AIPMED SHAH, b. about 1724; hereditary chief of the Abdali tribes, and founder of the Durrani dynasty of Afghanistan. While a boy he was a prisoner with a hostile tribe, but in 1738 he was rescued by Nadir Shah, who gave him command of a body of U. K. I.-12 cavalry. On the assassination of Nadir, in 1747, Ahmed, who had failed to capture a Persian treasure train, retreated to Afghanistan and persuaded the native tribes to make him their sovereign. He was crowned at Candahar, Oct., 1747, changing the name of his tribe to the Durrani. By keeping his armies at work in foreign conquests, and interfer ing but little in the local affairs of the tribe, he soon consolidated his power; and having. acquired the koh-i-noor—the famous diamond—and much captured treasure, he had the advantage of great wealth. In 1748 he took Lahore, and in 1751 became minister of the Punjab, and soon subdued all Kashmir The great mogul having retaken Lahore, he went against him in 1756, entered Delhi in triumph and gave the city to pillage for a month. He took for one of his wives a princess of the royal family, and gave another to
his son Timour, whom he made governor of Punjab. lie had scarcely left Delhi when the Mohammedan vizier; whom lie had left in office, seized the city, killed the great mogul, and set another of the family, a tool of his own, on the throne. At the same time the Mahratta chiefs took occasion for attempts to establish the Hindoo power, and Ahmed had more than once to cross the Indus on war expeditions. Jan. 6, 1761, he defeated the Mahrattas and Sikhs at the great castle of Parifat, but was compelled to hasten back to quell rebellion at home. The Sikhs rose, and he was finally forced to give up the Punjab. He died in 1773, of cancer in the face, and was succeeded by his am Timour.