Hajji Jamal Khan
| Hajji Jamal Khan حاجي جمال خان | |
|---|---|
| Hajji | |
| Grand Vizier of the Durrani Empire | |
| Grand Vizier | 1747 – 1772 |
| Predecessor | Office established |
| Successor | Rahimdad Khan |
| Born | 1719 Kandahar, Hotak Empire |
| Died | 1772 (aged 52–53) Kandahar, Durrani Empire |
| Cause of death | Natural Causes |
| Spouse | |
| Issue | 4 sons and 1 daughter
|
| House | Barakzai dynasty |
| Father | Mohammad Yusuf Khan |
| Mother | A Ghilji lady |
Hajji Jamal Khan Barakzai,[a] (1719–1772) born as Jamal al-Din Khan Mohammadzai, was chief of the Barakzai tribe,[1] Afsharid governor of Farah and Grishk,[2] and Grand Vizier of the Durrani Empire[3] under the reigns of Ahmad Shah Durrani[4] and Timur Shah Durrani until his death in 1772.[5]
Early life
Jamal Khan was born to Mohammad Yusuf Khan, a member of the Mohammadzai branch of the Barakzai Pashtun tribe and to a Ghilji Pashtun mother. He attained the title of Hajji after of his trip to Mecca for performing the Islamic pilgrimage of Hajj.[6]
Rise to power
During a grand national assembly regarding electing a new Afghan king that took place in the city of Kandahar after the assassination of Nader Shah, Jamal Khan was a candidate alongside his Sadozai rival Ahmad Khan Abdali. The prominence of the Barakzai tribe of Pashtuns among the Abdali confederacy, as well as the status and seniority of Jamal Khan gave him more legitimacy and a right to claim the throne.[1]
However, Ahmad Khan then rose to fame under the intervention of Pir Sabir Shah who believed argued that Ahmad Khan's Sadozai lineage gave him a legitimate claim to the throne. Despite disagreements among other Abdali tribes, Sabir symbolically placed a turban with a sheaf wheat on Ahmad Khan's turban, declaring him King,[2]: 106 and ever since then he was called Ahmad Shah, while his tribal confederacy was changed from Abdali to Durrani in honor of bearing the title "Shah, Pearl of the Pearls".
Death and legacy
Jamal Khan died in 1772, and his eldest son Rahimdad Khan succeeded him as chief of the Barakzais and the Grand Vizier of the Durrani Empire. His descendants would then be involved in a blood feud with the descendants of Ahmad Shah Durrani[4] and establish the Emirate of Kabul, Principality of Kandahar and the Sultan Mohammad Khan in opposition to the Durrani dynasty that ruled the Durrani Empire, as well as installing Durrani rulers as puppets.[2]: 156
Notes
References
- ^ a b Hazārah, Fayż Muḥammad Kātib; McChesney, R. D.; Khorrami, Mohammad Mehdi (2013). The History of Afghanistan: Fayż Muḥammad Kātib Hazārah's Sirāj al-Tawārīkh. Brill. ISBN 9789004234925.
- ^ a b c Lee, Jonathan L. (2018). Afghanistan: A History from 1260 to the Present. Reaktion Books. ISBN 9781789140101.
- ^ Noelle-Karimi, Christine (2014). The Pearl in Its Midst: Herat and the Mapping of Khurasan (15th-19th Centuries). Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. ISBN 9783700172024.
- ^ a b Malleson, George B. (1879). History of Afghanistan: From the Earliest Period to the Outbreak of the War of 1878. W. H. Allen & Company. ISBN 0343739771. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - ^ Dalrymple, William (2013). Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 9780307958297.
- ^ Nejatie, Sajjad. The Pearl of Pearls: The Abdālī-Durrānī Confederacy and Its Transformation under Aḥmad Shāh, Durr-i Durrān. Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations; University of Toronto.