Tales of the Durrani Empire Trivia Quiz

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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".

Answer: Kabul

The son and successor of Ahmad Shah Durrani, Timur Shah Durrani moved the capital of the empire to Kabul sometime in the 1770s; Peshawar continued to be the winter capital. Timur Shah Durrani rose to power after his marriage to the daughter of the Mughal Emperor.

He then received the city of Sirhind as a wedding present and became Governor of Punjab when he was only nine years old! He had twenty-four sons, and many of them were sent to rule territories in the 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.

Answer: True

Durrani's heirs were not as adept at ruling as he was, beginning with his successor, Timur Shah Durrani. The reason the capital of the empire was moved was because Timur Shah was experiencing problems, and much of his rule was characterized by civil war and rebellion.

The fact that he left behind twenty-four sons meant that there were endless power struggles and intrigues among them. The Durrani dynasty ended in 1826 and was replaced by the Barakzai dynasty.