nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47al-Quddus Khan, crossed into the Chahar Wilayat, hoping that the
Afghan gar risons there would support them. General Ghulam Haidar
Khan, Ya‘qub’s gov ernor of Balkh, however, attacked and forced them
to flee into the Dasht-i Laili. Sarwar Khan then went to Shibarghan in
disguise, hoping to persuade the garrison commander to join them.
Instead he was arrested and sent to Mazar-i Sharif, where he was brutally
tortured and eventually beheaded. Ishaq Khan and ‘Abd al-Quddus Khan
fled to Maimana where they were detained, but on their way to Herat
they managed to escape. Their attempt to raise a rebellion in the Chahar
Wilayat had failed miserably.
‘Abd al-Rahman Khan’s bid for the throne might well have ended
at this juncture had not Ghulam Haidar Khan made a serious error of
judgement. ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan had asked Sultan Murad of Qunduz for
safe passage for his men to march on Kabul, only to be refused. Ghulam
Haidar Khan responded by launching a pre-emptive attack and occu-
pied Qunduz, whereupon Sultan Murad fled to Faizabad, threw in his lot
with ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan and called on all the Uzbeks of the province
to rebel. The commander of Takhtapul, appalled at the brutal execution
of Sarwar Khan, also declared for ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan. As more and
more troops defected, Ghulam Haidar Khan fled across the Amu Darya,
while his brother committed suicide. By Nauroz 1880 the whole of Afghan
Turkistan was in ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan’s hands.
Faizabad in Badakhshan. This town was the first provincial centre to fall
to ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan.