afghanistanalong with their sons and other members of their entourage, were put to
death. Sulaiman Mirza fled to India and Timur entered Kandahar with
little opposition, where the royal jirgha was placed on his head.
Timur Shah moves his capital to KabulThe revolt of Shah Wali Khan and Sardar Jahan Khan was the last straw as
far as Timur Shah was concerned. Ahmad Shah’s reign had been blighted
by a series of rebellions by Saddozai pretenders and high-ranking Durranis.
Timur Shah no longer trusted these maliks and in order to undermine
their power he decided to move his capital to the former Mughal frontier
post of Kabul. This was a logical alternative, even though the Durranis had
no land or historic connection with this region at this era. The tribes of
Kabul, Nangahar and the Logar were mostly Ghilzais, while to the north of
Kabul the Koh Daman and Kohistan were dominated by Persian-speaking
agriculturalists, Shi‘a Hazaras and Safis. However, Timur Shah’s mother
was the daughter of a Ghilzai chief from Nangahar, so Timur Shah was
able to count on her tribe’s military support and the fact that she was well
acquainted with the politics of the region. Once installed in his new capital,
Timur Shah began to recruit Tajiks, Hazaras, Safis and Ghilzais into his
army in order to reduce the power of the Durranis further.
The shift of capital made strategic sense too. Nadir Shah had destroyed
the citadel of Old Kandahar while Ahmad Shah’s new Kandahar was
The Kabul valley looking westwards to the Paghman range. When Timur Shah
moved his capital to Kabul the town was famed for its temperate climate, fruit
and its many Mughal gardens.