Dost Muhammad Khan - Afghanistan's Greatest King? | History Documentary

Summary

Dost Muhammad Khan, known as the 'great Amir', was a pivotal figure in Afghanistan's history, leading the country through turbulent times. Born into the prestigious Barakzai family, Khan rose to prominence amidst the political chaos of post-Durrani Empire Afghanistan. He skillfully navigated the internal discord and external threats, notably from the British and Russian empires during the Great Game. Known for his adaptability, he transformed Afghanistan's leadership model, reconciling traditional rule with emerging global pressures. His legacy includes forging a unified Afghan state that laid the foundation for modern Afghanistan, navigating it through colonial entanglements and internal divisions.

Highlights

• Dost Muhammad Khan's rise from a young noble figure to the Emir of Afghanistan was both tumultuous and strategic. 🚀
• He mediated the Great Game rivalry between Britain and Russia, balancing the interests of these external powers over Afghanistan. 🏆
• Khan redefined Afghan leadership, proclaiming himself 'Commander of the Faithful,' breaking from ostentatious past traditions. 🕌
• His multiple reigns involved significant conquests and consolidations, culminating in the establishment of a modern Afghan state. 🌟
• A master of diplomacy, Dost Muhammad formed pivotal alliances while securing internal control over Afghanistan. 🛡️

Key Takeaways

• Dost Muhammad Khan emerged as a key figure in Afghanistan's history, navigating through political chaos and internal strife to lead the nation. 🎩
• He effectively balanced external threats from British and Russian interests, showcasing strategic diplomacy and military acumen during the Great Game. ⚔️
• Khan's legacy includes the establishment of a unified Afghanistan, setting the foundation for the modern Afghan state amidst colonial pressures. 🏰
• His rule, marked by adaptability and a new vision of leadership, helped transform Afghanistan during a period of significant global change. 🔄
• Despite facing multiple challenges, his leadership forged a national identity for Afghanistan that has persisted through time. 🌍

Overview

Dost Muhammad Khan, a central figure in Afghan history, rose to prominence during a time of great instability for the region. Born into the Barakzai family, he emerged as a leader in the aftermath of the Durrani Empire's fall. Amidst fierce internal rivalries and constant threats from powerful neighbors like the Sikh Empire and later British and Russian interests, Khan navigated Afghanistan through turbulent waters, showcasing his strategic foresight and leadership capabilities.

He became renowned for his role during the Great Game, a period marked by the geopolitical tussle between British and Russian forces for influence in Central Asia. Khan's diplomatic acumen proved essential in maintaining Afghanistan's sovereignty, as he skillfully played both superpowers to Afghanistan's advantage. His reign saw the dismantling of the traditional monarchy system and the creation of a more flexible leadership model suited to Afghanistan's unique position in global politics.

Khan's legacy as the 'great Amir' endured beyond his death, as his efforts in creating a unified Afghan state remain a fundamental part of Afghanistan's national identity. Despite the challenges of colonial encroachments and internal divisions, he helped solidify Afghanistan's place on the global stage. His ability to adapt, consolidate, and defend his realm, all the while denoting a forward-thinking leadership style, makes him a pivotal figure in Central and South Asian history.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 06:00: The Rise of Dost Muhammad Khan This chapter discusses the life and legacy of Dost Muhammad Khan, also known as 'Amir-i Kabir', who lived from December 23, 1792, to June 8, 1863. He remains a significant figure in Afghanistan and north-west Pakistan, even being referenced in local sayings as a symbol of kingliness and greatness. Despite the numerous challenges he faced during a tumultuous period, Dost Muhammad Khan succeeded in establishing the Barakzai dynasty and laying the groundwork for the Afghan state. His enduring reputation highlights his impact as an illustrious ruler.
• 06:00 - 14:00: Internal Struggles and the Fragmentation of Power The chapter discusses the internal challenges and fragmentation of power faced by Afghanistan during the decay of the Durrani Empire. It highlights the role of Dost, a leader capable of uniting the realm, who skillfully managed internal discord and external threats, notably from the Sikh armies of Ranjit Singh. One of his significant achievements was mediating between the British and Russian forces during the Great Game rivalry.
• 14:00 - 25:00: Consolidation of Power and External Challenges The chapter titled 'Consolidation of Power and External Challenges' explores the early life and rise of Dost Muhammad, a key figure in Afghan history. It describes the geopolitical environment he was born into, during the decline of the Afghan Empire founded by Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1747. The narrative sets the stage for understanding how Dost Muhammad navigated internal and external threats to consolidate his power and establish his Emirate amidst regional and international rivalries.
• 25:00 - 45:00: British Intervention and the First Anglo-Afghan War The chapter titled 'British Intervention and the First Anglo-Afghan War' discusses the historical context of a large empire that included modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of Iran. The emperors of this empire declared themselves as 'kings of the world.' A significant figure in this narrative is Dost, who hailed from an aristocratic lineage, specifically the Barakzai confederation of Durrani Pashtuns. The Barakzai were a notable power within the empire's Durrani nobility, many of whom held positions within the military ranks.
• 45:00 - 52:00: Return and the Second Reign of Dost Muhammad Khan The chapter describes the early life and family background of Dost Muhammad Khan. Dost's father, Payinda Khan, played a pivotal role in supporting prince Zaman Shah's ascension to the throne in 1793, which strengthened the Barakzai family. Despite his family's power, Dost Muhammad was not immediately seen as a future leader. His mother, favored by Payinda, was a Qizilbash of Iranian origin, highlighting divisive ethnic and religious identities within Afghanistan.
• 52:00 - 56:30: Legacy of Dost Muhammad Khan Dost Muhammad Khan was one of many brothers and one of the youngest in his family. Despite this, he was well trained in essential skills for a nobleman, including warfare, horse-riding, poetry, and religious studies.

Dost Muhammad Khan - Afghanistan's Greatest King? | History Documentary Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 Dost Muhammad Khan ‘Amir-i  Kabir’ (23 Dec. 1792-8 June 1863) “Who do you think you are, Amir Dost Muhammad  Khan?” In parts of Afghanistan and north-west   Pakistan, a father might say that to his son if he  was acting a little too big for his boots - acting   like a king. Dost Muhammad Khan lived two hundred  years ago, but his stature as the byword for an   illustrious ruler had a long-lasting resonance.  Surviving many dangers in a tempestuous era,   he laid the foundations for not only the  Barakzai dynasty but also the state of
• 00:30 - 01:00 Afghanistan. With the decay of the Durrani  Empire, Afghanistan had a need for a strong   ruler that could keep the realm unified. The Dost  fit that bill perfectly. For much of his reign,   he had to balance dealing with  internal discord in his realm,   whilst protecting it from outside for like the  capable Sikh armies of Ranjit Singh. Perhaps   his greatest victory came in mediating the Great  Game rivalry of Britain and Russia, who both had
• 01:00 - 01:30 their own designs for his Emirate. Who was this  larger-than-life figure, and what was his story? Born into a changing world Dost Muhammad was born in 1792,   in the waning years of an Afghan empire created a  few decades before in 1747 by Ahmad Shah Durrani.
• 01:30 - 02:00 It was still a large realm covering most of  today's Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of Iran.   Its emperors proclaimed themselves kings of the  world. Dost came from an aristocratic family, the   leaders of the Barakzai confederation of Durrani  Pashtuns. The Barakzai were one of the most   significant powers in the empire among the other  Durrani nobility, who filled the ranks of the army
• 02:00 - 02:30 and administration. When Dost was less than a year  old, his father Payinda Khan helped the prince   Zaman Shah step over his brothers to become king  in May 1793, adding to the power of the Barakzai.   Although his family was mighty, it was not clear  that Dost Muhammad would be a major power player.   Payinda Khan apparently favored Dost’s mother, but  she was seemingly not a noble and not a Pashtun.   She was a Qizilbash, which referred to Shias  of Iranian origin in Afghan lands. Moreover,
• 02:30 - 03:00 Dost was one of many brothers, and one of  the youngest. Still, as a young nobleman   he would have been well trained in warfare,  horse-riding, poetry, and religious sciences. Dost’s fortunes hardly seemed better by the time  he was eight years old, early in his education.   In 1800 his powerful father, the former ally of  the king, was killed along with several other   nobles for plotting Zaman Shah’s deposition.  Dost’s eldest and most influential brother,
• 03:00 - 03:30 Fateh Khan, took the lead in seeking to punish  their father's killing by joining the fugitive   prince Mahmud Shah in Iran. In 1801, the first of  many civil wars to come ended with Zaman Shah’s   dethronement and blinding by Mahmud Shah.  Like Payinda Khan had been to Zaman Shah,   Fateh Khan would be Mahmud’s valued ally. Politics  in those days was a family affair, and so Fateh’s   brothers would also reap the rewards. Very soon,  and with their help, the Durrani Empire with the
• 03:30 - 04:00 pomp of the shahs and the far-flung provinces  would disintegrate, and something new would have   to fill the vacuum. In 1801, no one could  guess that the young Dost Muhammad would,   through skill, force of personality and will, and  some luck, be the one to truly fill that void. Taking opportunity in times of chaos Before that could happen, there were   still a few years in which the kingdom  tottered along. After a period of deposing   and counter-deposing between Mahmud and Zaman’s  younger brother Shuja al-Mulk from 1803 to 1809,
• 04:00 - 04:30 Mahmud managed to wear the crown for  nine years until 1818. In that time,   as young Dost grew into maturity, Fateh Khan  and his Barakzai brothers were building up   their power. Fateh was the great wazir or  minister, and something like the power behind   the throne for a fairly ineffective Mahmud.  The brothers took major governorships across   the land. At this time, Fateh’s relationship  with his little brother Dost also deepened,
• 04:30 - 05:00 after Dost’s mother was forcibly married to a  cousin of his. Fateh Khan took him under his wing.  In that time, Dost must have proven his worth,  because we find him taking on serious roles in   Fateh Khan’s expeditions at least twice. First  in 1813, he commanded part of the Afghan cavalry   against the Sikh kingdom at the Battle of  Nowshera. The Sikhs under their king Ranjit   Singh were a major military force, encroaching  on the Durrani territories. In the fierce battle,
• 05:00 - 05:30 Dost nearly broke part of their line in a charge,  before the tide turned and the Sikhs routed Fateh   Khan’s army. Secondly, in 1817, Dost was with  Fateh Khan in the western city of Herat. He   was sent to requisition assets from a member of  the local elite, and he did this viciously. The   humiliated victim was part of the Sadozai Durrani  clan and so a relative of the royal family. Once   again, politics was all about family, and Dost  had to flee royal fury by running off to Kashmir.
• 05:30 - 06:00 Not long after the incident in Herat, things  turned upside-down in the Durrani lands for   good. Mahmud Shah and his son Kamran, fearing  Fateh Khan’s influence, had him brutally blinded,   tortured, and eventually killed in 1818.  Like with Payinda Khan’s earlier murder,   this pushed the rest of the leading Barakzai  family to vengeance. Dost and several of his   brothers left their refuge in Kashmir and entered  Kabul in 1819, and Dost himself saw off Mahmud and
• 06:00 - 06:30 Kamran’s attempt to retake the city. They fled to  Herat and were able to hold onto the city. With   the governorships they had taken until then, Fateh  Khan’s brothers found themselves in possession of   all the other Durrani territories. Dost had  built up some status by now, but he was by no   means the leader of the pack. For a while, that  position went to Muhammad Azim Khan. Under him,   the brothers were relatively united. Some pretense  at keeping a Sadozai king as a figurehead was
• 06:30 - 07:00 kept. Dost was left to govern Ghazni, not too  far south of Kabul. Once, 800 years before,   this had been a lavish imperial capital under the  Ghaznavid dynasty, but now it was a small town. Brotherly unity did not last. Azim Khan died  in 1823 in battle with the Sikhs, and the   others went for each other’s throats. In the  process, the royal figurehead Ayyub Shah was
• 07:00 - 07:30 deposed permanently. The chaos also opened up an  opportunity for Dost. Being close by in middling   Ghazni, he managed to seize fortune’s reins and  capture the capital, Kabul. Dost’s half-brother   Sultan Muhammad, commonly known as “Telai” or  “golden” for his love of sumptuous clothes,   was in charge of Peshawar, the old  royal winter capital. The Musahibans,   the family that would rule Afghanistan from  1930 until 1978, descended from him. Sultan
• 07:30 - 08:00 Mohammad paid some tribute to the Sikhs, but had  ambitions of his own. He tried to take Kabul,   but Dost chased him out too with the help of  his mother’s people, the Qizilbash. Dost seemed   to have little respect for his older sibling,  referring to him as “Bibi,” or “Miss,” Sultan.   Far from a young weak player in the Durrani  political scene, by 1826 this able and confident   Dost was in effective control of Kabul. It would  be the lynchpin of the new emirate of Afghanistan.
• 08:00 - 08:30 Commander of the faithful At this point Dost had to address a fundamental   question: on what basis was he ruling? Although  the Sadozai dynasty had not lasted all that long,   its prestige ran deep. You could not just claim  to be the Shah by clicking your fingers. It   would take some time for Dost to articulate a  new vision, something his brothers never did.   In the meantime, he secured Ghazni again. He  also helped his Barakzai half-brothers who
• 08:30 - 09:00 ruled Qandahar by defeating an attempt from Shuja  al-Mulk, the former king who had fought Mahmud,   to conquer the city in 1834. Despite a  much larger army, Shuja was driven off   by Dost's counterattack. Still, Shuja's belief  in his inalienable right to kingship remained   a threat. Another threat was Ranjit Singh, who  had hosted Shuja and drawn up a treaty with him.
• 09:00 - 09:30 In it, Shuja ceded Peshawar and other Durrani  territory formally. On the ground, Singh installed   a harsh military government in Peshawar. Sultan  Muhammad Telai and his brothers there kept large   estates but were increasingly sidelined in the  region’s governance. Many Durranis fled to Dost’s   realm in Kabul. By 1835, with these threats on his  doorstep, Dost found a way to define his power. He   would be something different to the ostentatious  shahs who claimed to be kings of the world. Old
• 09:30 - 10:00 royal administrative buildings were torn down.  Dost wore simple white clothes and walked among   the people hearing petitions. Portraits of  Dost made in India show this new image. Unlike   the Durrani emperors with halos around their  crowned heads, he was often depicted in a turban,   holding prayer beads. He held a modest ceremony  proclaiming himself not king or emperor,   but ‘Commander of the Faithful,’ Amir  al-Mominin. This was an old Islamic   title given to military leaders  by the caliphs in centuries past.
• 10:00 - 10:30 With his new self-image as a commander for the  Muslims, he first tried to take back Peshawar   from the Sikhs by declaring a jihad. He also  began issuing coins, the mark of a legitimate   ruler. One from 1838 states: “Amir Dost Muhammad  resolved to wage jihad / And to mint coins,   may God grant him victory.” Ultimately  though, his war for Peshawar failed.
• 10:30 - 11:00 Both the Afghan and Sikh armies caused devastation  for villages in the Peshawar valley for no gain.   Two years later in 1837 he made another attempt on  Peshawar, spearheaded by his capable son Muhammad   Akbar Khan. Like his father back in 1813, Akbar  Khan gave a good showing against the Sikhs in the   Battle of Jamrud near the Khyber Pass. The  fearsome Sikh general Hari Singh Nalwa was   killed. But the battle was inconclusive  and Dost again failed to take Peshawar.
• 11:00 - 11:30 As Afghanistan was sorting out its internal  issues, neighbouring India was going through   its own radical changes. Long gone were the days  of Mughal supremacy. By the 1820s, the Marathas,   who had confined the Mughal emperor to Delhi, had  themselves been sidelined by the British as the   dominant force on the subcontinent. Under  the auspices of the East India Company,
• 11:30 - 12:00 the British colonial presence in India went from  strength to strength, as they created a sprawling   bureaucracy and disciplined army that formed  the bedrock of their political power. And they   were well rewarded for it; India was rich with  resources which could help the Brits bankroll its   industrialisation on the British Isles as well as  their colonial projects overseas. Britain’s main
• 12:00 - 12:30 competitor in Europe in this period was Russia  and they had similar aims of colonial expansion.   They had pushed their borders southward into the  Caucasus Mountains but were yet to make forays   into central Asia. Nevertheless, the British still  feared Russian designs on India, regardless of   their feasibility. There were worries in London  that Russia’s desire for a warm water port could
• 12:30 - 13:00 see it expand its presence towards the Indian  Ocean through Persia or Afghanistan, thus bringing   them into direct conflict with British interests  in India. In such a political atmosphere,   Afghanistan became a powder keg for the British  and any Russian interference in the country would   be a cause for concern for the Viceroy in India.  This rivalry was later dubbed the Great Game.  - Of course the Afghans were not  passive bystanders in all this.
• 13:00 - 13:30 Dost Muhammad, or the Dost as he was known by  the British, tried to benefit from the rivalry   which threatened his realm by politically  manoeuvring between the two European powers.   He could use the situation to his advantage and  try to solicit the return of Peshawar to Afghan   control, which by the mid-1830s had definitively  fallen to the Sikhs. Considering their proximity   to the Sikh Empire, Dost Muhammad preferred to  side with the British over the Russians. In 1837,   he wrote to Lord Auckland, the British Viceroy of  India, proposing an alliance if the British would
• 13:30 - 14:00 support his quest to regain Peshawar. Auckland  responded with a message that would come back to   haunt him: stating “My friend, you are aware that  it is not the practise of the British Government   to interfere with the affairs of other independent  states”. In order to placate the Amir, Auckland   sent a delegation to Kabul headed by Alexander  Burnes. Burnes had previously met the Amir 5 years
• 14:00 - 14:30 before on his journey toward Central Asia, and  the two got along well. Unbeknownst to the Afghan   ruler, Burnes had been given explicit instruction  to not agree to any formal alliance. He was in   Kabul to try to learn more about the Russian  involvement in Afghanistan. With his advances   being rejected by Burnes, the Dost started to  get frustrated. At the same time, a Russian   arrived in Kabul by the name of Yan Vitkevich, who  claimed to be an envoy of the Tsar. Oddly enough,
• 14:30 - 15:00 Vitkevich was never confirmed to be an official  Russian envoy and would later commit suicide   under mysterious circumstances. His presence  did, however, terrify the British; even more   when Vitkevich proposed the establishment of a  Russian diplomatic mission stationed in Kabul. In   a bid to force the British Viceroy’s hand, Dost  Muhammad leaked details of the meeting so that
• 15:00 - 15:30 he could push the British in to granting him the  alliance that he wanted. Viceroy Auckland did not   like what he heard, especially since his trusted  and hawkish advisor William Hay Macnaghten urged   him to take action against the Dost. The British  demanded that the Dost stop all communication with   the Russians. The Afghan ruler asked the Viceroy  to put the terms in writing and sign a formal
• 15:30 - 16:00 alliance to which he heard no response from India.  So he met with Vitkevich again. This was the last   straw. Determined to stop Afghanistan from being  drawn into the Russian orbit, Viceroy Auckland   decided to depose the Dost. The British position  was strengthened by the fact that Shah Shuja,   a grandson of Ahmad Shah Durrani and a former  ruler of Afghanistan had been living on a British   pension in India and was therefore a suitable  replacement for the Dost. In October 1838,
• 16:00 - 16:30 the order was given to invade Afghanistan so that  the Dost could be dethroned and Afghanistan could   be saved from foreign intervention. The  irony was obviously lost on the Viceroy. The Army of the Indus consisted of just  over 30,000 soldiers, with an even greater   number of camp followers. Prior to moving on  Afghanistan, the British had to deal with the
• 16:30 - 17:00 fact that the Sikh Empire lay between it and Dost  Mohammad’s realm. Thankfully for the British,   Ranjit Singh was more than glad to  see his old Afghan rival undermined;   therefore he had no qualms with the invading  Army of the Indus going through his realm.   Passing through the Bolan Pass in March  1839, the British were delighted that the   former Afghan capital of Kandahar was taken  without a fight the following month. In July,
• 17:00 - 17:30 the intimidating fortress of Ghazni was taken  when a young British officer named Henry Marion   Durand laid satchel charges which blew the gates  open. Interestingly enough, his son Henry Mortimer   Durand would be the person that the famous  Durand Line would be named after. By August,   Dost Muhammad had fled the capital and the British  triumphantly entered Kabul with Shah Shuja.
• 17:30 - 18:00 Having established him on the throne, the  British soon found out that Shah Shuja was a   largely incapable ruler. Stories of his brutality  became well-known. Nonetheless, the Shah’s power   was limited by Macnaghten, who had accompanied  the expedition as Britain’s chief representative   in Kabul. Burnes had also accompanied the mission,  as Macnaghten’s number two. British garrisons were
• 18:00 - 18:30 created in Kandahar, Ghazni, Jalalabad and  of course Kabul. Certain sub-tribes within   the Ghilzai confederacy were paid off by the  British to keep the supply lines between Kabul   and the Khyber Pass open. For the time being,  there seemed to be an eerie sense of acceptance   from the Afghans of the new foreign occupiers.  This was not lost upon the British, who called
• 18:30 - 19:00 for their families to come to Kabul, bringing  amenities such as cigars and whiskey with them.   The British cantonment in the capital was walled  and a community arose that sought to establish a   British way of life inside of it; they had cricket  matches, tea parties and theatre shows. As for   Dost Muhammad, he was nowhere to be seen. After  his initial escape in 1839, the Dost had fled
• 19:00 - 19:30 north to Bukhara where he was imprisoned by the  local ruler. Still a man of action, Dost escaped   and carried on fighting. But he was also a man  of prudence. During the war, he had even offered   to allow Shuja to take power if he could be his  wazir. So after winning a small clash at Parwan   Darra against some British troops, he voluntarily  surrendered on 2 November 1840. Dost was exiled
• 19:30 - 20:00 to Calcutta in British India, where he gained  the respect of various Brits he encountered and   observed the power of his former foes. He played  chess and politely attended the balls of colonial   high society. According to the contemporary writer  Atta Muhammad Shikarpuri, he was also moved by   the kindness the British showed him, and saw his  exile like that of the Mughal emperor Humayun in
• 20:00 - 20:30 the mid-1500s. Humayun had fled to Safavid Iran  and used Safavid help to retake his kingdom.   This might be a romantic account of Dost’s own  opinion, but it would be a prescient comparison. On the back of such a commanding position, British  policymakers in London felt that their aims had   been achieved in Afghanistan and there was no  point in further draining the Indian treasury.   Much of their forces were ordered to withdraw,  leaving only a force of 8,000 in Afghanistan.
• 20:30 - 21:00 In the summer of 1841, Macnaghten had written to a  colleague in India that Afghanistan was perfectly   quite. Not everyone in the British camp believed  this. The British commander of the armed forces,   Major General Roberts, whose son would play a  leading role in the Second Anglo-Afghan War,   resigned in protest of the actions taken  by the British political administration.
• 21:00 - 21:30 He was replaced by the elderly  figure of William Elphinstone. The honeymoon period soon unravelled for  the British. By 1841, Afghan discontent   began to rise to the surface. The general state of  security started to decline as robbers and outlaws   increased their activities. To confound matters,  Wazir Akbar Khan, the capable and charismatic son   of Dost Muhammad, soon became a leader of the  resistance. He looked to disturb the supply
• 21:30 - 22:00 lines and raided roads connecting the cities. As  1841 progressed, there were episodes of attacks   on British personnel in the cities as well. The  gradual increase in tension and crime was an omen   of the future. In a bid to save money, the British  payments to the Ghilzai tribesmen for keeping the   Eastern supply routes open had also been cut. The  tribesmen did not take this well and began routine
• 22:00 - 22:30 attacks on the British supply lines. The British  were not safe, even in Kabul. In November 1841,   there was an attack on Alexander Burnes’  residence. In the months before, rumours   abounded across Kabul that British soldiers  were fraternising with Afghan women. In such   a highly patriarchal society, this was considered  absolutely unacceptable by the Afghans. So a crowd
• 22:30 - 23:00 gathered outside the house of Burnes, who had  chosen to live outside the British cantonment,   and wanted to express their disapproval  of the foreigners. On that day however,   Burnes had been hosting a few local women in his  house. The crowd became incensed by this contempt   for their culture and became violent. Burnes  was caught and beaten to death by the angry mob.
• 23:00 - 23:30 These developments forced the British leadership  in Kabul to realise the danger of the situation.   Macnaghten reached out to negotiate with  Wazir Akbar Khan in order to negotiate,   thinking that the Afghan uprising was under  the prince’s control. At the same time,   Macnaghten secretly asked the British  garrison in Kandahar to come with their   forces to Kabul. Somehow Akbar Khan found  out about this plan to double cross him   and ended up killing Macnaghten when they met in  December. The elderly and ineffective Elphinstone
• 23:30 - 24:00 was now in charge of the British in Kabul.  He agreed to surrender Kabul to Akbar Khan in   return for safe passage to the British garrison  in Jalalabad. At the beginning of January 1842,   the British evacuated Kabul and set upon their  journey eastward; more than 16,000 people,   with 4,500 being military personnel and the rest  civilians. They had to travel 140 km’s across the
• 24:00 - 24:30 snow-capped Hindu Kush Mountains in the midst  of the harsh Afghan winter. What the British   failed to firmly understand was that the Afghan  insurrection was not engineered by or under the   control of a single figure. Whilst Akbar Khan  was an influential leader, the uprising was   a natural outgrowth of Afghan resentment at the  British occupation of their country. Therefore,
• 24:30 - 25:00 the revolt was far more de-centralised and  unstructured than the British assumed. As a   result, Wazir Akbar Khan was never in a position  to guarantee safety of the British journey from   Kabul to Jalalabad, because the tribes on that  route did not necessarily take their orders from   the prince. Over the next week, the local tribes  took up positions along the mountain range with   their effective long-range jezail rifles and  intermittently opened fire on the retreating
• 25:00 - 25:30 British. Between the tribesmen and the harsh  cold weather, the British column was completely   wiped out. The episode is often considered as the  greatest humiliation faced by the British during   the 19th century and has helped Afghanistan gain  a reputation as a graveyard of empires. The lone   figure of Dr William Brydon in this painting has  popularised the mistaken belief that he was the
• 25:30 - 26:00 only survivor from the ordeal but over the coming  weeks, several Indian sepoys reached Jalalabad. Despite this disaster, the British still had  garrisons in Kandahar, Ghazni and Jalalabad.   The Afghans were able to take Ghazni but the Brits  held out in Jalalabad and Kandahar, giving them   enough time for relief forces to arrive from  India in the spring of 1842. By this time,
• 26:00 - 26:30 Lord Ellenborough had replaced Lord Auckland  as the Viceroy in India and had been given   instructions by London to bring an end to the War  in Afghanistan, after punishing the Afghans and   reclaiming some lost glory. The already-present  contingents of British troops inside the country   were aided by a relief column referred to as the  “Army of Retribution” were instructed to march
• 26:30 - 27:00 upon Kabul and secure the release of British  prisoners taken on the retreat from Kabul.   Along the way, the British committed many acts of  reprisals against villages and their inhabitants.   In September, the historic bazaar of Kabul was  burned down. Having achieved their revised aims,   the British completely withdrew from Afghanistan  in October 1842. Shah Shuja had been assassinated
• 27:00 - 27:30 earlier in the spring of 1842 and so the  position for the ruler of Afghanistan was open;   a position which was filled by none other than  Dost Mohammed, who was released from captivity   by the British at the end of the year and warned  against opening up to the Russians again. The   Amir returned to Kabul and the powerful Akbar Khan  became his wazir. As at other times in his life,   Dost had been tenacious, patient, and  skilled. Now with British backing in the
• 27:30 - 28:00 form of weapons and money, he would build  the state of Afghanistan through conquest. In his first reign, Dost had already been called  the ‘great amir’, amir-i kabir. But it was in   his second reign that he would secure most of his  accomplishments as a ruler. Primarily, this meant   welding together most of the territories of modern  Afghanistan under one government. He would refer
• 28:00 - 28:30 to himself in Persian letters to the British as  farman-farma-i dawlat-i Afghanistan, ‘the ruler   of the state of Afghanistan’. This was a violent  process, involving conquest, repression, torture   and the capture of wealth, from individuals like  merchants and from whole regions. That process   is historically significant, as a key step to the  formation of Afghanistan in all its complexities.   Many of those patterns of violence and  repression would continue or escalate after Dost,
• 28:30 - 29:00 particularly against the non-Pashtun regions in  the north and center of the country. For several   years, Dost’s guns were pointed at areas around  Kabul, like Bamiyan, the mountainous Kohistan,   and parts of the Hazarajat in central Afghanistan  populated by the Shia Hazara people. From 1849,   Dost began the conquest of Balkh and the  northern territories which had been loosely   incorporated into the Durrani Empire  before. His son and deputy there began   systematic land surveys, showing the  more ambitious nature of this annexation.
• 29:00 - 29:30 As we have said before, politics was about family.  Sometimes that meant the bonds of family were   broken for political gain, something Dost was  intimately acquainted with in the tumultuous   history of the Durranis. But he was spared a clash  with the popular Akbar Khan, his own son, when the   latter died of cholera at Kabul in 1847. Now there  were few threats to his position. On his eastern   border, things also stabilized after some tension.  After the invasion of Afghanistan and the death
• 29:30 - 30:00 of Ranjit Singh in 1839, British-Sikh relations  deteriorated to the point of war in 1845. In 1848,   the British launched a final war with the Sikhs.  Dost actually backed his old Sikh enemies,   seeing an opening to extend his influence. For a  few short months as the Sikh government crumbled,   he gained his dream of retaking Peshawar. He even  minted coins there. But when the British advanced,
• 30:00 - 30:30 he carefully withdrew – his usual boldness,  tempered with prudence. Peshawar would   forever be lost to the rulers of Kabul hereafter.  But in 1855, Dost solidified his good relations   with the British by making a formal alliance,  and continued to take their subsidies. After   the treaty with the British, Dost expanded further  by taking Qandahar from his Barakzai half-brothers   who were still in place there. They made overtures  to Qajar Iran to help them retake the city,
• 30:30 - 31:00 which came to nothing. In 1857, when a major  rebellion against British rule erupted in India,   Dost cannily, or one can say cynically, did not  join in, preserving his alliance. The last major   principality in the region which was up for grabs  was Herat, that old refuge of Mahmud Shah decades   before. Although a Barakzai nephew of Dost’s  ruled there now, it remained a separate and
• 31:00 - 31:30 hostile state. By the end of May 1863, Dost’s  armies had captured the city after a siege.   Just a few days later, on 9 June, Dost died  suddenly at the age of 70. He named his son   Sher Ali as successor before dying, and was buried  in Herat, the scene of his final great conquest. Legacies By the time of his death,
• 31:30 - 32:00 Dost had built up a new and viable kingdom out of  the core of the old Durrani Empire: Afghanistan.   His realm also had far greater revenues than when  he had begun either of his reigns. He had adapted   with creativity and finesse to the demands of  such a changing world, successfully reimagining   himself as the circumstances required, taking and  giving ground where needed. He was revered by many   of his subjects, but also feared by many others  whom he terrorized. A young son of many brothers,
• 32:00 - 32:30 a minor player in a dangerous political game, had  risen to become one of the defining personalities   of Afghan, Central and South Asian history. Not  to mention, he forged his Afghan state during the   bloody transition into a world dominated by the  European colonial powers. Although that state has   suffered a great deal up to today, the idea of it  has survived many blows from inside and outside.