nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47
Caught between the Afghans and the Sikhs, Mir Mannu Khan sent two
senior religious figures to negotiate submission to Ahmad Shah. A treaty
was agreed under the terms of which Ahmad Shah was given sovereignty
over all territory north of the Indus along with the annual revenues of
the Chahar Mahala, or Four Districts (Sialkot, Aurangabad, Gukraj and
Pasrur), which were worth 1,400,000 rupees per annum. Sovereignty over
the Chahar Mahala, however, remained with the Mughal king. Having
secured this highly advantageous treaty, Ahmad Shah marched back to
Peshawar, passing through Dera Isma’il Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan en
route. In the latter town Zahid Shah Saddozai, the great-grandson of Sultan
Maudud Khan, petitioned the king to restore him to the governorship of
Multan, for Mir Mannu had deposed him and installed a rival Saddozai,
‘Abd al-‘Aziz. Ahmad Shah referred the matter to his tribal jirga, who
rejected Zahid Shah’s petition, no doubt under pressure from the king, for
he had no wish to see a potential rival from his qaum ruling this strategic
region.
It was three years before Ahmad Shah resumed his Indian campaign,
having in the interim taken Herat and mounted an unsuccessful invasion of
Khurasan. His third Punjab campaign was precipitated by the failure of Mir
Mannu Khan to remit the revenues of the Chahar Mahal as agreed under
their treaty. In a battle in the vicinity of Lahore’s Shalimar Gardens, Mir
Mannu Khan was defeated and for the second time Ahmad Shah’s army
plundered Lahore and slaughtered its population. Mir Mannu surrendered
and a second treaty was agreed that ceded partial sovereignty over Lahore
and Multan to the Durrani monarch as well as all the surplus revenues of
these regions. However, the right of khutba and coinage remained with the
Mughal king. Ahmad Shah Bahadur did everything in his power to avoid
confirming this treaty, but he was in no position to resist and on 13 April
1752 he put his seal on the agreement.
Ahmad Shah’s next objective was the wealthy province of Kashmir,
which was being torn apart by civil war. ‘Abd Allah Khan, better known as
Shah Pasand Khan, was sent to support the ousted governor, Mir Muqim
Kanth, and quickly occupied Srinagar. Meanwhile Ahmad Shah went to
Multan, where he distributed presents and gifts to members of his own
lineage, but deposed the Saddozai governor and appointed ‘Ali Muhammad
Khan, a Khakwani Pushtun, in his place.
For the next two years Ahmad Shah was occupied with campaigns in
Khurasan and Turkistan. In 1756 he returned once more to the Punjab, by
which time Ahmad Shah Bahadur had been deposed and replaced by the
elderly ‘Alamgir ii, who had spent all of his adult life as a state prisoner. Mir
nandana
(Nandana)
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