nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47assist Yar Muhammad Khan in return for recognition of Bukharan sover-
eignty over all territory from Aqcha to Qataghan. Even more alarming
was the claim by the Mir Wali that once Balkh had fallen, the two allies
planned to march on Kabul, depose Dost Muhammad Khan and place Yar
Muhammad Khan on the Durrani throne. 2
Dost Muhammad Khan took this threat seriously and told the Mir
Wali to pre-empt such a move by occupying Balkh in the Amir’s name. The
Mir Wali, however, was not prepared to risk a war with Herat and Bukhara
and refused. It appears the Mir Wali then appealed to Dost Muhammad
for military assistance but the Amir demanded as a precondition that an
Afghan hakim reside in Khulm. Since this impinged on the Mir Wali’s
traditional autonomy, he rejected this demand as well, whereupon the
relationship between Khulm and the Amir broke down. When he was
eventually allowed to return to Khulm, the Mir Wali threw off the Durrani
The Timurid shrine
of Khwaja Abu Nasr
Parsa (d. 1460), Balkh.
Up until Amir Dost
Muhammad Khan’s
annexation of the
region in the mid-19th
century the wilayat of
Balkh had been under
the sovereignty of
the Khan of Bukhara.
Khwaja Parsa was
a pir of a Central
Asian sub-order
of Naqshbandiyya
Sufism.