afghanistan
Shah Zaman controlled Kabul, but the Durrani leaders in Kandahar
had also revolted and installed Homayun Mirza, Timur Shah’s eldest son,
as king, while Shah Mahmud and Firoz al-Din in Herat also submitted to
the pretender. Shah Zaman sent his full brother Shuja‘ al-Mulk, along with
Wazir Payinda Khan, to deal with this rebellion and defeated Homayun and
the Durranis near Qalat-i Ghilzai. When Shah Mahmud and Firoz al-Din
heard of the fall of Kandahar, they too swore allegiance to Shah Zaman,
who honoured his pledge to his father and allowed them to remain gover-
nors of Herat. As for Homayun Mirza, he made his way to Kalat where
he was placed under house arrest by Nasir Khan, but a year or so later he
escaped, raised a ragtag army and marched on Kandahar. Shah Zaman,
who was campaigning in the Punjab at the time, had to march back to deal
with the rebellion but fortunately Homayun’s motley band of followers
deserted en masse. A few months later Homayun made a third attempt
to seize the throne, only to suffer another defeat. This time Shah Zaman
sent a detachment of cavalry in hot pursuit and the prince was eventually
betrayed, blinded and joined the growing number of princes that had been
incarcerated in the Upper Bala Hisar.
Following Timur Shah’s death, several Durrani governors in northern
India declared their independence and Shah Zaman spent most of his
short reign either fighting members of his own extended family or in an
increasingly futile attempt to defeat the Sikhs, who now controlled Lahore
and the Punjab. North of the Hindu Kush, Shah Murad Manghit, the Khan
of Bukhara, took advantage of the civil war to reoccupy Aqcha, defeated
Muhammad Khan Qizilbash and took him and most of his men prisoner.
The surviving Qizilbash retreated to the arg of Balkh but despite a four-
month siege Shah Murad was unable to take the citadel. The Khan even
paraded Muhammad Khan before the defenders and threatened to execute
him if they did not surrender. When the garrison still refused to capitu-
late, Shah Murad had the Qizilbash commander ‘barbarously executed’ in
the sight of his own men. 15 Eventually Shah Murad admitted defeat and
sent envoys to Kabul to negotiate a truce. The former agreements were
reconfirmed and the Bukharans withdrew back across the Amu Darya.
In 1796 Agha Muhammad Khan Qajar took Mashhad and put to death
the Durranis’ ally, Shah Rukh Mirza. Agha Muhammad then proceeded to
eradicate all vestiges of Nadirid power, levelling Nadir Shah’s mausoleum
and digging up his bones, which were boxed and made into a footstool for
the Qajar Shah. Agha Muhammad then demanded Shah Zaman surren-
der Herat, Farah, Girishk and Kandahar, and even laid claim to Balkh.
Shah Zaman took this threat seriously and assembled an army to oppose
nandana
(Nandana)
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