Nader Shah's rule ended in June 1747 after being murdered by his
Persian soldiers. In July 1747, when the chiefs of the Afghans met at a
loya jirga (grand council) in Kandahar to select a new ruler for the Abdali confederation, the young 25-year-old Ahmad Khan was chosen. Despite being younger than other claimants, Ahmad Khan had several overriding factors in his favour: • He was a direct descendant of Asadullah Khan, patriarch of the Sadozai clan, the most prominent tribe amongst the Pashtun people at the time; • He was unquestionably a charismatic leader and seasoned warrior who had at his disposal a trained, mobile force of 4,000 loyal
cavalrymen; • Not least, he possessed a substantial part of Nadir Shah's treasury, including the
Koh-i-Noor diamond. One of Ahmad Khan's first acts as chief was to adopt the title
Padshah durr-i durrān (King, "pearl of the age" or "pearl of pearls"). Ahmad Shah halted trade with Qing China and dispatched troops to
Kokand. However, with his campaigns in India exhausting the state treasury, and with his troops stretched thin throughout Central Asia, Ahmad Shah lacked sufficient resources to do anything except to send envoys to Beijing for unsuccessful talks.
Rise The Mughal power in northern India had been declining since the reign of
Aurangzeb, who died in 1707; In 1751–52,
Ahamdiya treaty was signed between the
Marathas and
Mughals, when
Balaji Bajirao was the
Peshwa. Through this treaty, the Marathas controlled virtually the whole of India from their capital at
Pune and Mughal rule was restricted only to Delhi (the Mughals remained the nominal heads of Delhi). Marathas were now straining to expand their area of control towards the northwest of India. Ahmad Shah sacked the Mughal capital and withdrew with the booty he coveted. To counter the Afghans, Peshwa Balaji Bajirao sent
Raghunathrao. He defeated the Rohillas and Afghan garrisons in Punjab and succeeded in ousting Timur Shah and his court from India and brought Lahore, Multan, Kashmir and other subahs on the Indian side of Attock under Maratha rule.
Ahmad Shah Abdali declared a war against the Marathas, and warriors from various Pashtun tribes and 25,000
Baloch warriors joined his army under the command of
Khan of Kalat Mir
Noori Naseer Khan Baloch. Early skirmishes were followed by victory for the
Afghans and
Baloch against the smaller Maratha garrisons in Northwest India and by 1759 Ahmad and his army had reached Lahore and were poised to confront the Marathas. By 1760, the Maratha groups had coalesced into a big enough army under the command of Sadashivrao Bhau. Once again,
Panipat was the scene of a confrontation between two warring contenders for control of
northern India. The
Third Battle of Panipat (January 1761), fought between largely Muslim and largely
Hindu armies was waged along a twelve-kilometre front. Despite decisively defeating the Marathas, what might have been Ahmad Shah's peaceful control of his domains was disrupted by many challenges. As far as losses are concerned, Afghans too suffered heavily in the Third Battle of Panipat. This weakened his grasp over Punjab which fell to the rising
Sikh misls. There were rebellions in the north in the region of
Bukhara. The victory at Panipat was the high point of Ahmad Shah. The Durrani was the second largest Islamic empire in the world, behind the
Ottoman Empire at that time. However, even prior to his death, the empire began to unravel. In 1762, Ahmad Shah crossed the passes from Afghanistan for the sixth time to subdue the
Sikhs. He assaulted Lahore and, after taking their holy city of
Amritsar, massacred thousands of Sikh inhabitants, destroying their revered
Golden Temple. Within two years, the Sikhs rebelled again and rebuilt their holy city of Amritsar. Ahmad Shah tried several more times to subjugate the Sikhs permanently, but failed. In early 1771, ten years after the collapse of Maratha supremacy in north India in the Third Battle of Panipat,
Marathas under
Mahadji Shinde recaptured Delhi and restored the Mughal Emperor
Shah Alam II to the throne in 1772. Ahmad Shah also faced other rebellions in the north, and eventually he and the Uzbek Emir of
Bukhara agreed that the Amu Darya would mark the division of their lands. Ahmad Shah retired to his home in the mountains east of Kandahar, where he died on 14 April 1773. He had succeeded to a remarkable degree in balancing tribal alliances and hostilities, and in directing tribal energies away from rebellion. He earned recognition as Ahmad Shah Baba, or "
Father of Afghanistan." By the time of Ahmad Shah's ascendancy, the Pashtuns included many groups whose origins were obscure; They had in common, however, their
Pashto language. To the east, the
Waziris and their close relatives, the
Maseed, had lived in the hills of the central
Sulaiman Mountains since the 14th century. By the end of the 16th century and the final
Mughal invasions, tribes such as the
Shinwari,
Yusufzai, and
Mohmand had moved from the upper
Kabul River Valley into the valleys and plains west, north, and northeast of
Peshawar. The Afridi had long been established in the hills and mountain ranges south of the
Khyber Pass. By the end of the 18th century, the Durranis had blanketed the area west and north of
Kandahar Province. ==List of rulers==