356 



DOST MOHAMMED, KHAN. 



ghanistan, and conferred its government upon 

 one of his viceroys. In 1744 he died, and one 

 of his generals, Ahmed Khan, chief of the tribe 

 of the Abdallehs, seized Afghanistan, and, pro- 

 claiming his independence, caused himself to 

 he crowned king or emperor at Kandahar, un- 

 der the title of Ahmed Shah, Dour-e-Douran 

 (pearl of the age), and his tribe thenceforth 

 took the name of Douranis or Douranians. The 

 kingdom of the Afghans, of which he thus took 

 possession, extended from Khorassan to India, 

 and from Beloochistan to Cashmere, and in- 

 cluded also Scinde, in the northwest of India. 

 His reign of twenty-nine years was peaceful 

 and without remarkable incidents, and he was 

 succeeded in 1773 by his son Timour Shah, 

 who died in 1793, after a quiet reign of twenty 

 years, leaving several sons, who aspired to the 

 throne. One of the youngest of these, Zeman 

 Shah, having obtained the powerful assistance 

 of Sarferaze Khan, chief of the tribe of the 

 Barekzais, ascended the throne, and for a time 

 succeeded in maintaining his authority, but his 

 brothers, Mahmoud, who had secured the in- 

 fluence of the East India Company in his favor, 

 and Shoudja, both older than himself, con- 

 spired against him, and the weak and jealous 

 Zeman Shah, accusing his protector and friend 

 Sarferaze of participating in the conspiracy, put 

 him to death. The eldest son of Sarferaze, 

 Fatteh Khan, to avenge his father, espoused the 

 cause of Mahmoud, and caused him to be pro- 

 claimed shah or king of Afghanistan ; but Shoud- 

 ja, the younger brother of Mahmoud, at once 

 commenced intriguing with the East India 

 Company, and in 1809 concluded a treaty with 

 them, against France, by virtue of which he 

 was to be elevated to the throne. Meanwhile, 

 Mahmoud, whose hold upon the kingdom was 

 at first somewhat weak, had, by the energetic 

 efforts of Fatteh Khan, succeeded in deposing 

 Zeman Shah, and in keeping Shoudja in exile, 

 and in 1809 consolidated his power, and with 

 Fatteh Khan, as prime minister, entered upon 

 a vigorous administration, the prime minister 

 restoring order throughout the realm, and keep- 

 ing foreign powers at a distance. In 1818, he 

 led the Afghan army against a large Persian 

 force, which was marching upon Herat, and 

 repulsed it with heavy loss. This success of 

 Fatteh Khan, however, excited the jealousy of 

 Kamran, the son of the Shah Mahmoud, who, 

 prejudicing the mind of his father against him, 

 caused him to be arrested and his eyes put out. 

 The intelligence of this unjust and inhuman 

 treatment of their beloved chieftain caused the 

 Barekzais to rise at once in rebellion. Mah- 

 moud, causing Fatteh Khan to be brought into 

 his presence, ordered him to cause his tribe to 

 return to their allegiance, but he answered that 

 he was only a poor blind man, and had nothing 

 further to do with the affairs of state. Enraged 

 at this reply, Mahmoud caused him to be hacked 

 to pieces with sabres by his concubines. 



"Within the next two years the brothers of 

 Fatteh Khan had made themselves masters of 



the whole of Afghanistan except Herat, and the 

 territory immediately adjacent, which was still 

 held by the Shah Mahmoud and his son Kamran. 

 Dost Mohammed, the eldest of these brothers, 

 reigned at Cabul ; four of his brothers, Sir-dil, 

 Raham-dil, Mur-dil, and Kohan-dil, ruled con- 

 jointly at Kandahar, and a still younger brother 

 at Peshawur, under the suzerainty of Runjeet 

 Singh, king of Lahore. 



Of these brothers, the only one who inherit- 

 ed the intelligence, energy of character, ardent 

 ambition, and capacity for governing of his 

 father and elder brother, was Dost Mohammed. 

 His brothers made themselves odious to the 

 people at Kandahar, and he looked forward 

 with hope to the time when he might succeed 

 in bringing the whole old Afghan empire un- 

 der his sway. He found the East India Com- 

 pany, however, ready to interpose formidable 

 obstacles in the way of his success. That com- 

 pany were constantly apprehensive of an inva- 

 sion of India by the way of Cabul and Kanda- 

 har, and believing that Dost Mohammed would, 

 become an instrument in the hands of the Rus- 

 sian Government to aid in such an invasion, they 

 were disposed to cripple his power as far as 

 possible. For nineteen years he had succeeded 

 in maintaining his authority at Cabul, and had 

 seen his old enemy Kamran deposed at Herat. 

 The British Government meanwhile had allow- 

 ed a pension to the pretender Shoudja, and in 

 1839 sent a large army into Afghanistan to 

 drive out Dost Mohammed and his brother, 

 and place Shoudja upon the throne. They suc- 

 ceeded in their object for the time. Dost Mo- 

 hammed, finding himself unable to contend 

 with so large a force, fled from Cabul, and, 

 though he fought two pitched battles with the 

 English forces, was defeated, and Shoudja was 

 crowned king of Afghanistan. On the 3d or 4th 

 of November, 1840, Dost Mohammed, with an 

 eye to future success, appeared before the gates 

 of Cabul, presented himself before Sir William 

 McNaughton, the British Resident, declared his 

 name, and surrendered his sword. The Resident 

 touched with his apparent magnanimity, treated 

 him with great respect, and sent him to India. 



Meantime, the Government of Shah Shoudja 

 was becoming daily more unpopular, and not 

 the Barekzais alone, but the other Afghan 

 tribes were rising in insurrection, and in the 

 latter part of 1841 a general outbreak took 

 place, in which the English garrison were com- 

 pelled to fly for their lives ; Shah Shoudja A\;.S 

 assassinated, Sir William McNaughton slain Ly 

 the hand of Akbar Khan, a son of Dost Moham- 

 med, who led the insurrection, and the British 

 troops in the country, attempting to retreat to 

 India, were, many of them, destroyed in tie 

 defiles of the Himalayas. The English Govern- 

 ment in 1842 revenged their defeat by burning 

 Ghuzna, Cabul, Jellalabad, and other towns of 

 Afghanistan, and left the country in a state of 

 anarchy, having placed a son of Shoudja upon 

 the throne. He proved as unfit to rule as h;S 

 father, and as his downfall was inevitable, tie 



