afghanistanand Kohistanis poured into the city and, under Khwaja Khanji’s direction,
tried to storm the Jawanshir stronghold of Chindawal, but the Qizilbash
were prepared and hundreds of attackers died in well-directed fire from the
walls of the mahala. The attackers then besieged Chindawal and fired into
the houses from the Sher Darwaza heights, which dominated the Jawanshir
Quarter. According to Ferrier, more than four hundred people died in the
riots and the siege of Chindawal. After nearly a month of stalemate, Shah
Mahmud ordered the arrest of Mukhtar al-Daula and the other ringleaders,
but Sher Muhammad Khan, informed of the king’s intentions, persuaded
Khwaja Khanji to mount a diversionary attack on Chindawal and the Bala
Hisar and he slipped out of the city.
The fall of Shah Mahmud and the accession of Shah Shuja‘ al-MulkSher Muhammad Khan made his way to Peshawar, where he offered to
help Shuja‘ al-Mulk depose Shah Mahmud in return for being made wazir.
Shuja‘ al-Mulk agreed, marched on Kabul and on 12 July 1803 defeated
Shah Mahmud, aided by the defection of a number of Durrani sardars and
Khwaja Khanji’s supporters. The day after his victory Shah Shuja‘ entered
the Bala Hisar accompanied by Sher Muhammad Khan, who walked beside
him holding the king’s stirrup. The influence of the Sunni faction was
immediately apparent. As the king entered the gates of the citadel, heralds
Gate of the Bazaar in Kabul, most likely the Naqqara Khana, or City Gate, leading
from the Shor Bazaar into the eastern side of the lower Bala Hisar, from the Illustrated
London News, 9 November 1878. Shah Shuja‘ al-Mulk would have passed through this gate
following the fall of Shah Mahmud in 1803.