Battle Of Khyber Pass 'Pakhtun Mughal War' 1672-1677.

Battle Of Khyber Pass 'Pakhtun Mughal War'  1672-1677.

Aurangzeb Alamgir 6th Emperor of the Mughal 

Empire (1658-1707) occupied the throne after his success against his brothers in the war of succession. Muhammad Amin Khan, the governor of Lahore was transferred to Peshawar. Amin Khan was unaware of hill wars and frontier politics and before his arrival hostility had broken out between the Mughals and the Khyber tribes due to the attitude of the Mughal Chief, and Khyber Pass was made insecure. Amin Khan was intercepted in Khyber Pass in the summer of 1670 on his way to Kabul but the affair was settled through negotiation. Two years later, the Afridis under Aimal Khan and other Afghan tribes closed the Khyber Pass. While in summer of the same year the Mughal governor disregarding the advice of his officers moved to Kabul from Peshawar with all his family and camp followers. His camp was blocked by the tribes in the narrow gorge at Ali Masjid.

Amin Khan opened negotiation with them but the price they demanded was too high and he tried to force the Pass. In the battle which followed, the Pukhtuns rained down arrows, bullets and stones from hill tops on the Mughals. The Mughal army broke into a confused mass and Amin Khan with a band of his officers escaped to Peshawar. The whole Mughal army was destroyed and everything was lost which include troops, treasure, elephants, camp equipage, families including Amin Khan’s wife, mother, sister, son and servants. About 1000 Mughal soldiers were killed, 2000 men and women were captured and 20 million rupees were looted. 

After this victory, Aimal Khan Mohmand crowned himself as a king and proclaimed a holy war against the Mughals and summoned all the Pukhtun tribes to join the national movement. When the news of the defeat reached Aurangzeb, he disregarded the threat to his empire from Marathas come to the frontier region to restore royal prestige and to direct operations personally. From 1673 to 1675 the war with the tribes under his general direction continued but his arms met with little success and he was at last compelled to come to terms which left the Pukhtun tribes almost independent and he withdrew his forces to India. Nonetheless by the end of 1675, Aurangzeb had established sufficient control to enable him to return Delhi. He accomplished this success mainly by diplomacy. Many clans were brought over by paying them subsidies.

The Mughal emperor had learnt by bitter experience that it was cheaper to pay these hillmen as a means of keeping the Khyber Pass open and the valleys at their foot safe than to coerce them. A sum of Rs. 600000 was annually allocated by Aurangzeb for paying subsidies to the various border chieftains and headmen of families. Rival claimants to the headship of tribes were encouraged. The perpetual jealousy and distrust of one group for another were fanned. Imperial spies penetrated the tribal councils. Brother was paid to oppose brother and son was encouraged to depose father. By the time, Aurangzeb deported, the Afridis and the Khattaks alone remained in alliance against the Mughals. Aurangzeb’s policy was continued by Amir Khan, an exceptionally able governor of Kabul who ruled the province for the emperor from 1677 to 1698.

He set himself to win the hearts of the Pukhtuns and entered into social relations with them with such success that the chiefs of the clans gave up their shy and unsocial manners and began to visit him without any suspicion. He broke up a confederacy under Aimal Khan Mohmand by secretly instigating the chiefs of other tribes to demand a division of the loot which the revolt hoped to gain before the war began. He worked to promote dissension between the Afridis and the Khattaks. Afridi abandoned the fight after the death of Aimal Khan Mohmand and came into terms with the Mughals and agreed to keep the Khyber Pass open in lieu of the payment of subsidies. Aurangzeb’s policy of divide and rule was neither original nor unique but he applied it more persistently and scientifically than any of his predecessor or successor. The policy produced disunity in the Frontier but it also resulted in security for the empire. Thus the communication line to Kabul was kept open by disuniting the tribes who were no more able to threaten peace of the Mughal Empire.

The successors of Aurangzeb retained a nominal possession of the frontier areas. They had neither the power nor inclination to make any further attempt to control the Pukhtun tribes. In 1718 Nasir Khan was appointed the governor of Kabul. He adopted a conciliatory policy towards the Pukhtuns with whom he became popular. But the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah’s neglect to guard the narrow passes and defiles of the frontier together with the little attention he paid to the complaints of the troops appointed to guard those inlets of the mountains resulted a mighty calamity which Hindustan suffered from Nadir Shah’s invasion. For had he attended to the payment of the mountaineers destined to guard those difficult passes and had he taken for the conservation of that province such other precautions as the case required, it is probably that Nadir Shah would not have thought of invading Hindustan. 

The governor of Subah Peshawar wa Kabul received 12 lakh rupees a year, half of which was spent on the troops stationed in the area and other half was paid to the tribesmen residing in Khyber Pass. The negligence on the part of Delhi delayed the payment to troops and tribesmen. Hence the guards abandoned their posts and the garrisons being utterly neglected. The people used these passes unobserved, no intelligence was forwarded to the court and emperor nor were ministers ever taken to task for this negligence.

Nasir Khan had long foresaw the storm which was about to burst upon the falling empire and had for some years warned the court about Nadir’s approach. His calls for assistance were however ignored. After proclaiming himself emperor of Persia in 1736, Nadir Shah marched eastward captured Qandahar and Kabul in 1738. He arrived in the Khyber in late November of 1738 and overwhelmed the Mughal governor of Kabul who tried to block Nadir’s advance at Khyber Pass with a force of 20000 Afghans. The Yusufzais and their confederates closed the Pass so effectively that Nadir, in order to get the bulk of his army and equipage through, being unable to force his passage by a front attack had to endeavour by a flank movement to full upon their rear. While the Yusufzais held the defiles, Nasir Khan’s position was strong enough but after it had been forced the Afghans in the Pass, probably fearing they might be attacked from two sides, retired. A fierce battle ensued but finally Nasir Khan was defeated and Nadir Shah became the ruler of Khyber Pass and the surrounding areas. Nadir Shah advanced eastward and defeated the Mughal emperor and looted the capital of Hindustan. On his way back to Persia, the Afridis closed his passage through Khyber Pass but he led his army through the back paths of Tirah.

The Khyber Pass has been serving one of the most important means of communication between South Asia and Central Asia. It has a unique geography and a rich history. It has been considered one of the most important geostrategic positions of not only the region but the World. It has been shaping the history of the sub-continent and Central Asia throughout the known time. It has witnessed a long series of bloodshed between the inhabiting tribes and the powers who wanted.

Painting Details - Khushal Khan Khattak (R) Aurangzeb Alamgir (L)

Article Source:- Khyber Pass In Mughal Imperial Politics Of The Mughals (1519-1707) By Altaf Qadir & Zakir Minhas.