AHMAD SHAH (1724-73), founder of the Durani dynasty in Afghanistan, was the son of Sammaun-Khan, hereditary chief of the Abdali tribe. While still a boy, Ahmad fell into the hands of the hostile tribe of Ghilzais, by whom he was kept prisoner at Kandahar. In March 1738 he was rescued by Nadir Shah, who soon afterwards gave him the command of a body of cavalry com posed chiefly of Abdalis. On the assassination of Nadir in Ahmad, having failed in an attempt to seize the Persian treasures, retreated to Afghanistan, where he persuaded the tribes to assert their independence and accept him as their sovereign. He was crowned at Kandahar in Oct. 1747, and about the same time he changed the name of his tribe to Durani. He first crossed the Indus in 1748, when he took Lahore; and in 1751, after a feeble resistance on the part of the Mohammedan viceroy, he became master of the entire Punjab. In 175o he took Nishapur, and in 1752 subdued Kashmir. His great expedition to Delhi was undertaken in 1 7 56 in order to avenge himself on the Great Mogul for the recapture of Lahore. Ahmad entered Delhi with his army in triumph, and for more than a month the city was given over to pillage. The shah himself added to his wives a princess of the imperial family, and bestowed another upon his son Timur Shah, whom he made governor of the Punjab and Sirhind. As his viceroy in Delhi he left a Rohilla chief in whom he had all confidence, but scarcely had he crossed the Indus when the Mohammedan wazir drove the Afghan chief from the city, killed the Great Mogul and set another prince of the family, a tool of his own, upon the throne. The Mahratta chiefs availed themselves of these circumstances to endeavour to possess themselves of the whole country, and Ahmad was compelled more than once to cross the Indus in order to pro tect his territory from them and the Sikhs, who were constantly attacking his garrisons. In 17 58 the Mahrattas obtained possession of the Punjab, but on Jan. 6, 1761, they were totally routed by Ahmad in the great battle of Panipat. In a later expedition he inflicted a severe defeat upon the Sikhs, but had to hasten west wards immediately afterwards in order to quell an insurrection in Afghanistan. Meanwhile the Sikhs again rose, and Ahmad was forced to abandon all hope of retaining the command of the Pun jab. He died in 1773, leaving to his son Timur the kingdom he had founded.