the mighty were humbled and immersed in the calamities of perdition.” So says Juvaini, an eloquent eye-witness chronicler writing only thirty years later. The ruined citadel of the Shansabani capital in Bamiyan is a poignant, visual monument to the presence of Genghis Khan in Afghanistan. Its name, Shahr-i-Gholghola, “City of Noise,” refers to the tumult of that final massacre during which the conqueror fulfilled a vow to kill every man, woman and child, every animal and plant in the valley of Bamiyan.
Recovery was slow. The great irrigation works which had enabled this land to produce an abundance lay broken and useless, purposely destroyed by Genghis Khan; anarchy so frightened traders that they turned to the sea, and the great cities of the desert and the plain, robbed of their livelihood, became mounds of sand. Only in the rich province of Khurasan was there a return to law and order under an extremely skillful local family, known as the Karts. Appointed Governors by the Mongol Il-Khans of Persia in 1245, they expanded from their capital at Herat to include Kandahar (1281), prominent since the destruction of Bost by Alauddin Ghori, within their realm. When, therefore, they declared their independence in 1332 they seemed well on their way toward a long and prosperous reign. The huge bronze cauldron in the courtyard of the great mosque in Herat is a stunning example of their sophisticated tastes.
A new storm was, however, already brewing in Central Asia.
Timurids (1369–1506)
Part of the early career of the man who cut short Kart rule was spent, most inauspiciously, in Kart territory. Having lost out in the game of playing one chieftain against the other in his homeland just south of Samarkand, Timur, the young adventurer, turned fugitive and fled into the protective mountains of Afghanistan. Passing stealthily past Kabul he journeyed on to Zaranj, capital of Seistan, where he took service with the city’s chief, as head of a rather unsavory lot of 100 similarly outlawed companions. Fighting with legendary daring, Timur distinguished himself in battles with various rebel bands. It was during one such encounter that an arrow pierced his right leg, a wound which caused him to limp for the rest of his life for which his detractors nicknamed him Timur-i-Lang, “Timur the Lame,” or Tamerlane.
Timur soon tired of the petty rebellions in Seistan and returned to the grander contests of the north where fortune favored him. Word of his prowess spread and one by one the tribes rallied to his cause; in 1369, at Balkh, he proclaimed himself supreme sovereign from Kabul to the Aral Sea and turned to conquer an empire. The Karts resisted without success and their capital city of Herat was destroyed in 1381. Following this, Timur moved on to subdue his former master in Zaranj (1383). Here fighting was fierce and the august conqueror’s temper flared when his horse was shot from under him. From then on he showed no mercy and Zaranj was razed to the ground.
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| Historical Environs of Afghanistan |
Today Kandaharis speak with pride of Seistan’s ancient prosperity: “Once there were so many fine buildings and palaces that one could easily walk from Bost to Zaranj on the rooftops without once touching the ground.” Medieval geographies speak of its remarkable prosperity, calling it the “garden of Asia” and the “granary of the East”. And yet today its various parts are known by such names as Dasht-i-Margo (Desert of Death), Dasht-i-Jehanum (Desert of Hell), and Sar-o-Tar (Desolation and Emptiness, in Baluchi). The Sar-o-Tar is covered with constantly moving sand dunes rising to a height of 20 m; 66 ft. Experts have concluded that these may be the fastest moving sand dunes anywhere in the world: an average dune of 6 m; 20 ft. moves at an annually adjusted rate of 15 cm; 6 in. a day.
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| Shahr-i-Gholghola, Sar-o-Tar, Seistan |
Two extensive studies have sought to determine how this came to be. A team from Bonn University carried out a multi-faceted study of medieval settlement patterns and ecological conditions from 1968–1973 (K. Fischer, director). The Smithsonian Institution’s (USA) programme extended from 1971–76 (W. Trousdale, director). They have confirmed the ancient reports and dispelled the notion that Tamerlane’s visitation resulted in the present desolation. On the contrary, the southern Hamun basin contains the greatest assemblage of 15th century A.D. architecture anywhere in the Middle East. More than this, the remains speak of a sophisticated culture, of affluence permitting a rich variety of architectural forms and ornamentation, of stately manor houses containing sometimes more than sixty rooms fashioned from sun-dried and kiln-baked bricks.
The largest complex of ruins, known today as Shahr-i-Gholghola, sits in the Sar-o-Tar region. It consists of a citadel within a circular wall 15 m; 49 ft. high protected by massive outer fortifications and three moats. Water for its inhabitants, the moats, and an agricultural zone 16–19 km; 10–12 mi. wide, flowed through huge canals running from behind a barrage on the Hilmand River 80 km; 50 mi. away.
Copper coins minted by the last two Saffarid kings before the Mongol invasion were also recovered. Going back beyond the 9th century, however, there seems to be a great void, with no indication of habitation until the end of the 3rd century A.D. Again, from the 3rd century A.D. to the 1st century B.C. signs of occupation such as Sasanian coins and potteries stamped with the seals of Sasanian princes are present. Beyond that, another long period of abandonment is evident until the 2nd millennium B.C. when a grandiose system for the distribution of water covering thousands of square miles with canals speaks of technological sophistication and prosperity. Fine painted potteries from this period confirm this.
In a temple abandoned at the end of the 2nd century A.D. plastered walls were found in a remarkably well-preserved state because the building was completely filled with sand; perhaps it had actually been overwhelmed by sand. At any rate, the Seistan surveys have led archaeologists to conclude that “While it would be oversimplifying the case to ignore political and economic factors in accounting for the periodic prosperity of this region, followed by periods of desolation and emptiness lasting from 600 to perhaps 1,000 or more years, the cyclical nature of uncontrollable sanding appears to have played a major, if not the decisive, role.” (Trousdale, 1975)
Genghis Khan abhorred cities and cultivated fields for he said they robbed him of grazing lands for his mounted army which he likened to a “roaring ocean”. Timur, on the other hand, often rebuilt what he had once, or twice, destroyed. Herat is an example; Balkh another. From these cities the glory of the Timurids was to shine.
The familiar series of rival family claims erupted on Timur’s death in 1405. One of the major contestants was his grandson, Pir Mohammad, who held Kandahar, seat of government in the south after the destruction of Zaranj. Setting out with a large army, Pir Mohammad marched toward Samarkand, Timur’s capital, sending ahead a letter outlining his reasons for believing the throne was rightfully his. The reply, written by the court’s leading statesman, is perhaps one of the more candid dispatches ever penned by a diplomat: “Certainly you are the lawful heir and successor of Amir Timur, but fortune does not favour you, for if it did, you would be near the capital.”
Exactly. By the time Pir Mohammad arrived in Samarkand his rival was well established and “the sea of destruction flowed over his head.”
Several years, many exiles and numerous murders later, Shah Rukh (Timur’s youngest son) and his remarkable wife, Gawhar Shad, emerged as undisputed masters of an empire stretching from the Tigris River to the borders of China. From their capital at Herat they led a cultural renaissance by their lavish patronage of the arts, attracting to their court artists, architects and philosophers and poets acknowledged today among the world’s most illustrious: Bihzad the miniaturist and Jami the poet are only two. Many exquisite examples of Timurid architecture remain in Herat today. Though ravaged by man and nature, they remain as glorious monuments to the artistic genius of their creators and an inspiration to all who view them.
Fratricidal quarrels resumed on Shah Rukh’s death in 1447 and intensified after Gawhar Shad was murdered in 1457. She was well past the age of 80! Herat itself experienced its Golden Age under Sultan Husain Baiqara (1468–1506) but the nobles of his court, too intent upon their precious pursuit of luxury, could not he bothered with the drab responsibilities of government. Ambitious local leaders, some from within the Timurid family, some from without, seized the opportunity thus offered them and the age-old games for power began anew. As the Turkoman proverb so aptly states: “The sand of the desert is lightly blown away by a breath; still more lightly is the fortune of man destroyed.”
Moghuls and Safavids (1504–1709)
An energetic contender in these games for power was an Uzbak youth whose early life mirrors to some extent the early life of Timur. Shaibani Khan (1451–1510), an orphan who had spent his youth as a soldier-of-fortune helping his grandfather keep rebellious chiefs in line, had, for services rendered, been given the governorship of a few outlying provinces far to the north of the Oxus. Thus established, the erstwhile adventurer began to dream dreams of empire, and these dreams assumed reality after he captured Samarkand in 1500. Sultan Husain Baiqara and his nobles in Herat turned deaf ears to pleas made by their kinsmen in the Samarkand area, and one by one these tiny kingdoms fell to the Uzbak and his riders.
One such was Zahiruddin Mohammad, known to history as Babur, through whose veins coursed the blood of both Genghis Khan and Timur. Only 17, but already ruler of the Kingdom of Ferghana, east of Samarkand, and sometime holder of Samarkand itself, he fought furiously and valiantly for his kingdom, but, with no assistance forthcoming, he was forced to flee, as others had before him, to the safety of the southern mountains in Afghanistan. In October 1504, he encamped outside Kabul, a city suffering under the rule of an usurper, whose citizenry offered him the city, if he could take it. The invitation was all Babur needed.
Victorious, he immediately began to secure what was still an extremely precarious position by deposing of rivals from within his own family and wooing the surrounding tribes. While he was so engaged Shaibani Khan continued to eat away at the Timurid empire by subduing Balkh and Kunduz. Then he struck out toward the heart, Herat. Babur responded to a hurried call for help from Sultan Husain but by the time he reached Herat he found Sultan Husain dead, the Timurid troops returned from a decisive defeat west of Maimana, and the nobles, according to Babur’s own account, unconcernedly vying with one another in lavish wining and dining.
The House of Timur crumpled before the Uzbak, and Herat, easily taken in 1507, was deprived of a huge treasure but not destroyed. Babur was not in Herat when it fell. His visit had shown him clearly that it must fall, which left Kandahar the last defense between himself and his old enemy to whom he had already lost one kingdom. He hurried to Kabul to make preparations for its defense and, incidentally, to put down a rebellious step-grandmother. Then he captured Kandahar.
Kandahar was held at this time by that same usurper from whom Babur had taken Kabul and naturally enough he did not take kindly to Babur’s occupation of Kandahar. The usurper called Shaibani Khan to his aid and a siege began (1507) which was lifted when Shaibani Khan received news that his harem in Herat was being threatened by the advance of the King of Persia who, after numerous battles, finally trapped and killed Shaibani Khan (1510) in the vicinity of Merv, downstream from Bala Murghab.
On hearing the news of Shaibani’s death, Babur put all interest in Kandahar behind him and immediately marched north hoping to regain his homeland. The Uzbaks, however, though they had lost their great leader, were still strong, and Babur had reluctantly to shift his dreams from a kingdom in the north to conquest in the south. This decision earned him an empire.
Babur left Kabul for India in 1525 and from that time on Delhi and Agra formed the center of his activities. He never lost his love for Kabul, however, and asked that he be brought back to that city for burial. His favorite garden where he was buried is today known simply as Babur’s Gardens.
For over 150 years after the death of Babur (1530) the Afghan area swung on the periphery of two magnificent empires: the Moghuls of India and the Safavids of Persia. On the borders, the vision was quite clear: Herat was held by the Persians; Kabul zealously maintained by the Moghuls. To the north, however, Turkic Khans pushed their authority south of the Oxus River the expense of both empires. There were, of course, sporadic successes and a beautiful marble mosque near the tomb of Babur dedicated to one: the capture of Balkh by the Moghul Shah Jahan in 1646. The Moghuls never succeeded in establishing any permanent influence over the north, however, and Father Benedict Goes, travelling from Lahore in 1603, clearly pinpoints Charikar the limit of Moghul domain. For this period the most outstanding monuments in Afghanistan are Uzbak, such as the Shrine of Khwaja Abu Nasr and the monumental arch from the madrassa built by Sayyid Subhan Quli, dating from the end of the 15th and 17th centuries respectively. They speak clearly of a continuance of Timurid Culture in the north without showing any Moghul influence.
One other remarkable Moghul monument does exist in Afghanistan. This is the Chihlzina, “Forty Steps,” a stone chamber sitting at the top of some 40 steps hewn from the rock of a craggy cliff outside Kandahar. Inside it an exquisitely carved Persian inscription records the conquests of Babur. It remains unfinished, interrupted by the interminable game of see-saw which the Persians and the Moghuls played with Kandahar; taking it from one another through conquest or by intrigue they contested its ownership down through the 17th century.
It is perhaps fitting to pause a moment to reflect on the fact that the unfinished Moghul record of conquests sits directly above the Ashokan edict, inscribed some two thousand years before, beseeching man to live in peace. But man is not beloved of peace as the years of turmoil which follow attest.
Mir Wais Hotak (1709–1715)
A picture of life in the old city of Kandahar under the Timurids, the Safavids and the Moghuls has begun to emerge since the British Institute began its excavations in 1974. Bronze ewers, imported glazed ceramics and ornate glass from Persia and imported porcelains from China speak of wide-spread trade. Locally made glazed wares in the Persian style speak of a cultural orientation toward the west.
On the whole the indigenous Pushtun tribes living in the Kandahar area were more attached to the Persians and, indeed, on those occasions when the Moghuls received the city by means other than conquest, it was disaffected Persian governors who instigated the transfer, not the tribes. The tribes were not above pitting foreigner against foreigner in order to further their attempts to better one another. However, siding sometimes with the Persians, sometimes with the Moghuls, but never with each other, they perpetuated tribal disunity and prolonged foreign domination.
The principal contenders in these tribal disputes came from the two most important Pushtun groups in the Kandahar area, the Ghilzai and the Abdali (later Durrani), between whom there was long-standing enmity. As a matter of fact, because of these quarrels, many of the turbulent Abdali had been forcibly transferred to Herat by the irritated Persians by the end of the 16th century. This left the Ghilzai paramount in Kandahar, but the dispute more hotly contested, the hatred more deeply entrenched, and revenge more fervently sought.
The Persians were adept at manipulating such machinations and their rule at Kandahar was tolerant until the court at Isfahan began to sink in decadence. Mirroring this, the Persian governors of Kandahar became more and more rapacious and, in response, the tribes became more and more restless. Mounting tribal disturbances finally caught the concern of the court and they sent Gurgin, a Georgian known for his uncompromising severity toward revolt, to Kandahar in 1704. Kandahar’s mayor at this time was Mir Wais Hotak, the astute and influential leader of the Ghilzai.
Gurgin, advocate of law by force, burnt, plundered, murdered and imprisoned, but the tribes would not be subdued; revolts were crushed only to break out anew and Mir Wais, credited with master-minding the rebellions, was sent to Isfahan tagged as a highly dangerous prisoner. Imagine Gurgin’s surprise and dismay when Mir Wais returned to Kandahar shortly thereafter clothed in lustrous robes of honour, symbols of respect and trust. The Shah of Persia thus declared the influence of Mir Wais, not Gurgin, at the Persian court. Mir Wais had extricated himself from a very nasty situation but, more importantly, he had observed the depths of decay at Isfahan, much as Babur had observed it at Herat, and correctly determined that the Safavid Empire was on the brink of collapse.
Mir Wais formulated plans for disposing of the hated Gurgin; only the difficult task of waiting for the right moment remained.
The moment came in April, 1709. Because details of the assassination are varied, this discussion recounts the version popular among Kandaharis today who say that Mir Wais invited Gurgin to a picnic at his country estate at Kohkran on the outskirts of Kandahar city. Here the guests were fed all manner of rich dishes and plied with strong wines until “everyone was plunged in debauch.” This was the moment. Mir Wais struck, killing Gurgin, and his followers killed the Georgian’s escort. The rebels then marched to take possession of the citadel.
Isfahan was astounded and sent emissaries to complain. The emissaries were imprisoned. Isfahan sent armies to take the city. The armies were defeated. The Persian court then sat in stunned idleness while Mir Wais extended his authority throughout the Kandahar region.
If they were to remain free the tribes must be united and to this formidable task the venerable statesman devoted the rest of his life. But not many years were left for Mir Wais. He died in 1715. An imposing blue-domed mausoleum at Bagh-i-Kohkran, next to the orchard where Gurgin was assassinated, is a fitting monument to Afghanistan’s first great nationalist.
The qualities which enabled Mir Wais to lead the tribes toward a meaningful unity were not, unfortunately, inherited by his ambitious 18 year old son, Mahmud, whose visions only encompassed conquest and power. Killing his uncle, elected successor to Mir Wais, Mahmud gathered his followers and marched across Persia and seized the Safavid throne (1722). Mahmud met an early death in 1725 and was succeeded by his cousin, Ashraf, who ruled until 1730 when a new soldier-of-fortune, the Turkoman Nadir Quli Beg, ended Ghilzai rule.
Ahmad Shah Durrani (1747–1772)
While re-establishing Safavid rule in Persia, Nadir Quli Beg had perforce to contend with Abdali incursions into Persian territory from the area of Herat and when, even after defeat, they persisted in stirring up periodic revolts, an exasperated Nadir moved their leaders away from Herat to Persia where they were given lands and prospered. Not a few subsequently rendered valuable assistance to Nadir in his battles at home, so valuable in fact that at one point he promised them any boon they asked. Shrewdly assessing the current situation and wisely looking to the future, they asked only that they be returned to their ancestral lands in Kandahar. The Ghilzai-Abdali feud still festered and Nadir cunningly promised them their request.
Following the patterns established by successful adventurers before him, Nadir soon tired of fighting on behalf of the Safavid Dynasty and raised himself to the throne of Persia in 1736, styling himself Nadir Shah Afshar. Two years later he set out to deliver the final blow to the Ghilzai. He headed toward Kandahar and the Abdali marched with him.
At Kandahar Mir Wais’ second son, Husain, had ruled with comparative peace and honour while his relatives proceeded on their conquest of Persia. Now the Kandaharis stood stoutly behind him in defense and the city held out for one year before giving way in March 1738. In the extensive ruins of Zor Shar, the Old City of Kandahar below the cliffs of the Chihlzina, one can still see the high citadel and massive fortification walls which made it so difficult to capture. Nadir Shah abandoned the city he destroyed and built a new city named Nadirabad to the south-east of Old Kandahar. Described by contemporaries as a “mean substitution,” little remains to be seen of Nadirabad today. Of lasting importance, however, was Nadir Shah’s fulfillment of a promise. An Abdali chieftain was appointed governor of Nadirabad and Abdali tribesmen swarmed in from Persia to occupy Ghilzai lands between Kandahar and Herat.
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| Ahmad Shah Durrani |
Nadir Shah also released several Abdali from Kandahar’s prisons, one of whom was Ahmad Khan Sadozai, the young 16 year old son of a prominent Abdali chieftain. Joining the Persian forces as a lowly orderly, the boy attracted the approving eye of the conqueror as the army moved through Kabul, on to the overthrow of the Moghul Dynasty in Delhi. Rising rapidly as a consequence, Ahmad Khan was appointed commander of 4,000 Afghans forming the Shah’s personal bodyguard and trusted guardian of the treasury. But in June 1747 a group of his own Persian officers assassinated Nadir Shah Afshar, and Ahmad Khan and his troops were forced to flee, for the Persians resented and feared the Afghans. Making his way to Kandahar, Ahmad Khan joined a tribal council at the shrine of Sher Surkh, in the suburbs of Nadirabad. All at the council recognized that the time for independence had never been more favorable, if — that same “if” that had plagued them for their entire history — if, they could unite.
Ghilzai power was broken; Husain and most of their leaders were in exile in Persia. The important division at Kandahar was now drawn between two Abdali groups, the Popalzai and the Barakzai. Haji Jamal Mohammadzai of the Barakzai was chief of the majority group, but Ahmad Khan Sadozai of the Popalzai, on the other hand, though only 25, had distinguished himself as a leader with the Persians. Moreover, he was the leader of a strong force of experienced fighting men, and, most significantly, he had the wealth of Nadir’s treasury, including the Koh-i-Nur diamond, and a recently captured caravan carrying confiscated Moghul treasure from Delhi.
One of the more important events in Afghan history occurred when Haji Jamal stepped down in favor of Ahmad Khan. In a simple coronation ceremony a sheaf of wheat was placed on his head as a crown and Ahmad Khan became Ahmad Shah. The stage was set for the creation of the last genuine Afghan empire. The emblem of Afghanistan includes two sheaves of wheat in commemoration of this historic moment.
Several campaigns against the tottering Moghuls of Lahore and Delhi (1747–1769) and Kashmir (1752) alternating with campaigns against Kabul (1747), Herat, Maimana and eastward through Badakhshan (1749) won for Ahmad Shah an empire and the title which he is fondly known in Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Baba, the Father of Afghanistan.
Cancer of the face resulting from a nose wound incurred during a battle in India brought the life of this remarkable man to a close at the age of 50 in 1772 and at once it seemed as though fraternal jealousies must surely undo all he had achieved. At Kandahar, the city which Ahmad Shah himself laid out to replace Nadirabad, the blue-domed mausoleum of Ahmad Shah towers over the city, reminder of those days of glory when Kandahar was the capital of an empire. In the charming village of Sher Surkh, south-east of the city, Ahmad Shah raised a dome over the saint’s tomb where he had been crowned. This rustic shrine symbolizes the simple beginnings of a tribal chief; the highly ornate mausoleum, commemorates the accomplishments of an empire builder.
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