nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47later, in August 1765, Shah ‘Alam ii ceded the East India Company virtual
sovereignty over Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Meanwhile in northwest India,
the Sikh kingdom had ended five centuries of Muslim sovereignty over
the Punjab.
The massacres and enslavement of civilians, and the desecration and
destruction of Hindu and Sikh holy places, left a legacy of religious hatred
in northern India and undermined the Mughal policy of religious toler-
ation that had been a cornerstone of more than three centuries of Muslim
rule in India. Ahmad Shah’s invasions also had much to do in creating the
Indian, and subsequently British, stereotype of the Pathans (the Indian
term for Pushtuns) as cruel, bloodthirsty, religious fanatics. Ahmad Shah
appeared much more interested in booty and money than in restoring
Muslim supremacy in northern India, and his refusal to move his capital
from the distant frontier outpost of Kandahar to Lahore or Delhi made
supervision of his Indian empire more or less impossible.
Ahmad Shah’s campaigns in Herat and KhurasanAs if nine hard-fought campaigns in India were not enough, Ahmad Shah
set out to reassert Durrani supremacy over Herat and Persian Khurasan.
His first campaign took place in 1749, between the second and third inva-
sions of India. The main objective was to regain control of Herat, which at
the time was governed by an Arab in the name of Shah Rukh Mirza, grand-
son of Nadir Shah, who had succeeded to the Persian throne after Nadir
Shah’s death. Like his grandfather, Shah Rukh made Mashhad his capital
but his hold on power was tenuous, as the succession was disputed between
various members of his own family and by the head of the Qajar tribe.
In the spring of 1749 Ahmad Shah, taking advantage of the political
turmoil in Persia, laid siege to Herat. After several months he ordered his
Durrani commanders to take the city regardless of the cost. Wave after
wave of Afghans stormed the breaches, climbing over the dead and dying,
until finally they broke through into the town. The remnant of the Persian
garrison retreated into the citadel of Qal‘a-yi Ikhtiyar al-Din and sued
for peace. In order to lull their commander into a false sense of security,
Ahmad Shah assured them that if they surrendered they would be spared,
but under cover of darkness he sent a storming party to scale the citadel
walls. The dozing guards were caught unawares and the sleeping garrison
was put to the sword. Herat was once more in Saddozai hands, but rather
than appointing a member of his own lineage as governor, Ahmad Shah
appointed Darwish ‘Ali Khan, chief of the Sunni Hazara Aimaq.