Mahmud Shah Durrani (

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

/ Persian: ); 1769 – 18 April 1829) was born prince and later ruler of the

Durrani Empire The Durrani Empire, colloquially known as the Afghan Empire, or the Saddozai Kingdom, was an Afghanistan, Afghan empire founded by the Durrani tribe of Pashtuns under Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1747, which spanned parts of Central Asia, the Iranian ...

(Afghanistan) between 1801 and 1803, and again between 1809 and 1818. From 1818 to 1829 he was the ruler of

Herat Herāt (; Dari/Pashto: هرات) is an oasis city and the third-largest city in Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Se ...

. From an ethnic Sadduzai tribe section of the Popalzai sub-clan of the

Durrani The Durrānī (, ), formerly known as Abdālī (), are one of the largest Pashtun tribes, tribal confederation of Pashtuns. Their traditional homeland is in southern Afghanistan (Loy Kandahar region), straddling into Toba Achakzai in Balochistan, ...

Pashtuns Pashtuns (, , ; ;), also known as Pakhtuns, or Pathans, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group primarily residing in southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They were historically also referred to as Afghan (ethnon ...

, he was the son of

Timur Shah Durrani Timur Shah Durrani (; ;), also known as Timur Shah Abdali or Taimur Shah Abdali (December 1746 – 20 May 1793) was the second ruler of the Afghan Durrani Empire, from November 1772 until his death in 1793. An ethnic Pashtun, he was the second e ...

and grandson of

Ahmad Shah Durrani Ahmad Shāh Durrānī (; ; – 4 June 1772), also known as Ahmad Shāh Abdālī (), was the first ruler and founder of the Durrani Empire. He is often regarded as the founder of modern Afghanistan. Throughout his reign, Ahmad Shah fought ov ...

Reign

Mahmud Shah Durrani was the half-brother of his predecessor, Zaman Shah. On July 25, 1801, Zaman Shah was deposed, and Mahmud Shah ascended to ruler-ship. He had a chequered career, being deposed in 1803, restored in 1809, and finally deposed again in 1818.

Struggles with the Barakzais

The elder brother of

Dost Mohammad Khan Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzai (Pashto/; 23 December 1792 – 8 June 1863), nicknamed the Amir-i Kabir, 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 chief of the Barakzai, Fateh Khan, took an important part in raising Mahmud Shah Durrani to the sovereignty of Afghanistan in 1800 and in restoring him to the throne in 1809. The son of Mahmud Shah Durrani, Shahzada Kamran Durrani, was always in trouble with Fateh Khan, the brother of Dost Muhammad Khan. Mahmud Shah repaid Fateh Khan's services by having him assassinated in 1818. The assassination of Fateh Khan Barakzai, incurred the enmity of his tribe and with it began the fall of the Durrani Empire. After a bloody conflict, Mahmud Shah was deprived of all his possessions except

. The rest of his dominions were divided among Fateh Khan's brothers. King Mahmud Shah Durrani died in 1829. The country was then ruled by Shuja Shah Durrani; another of his half-brothers.

References

External links

The British Library – Chronology: from the emergence of the Afghan Kingdom to the Mission of Mountstuart Elphistone, 1747–1809
1769 births 1829 deaths 19th-century Afghan monarchs Emirs of Afghanistan Mahmud Shah Pashtun people 19th-century Afghan politicians 19th-century monarchs in Asia {{Afghanistan-royal-stub

Reign

Struggles with the Barakzais

See also

References

External links