nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47‘Abd al-Rahman Khan had had enough of Ishaq Khan’s proceedings and
ordered all garrison commanders in the northern province to come to
Kabul; a command that they knew would probably lead to dismissal,
imprisonment or even execution. Ishaq Khan made excuses and delayed
implementing the Amir’s order. In June 1888 he called a secret council of
military commanders and indigenous leaders in the hill station of Shadyan,
which agreed they could no longer tolerate the Amir’s autocratic rule and
swore on the Qur’an to support Ishaq Khan’s bid for the throne. The only
dissenting voice was that of Husain Khan, wali of Maimana, who owed his
position to the patronage of ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan. His refusal cost him
his life. Mir Husain Khan had attended the Shadiyan meeting of August
1888 but refused to swear the oath of loyalty to Sardar Ishaq Khan, in part
because Maimana at the time was under the authority of the governor of
Herat and not Balkh. Furthermore, throughout his time as Na’ib of Afghan
Turkistan, Ishaq Khan had done his utmost to remove Mir Husain Khan
from office. When Husain Khan refused to support the revolt, Ishaq
Khan threw him in prison and subsequently handed him over to Muzaffar
Khan, Mir Husain Khan’s nephew and son of Mir Hukumat Khan. In 1862
Amir ‘Abd al-Rahman
Khan, c. 1880. Towards
the end of his life he
became morbidly
obese and afflicted
with chronic bouts
of sickness which
rendered him, at
times, unconscious
and unable to govern.