nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47Khulm was also unacceptable to Murad Beg of Qataghan and he too prob-
ably placed himself under the protection of Bukhara. Timur Shah then
exacerbated the situation by sending a new sardar as hakim of Balkh.
At the time Bukhara was in political turmoil and its treasury so
depleted that ‘Abd al-Ghani Khan was in no position to wage war with
Timur Shah, so instead the Khan intrigued with Mahmud Mirza and
Firoz al-Din Mirza, Timur’s sons and joint rulers of Herat. 11 In 1784 ‘Abd
al-Ghani Khan was deposed by his ataliq, Murad Bi, who had formerly
served in the army of Nadir Shah. Murab Bi thus founded the Manghit
Dynasty of Bukhara and took the regnal name of Shah Murad Khan, as
well as the title of Amir al-Mu’minin.
Shah Murad had great ambitions to restore the frontiers of the former
Shaibanid Empire by conquering Balkh, Herat, Kandahar, Kabul and even
northern India. As the first stage of this imperial dream, Shah Murad
attacked and subdued Shahr-i Sabz, deposing its Shi‘a governor. He then
besieged Merv and, when it finally fell, Shah Murad deported all its Shi‘a
inhabitants, numbering several thousand families, and wrote to Timur
Shah demanding he recall the Durrani hakim from Balkh or face an attack.
Timur Shah rejected his call and in reply lectured Shah Murad about his
harsh treatment of the Shi‘a population of Merv and Shahr-i Sabz.
In the summer of 1788, while Timur Shah was occupied with yet
another campaign in Multan, Shah Murad Khan crossed the Amu Darya
and, supported by the amirs of the Chahar Wilayat, occupied Aqcha
and expelled its small Durrani garrison. He then attacked Balkh and
surrounded the remnant of the hakim’s troops in the citadel. Timur Shah
once more recalled Madad Khan Ishaqzai from Multan and sent him with
an army of 40,000 men to relieve Balkh, while the king returned to Kabul
where he assembled a second army. However, shortly after Timur Shah set
out for Balkh he heard the Bukharan army had fallen apart due to inter-
nal feuds that, among other things, had led to the death of one of Shah
Murad’s sons. 12
In the spring of the following year the Bukharan army crossed the Amu
Darya again but Timur Shah still refused to recall his hakim. This time
he marched north with an army said to have been 150,000 strong, but the
very size of this force proved a serious handicap. There were insufficient
supplies in the mountains to feed such a large number of men and the artil-
lery became bogged down and had to be manhandled over the snowbound
passes. The king also refused to pay the Shaikh ‘Ali Hazaras the customary
fee for safe passage and he had to fight his way across the Shibar Pass and
down the Surkhab river. When Timur Shah finally reached the plains of