The Pearl of Pearls: The Abdālī-Durrānī Confederacy and Its Transformation under Aḥmad Shāh, Durr-i Durrān

Abstract

This dissertation traces the history of the Abdālī-Durrānī tribal confederacy from its putative origins to the career of arguably its most influential historical personality, Aḥmad Shāh Durr-i Durrān, the “Pearl of Pearls” (r. 1747–72). Drawing upon extensive research of primary sources on the topic such as tribal genealogies, court chronicles, local histories, and other documents, this study examines the process whereby the Abdālī-Durrānī evolved from a petty Afghan tribal confederacy active in Qandahar, a frontier region of the early modern empires of the Safavids and Mughals, to founders of the autonomous Durrānī empire that, at its height under Aḥmad Shāh, was one of the most powerful polities in Asia. Despite the considerable influence of the Abdālī-Durrānī, the crucial transitional period of the confederacy’s history, spanning roughly from 1550 to 1818, remains understudied. “The Pearl of Pearls” is aimed at better understanding this history by exploring neglected topics such as: the construction of the Afghan identity of the Abdālī- Durrānī; the nature of the confederacy’s interactions with the Safavid, Mughal, and Nādirid states; the gradual formation of the Durrānī state; the large-scale sedentarization of the Durrānī in the reign of Aḥmad Shāh and his successors; and the accompanying Persian acculturation of the tribal confederacy’s ruling elite. While directed primarily towards supplementing our limited knowledge of the Abdālī-Durrānī and the early modern Durrānī state, this dissertation also considers the enduring legacies of Aḥmad Shāh’s rule in relation to the modern history of Afghanistan.