Durrani Empire

The Durrani Empire (Pashto: د درانيانو ټولواکمني; Persian: امپراتوری درانیان, romanized: Imparātūrī-yī Durrānīyān) or the Afghan Empire (د افغانان ټولواکمني; امپراتوری افغان, Imparātūrī-yī Afghān), also known as the Sadozai Kingdom (سدوزي ټولواکمني; دولت سدوزایی, Daulat-ī Sadūzāyī), was an Afghan empire that was founded by Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1747, that spanned parts of Central Asia, the Iranian plateau, and the Indian Subcontinent. At its peak, it ruled over the present-day Afghanistan, much of Pakistan, parts of northeastern and southeastern Iran, eastern Turkmenistan, and northwestern India.^: 190 Next to the Ottoman Empire, the Durrani Empire is considered to be among the most significant Islamic Empires of the 18th century.

Ahmad was the son of Muhammad Zaman Khan (an Afghan chieftain of the Abdali tribe) and the commander of Nader Shah Afshar. Following Afshar's death in June 1747, Ahmad secured Afghanistan by taking Kandahar, Ghazni, Kabul, and Peshawar. After his accession as the nation's king, he changed his tribal name from Abdali to Durrani. In 1749, the Mughal Empire had ceded sovereignty over much of northwestern India to the Afghans; Ahmad then set out westward to take possession of Mashhad, which was ruled by the Afsharid dynasty under Shahrokh Shah, who also acknowledged Afghan suzerainty. Subsequently, Ahmad sent an army to subdue the areas north of the Hindu Kush down to the Amu Darya, and in short order, all of the different Afghan tribes began to join his cause. Under Ahmad, the Afghans invaded India on eight occasions, subjugating parts of Kashmir and the majority of Punjab. In early 1757, he sacked Delhi, but permitted Mughal emperor Alamgir II to remain in nominal control as long as he acknowledged Afghan suzerainty over the regions south of the Indus River, till Sutlej river.

Following Ahmad's death in 1772, his son Timur Shah Durrani became the next ruler of the Durrani dynasty. Under Timur, the city of Kabul became the new capital of the Durrani Empire while Peshawar served as its winter capital. However, the empire had begun to crumble by this time, and faced territorial losses of Peshawar, Multan and Kashmir to the Sikh Empire in the early 19th century. The dynasty would become heirs of Afghanistan for generations, up until Dost Muhammad Khan and the Barakzai dynasty deposed the Durrani dynasty in Kabul, leading to its supersession by the Emirate of Afghanistan. The Durrani Empire is considered to be the foundational polity of the modern nation-state of Afghanistan, with Ahmad being credited as its Father of the Nation.