nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47number of their descendants were exiled, including Ghulam Muhammad
Tarzi. The Amir also arrested or executed several leaders who pledged their
allegiance to him at Charikar, as well as a number of Pushtun tribal leaders
who had assisted the British invasion. Over the following decade the Amir
also conducted military campaigns against the Mohmands, Shinwaris and
other tribes of Nangahar and Kunar, killing or exiling their leaders and
replacing them with men often of no rank or status, but who were bound
to the Amir by bonds of loyalty and patronage. He also introduced a new
tax, known as seh kot, equivalent to one-third of all revenues and yields,
to replace the traditional Islamic taxes of zakat and ushr.
Another target was Mushk-i ‘Alam and General Muhammad Jan Khan
Wardak, the two individuals who had been instrumental in the siege of
Sherpur. The Amir accused them and ‘Asmat Allah Khan, head of the
Jabbar Khel, and Mir Afzal Khan Hotaki, a direct descendant of Mir Wais
Hotaki, of plotting the restoration of ‘Ayub Khan. They were arrested and
subsequently poisoned in prison or put to death at night in killing fields
near the Hashmat Khan lake, outside the walls of the Bala Hisar. At the end
of 1885 ‘Abd al-Karim, Mushk-i ‘Alam’s eldest son, who had succeeded him
as pir, issued a fatwa condemning ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan as an infidel and
called for the restoration of ‘Ayub Khan. His Andar Ghilzais, though, were
soon crushed and 2,000 heads of slain or executed Ghilzais were sent to
Kabul where they were piled into a pyramid of skulls. ‘Abd al-Karim and
his brothers managed to escape to India, so the Amir vented his ire on the
corpse of Mushk-i ‘Alam, which was exhumed and burnt to ashes. As for
the Andar Ghilzai, they lost all their land and wealth and were reduced
to abject poverty.
‘Abd al-Karim’s revolt was the harbinger of a far more serious Ghilzai
rebellion. In the spring of 1886 the Amir’s officials attempted to fine and
disarm the Tokhi and Hotak Ghilzais of Kandahar, only for them to rebel,
with the support of the equally powerful Kakar tribe. In Herat the Ghilzai
regiments mutinied and invited ‘Ayub Khan to take control of the city,
but when he crossed the Persian frontier ‘Ayub’s small force was defeated
and he fled back to Persia. He eventually gave up any hope of regaining
the throne and accepted a British offer of exile in Lahore and the Ghilzai
revolt was eventually put down.
Anglo-Afghan relations and Afghanistan’s northwestern frontierAfter the withdrawal from Afghanistan, British officials were less concerned
about the Amir’s internal battles than they were about the Russian threat to