afghanistanShah had told Ahmad Shah that one day he would be king. By 1747 the
relationship between Ahmad Shah and Sabir Shah had grown into one of
extreme intimacy, which for some went beyond the bounds of propriety.
Shortly after his coronation, a courtier granted an audience with Ahmad
Shah was shocked to see Sabir Shah, ‘naked from head to foot with his body
covered in dust’, lying in the lap of the king and Ahmad Shah feeding him
with his own hand from the royal plate. 33
Ahmad Shah’s ‘election’ as king had been agreed by a coterie of nine mili-
tary commanders, which subsequently nationalist narrative reworked into
a Grand National Assembly, or Loya Jirga, an assembly which, it is claimed,
is an ancient and traditional Pushtun method of electing heads of state. This
too has no justification in contemporary sources, as well as being a cultural
fiction. Pushtun tribes do not elect kings for the simple reason that they do
not have a monarchical system. Even the malik and mir-i Afghaniha struc-
tures were an external imposition by the dominant imperial powers and,
though the ‘Abdalis may have nominated the mir-i Afghaniha, their nominee
had to be approved by the Safavid or Mughal governors of Kandahar. Nor
did any other Afghan tribe have a say in this appointment. In a number of
instances the mir-i Afghaniha was appointed solely by the Safavid governor,
who either ignored the wishes of the ‘Abdali leaders or overruled them.
Afghan tribes have a variety of traditions when it comes to nominating
heads of clans and the tribe, while some only nominate such an indi vidual
for a specific purpose, such as leading the tribe into war or settling an
Abd al-Ghafur Breshna’s romantic painting The Coronation of Ahmad Shah Durrani,
1942/3, watercolour.