afghanistanmission’s sarai and an individual he describes as ‘a man of genius’ with ‘an
insatiable thirst for knowledge’, who was ‘well-versed in metaphysics, and
the moral sciences’. The mullah also had a passion for mathematics and
was studying Sanskrit ‘with a view to discover the treasures of Hindoo
learning’. 35
Elphinstone noted the sectarian and ethnic tensions at court and, though
he was probably not aware of it, the presence of the mission had exacer-
bated the rivalry between the anti-Shi‘a party and the Qizilbash. Akram
Khan ‘Alizai, Shah Shuja‘s wazir and head of the Durrani tribal council,
and Madad Khan Ishaqzai were the leading members of the anti-Qizilbash
faction, while Mir Abu’l-Hasan Khan Jawanshir led the pro-Shi‘a Qizilbash
party. The recent defeat and death of Mukhtar al-Daula and the rebellion
of Khwaja Khanji meant that by the time the mission reached Peshawar
the Qizilbash were in the ascendant. The king even appointed Abu’l-Hasan
Jawanshir as the mission’s mehmandar, or court liaison officer, whereupon
Wazir Akram Khan ‘Alizai wrote to Elphinstone informing him that, since
the king had not chosen him for this prestigious position, he must expect
him to do all in his power to thwart the mission’s aims.
The fall of Shah Shuja‘ al-MulkThe king did not trust Akram Khan for he had formerly been a partisan of
Shah Mahmud and Shah Shuja‘ suspected, rightly, that he was in clandestine
correspondence with his rival. Eventually Shah Shuja‘ sent Akram Khan
and Madad Khan Ishaqzai against Mukhtar al-Daula’s rebellious son, ‘Ata
Muhammad Khan, governor of Kashmir, rather than dispatching them to
oppose Shah Mahmud’s advance on Kabul, fearing that if he did the two
men would defect. The Kashmir campaign was a disaster since the king’s
erstwhile ally, the mutawalli of Muzaffarabad, 36 sent the army by a circuitous
and difficult mountain route, then, when they were trapped in the high,
snowbound passes and valleys, he cut off their line of retreat and annihilated
the force. Akram Khan and Madad Khan managed to escape and made
their way back to Peshawar, where they were lucky to avoid execution, for
the king suspected them of treachery. The situation was even worse for
Shah Shuja‘, for while his army was being slaughtered in the mountains of
Kashmir, Shah Mahmud had occupied Kabul almost unopposed.
Shah Shuja‘ gathered the remnants of his shattered army and in June
1809 set out for Jalalabad to confront Shah Mahmud, who was now march-
ing on Peshawar, while Elphinstone and his mission were hastily sent out
of harm’s way back across the Indus. A few weeks later, at Nimla on the