Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzai, (23 December 1792 – 9 June 1863) nicknamed the Great Emir, was the founder of the Barakzai dynasty and one of the prominent rulers of Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War. With the decline of the Durrani dynasty, he succeeded his brother Sultan Mohammad Khan, and became the Emir of Afghanistan in 1826. An ethnic Pashtun, he belonged to the Mohammadzai branch of the Barakzai tribe. He was the 11th son of Payandah Khan, chief of the Barakzai Pashtuns, who was killed in 1800 by King Zaman Shah Durrani.

At the beginning of his rule, the Afghans lost their former stronghold of Peshawar Valley in March 1823 to the Sikh Khalsa Army of Ranjit Singh at the Battle of Nowshera. The Afghan forces in the battle were led by Mohammad Azim Khan, half-brother of Dost Mohammad Khan. By the end of his reign, he had reunited the principalities of Kandahar and Herat with Kabul. Dost had ruled for a lengthy 36 years, a span exceeded only by Mohammad Zahir Shah more than a century later.

A brilliant strategist, and ruthless fighter from a young age, Dost Mohammad is regarded as one of the greatest rulers in the history of Afghanistan, his myriad of campaigns had successfully forged the cities of Kabul, Kandahar, and Herat into one state, which all his predecessors, with the exception of Ahmad Shah Durrani and Timur Shah Durrani, had failed to do.

Background and rise to power

Dost Mohammad Khan was born to an influential Pashtun family on 23 December 1792 in Kandahar, Durrani Empire. His father, Payandah Khan, was chief of the Barakzai tribe and a civil servant in the Durrani dynasty. Their family could be traced back to Abdal (the founder of the Abdali 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 and Alako. Dost Mohammad Khan's mother belonged to the Qizilbash group. Dost Mohammad Khan spoke Pashto, Persian, Punjabi and Turkish. He was also credited with knowledge of Kashmiri by Mohan Lal.

His elder brother, the chief of the Barakzai, Fateh Khan, took an important part in installing Mahmud 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 the Battle of Attock against the invading Sikhs. 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 but Herat, the rest of his dominions being divided among Fateh Khan's brothers. Of these, Dost Mohammad received Ghazni, to which in 1826 he added Kabul, the richest of the Afghan provinces. 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. To enable such an action, the British manufactured the evidence needed to justify the overthrow of the Afghan ruler.

War with the Sikhs

thumb|300px|Map of Afghanistan and surrounding nations, dated 1860.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 Prince Nau Nihal Singh was guarding that frontier, built a chain of forts, including one at Jamrud at the eastern end of the Khyber 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.

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.

The final 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. Dost Muhammad Khan was exiled by the British to Mussoorie 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 the First Anglo-Afghan War.

Second reign

After the end of the First 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 the British. During his exile in Calcutta, 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. In November 1855, he conquered Kandahar. In 1857, he declared war on Persia 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 the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Dost Mohammad refrained from assisting the insurgents. His later years were disturbed by troubles at Herat and in Bukhara.

Conquest of Herat and Death

In March 1862, Ahmad Khan, the ruler of Herat, captured Farah, which had been controlled by the Barakzai Emirs since 30 October 1856. This became Dost Mohammad Khan's cassus belli to launch an attack on Herat. On 29 June or 8 July, Farah was captured by the Muhammadzais. On 22 July,

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File:Dost Mohammad Khan sitting with three sons.jpg|Khan with 3 sons.

File:Dost Mohammad Khan in 1857.png|Khan, as sketched by Walter Fane

File:Lithograph titled 'Dost Mahomed Khan (Dost Mohammad Khan) and Part of His Family', by Emily Eden in 1841 (in Calcutta), published in 'Portraits of the Princes & People of India' in 1844.jpg|Lithograph titled 'Dost Mahomed Khan and Part of His Family', by Emily Eden in 1841 (in Calcutta), published in 'Portraits of the Princes & People of India' in 1844

File:Dost Mohammad Khan of Afghanistan with his son.jpg|Khan with one of his sons, sketched by James Rattray.

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See also

  • List of leaders of Afghanistan

Notes

References

Sources

  • Vogelsang, Willem (2002) The Afghans, pp.&nbsp;248–56. Blackwell Publishers. Oxford. .
  • Shahamat Ali (1970) The Sikhs and Afghans. Patiala,
  • Harlan, Josiah (1842) A Memoir of India and Afghanistan, London.
  • Burnes, Alexander (1843) Cabool, London.
  • Ganda Singh (1959) Ahmad Shah Durrani, Bombay.
  • Sun, Sohan Lal (1885–89) `Umdat-ut-Twarikh Lahore, (Online copy)
  • Braithwaite, Rodric (2012) Afgantsy, London.
  • Afghan – Sikh Relations
  • Anglo-Afghan Wars