| Dost Mohammad Khan دوست محمد خان | |
|---|---|
| Commander of the Faithful[a] The Great Emir[b] | |
 Miniature portrait of Dost Mohammad Khanc. 1835 | |
| Emir of Kabul | |
| 1st reign | Summer 1826 – 2 August 1839 |
| Predecessor | Sultan Mohammad Khan |
| Successor | Shuja Shah Durrani |
| 2nd reign | April 1843 – 30 March 1855 |
| Predecessor | Wazir Akbar Khan |
| Successor | Himself(as Emir of Afghanistan) |
| Emir of Afghanistan | |
| Reign | 30 March 1855 – 9 June 1863 |
| Predecessor | Himself(as Emir of Kabul) |
| Successor | Sher Ali Khan |
| Born | 23 December 1792 Kandahar,Durrani Empire |
| Died | 9 June 1863 (aged 70) Herat,Emirate of Afghanistan |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | 16 wives[2] |
| Issue | 27 sons and 25 daughters at the time of his death[3] |
| Dynasty | Barakzai dynasty |
| Father | Payandah Khan |
| Mother | Zainab Begum[4] |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
| Military career | |
| Battles / wars |
|
Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzai,[c] (23 December 1792 – 9 June 1863) nicknamed theGreat Emir,[5][6][7] was the founder of theBarakzai dynasty and one of the prominent rulers ofAfghanistan during theFirst Anglo-Afghan War.[8] With the decline of theDurrani dynasty, he succeeded his brotherSultan Mohammad Khan, and became theEmir of Afghanistan in 1826.[9] An ethnicPashtun, he belonged to theMohammadzai branch of theBarakzai tribe. He was the 11th son ofPayandah Khan, chief of the Barakzai Pashtuns, who was killed in 1800 by KingZaman Shah Durrani.[3]
At the beginning of his rule, the Afghans lost their former stronghold ofPeshawar Valley in March 1823 to theSikh Khalsa Army ofRanjit Singh at theBattle of Nowshera. The Afghan forces in the battle were led byMohammad Azim Khan, half-brother of Dost Mohammad Khan.[10] By the end of his reign, he had reunited the principalities ofKandahar andHerat with Kabul. Dost had ruled for a lengthy 36 years, a span exceeded only byMohammad Zahir Shah more than a century later.
A brilliant strategist, and ruthless fighter from a young age, Dost Mohammad is regarded as one of thegreatest rulers in thehistory of Afghanistan, his myriad of campaigns had successfully forged the cities ofKabul,Kandahar, andHerat into one state, which all his predecessors, with the exception ofAhmad Shah Durrani andTimur Shah Durrani, had failed to do.[11][12]
Dost Mohammad Khan was born to an influentialPashtun family on 23 December 1792 inKandahar,Durrani Empire.[13] His father,Payandah Khan, was chief of theBarakzai tribe and a civil servant in theDurrani dynasty. Their family could be traced back to Abdal (the founder of theAbdali tribe), through Hajji Jamal Khan, Yousef, Yaru, Mohammad, Omar Khan, Khisar Khan, Ismail, Nek, Daru, Saifal, and Barak. Abdal had four sons,Popal,Barak,Achak andAlako.[14] Dost Mohammad Khan's mother belonged to theQizilbash group.[15][16][17][18] Dost Mohammad Khan spokePashto,Persian,Punjabi andTurkish. He was also credited with knowledge ofKashmiri byMohan Lal.[19]
His elder brother, the chief of the Barakzai,Fateh Khan, took an important part in installingMahmud Shah Durrani as the sovereign of Afghanistan in 1800 and in restoring him to the throne in 1809. Dost Mohammad accompanied his elder brother and then Prime Minister of Kabul Wazir Fateh Khan to theBattle of Attock against the invadingSikhs. Mahmud Shah repaid Fateh Khan's services by having him brutally assassinated in 1818, thus incurring the enmity of his tribe. After a bloody conflict, Mahmud Shah was deprived of all his possessions butHerat, the rest of his dominions being divided among Fateh Khan's brothers. Of these, Dost Mohammad receivedGhazni, to which in 1826 he addedKabul, the richest of the Afghan provinces.[20] At the time of his enthronement, his government revenue was about 500,000 rupees, and by the 1830s it had increased to 2.5 million rupees.[21]
From the commencement of his reign he found himself involved in disputes withRanjit Singh, the Sikh ruler of thePunjab region, who used the dethronedSadozai prince,Shah Shujah Durrani, as his instrument. In 1834, Shah Shujah made an attempt to recover his kingdom. Dost Mohammad Khan mobilized for this, beginning initially with theJalalabad campaign, and then marching on Kandahar, where Shah Shujawas defeated by Dost Mohammad Khan under the walls ofKandahar, but Ranjit Singh seized the opportunity to annexPeshawar which was ruled by the Peshawar Sardars under his deposed brother,Sultan Mohammad Khan. Dost Mohammad sent his sonAkbar Khan to defeat the Sikhs at theBattle of Jamrud in 1837.[13]
At the intersection of British, Russian and, to a lesser degree, French imperial interests, political maneuvering was necessary. Rejecting overtures fromRussia, he endeavoured to form an alliance with Great Britain, and welcomedAlexander Burnes to Kabul in 1837. Burnes, however, was unable to prevail on the governor-general,Lord Auckland, to respond to the Emir's advances. Dost Mohammad was enjoined to abandon the attempt to recover Peshawar, and to place his foreign policy under British guidance. He replied by renewing his relations with Russia, and in 1838 Lord Auckland set the British troops in motion against him.[22] To enable such an action, the British manufactured the evidence needed to justify the overthrow of the Afghan ruler.[23]
In 1835, Dost Mohammad Khan, the youngest and the most energetic of the Barakzai brothers, who had supplanted the Durrani dynasty and become Emir (lord, chief or king) of Kabul in 1825,advanced up to Khaibar Pass threatening to recover Peshawar. In 1836,Hari Singh Nalwa, the Sikh general who along with PrinceNau Nihal Singh was guarding that frontier, built a chain of forts, including one at Jamrud at the eastern end of theKhyber Pass to defend the pass. Dost Muhammad erected a fort at `Ali Masjid at the other end. In the beginning of 1837, as Prince Nau Nihal Singh returned to Lahore to get married and the Maharaja and his court got busy with preparations for the wedding.[24]
Dost Muhammad Khan sent a 25,000 strong force, including a large number of local irregulars and equipped with 18 heavy guns, to invest Jamrud. The Sikh garrison there had only 600 men and a few light artillery pieces. The Afghans besieged the fort and cut off its water supply, while a detachment was sent to the neighbouring Sikh fort of Shabqadar to prevent any help from that direction.Mahan Singh Mirpuri, the garrison commander of Jamrud, kept the invaders at bay for four days and managed meanwhile to send a desperate appeal for help to Hari Singh Nalva at Peshawar. Nalva rose from his sick bed and rushed to Jamrud.[25]
Thefinal battle was fought on 30 April 1837, the Afghans withdrew from battle after Hari Singh Nalva was killed. In 1838, with the help and agreement of the Sikh monarch who joined the Tripartite Treaty with British viceroy Lord Auckland, restored Shah Shuja to the Afghan throne in Kabul on 7 August 1839.[26][27] Dost Muhammad Khan was exiled by theBritish toMussoorie in November 1840, but was restored to his former position after the murder of Shah Shuja in April 1842. He thereafter maintained cordial relations with the Lahore Darbar. These events led to theFirst Anglo-Afghan War.
After the end of theFirst Anglo-Afghan War in 1842, Dost Mohammad Khan was now in a position to expand his state dramatically. This was in part due to the improving relationship between Dost Mohammad Khan and theBritish.[28][29][30] During his exile inCalcutta, he was treated warmly.
He took note of the technological superiority of the British and was convinced that constant wars with them would damage Afghanistan. Instead, Dost Mohammad would advocate for an alliance with the British as the only way to ensure the survival of the state.[29][30] With theFirst andSecond Anglo-Sikh Wars eliminating any threat that the volatileSikh Empire would have had on Afghanistan, Dost Mohammad Khan was now able to freely expand his kingdom with the help of the British, realizing that he and British had common Central Asian goals.[29]
In 1843, Dost Mohammad Khan subdued theHazarajat (Behsud,Dai Zangi,Dai Kundi) andBamian, which had seized the power vacuum during the British invasion to become independent.[5][30][28] In 1846, a rebellion by theKohistani Tajiks ofTagab was suppressed and Dost Mohammad was able to consolidate his position on that traditionally rebellious area.[5][30][28] In July 1848, he intended to send a force to conquer Balkh but theSecond Anglo-Sikh War prevented this and occupied Dost Mohammad for another year.[29][28] The Sikhs proposed to cede Peshawar to the Afghans (although it never became a reality) and as a result, Mohammad sent 5,000 Afghans under Mohammad Akram Khan to aid the Sikhs in the war.[29][5][30] When the Sikhs were defeated and the British retookPeshawar, it was feared in Kabul that the British would follow up their victory by invadingAfghanistan. However, this never happened and Dost Mohammad therefore sent his son, Mohammad Akram Khan, toinvade Balkh in the Spring of 1849.[29][28][30]
The invasion of Balkh was successful and the province was annexed into Afghanistan. WhenAfzal Khan would take materials from the dilapidated city of Balkh and use it to construct a cantonment known as Takhtapul nearby, so that by 1854 Takhtapul was a fully grown city complete with gardens and courts.[29][31][5] In 1850 Mohammad Akram Khan's half brother, Ghulam Haidar Khan, conqueredTashqurghan and the Mir Wali was forced to flee.[28]
On 30 March 1855, Dost Mohammad reversed his former policy by concluding an offensive and defensive alliance with the British government, signed by SirHenry Lawrence, Chief Commissioner of the Punjab, first proposed byHerbert Edwardes.[32] In November 1855, he conqueredKandahar. In 1857, he declared war onPersia in conjunction with the British, and in July, a treaty was concluded by which the province of Herat was placed under a Barakzai prince. During theIndian Rebellion of 1857, Dost Mohammad refrained from assisting the insurgents. His later years were disturbed by troubles at Herat and inBukhara.
In March 1862,Ahmad Khan, the ruler ofHerat, capturedFarah, which had been controlled by the Barakzai Emirs since 30 October 1856.[28][33] This became Dost Mohammad Khan'scassus belli to launch an attack on Herat. On 29 June[34] or 8 July,[35] Farah was captured by the Muhammadzais. On 22 July,[35]Sabzawar was captured. By 28 July, Herat was besieged.[34] After a 10-month siege on 27 May 1863, he captured Herat, but on 9 June, he died suddenly in the midst of victory, after playing a great role in the history of South and Central Asia for forty years. He named his son,Sher Ali Khan, as his successor. He was buried in Herat at theGazurgah.[29] By the time of his death, the annual state revenue of his government had risen to 7 millionrupees.[21]
_and_Part_of_His_Family%2527%2c_by_Emily_Eden_in_1841_(in_Calcutta)%2c_published_in_%2527Portraits_of_the_Princes_%2526_People_of_India%2527_in_1844.jpg)
Dōst Moḥammad Khan was raised by his Qezelbāš mother, from the Persian tribe of Sīāh Manṣūr and reportedly Pāyenda Khan's favorite wife, though not of noble stock.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dost Mahommed Khan".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 438.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Barakzai dynasty Emir of Afghanistan 1823 – 2 August 1839 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Barakzai dynasty Emir of Afghanistan 1843 – 9 June 1863 | Succeeded by |
 Hotak Empire | |
|---|---|
 Durrani Empire | |
 Barakzai Emirate | |
 Barakzai Kingdom | |
 Saqqawist Emirate(unrecognized) | |
| Barakzai Kingdom(restored) | |
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