Afghanistan History Trivia

1. The founder of the Durrani Empire, also called the Afghan Empire, was Ahmad Shah Durrani. How did he begin his rise to power?

From Quiz Tales of the Durrani Empire

Answer: Military Service

Also considered to be the founder of modern day Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Durrani was chosen to be King of Afghanistan after the death of Nader Shah Afshar. He had been the leader of the king's cavalry regiment, known as the Abdali Regiment, of 4,000 soldiers. The king was murdered by his own guards, however, Durrani had heard nothing about the plot. After confirming his leader's death, Durrani then took the royal seal and the Koh-i-Norr diamond that were the symbols of power, and was accepted by the Abdali Regiment as the new king. He took the titles "Padishah-i-Ghazi", which means "victorious emperor" and "Durr-i-Durrani", or "pearl of pearls".

From Quiz Tales of the Durrani Empire

Answer: Pakistan

The capitals were Kandahar (in Afghanistan) and Peshawar (in modern Pakistan). Kandahar, originally called Alexandria Arachosia, was founded by and named after Alexander the Great in 329 BC. A city that had a strategic location along Asian trade routes, Kandahar had long been used as a capital; after Ahmad Shah Durrani died, his son moved the capital to its present location. Peshawar, Pakistan, was located near the east end of the Khyber Pass near Afghanistan. It became part of the Durrani Empire in 1747; the son of Ahmad Shah Durrani, Timur Shah, used Peshawar as a winter capital, staying at the Bala Hissar Fort. After briefly losing control of the city in 1758, the Durrani re-conquered it the following year. The city was an important agricultural and trade center.

From Quiz Afghanistan History

Answer: India

Alexander the Great fought his way through Afghanistan between the years 329-327 B.C. on his way to attempt to conquer India.

From Quiz Tales of the Durrani Empire

Answer: Ode

Durrani not only wrote several poems using the Persian language, but he also wrote odes in his native language. His most famous poem, "Love of a Nation" provided the quote for the introduction. "By blood, we are immersed in love of you. The youth lose their heads for your sake. I come to you and my heart finds rest. Away from you, grief clings to my heart like a snake. I forget the throne of Delhi when I remember the mountain tops of my beautiful Pakhtunkhwa. If I must choose between the world and you, I shall not hesitate to claim your barren deserts as my own". In the poem he speaks of "my beautiful Pakhtunkhwa", which was the name of his homeland. It was not called Afghanistan until the mid-1800s. Altogether Durrani wrote 3500 odes and other poems.

From Quiz Afghanistan History

Answer: 7th

A number of fleeting Muslim dynasties were founded, the most powerful of them having its capital at Ghazna. Perhaps the greatest of Afghanistan's leaders was Mahmud of Ghazna, who conquered from Khorasan in Iran to the Punjab in India early in the 11th century.

From Quiz Tales of the Durrani Empire

Answer: Mughal Empire

Durrani's two main objectives were to acquire wealth and take advantage of the well-known Mughal weakness. In a period of severe decline, the Mughal leaders had made an alliance with the Marathas that had given them control of much of India with the exception of the Mughal capital, Delhi. Ahmad Shah fought the Mughals and looted their capital. After negotiating the terms of a treaty, Durrani was forced to end his attack on India due to problems within his own lands, but the Mughal Dynasty was virtually finished. Soon they would be conquered by the Maratha Confederacy. While the Mughals built the second largest empire on the Indian subcontinent, the Maurya Empire ranks first as the largest.

From Quiz Afghanistan History

Answer: 1220 A.D

The Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan conquered Turkestan, Transoxania, and Afghanistan and also raided Persia and eastern Europe right up to the Dnieper River, between 1218 and 1224.

From Quiz Tales of the Durrani Empire

Answer: Promises of Jihad

Actually, the other choices are ways that the Roman Catholic Church incited people to join the Crusades in 1095. Ahmad Shah Durrani made his plan of expansion into a jihad, or holy war against the Maratha Empire, which had taken control of India and ended the rule of the Mughals. Members of many Afghan tribes joined together to fight a war against Hindus. Although a victory was declared, Durrani lost many men at the Third Battle of Panipat. As a result, he was not able to control to the province of Punjab with the same military might that he had in the past. Muslims saw jihad, in part, as a righteous struggle against people who did not share their religious beliefs. In many ways the belief is similar to the Christian idea of a crusade against the infidels.

From Quiz Afghanistan History

Answer: 14th

Timur was said to be descended from Genghis Khan.

From Quiz Tales of the Durrani Empire

Answer: Sikhs

The Sikhs, who lived in Punjab, were a major power in India. In 1762 after an Sikh uprising began, Ahmad Shah Durrani attacked and took Lahore and their holy city of Amritsar. Massacring thousands of Sikhs, he also destroyed their Golden Temple, the holiest Gurdwara, or holy temple. Two years later the Sikhs rebelled again, retook Amritsar, and rebuilt their temple. Ahmad Shah Durrani was never able to fully subdue the Sikhs, even though he tried many more times. Finally the two sides agreed on a division line between their lands.

From Quiz Afghanistan History

Answer: 16th

Babur was a descendent of Timur, who in turn was supposedly a descendent of Genghis Khan.

From Quiz Tales of the Durrani Empire

Answer: East India Company

It appears that members of the British East India Company both feared and respected Ahmad Shah Durrani. While he refused to battle with the British in India, they apparently felt the same way about Ahmad Shah; especially after the Third Battle of Panipat they feared another Afghan invasion of India. A British intelligence report referred to him as the "King of Kings", and an envoy wrote, "His military courage and activity are spoken of with admiration, both by his own subjects and the nations with whom he was engaged, either in wars or alliances".

From Quiz Afghanistan History

Answer: Ahmad Shah

Ahmad Shah (1722-73) was the first Emir of Afghanistan. His dynasty, the Durrani, gave the Afghans the name 'Durrani' that they themselves frequently use.

From Quiz Afghanistan History

Answer: Britain

In an attempt to control the access to the northern routes to India, Britain tried to replace the emir at that time, Dost Muhammad, with a previous emir. This policy caused the first Afghan War between the British and the Afghanis.

From Quiz Tales of the Durrani Empire

Answer: Iran

The Durrani Empire included modern day Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as parts of Iran, which was then called Persia, Turkmenistan, and India at it largest extent. Recognized as one of the strongest and largest Muslim empires of the time, the Durrani Empire was at the height of power by 1761.

From Quiz Afghanistan History

Answer: Britain

The emir of Afghanistan at that time was Sher Ali, the third son of Dost Muhammad.

From Quiz Afghanistan History

Answer: Third Afghan War

The Treaty of Rawalpindi gave Afghanistan full control over its foreign relations.

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