Afghanistan in the Process of Shrinking!
(Part 3)
Duranian
Ahmad Shah Baba, who is known as “Ahmad Khan Abdali” (1134-1186 AH) was the founder of the (Abdali) Durrani Empire (1160-1224 AH). He is mostly remembered as the founder of modern Afghanistan, and he is a popular figure for the entire nation of Afghanistan. So far no king or leader has been so popular among all sections of the nation like him.
In 1160 AH, Ahmad Shah Baba, was appointed as the king by the Loya Jirga in Kandahar and established his capital there. Ahmad Shah Baba, with the help of a council, consisting of 9 advisors from different ethnic groups of the country, expanded his empire from the East to the Gurganian and Maratha empires of India, from the West to the Afshar, empire of Iran, and from the North to Bukhara in Turkestan. Ahmad Shah Abdali formed an empire that included large parts of present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan,Iran, and northwestern India. This empire was known as one of the largest and most powerful empires in the region. Ahmad Shah Abdali was the greatest, just, and the most powerful emperor of Afghanistan in the modern history of the country.
After Ahmad Shah Baba, his son Timur Shah (1187-1208 AH) became the king of Durrani dynasty, and moved the capital of Afghanistan from Kandahar to Kabul for strategic reasons, and he was able to maintain Afghanistan independency during his father’s reign. But later, Timur Shah’s sons (Zaman Shah, Mahmud Shah and Shah Shuja) during almost 50 years, as a result of lots of factors including ethnic differences, family violence and other rebellions in different parts of the country, was incited by spies and also through direct indirect interventions of the Britain, who had taken the control root in India, and the movements of the Qajars in the west of the country, caused the division of important parts from the south of the homeland to Peshawar in the hands of the Sikhs due to the engagement of the leaders of Muhammad Zai and Durrani in civil wars.
This was the first partition in the modern history of the country, which we lost half of Afghanistan from the body of this homeland with the plan of the Britain, the Sikh rebellions, the betrayal of a number of army leaders, fratricide and civil wars. Finally, Shah Shuja was assassinated in Kabul in 1258. The Durrani Empire lasted for almost more than a hundred years, and after the establishment of the country’s borders and the struggles of the brave Nation and the anonymous mujahedeen against the cunning and scheming enemies, this empire was given away to Amir Dost Mohammad Khan Mohammad Zaei. (Ghabar 1368, 354-509)
The Un-Successful Plan to Partition Afghanistan
