Aḥmad Shah Durrānī (born 1722?,Multan, Punjab [now in Pakistan], orHerāt [now in Afghanistan;seeResearcher’s Note])—died October 16/17, 1772, Toba Maʿrūf, Afghanistan) was the founder of the state ofAfghanistan and ruler of an empire that extended from theAmu Darya (ancient Oxus River) to theIndian Ocean and fromKhorāsān intoKashmir, thePunjab, andSindh. Head of the central government, with full control of all departments of state in domestic and foreign affairs, both civil andmilitary, theshah was assisted by aprime minister and a council of nine life-term advisers that he selected from the chiefs of the leading Afghan tribes.

A member of the noble Sadōzai clan and the second son of Moḥammad Zamān Khan, ahereditary chief of the Abdālī (later,Durrānī) tribal confederation of Afghans, Aḥmad rose to command an Abdālīcavalry group underNādir Shah of Persia, and, on Nādir Shah’s assassination, the Afghan chiefs elected Aḥmad as shah. He was crowned in 1747 nearKandahār, where coins were struck in his name and where he set up his capital. Embarking on the conquest of regions held by ineffectual rulers, he invadedIndia nine times between 1747 and 1769, supposedly with no intention of founding an empire there. After an unopposed march toDelhi in 1757, he plundered that city,Agra,Mathura, andVrindavan.

Before an outbreak ofcholera among his troops forced his return to Afghanistan, Aḥmad married Ḥazrat Begum, daughter of theMughal emperorMuḥammad Shah. His sonTīmūr remained behind as viceroy of the Punjab and married the daughter of India’s puppet emperorʿĀlamgīr II. Tīmūr was driven out in 1758 by a force ofSikhs, Mughals, andMarathas, but in 1759–61Aḥmad Shah swept the Marathas from the Punjab and destroyed their large army atPanipat, north of Delhi, in the third Battle of Panipat (January 14, 1761). In the 1760s he attempted four times to crush the Sikhs, but his empire was restive with serious revolts nearer home, and he lost control of the Punjab to them. He is buried in amausoleum in Kandahār.