(b. 1722, Multan, Punjab [now in Pakistan]; d. Oct. 16/23, 1772, Toba Maruf, Afghanistan), founder of the state of Afghanistan and ruler of an empire that extended from the Amu Darya to the Indian Ocean and from Khorasan into Kashmir, the Punjab, and Sind. Ahmad headed the central government and had full control over all affairs of the state - domestic and foreign, civil, and military. A prime minister and a council of nine life-term advisers that he selected from the chiefs of the leading Afghan tribes assisted him.
Ahmad, a member of the noble Sadozai clan, was the second son of Mohammad Zaman Khan, a hereditary chief of the Ab-dali tribe of Afghans. He rose to command an Abdali cavalry group under Nadir Shah of Persia. After Nadir Shah's assassination, he was crowned as the Shah in 1747 near Qandahar (now Kandahar), where coins were struck in his name and where he set up his capital. He invaded India nine times between 1747 and 1769. In 1757, after an unopposed march, he plundered Delhi, Agra, Mathura, and Vrindavan.
Ahmad married Hazrat Baygam, daughter of the Indian Mughal emperor, Muhammad Shah. An outbreak of cholera among his troops forced his return to Afghanistan. His son Timur remained behind as viceroy of the Punjab and married the daughter of India's "puppet emperor", Alamgir II. Timur was driven out in 1758 by a force of Sikhs, Mughals, and Marathas, but in 1759-61 Ahmad Shah defeated the Marathas in Punjab and destroyed their large army at Panipat, north of Delhi. In the 1760s, he made four unsuccessful attempts to crush the Sikhs, but with serious revolts nearer home, he lost control of Punjab. He is buried in a mausoleum in Ahmad Shahi, the new capital he had built.
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