afghanistanA city divided against itself: factionalism in the Kabul uprising‘Abd Allah Khan’s attack in the old city marked the beginning of a citywide
revolt in which various factions fought both the British and their rivals.
‘Amin Allah Logari, ‘Abd Allah Khan Achakzai and the Royalists fought on
behalf of the Saddozai dynasty. Opposing them was Nawab Muhammad
Zaman Khan, the eldest surviving son of Payinda Khan, who had ambitions
to become Amir or at least wazir. One reason for his desire to topple Shah
Shuja‘ was the fact that the king had betrayed his oath of safe conduct and
had even briefly imprisoned him. Indeed, the resentment at Shah Shuja‘
al-Mulk’s actions among senior Muhammadzais was such that some even
called for the king and his sons to be put to death. The sardars, however,
were divided as to the political future of the country. Some supported
the return of Dost Muhammad Khan as Amir, while others favoured the
candidacy of Nawab Muhammad Zaman Khan or one of the Kandahar
or Peshawar sardars.
The uprising in Kohistan and the Old City took Nawab Zaman Khan
and the Muhammadzais by surprise, but when trouble broke out Nawab
Zaman Khan sent a messenger to Akbar Khan in Khulm, urging him to
ride post-haste to Kabul. A second rider was sent to Nawab Jabbar Khan
with a similar request. The day after Burnes’s death, Nawab Jabbar Khan
rode into the capital at the head of a large body of Jabbar Khel Ghilzais and
occupied the Shah Bagh – the former Mughal garden, which today is occu-
pied by the Presidential Palace – and a number of adjacent qal‘as. The Shah
Bagh was a strong position located to the southwest of the cantonment,
for the garden was surrounded with thick, high mud walls and controlled
the road to Koh Daman and one of the fords over the Kabul river, which
linked the British cantonment with the Old City. Having secured the Shah
Bagh the sardars met to discuss the situation and appointed Nawab Zaman
Khan as king. Coins were then struck in his name and the mullahs in Kabul
were ordered to recite his name in the khutba. However, both Mir Masjidi
and the Royalists refused to obey this order.
Even so, from the first week of November 1841 Kabul had two rival
kings and currencies, while the capital was divided into four main factions.
North of the Kabul river, Nawab Zaman Khan, Nawab Jabbar Khan and
other Muhammadzai sardars, supported by sections of the Jabbar Khel and
subsequently Hamza Khan of Tezin, controlled the Shah Bagh and Qal‘a-yi
Mahmud Khan. On the northeast side of the cantonment Mir Masjidi
and his Kohistani ghazis controlled Behmaru, Qal‘a-yi Rikab Bashi and
all points north to Pai-yi Minar. In the east, the Jabbar Khel overran But