nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47
This volatile mix of racial and religious prejudice was fertile ground
for radical Sunni religious officials that Timur Shah and Shah Zaman had
promoted to high office. A key member of this anti-Shi‘a, anti-Qizilbash
faction was Sher Muhammad Khan Bamizai, whom Shah Zaman had
appointed as Mukhtar al-Daula, the most senior religious office in the king-
dom. 20 Sher Muhammad Khan was the son of Begi Khan Bamizai, better
known as Shah Wali Khan, one of Ahmad Shah’s most important generals,
and the individual whom Timur Shah had put to death for his support of
Sulaiman Mirza’s claim to the throne. Following his father’s execution Sher
Muhammad Khan had fled to Kalat, where he devoted himself to Qura’nic
studies, yet ‘under the mask of moderation, and even contempt for worldly
honours’, Sher Muhammad Khan ‘concealed the highest ambition’. 21 In
1794 Shah Zaman appointed Sher Muhammad Khan as commander of
military operations in Baluchistan, Kashmir and the Punjab, and after
Shah Zaman had been deposed he set out to undermine Shah Mahmud
and Wazir Fateh Khan.
Sher Muhammad Khan found a willing ally in Sayyid Mir Ahmad
Agha, a Mujadidi pir from Karez in the Koh Daman, whom Shah Zaman
had appointed as mir w a’ i s, or head preacher of the royal mosque of Pul-i
Kheshti, and mutawalli of Kabul’s famous Ashiqan wa Arifan shrine. 22 To
his disciples, however, Mir Ahmad was known simply as Khwaja Khanji. 23
In the first week of June 1803, while Fateh Khan and the Qizilbash were
in Kandahar putting down another revolt, Mukhtar al-Daula publicly
denounced Shi‘as in general and the Qizilbash in particular as ‘blas phemers
and heretics’, and condemned Payinda Khan’s family for their marriage
alliances with ‘heretics’. He then called for the expulsion of all Shi‘as and
Qizilbash from the capital, which led to violent clashes with Kabul’s Shi‘a
community. The rioting escalated after mourners at the funeral of a young
man executed for allegedly killing a Qizilbash claimed they had been fired
on by the Qizilbash, although according to Ferrier the catalyst was the
abduction and gang rape of an Afghan boy by Qizilbash commanders.
Whatever the cause, Mukhtar al-Daula issued a fatwa of jihad against
all Shi‘as. The following Friday, during congregational prayers, Khwaja
Khanji read out the fatwa and whipped the congregation into a frenzy of
sectarian hatred. Once prayers had ended, the mob attacked the Shi‘as and
looted their homes, while a terrified Shah Mahmud barricaded himself in
the Bala Hisar and sent an urgent message recalling Wazir Fateh Khan and
his Qizilbash. When Khwaja Khanji and Mukhtar al-Daula realized the
king was not going to suppress the rioters, they summoned their followers
from the Koh Daman, Kohistan and Tagab. Thousands of Ghilzais, Safis
nandana
(Nandana)
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