nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47Persia, they had fallen out with Shah Husain Hotaki and joined forces with
Nadir Shah. As a reward Ashraf Khan, a Babakrzai Tokhi, was appointed
beglar begi of Qalat-i Ghilzai and later Ghazni. This decision was not well
received by the ‘Abdalis, for they coveted the Tokhi’s fertile, irrigated land
and resented their presence since it restrained their own power and ambi-
tions. Over the ensuing years the ‘Abdalis played on Nadir Shah’s increasing
fear of assassination and rebellion and eventually convinced him that
the Tokhi maliks were planning to rebel. When Nadir Shah returned to
Kandahar after the fall of Delhi, he imprisoned three senior Tokhi leaders;
it was later rumoured they were walled up in their prison cell and left to
die of suffocation.
It was nearly two-and-a-half centuries before a Ghilzai once again
became head of state of an Afghan kingdom. Following the Marxist coup
of April 1978, Nur Muhammad, a Taraki Ghilzai from the Ghazni area,
become president and since then three other Ghilzais have ruled the
country, however briefly: President Hafiz Allah Amin (ruled 1979) was a
Kharoti Ghilzai; President Najib Allah Khan, who was President from 1987
to 1992, came from the Ahmadzai Ghilzai tribe; and Amir Mullah ‘Omar,
head of the Taliban (ruled 1996–2001), belonged to Mir Wa’is Hotak’s
tribe. Another prominent Ghilzai is Gulbudin Hikmatyar, head of the
Hizb-i Islami militia, who was Prime Minister of Afghanistan during the
Presidency of Burhan al-Din Rabbani.
Following the fall of Kandahar, Muhammad Zaman Khan Saddozai’s
two sons, Zu’l-fiqar Khan and Ahmad Shah, were freed after seven years of
incarceration. This was the fifteen-year-old Ahmad Shah’s second narrow
escape from death, since his heavily pregnant mother had fled to Multan
when his father was executed by Sultan Allah Yar Khan. Nadir Shah exiled
Zu’l-fiqar Khan to Mazandaran, where he died a few years later, but Ahmad
Shah was appointed to a minor position in Nadir Shah’s administration
and was no doubt a hostage for his elder brother’s good conduct. Nadir
Shah then appointed a number of leading ‘Abdalis to positions of authority
in and around Kandahar. ‘Abd al-Ghani Khan Alakozai, who was already
mir-i Afghaniha, became beglar begi of Kandahar; Nur Muhammad Khan
‘Alizai, who commanded Nadir’s Afghan ghulams, was gifted jagirs and
pasturing rights along the Arghandab river and in Dawar; while Hajji Jamal
Khan, head of the Barakzai ulus, became governor of Girishk and Farah.
As for the city of Kandahar, Nadir Shah ordered it to be demolished and
its population relocated to Nadirabad. However, the levelling proved too
hard and much of Kandahar’s ancient walls and part of its citadel were left
standing. Nadir also instituted a major reorganization of the government