nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47discovered he had written to Shahzada Shahpur, Shuja‘ al-Mulk’s son, in
Ludhiana, offering him the throne. Rafiq Khan was strangled by a silken
cord, his body thrown over the walls of the Bala Hisar and left to be eaten
by the dogs. Then Faiz Muhammad Khan, whom ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan
had appointed governor of Balkh, refused to swear allegiance to Afzal Khan
and defeated an army sent against him.
Afzal Khan had greater success in the south. In January 1867 ‘Abd
al-Rahman Khan took Kandahar and Sher ‘Ali Khan fled to Herat. Hearing
of Faiz Muhammad Khan’s disaffection, Sher ‘Ali decided to go to Balkh and
join forces against the Pretender. As Sher ‘Ali Khan marched through the
Chahar Wilayat, all the Uzbek amirs from Bala Murghab to Badakhshan
declared their support for him. When he reached Takhtapul, Sher ‘Ali Khan
called a grand assembly of Balkh’s indigenous rulers and went with them
to the shrine of Shah-i Mardan, where he pledged on the Qur’an to restore
their right to self-rule in return for their support against the Muhammad
Afzal Khan. He even swore that if he was victorious he would remit all
taxes in the province for two years.
While Sher ‘Ali Khan was consolidating his control in the north, a
plague of cholera swept through Kabul and the Koh Daman, decimat-
ing Afzal Khan’s army in Charikar and striking down the Amir himself.
When Sher ‘Ali heard that Afzal Khan was at death’s door, he marched into
the Panjshir across the high Anjuman Pass and set up camp in Bazarak,
where mullahs and maliks from Kohistan and Tagab came and pledged
their allegiance. Despite being on his deathbed, Afzal Khan ordered ‘Abd
al-Rahman Khan to confront the enemy. In early October ‘Sher ‘Ali Khan
was defeated at Qal‘a-yi Allahdad, near the modern settlement of Jabal
Saraj, 10 and Faiz Muhammad Khan was slain when he was disembowelled
by a ricocheting cannonball.
Qal‘a-yi Allahdad ought to have been the decisive battle of the civil war,
but the pendulum swung unexpectedly back in Sher ‘Ali Khan’s favour. On
7 October 1867, three days after this victory, Afzal Khan passed away and
‘Abd al-Rahman returned to Kabul to lead the mourning rituals. On his
arrival he was greeted with the unwelcome news that Afzal Khan had desig-
nated his brother, ‘Azam Khan, as Amir, and a stand-off ensued between
‘Abd al-Rahman Khan, who believed he ought to have become Amir, and
his uncle. ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan eventually reluctantly acknowledged
‘Azam Khan’s right to the succession but fearing his nephew planned to
depose him, ‘Azam Khan ordered him to march to Balkh and confront
Sher ‘Ali Khan. ‘Abd al-Rahman obeyed the order, but only after an angry
exchange of words.