afghanistan
Once Ahmad Shah had secured the endorsement of the military coun-
cil that he should be king, he set out to secure the oath of allegiance from
the tribal and religious elites of the region. Heralds were sent to summon
these dignitaries to a public darbar. When they had gathered Ahmad Shah
appeared before the assembly, probably already wearing a royal jigha,
which was no doubt part of the loot acquired from Delhi or Nadir Shah’s
tent. The assembly was then informed that Ahmad Shah was king of an
independent Kandahar, whereupon Ahmad Shah’s ghazis, who were stra-
tegically placed around the assembly, beat their swords against their shields
and declared there was no one more worthy to be king. The leaders then
went forward and pledged allegiance to the Saddozai ruler. The event was
so well stage-managed that there was no dissent and doubtless the presence
of thousands of soldiers, artillery and war elephants convinced everyone
that it was safer to submit than object.
Even so, many key regional and tribal leaders were absent from the
darbar or deliberately did not attend. Particularly notable by their absence
were the Hotak Ghilzai, mostly because their leaders had been exiled by
Nadir Shah. Many other Ghilzai tribes were not represented, including the
powerful Sulaiman Khel confederacy of Ghazni, Kabul and the Logar, while
the Ghilzais of Kabul, Laghman and Nangahar did not attend because at
the time their fealty lay with the Mughal emperor. The Kakars and Baluch
of Farah and Girishk were also notable by their absence, as were represent-
atives of the Afridis, Jajis, Mohmands, Mangals, Safis, Shinwaris, Waziris
and other tribes of southern and southeastern Afghanistan and the Khyber.
One Hazara is mentioned as being present at the darbar but he was
not, as has been assumed by a number of modern historians, a Shi‘a Hazara
from the Hazarajat, but Darwish ‘Ali Khan, beglar begi of the Sunni Hazara
Aimaq. As we have seen, he too had fought under Nadir Shah’s banner
and for a short time had been governor of Herat. Nasir Khan, beglar begi
of Kalat, was also present at the ‘swearing in’, since Kalat was regarded as
subordinate to the governor of Kandahar. Nasir Khan was the only non -
Afghan who had a seat on the king’s nine-man majlis. Subsequent claims
that Ahmad Shah was elected by all the Pushtun tribes of Afghanistan,
therefore, have no foundation in contemporary sources and this is yet one
more myth that has accumulated over the years around his ‘coronation’.
It is commonplace to state that Ahmad Shah’s assumption of kingship
marked the foundation of modern Afghanistan, but this too is an ana chron-
ism. As far as Ahmad Shah and his contemporaries were concerned,
Afghanistan was the territory dominated by the autonomous Afghan tribes,
the Pushtun tribal belt which today lies either side of the Afghan–Pakistan
nandana
(Nandana)
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