afghanistan
The Safavids reinstated Khudakka Khan as mir-i Afghaniha and in a
series of campaigns he extended his authority over the Zhob and Arghasan
valleys, the latter being the homeland of a non-Muslim, kafir tribe. He also
resolved a long-standing boundary dispute between the ‘Abdalis and Tokhi
Ghilzais of Qalat-i Ghilzai. The Band-i Sultan Khudakka and the adjacent
mosque of Masjid-i Khudakka in the Arghasan valley are both said to have
been commissioned by him. Sultan Khudakka Khan, though, also had a
more sinister side to his nature. During the Zhob campaign he is reported
to have ‘wantonly and cruelly’ put to death three young boys and a man
who he found cowering in a hollow in fear of their lives’, 35 an action that
haunted him for the rest of his life. When subsequently he had a dream
of a luminous figure who told him his only hope of peace of mind was to
abdicate, in favour of his brother, Sher Muhammad Khan. Khudakka Khan
died a few months later, around 1665, most likely from poison.
Sher Muhammad Khan’s right to succession, however, was disputed
by his eldest son, Sultan Qalandar, who tried to throw off the Persian yoke
only to be killed a few months later during the assault on Kandahar’s cita-
del. His uncle Sher Muhammad Khan probably died in the same battle,
doubtless fighting on the Persian side, since nothing more is heard of him.
Sultan Qalandar’s younger half-brother, ‘Inayat Khan, became the new
mir-i Afghaniha only for the succession to be challenged by Sarmast Khan,
Khudakka’s youngest brother, who claimed he was the rightful heir because
he was the oldest living male descendant of Saddu Khan. 36 The dispute
quickly turned into open warfare that ended in the death of Sarmast Khan
and the flight of his family to Multan, but the feud between the Khudakka
Khel and Sarmast Khel continued and was passed on down through the
generations.
‘Inayat Khan’s other rival was his ambitious younger brother, Hayat
Khan, who sought a suitable occasion to dispose of his sibling. The oppor-
tunity eventually presented itself during a hunting expedition, when ‘Inayat
Khan’s horse stumbled, throwing and badly injuring its rider. Hayat Khan,
seizing the opportunity, ordered an Uzbek ghulam to kill ‘Inayat Khan
and he was dispatched with a single stroke of a sword. ‘Inayat Khan’s body
was buried where it fell, but Hayat Khan’s attempt to pass off his brother’s
death as a hunting accident failed miserably. Before the hunting party
returned to Safa, news of the murder had reached the ears of their mother,
Murad Bibi, a formidable woman who was accustomed to fight in battle
alongside her husband. Beset with grief, she vowed to drink the blood
of her son’s murderer and to ‘do unto this son of mine as he has done
unto his brother’. 37 Clan heads pleaded with her not to demand the right
nandana
(Nandana)
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