Ahmed Shah

Ahmed Shah, the first monarch of Afghanistan, born about 1724, was the son of Seman Khan, chief of the Abdali tribe. He served in the bodyguard of Nadir Shah (q.v.), and on his assassination, retired to Afghanistan, where he induced the native tribes to revolt and to choose him sovereign. His wealth and military talents made him popular, and he gradually so far extended his conquests that, on his death in 1773, he left to his son, Timur, an empire which reached from Khorasan to Sirhind, and from the Oxus to the Indian Sea.