Dost Mohammad Khan

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the founder of the Barakzai dynasty of Afghanistan. For the founder of Bhopal State in India, see Dost Mohammad of Bhopal. For the town in Iran, see Dust Mohammad. For other similar names, see Dost Mohammad (disambiguation).

Dost Mohammad Khan
دوست محمد خان
Emir of Afghanistan
ReignSummer 1826 – 2 August 1839
1843 – 9 June 1863
PredecessorSultan Mohammad Khan
SuccessorWazir Akbar Khan
Sher Ali Khan
Born23 December 1792
Kandahar, Durrani Empire
Died9 June 1863 (aged 70)
Herat, Emirate of Afghanistan
Burial
Shrine of Khwaja Abd Allah (Gazur Gah), Herat, Afghanistan[1]
Spouse16 wives[2]
Issue27 sons and 25 daughters at the time of his death[3]
Names
Amir Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzai
DynastyBarakzai dynasty
FatherSardar Payinda Khan Mohammadzai (Sarfraz Khan)
MotherZainab Begum[4]
ReligionSunni Islam
Military career
Battles/wars

Emir Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzai (

Emir of Afghanistan in 1826.[9] An ethnic Pashtun, he belonged to the Barakzai tribe. He was the 11th son of Payendah Khan, chief of the Barakzai Pashtuns, who was killed in 1799 by King Zaman Shah Durrani.[3]

At the beginning of his rule, the Afghans lost their former stronghold of

Zahir Shah
more than a century later.

The Musahiban family started with his older brother, Sultan Mohammad Khan, nicknamed "Telai", meaning "golden", a nickname he was given because of his love of fine clothing.[11]

Background and rise to power

Dost Mohammad Khan was born to an influential

Barak, Achak, and Alako.[13] Dost Mohmmad Khan's mother belonged to the Qizilbash group.[14][15][16][17] Dost Mohammad Khan spoke Persian, his native Pashto, Punjabi and Turkish, but also had knowledge of the Kashmiri language.[18]

His elder brother, the chief of the Barakzai, Fateh Khan, took an important part in raising

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.[19] 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.[20]

Portrait of Payendah Khan Barakzai father of Emir Dost Mohammad Khan

From the commencement of his reign he found himself involved in disputes with

Afghan-Sikh Wars.[21]

European influence in Afghanistan

Main article: European influence in Afghanistan

At the intersection of British, Russian and, to a lesser degree, French imperial interests, political maneuvering was necessary. Rejecting overtures from Russia, he endeavoured to form an alliance with Great Britain, and welcomed Alexander Burnes to Kabul in 1837. Burnes, however, was unable to prevail on the governor-general, Lord Auckland, to respond to the Emir's advances. Dost Mohammad was enjoined to abandon the attempt to recover Peshawar, and to place his foreign policy under British guidance. He replied by renewing his relations with Russia, and in 1838 Lord Auckland set the British troops in motion against him.[21] To enable such an action, the British manufactured the evidence needed to justify the overthrow of the Afghan ruler.[22]

War with the Sikhs

Main articles: Standoff at the Khyber Pass (1834–1835) and Battle of Jamrud
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.[23]

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.[24]

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.[25][26] 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.[27][28][29] 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.

Second Anglo-Sikh Wars eliminating any threat that the volatile Sikh Empire would have had on Afghanistan, Dost Mohammad Khan was now able to freely expand his kingdom with the help of the British, realizing that he and British had common Central Asian goals.[28]

In 1843, Dost Mohammad Khan subdued the

Second Anglo-Sikh War prevented this and occupied Dost Mohammad for another year.[28][27] The Sikhs proposed to cede Peshawar to the Afghans (although it never became a reality) and as a result, Mohammad sent 5,000 Afghans under Mohammad Akram Khan to aid the Sikhs in the war.[28][5][29] When the Sikhs were defeated and the British retook Peshawar, it was feared in Kabul that the British would follow up their victory by invading Afghanistan. However, this never happened and Dost Mohammad therefore sent his son, Mohammad Akram Khan, to invade Balkh in the Spring of 1849.[28][27][29]

Conquest of the Balkh Wilayat

Main article: Afghan Conquest of Balkh

The invasion of Balkh was successful and the province was annexed into Afghanistan. When Afzal Khan would take materials from the dilapidated city of Balkh and use it to construct a cantonment known as Takhtapul nearby, so that by 1854 Takhtapul was a fully grown city complete with gardens and courts.[28][30][5] In 1850 Mohammad Akram Khan's half brother, Ghulam Haidar Khan, conquered Tashqurghan and the Mir Wali was forced to flee.[27]

Alliance with the British

Main article: Second Anglo-Afghan Treaty (1857)

On 30 March 1855, Dost Mohammad reversed his former policy by concluding an offensive and defensive alliance with the British government, signed by Sir

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.[27][32] This became Dost Mohammad Khan's cassus belli to launch an attack on Herat. On 29 June[33] or 8 July,[34] Farah was captured by the Muhammadzais. On 22 July,[34] Sabzawar was captured. By 28 July, Herat was besieged.[33] After a 10-month siege on 27 May 1863, he captured Herat, but on 9 June, he died suddenly in the midst of victory, after playing a great role in the history of South and Central Asia for forty years. He named his son, Sher Ali Khan, as his successor. He was buried in Herat at the Gazurgah.[28] By the time of his death, the annual state revenue of his government had risen to 7 million rupees.[20]

Gallery

  • Khan with his one son.
    Khan with his one son.
  • Khan with his 3 sons.
    Khan with his 3 sons.
  • Khan as Emir of Afghanistan.
    Khan as
    Emir of Afghanistan
    .
  • 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
    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
  • Dōst Moḥammad Khan seated slightly to the right of center in this photograph. To Dōst Moḥammad's right, the first figure in a white chapan (overcoat) is his son and successor Sher ʻAlī Khān (1825–1879), who ruled Afghanistan from 1863 to 1879. Abd al-Raḥmān Khān (c. 1844 – 1901), the grandson of Dōst Mohammad and future "Iron Amir" of Afghanistan, is on Dōst Moḥammad's far left.
    Dōst Moḥammad Khan seated slightly to the right of center in this photograph. To Dōst Moḥammad's right, the first figure in a white chapan (overcoat) is his son and successor
    Abd al-Raḥmān Khān
    (c. 1844 – 1901), the grandson of Dōst Mohammad and future "Iron Amir" of Afghanistan, is on Dōst Moḥammad's far left.

See also

  • List of leaders of Afghanistan

References

  1. ISBN 978-1-4088-1830-5
    . Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  2. Encyclopedia Iranica
    . Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  3. ^ a b Tarzi, Amin H. "DŌSTMOḤAMMAD KHAN". Encyclopædia Iranica (Online ed.). United States: Columbia University.
  4. ^ "DŌST MOḤAMMAD KHAN". Iranonline. 15 December 1995. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-90-04-23498-7
    .
  6. ISBN 1466222417
    .
  7. ISBN 978-90-04-15185-7
    .
  8. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica – Dost Mohammad Khan, "ruler of Afghanistan (1823–63) and founder of the Barakzay dynasty, who maintained Afghan independence during a time when the nation was a focus of political struggles between Great Britain and Russia..."
  9. ^ "Anglo-afghan wars", Encyclopaedia Iranica
  10. ^ Munshi.
  11. ISBN 978-0700706297
    . Retrieved 30 June 2016.
  12. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8108-7624-8
    . Retrieved 3 April 2013.
  13. Mohan Lal
    , Volume 1. pp. 1–3.
  14. ^ "DŌST MOḤAMMAD KHAN – Encyclopaedia Iranica". iranicaonline.org. Archived from the original on 29 April 2011. Retrieved 22 February 2021. Dōst Moḥammad Khan was raised by his Qezelbāš mother, from the Persian tribe of Sīāh Manṣūr and reportedly Pāyenda Khan's favorite wife, though not of noble stock.
  15. ^ Tarzi, Amin H. "DŌSTMOḤAMMAD KHAN". Encyclopædia Iranica (Online ed.). United States: Columbia University.
  16. ISBN 9780306818264
  17. ISBN 9780306818264
  18. ISBN 9781136603174
    .
  19. ^ Gupta, p. Topic 3 pp. 1391.
  20. ^
    ISBN 978-1-351-69265-6
    .
  21. ^ a b  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dost Mahommed Khan". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 438.
  22. ^ Munshi, p. 104.
  23. ^ Munshi, p. 105-106.
  24. ^ Munshi, p. 78.
  25. ^ Ranjit Singh Encyclopædia Britannica, Khushwant Singh (2015)
  26. ISBN 9781615302017
    .
  27. ^
    ISBN 978-1-136-60317-4
    .
  28. ^
    ISBN 978-90-04-10399-3
    .
  29. ^
    ISBN 978-1-78914-010-1
    .
  30. Encyclopedia Iranica. Archived
    from the original on 17 November 2018.
  31. ^ Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1889). "Edwardes, Herbert Benjamin" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 17. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  32. ISBN 978-3-7001-7202-4
    .
  33. ^ a b Edward Balfour. The cyclopædia of India and of eastern and southern Asia. Bernard Quaritch, 1885
  34. ^ a b Mojtahed-Zadeh, Pirouz (1993). Evolution of Eastern Iranian boundaries: Role of the Khozeimeh Amirdom of Qaenat and Sistan (phd thesis). SOAS University of London.

Sources

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dost Mohammad Khan.
Political offices
Preceded by
Emir of Afghanistan

1823 – 2 August 1839 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Barakzai dynasty
Emir of Afghanistan
1843 – 9 June 1863 		Succeeded by
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