afghanistanKing Nadir Shah and the founding of the Musahiban DynastyA few days later Nadir Khan arrived in Kabul, where cheering crowds lined
his route to the Dilkusha Palace. On 16 October 1929 Shah Wali Khan and
Muhammad Hashim Khan assembled a group of supporters in the Salam
Khana, which is now located in the grounds of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, and finally announced he was prepared to accept the throne if this
was the wish of ‘popular opinion’. Two of Amir ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan’s
surviving sons, followed by the remaining delegates, then came forward
and pledged allegiance to Nadir Khan, who thus became King Nadir Shah,
founder of the Musahiban, or Nadirid, dynasty.
Much of the country, however, was still out of his control and
Muhammad Ghaus and the Waziris were sent into the Koh Daman to
subdue it and capture Habib Allah Kalakani and other fugitives. During this
campaign the Waziris went on a killing and looting spree while the Shaikh
‘Ali Hazaras, not to be outdone, attacked settlements in the Ghurband and
Charikar. In order to prevent further destruction, local leaders came and
submitted to Nadir Shah, who pardoned many of the religious leaders who
had supported Habib Allah and even appointed some to government posts.
In return for clemency, however, the leaders agreed to either hunt down
Habib Allah Kalakani or persuade him and his associates to surrender.
How exactly Habib Allah fell into government hands is unclear. Habib
Allah himself maintained he was betrayed, but other sources state he
surrendered after Nadir Shah sent him a pledge, sealed on a Qur’an, that he
would not be executed. 3 Nadir Shah, though, reneged on his promise and
Habib Allah Kalakani, his brother Hamid Allah, General Sayyid Husain
and nine other associates were sentenced to death. There are conflicting
accounts of Habib Allah Kalakani’s last hours, some of which are pure
fiction. 4 Some claim he was stoned to death, others that he faced a firing
squad. According to contemporary Afghan accounts, Nadir Shah handed
the prisoners over to his Royal Guard, who first tortured them and then
each tribesman fired a single bullet in turn into the condemned men. Their
mangled corpses were then hung on gallows in Kabul’s main chauk, where
they were photographed and the pictures circulated as postcards. 5
The brutal, extrajudicial nature of these executions was condemned by
many religious figures as a violation of Islamic law, while some Pushtun
leaders were disgusted that the king had broken both his oath and the
Pushtun code of honour. The government did its best to justify the king’s
action and in a special issue of Anis the editor argued that, while Nadir
Shah could forgive personal offences against his family, he had no power