A Leader Amongst Kings

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

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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.