The Abdali having
quitted the country of Kandahar two hundred years
before, were not involved in the fame calamity.
Being free from any foreign yoke, they were yet
governed by their own laws, till towards the
beginning of the Seventeenth century. The Uzbek
Tartars having then made an irruption into the province
of Herat, this tribe, though amounting to thirty
thousand families, was obliged to have recourse
to Abbas, who then sat on the throne of Persia.
This prince, who by his conquests had already
merited the surname of Great, took them under his
protection, and putting himself at the head of
his troops, marched against the usurpers, and
obliged them -to retire. Whether it was owing to
gratitude, or to necessity, but the Abdali, who
had been till then independent, became tributary
to their deliverer. The only condition they
insisted on was that the government of their
country should be conferred on none but an Abdali
chosen from among the chief men of their country.
'
An Historical Account of the British Trade Over
the Caspian Sea: With the Author's Journal of
Travels from England Through Russia Into Persia :
and Back Through Russia, Germany and Holland: to
which are Added, the Revolutions of Persia During
the Present Century, with the Particular History
of ...
By Jonas Hanway
Published by Printed for T. Osborne [and 12
others], 1762
"Nadir
Shah was assassinated in 1749, and
immediately on hearing the news of his death
Ahmad Shah (Abdali) seized Nadir Shah's treasure
at Kandahar, and proclaimed himself king, with
the consent, not only of the Afghans, but,
strange to say, of the Hazaras and Baluchis as
well. He at once changed the site of the city to
its present position, and thus founded the Afghan
kingdom, with modern Kandahar as its capital.
Ahmad Shah died in 1773, and was succeeded by his
son Timur, who died in 1793, and left the throne
to his son Zaman Shah. This prince was deposed by
his half-brother Mahmud, who was in his turn
deposed by Shah Shuja, the full brother of Zaman
Shah. After a short reign Shah Shuja was
compelled to abdicate from his inability to
repress the rising power of Fateh Khan, a
Barakzai chief, and he took refuge first with
Ranjit Singh, who then ruled the Punjab, and
finally secured the protection of British power. Afghanistan
was now practically dismembered. Mahmud was
reinstated by Fateh Khan, whom he appointed his
vizier, and whose nephews, Dost Mohammed Khan and
Kohn dil Khan, he placed respectively in the
governments of Kabul and Kandahar. Fateh Khan was
barbarously murdered by Kamran (Mahmud's son)
near Ghazni in 1818; and in retaliation Mahmud
himself was driven from power, and the Barakzai
clan secured the sovereignty of Afghanistan."
Kandahar,
Afghanistan