afghanistanand he failed to established functional and enduring state institutions, but
left the administration of his diwan, or bureaucracy, to the Qizilbash and
farmed out revenue-raising to the highest bidder. He also created a privil-
eged Durrani elite, who were effectively tax-exempt. The Durrani empire
itself lacked political coherence and was undermined by internal feuds
and cultural and ideological alienation between the conquerors and the
conquered. Rather than establishing an enduring kingdom, Ahmad Shah’s
legacy was a kingdom riddled with competitive power structures that on
occasion rendered it ungovernable. The instability was exacerbated by an
ideological struggle between the crown and Islamists, which first raised
its head in the wake of Timur Shah’s death and would later act as a brake
on political, social and educational reform.
When the Saddozai dynasty was finally swept aside by the
Muhammadzais they inherited the structural flaws of their predecessors.
Amir Dost Muhammad Khan was more ‘hands on’ when it came to the
administration of justice, but by placing all power in the hands of members
of his own clan he created a kingdom akin to an Arab sheikhdom, run more
as a family enterprise than a nation state. The Muhammadzais too were
plagued by sibling rivalry and, as with the Saddozais, the country was often
plunged into civil war. The country itself remained fiscally non-viable and
lacked anything approaching an effective army. Externally, Afghanistan’s
political stability and territorial integrity was threatened by Persia, Bukhara
and the Sikhs, and subsequently by Russia and Britain. By 1838 the rump
of the Durrani kingdom was increasingly beleaguered. The war with the
Sikhs was all but lost and Peshawar was now a Sikh possession, though
still governed by Amir Dost Muhammad Khan’s half-brothers. What terri-
tory was left was divided into semi-independent, rival fiefdoms: Herat,
Kandahar and Kabul. North of the Hindu Kush, the Chahar Wilayat, Balkh,
Qataghan and Badakhshan were beyond the Amir’s jurisdiction.
Just as it seemed the surrounding kingdoms were about to sweep aside
what little remained of Ahmad Shah’s kingdom, Britain became embroiled
in the Machiavellian world of Afghan dynastic, tribal and religious polit-
ics. In 1808–9 the Elphinstone Mission avoided being dragged into the
dynastic struggle between Shah Shuja‘ and Shah Mahmud. After the fall of
Shah Shuja‘ and the defeat of Napoleon, the East India Company relied on
its treaty arrangements with the Sikhs and Persia to provide the necessary
buffer against possible invasion by France or Russia. As for the rulers of
Afghanistan, they were left to their own devices. This arrangement was
arguably the best solution as far as the defence of India’s northern frontier
was concerned.