nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47the Bala Hisar on the pretext of attacking the enemy lines and defected. Too
late he discovered he had been tricked: when he reached Dost Muhammad
Khan’s camp he was bound and his eyes were gouged out with a dagger
by Pir Muhammad Khan, the youngest of the Peshawar sardars who had
deliberately not signed the oath on the Qur’an. 41
Dost Muhammad Khan then occupied the Lower Bala Hisar. When a
well-directed shell destroyed part of the barbican of the Upper Bala Hisar,
Jahangir escaped and made his way to Ghazni. Realizing all was lost, Shah
Mahmud, his family and a few loyal retainers fled to Herat through the
Hazarajat. In the following year, 1819, Kamran Mirza expelled his father
from the arg and, fearing for his life, Shah Mahmud claimed sanctuary in
the shrine of Khwaja Ansari at Guzargah. He later escaped to Maimana,
raised an army and besieged Herat, but was unable to breach the city
walls. After a stalemate that lasted several months, Kamran finally agreed
to allow Shah Mahmud back into the city, but only on the condition that
he relinquish all responsibility for government.
In Kabul Dost Muhammad Khan, instead of recognizing Shah ‘Ayub
as king as Muhammad ‘Azim Khan had ordered, placed ‘Ali Mirza, the
son of Shah ‘Alamgir ii’s daughter Gauhar Afraz Begum, on the throne. 42
Dost Muhammad Khan then refused to surrender Kabul, so Muhammad
‘Azim Khan marched on Kabul and Dost Muhammad Khan retreated to
Ghazni. ‘Azim Khan decided to remain in Kabul and left his half-brother
Yar Muhammad Khan as governor of Peshawar. A few months later Isma‘il
Mirza, Shah ‘Ayub’s son, encouraged by ‘Azim Khan, strangled ‘Ali Mirza
and briefly became king.
Meanwhile the chaotic state of affairs south of the Hindu Kush encour-
aged the new Khan of Bukhara, Haidar Khan, to mount another attempt
to reassert his authority over Balkh. In or around late 1817 or early 1818
Haidar Khan Manghit occupied Aqcha and Balkh and expelled the Durrani
hakim. 43 Ishan Sayyid Parsa, also known as Khwaja Naqib, was appointed
governor of Balkh, while his brother Ishan Sayyid Uraq was put in charge
of the strategic frontier fortresses of Aqcha and Minglik. 44
The Sikh conquest of Multan and the fall of the Saddozai dynastyRanjit Singh also took advantage of the civil war and in 1817 he forced
Muzaffar Khan Saddozai of Multan to accept Sikh suzerainty and pay
tribute. Early the following year Ranjit Singh marched into Multan with
the intention of eradicating all vestiges of Saddozai power on the Indus.
Despite desperate pleas for help, the Peshawar sardars and other Afghan