nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47Wilayat in the previous year, however, had weakened the ability of the
rulers of Balkh and the Chahar Wilayat to resist an even more powerful
and determined enemy.
While Yar Muhammad Khan attempted in vain to subdue Maimana,
Muhammad Akram Khan and Ghulam Haidar Khan assembled a large
army in Bamiyan. In the summer of 1849 they marched north, forcing the
amirs of Saighan, Ajar, Kahmard and Darra-yi Suf to accept Durrani su -
zerainty. As the sardars advanced on Doshi, the Mir Wali fled to Bukhara
and by early 1850 Mazar-i Sharif and Balkh were in Afghan hands. Akram
Khan then besieged Aqcha and when the fortress was taken by storm, its
defenders were slaughtered and the town plundered. Ishan Uruq, Ishan
Sudur and Mahmud Khan of Sar-i Pul were captured and imprisoned,
though Mahmud Khan was later released. In the autumn of 1852 Akram
Khan defeated both the Mir Wali and the Mir Ataliq of Qataghan, but
during this campaign he caught pneumonia and died. In his place, Dost
Muhammad Khan appointed his next eldest son, Muhammad Afzal Khan,
as his heir apparent and military governor of Balkh.
Even though the Afghan army had secured control of Balkh and the
eastern marches of Turkistan, the occupation proved to be a protracted and
bloody affair. For the next forty years Durrani domination of the wilayat
was bitterly contested by the predominantly Turco-Tajik population, who
resented living under what they regarded as foreign occupation. Frequent
rebellions were brutally suppressed and after each revolt the powers of the
indigenous Uzbek amirs were further eroded and eventually swept aside.
Another source of resentment was the forcible conscription of local labour
for public works and the army, as well as a new and swingeing tax regime.
A comparison between the Chinggisid and Afghan taxation system in
Maimana dating from the mid-1880s shows that tax increases imposed
under Muhammadzai rule were equivalent to a hike of between 100 and
300 per cent. In addition, many commodities that had previously been
exempt were subject to state tax. 3 The burden of taxation drove many small
landholders and labourers into abject poverty, while much of the wealth
of the region went to constructing military cantonments, paying the army
or disappeared into the pockets of Kabul’s ruling elite. Hyperinflation and
a series of natural disasters, including a devastating earthquake, merely
added to the misery and depravation.
One of Afzal Khan’s first actions as governor of Balkh was to move his
capital to the military cantonment at Takhtapul, between Balkh and Mazar,
which was large enough to house most of the northern army and which
was deliberately located well away from the main centres of population.