Afghanistan: 'King Ahmad Shah Durrani Abdali'. Portrait by an unidentified artist of the Mughal School (fl. 18th century), 1757, National Library of France, Paris

Ahmad Shah Durrani (1722-1772), also known as Ahmad Khan Abdali, was an Afghan ruler and king who founded the Durrani Empire, regarded by many as the founder of modern Afghanistan. The Durrani Empire, also referred to as the Afghan Empire, was a monarchy centered in Afghanistan and included northeastern Iran, the modern state of Pakistan as well as the Punjab region of India. It was established at Kandahar in 1747 by Ahmad Shah Durrani, an Afghan military commander under Nader Shah of Persia and chief of the Abdali tribe. After the death of Ahmad Shah in about 1773, the Emirship was passed onto his children followed by grandchildren and its capital was shifted to Kabul.

With the support of tribal leaders, Ahmad Shah Durrani extended Afghan control from Meshed to Kashmir and Delhi, from the Amu Darya to the Arabian Sea. Next to the Ottoman Empire, the Durrani was the greatest Muslim Empire in the second half of the eighteenth century. The Durrani Empire is considered the foundation of the current state of Afghanistan, with Ahmad Shah Durrani being considered the ‘Father’ of modern Afghanistan.

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Pictures From History

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MUSLIM WORLD