In the immediate aftermath of his assassination generals close to Nadir Shah tried to lay their hands on at least part of the enormous treasures collected by him during his ceaseless military campaigns. The renowned Koh-i-Noor diamond fell into the hands of Ahmad Khan Abdali, who was the commander of Nadir Shah's 4,000 man Afghan bodyguard. Ahmad Khan Abdali returned to his native Qandahar in Afghanistan, and was elected Shah by a tribal council. He adopted the title Durr-i-Durrani (Pearl of Pearls). Ahmed Shah Durrani embarked on a series of conquests and created an empire that extended from Meshhed to Kashmir and Delhi, and from the Amu Darya to the Arabian Sea. The Durrani Empire was the second largest Muslim Empire, in the second half of the 18th century, surpassed only by the Ottoman Empire. Ahmed Shah died in 1772 and was succeeded by his son Timur Shah, who shifted the capital from Qandahar to Kabul in 1776.
When Timur Shah died in 1793, his fifth son Zaman, seized power, with the help of Sardar Payenda Khan, a tribal chieftain of the Barakzay tribe. Zaman Shah was deposed in 1800 by Mahmud his brother, who was the Governor of Herat, assisted by Fath Ali Shah of Persia and the British.
Zaman Shah who was blinded by his brother Mahmud Shah, had the Koh-i-Noor diamond in his person, when he was subsequently imprisoned. He hid the diamond on the wall of the prison, and had it embedded in the plaster. Mahmud Shah was later deposed and imprisoned by another brother Sha Shoja in 1803. Sha Shoja, who ruled up to 1809, retrieved the diamond from the wall of the prison, with the help of his brother Zaman Shah, who pointed out the place of hiding. Mahmud Shah who escaped from prison, later regained back his throne in 1810 from Sha Shoja.
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