Zaid Hamid:BrassTacks-Yeh Ghazi Episode 23; Ahmad Shah Abdali Part1

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• published: 24 Sep 2008
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BrassTacks program Yeh Ghazi about Ahmad Shah Abdali (Durrani) with special reference to Shah Waliullah Muhadith Dahalvi (Rahmatullah Alaih).Ahmad Shah Abdali was the founder and first ruler of modern Afghanistan. Before being elected king in 1747, Abdali was a cavalry general under the Persian emperor Nadir Shah. During his reign, he built a vast empire that extended from eastern Persia (Iran) to northern India, and from the Amu Darya to the Indian Ocean.Ahmad Shah Abdali. had been asked time and again by the local Muslims of the Punjab and Sirhind to protect the latter from the atrocities of the Marhattas and Sikhs. Shah Waliullah was an important Islamic reformer who has been called "the greatest intellectual Muslim India produced." . He worked for the revival of Muslim rule and intellectual learning in the South Asia, during a time of waning Muslim power following the death of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Shah Waliullah urged Muslim rulers to a jihad against the Maratha and Jat Bharatpur enemies of Islam. Endowed with a keen political insight, he observed with deep anguish the breaking up of Muslim power in the subcontinent and wrote to leading political dignitaries like Ahmad Shah Abdali, Nizam ul Mulk and Najibuddaula to stop the rot which had set in the political life of Muslim India. It was on account of his call that Ahmad Shah Abdali appeared on the field of Panipat in 1761 and put an end to the Marhatta dream of dominating the subcontinent. Shah Waliullah is respected and revered greatly by all Muslims in the South Asia and beyond, including the Barelvi, Deobandi and Ahl-e- Hadeeth groups and movements of Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, who include both Sufis and Salafis. The Deoband movement as well as the Ahl-e-Hadeeth both claim to espouse the ideology and thought of Shah Waliullah and the Barelvi movement follow his spiritual tradition. Third Battle of Panipat is the biggest proof of Ahmad Shah Abdalis desire to liberate the Muslims of Sirhind and Punjab from the Marhattas clutches. The Durranis crossed the Jamuna on 23rd October. Ahmad Shah, along with other Afghan chiefs of Hind, rushed to punish Marhattas. The Marhatta force consisted of 300,000 men, including 55,000 Marhatta Cavalry, and had three hundred pieces of cannon. Ahmad Shah had 40,000 Afghans and Persians, 13,000 Indian Afghan cavalry and 38,000 Indian Afghan infantry, with 70 pieces of cannon borrowed from the Indian allies. According to the best accounts the number of Marhattas slain numbered to about 200,000, while 22,000 prisoners, 50,000 horses and an immense booty fell into the hands of the victors.The Marhatta Peshwa or the king died of despondency. They retired beyond Narbada, never to recover their power. Ahmad Shah Abdali was a distinguished warrior, religious, generous and a kind-hearted king. He was a true Muslim and never believed in pomp and show of the royal courts. Unlike his contemporary kings and rajas, he did not even have a crown. His devotion to Islam further added to his simplicity and service to Allah.