The Durrani Empire or the Afghan Empire, also known as the Sadozai Kingdom, was an Afghan empire that was founded by Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1747, that spanned parts of Central Asia, the Iranian plateau, and the Indian Subcontinent. At its peak, it ruled over the present-day Afghanistan, much of Pakistan, parts of northeastern and southeastern Iran, eastern Turkmenistan, and northwestern India. Next to the Ottoman Empire, the Durrani Empire is considered to be among the most significant Islamic Empires of the 18th century.
European influence in Afghanistan has been present in the country since the Victorian era, when the competing imperial powers of Britain and Russia contested for control over Afghanistan as part of the Great Game.
Emir Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzai ; December 23, 1793 - June 8, 1863, nicknamed the Amir-i Kabir, was the founder of the Barakzai dynasty and one of the prominent rulers of Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War. With the decline of the Durrani dynasty, he became the Emir of Afghanistan in 1826. An ethnic Pashtun, he belonged to the Abdali tribe, the Barakzai sub-tribe, to be precise. He was the 11th son of Payendah Khan, chief of the Barakzai Pashtuns, who was killed in 1799 by King Zaman Shah Durrani.
The First Anglo-Afghan War was fought between the British Empire and the Emirate of Kabul from 1838 to 1842. The British initially successfully invaded the country taking sides in a succession dispute between emir Dost Mohammad Khan (Barakzai) and former King Shah Shujah (Durrani), whom they reinstalled upon occupying Kabul in August 1839. The main British Indian force occupied Kabul and endured harsh winters. The force and its camp followers were almost completely massacred during the 1842 retreat from Kabul.
Josiah Harlan, Prince of Ghor was an American adventurer who travelled to Afghanistan and Punjab with the intention of making himself a king. During his travels, he became involved in local politics and factional military actions. He was awarded the title Prince of Ghor in exchange for military aid. Rudyard Kipling's short story The Man Who Would Be King is believed to have been partly based on Harlan.
The second Anglo-Sikh war was a military conflict between the Sikh Empire and the East India Company which took place from 1848 to 1849. It resulted in the fall of the Sikh Empire, and the annexation of the Punjab and what subsequently became the North-West Frontier Province, by the East India Company.
Sardar Mohammad Azim Khan Barakzai was a Pashtun noble who served as Afghan governor of Kashmir (1812–1819). He was the second son of the Barakzai chief Payinda Sarfaraz Khan, while his elder brother Fateh Khan was kingmaker and Vizier to Mahmud Shah Durrani. He was one of 21 brothers from eight mothers including his half-brother Dost Mohammad Khan who would later become Emir of Afghanistan.
The North-West Frontier was a region of the British Indian Empire. It remains the western frontier of present-day Pakistan, extending from the Pamir Knot in the north to the Koh-i-Malik Siah in the west, and separating the modern Pakistani frontier regions of North-West Frontier Province, Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Balochistan from neighbouring Afghanistan in the west. The borderline between is officially known as the Durand Line and divides Pashtun inhabitants of these provinces from Pashtuns in eastern Afghanistan.
The Kabul Expedition was a punitive campaign undertaken by the British against the Afghans following the disastrous retreat from Kabul. Two British and East India Company armies forced through the Khyber Pass and advanced on the Afghan capital from Kandahar and Jalalabad to avenge the complete annihilation of the British-Indian military-civilian column in January 1842.
The 1842 retreat from Kabul was the retreat of the British and East India Company forces from Kabul during the First Anglo-Afghan War. An uprising in Kabul forced the then-commander, Major-General William Elphinstone, to fall back to the British garrison at Jalalabad. As the army and its numerous dependents and camp followers began their march, it came under attack from Afghan tribesmen. Many in the column died of exposure, frostbite or starvation, or were killed during the fighting.
Colonel Sir Claude Martine Wade CB was a British soldier who was Agent to the Governor-General for the Affairs of the Punjab and North-West Frontier, 1823–1840. He managed relations between the British and important rulers in India such as Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Shah Shuja, King of Afghanistan. He was one of the first to "force the Khyber pass."
The Bengal Engineer Group (BEG) is a military engineering regiment in the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army. The unit was originally part of the Bengal Army of the East India Company's Bengal Presidency, and subsequently part of the British Indian Army during the British Raj. The Bengal Sappers are stationed at Roorkee Cantonment in Roorkee, Uttarakhand.
The Ghuznee Medal is a British campaign medal awarded for participation in the storming of the fortress of Ghuznee in Afghanistan, on 21 to 23 July 1839 by troops of the British and Indian Armies. This action, the Battle of Ghazni, took place during the First Anglo-Afghan War.
The Battle of Nowshera was fought in Nowshera in March 1823 between the Yusufzai Afghans, supported by the Peshawar sardars, alongside Azim Khan Barakzai, the Afghan governor of Peshawar, where they would face the Sikh armies led by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Azim Khan was a half-brother of Dost Mohammad Khan, future ruler of Kabul, and later Afghanistan. The battle was a victory for the Sikhs, successfully defeating Azim Khan's armies. This victory allowed them to begin to their occupation of the Peshawar Valley.
The Battle of Attock took place on 13 July 1813 between the Sikh Empire and the Durrani Empire. The battle was the first significant Sikh victory over the Durranis.
The Kelat-I-Ghilzie Medal is a campaign medal issued by the British East India Company, to the defenders of the fort at Kelat-I-Ghilzie during the First Anglo-Afghan War.
Shah Shuja Durrani was ruler of the Durrani Empire from 1803 to 1809. He then ruled from 1839 until his death in 1842. Son of Timur Shah Durrani, Shuja Shah was of the Sadduzai line of the Abdali group of ethnic Pashtuns. He became the fifth King of the Durrani Empire.
The Proclamation of the Gates was an order issued in 1842 by Lord Ellenborough, then the Governor-General of Britain's territories in India, during the Battle of Kabul. This order demanded Jat troops to bring back gates from Ghazni that Mahmud allegedly took after his destruction of the Somnath temple from somewhere in Prabhas Patan, Gujarat some 800 years earlier and had it installed as the doors of his mausoleum. This allegation was later found to be false. The basis for the order are unclear, as neither Turko-Persian sources nor Indic sources mention any such gates. According to Romila Thapar, "if there were any gates at all" anywhere, they "might have been some fort gates". The order, states Thapar, is best seen as an example of how "colonial intervention in India" was viewed in the 1840s, or possibly a demand from the Sikh emperor Ranjit Singh for helping the British in their Kabul campaign.
The Expedition of Shuja ul-Mulk began in January 1833, whilst the siege of Kandahar began on 10 May 1834, and ended on 1 July 1834. The expedition was led by Shah Shuja Durrani, the deposed Afghan Emperor who wished to re-claim his throne. Shah Shuja rallied forces while in exile in the Sikh Empire and marched through Sindh to Kandahar, besieging it. Shah Shuja would be defeated by the Barakzai rulers of Kandahar and Kabul.
The Battle of Ali Masjid took place on the 27 July 1839 between the Sikh Empire and its allies against the Emirate of Afghanistan. In the battle, the Khalsa Army and its Afghan levies emerged victorious and subsequently marched into Kabul.
East India Company 
Sir John Keane 
