afghan sultanates, 1260–1732
Farah fell soon after Herat. Zu’l-fikar Khan and his two brothers, ‘Ali
Mardan Khan and Ahmad Shah, fled to Kandahar where Shah Husain
Hotaki threw them in prison. ‘Ali Mardan died shortly after from the effects
of torture and the appalling conditions in which the brothers were held,
but Zu’l-fikar Khan and Ahmad Shah survived for nearly seven years,
eventually being set free when Nadir Shah took the city.
The Saddozai sultanate of Herat had lasted for a mere fifteen years and
was marked by a bloody power struggle between the Khudakka Khel and
Sarmast Khel clans. In all seven sultans had come and gone: of these three
had died at the hands of their own kinsmen, as had one heir apparent and
several other clan members. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people had
been killed in the fratricidal strife that, on occasion, took place in the city
itself. All of these rulers, though Afghans, were culturally more Multani,
for most of them and their entourages had been born and brought up
in this multicultural, Mughal-ruled city. Some had even married Hindu
women. Used to the culture of the Mughal court, they regarded them-
selves as having a divine right to rule and regarded the ‘Abdalis of Herat,
Obeh and Kandahar as country bumpkins. It is not surprising, therefore,
that hand-in-hand with the sibling feud between the Saddozai families,
there was also a power struggle between the sultans and the local, more
traditionally minded and religiously conservative ‘Abdali khans.
Despite having feet of clay, the Saddozai sultans of Herat had a
number of notable military successes against larger and better-equipped
Persian armies, but both the Saddozais of Herat and the Hotaki dynasty
of Kandahar found it was easier to wage war than to make peace. Neither
dynasty consolidated its military successes by the implementation of what
today would be called ‘good governance’, but instead sought quick gains
and riches and often showed a lack of the most basic political acumen. As
Caroe observes, ‘the Ghaljis could win battles, but they could not rule’, since
they were ‘utterly devoid of... statecraft’; 47 a devastating critique which
applied equally to the Saddozais of Herat. In the end both the Hotakis
and Saddozais had only themselves to blame for their loss of power and
independence.
nandana
(Nandana)
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