History of the city of Qandahar

[saro]

History of the city of Qandahar

Qandahar was founded by Alexander the Great around 335 BC on a site that was one of the cradles of humanity since the presence of organized societies dating back to 3000 BC was discovered there, and very few cities in the world have had such a turbulent history.
For its prosperity and also for its misfortune, Qandahar lies on one of the channels of communication between Western Asia and East Asia and thus on the course of the great invasions ... since Alexander the Great, she has seen all Great conquerors and the city quickly became a strategic position for the great Persian and Mughal empires: who holded Qandahar and its region holded both a safety lock and an advanced post on the borders of the hereditary enemy.
The history of Central Asia was largely written by three great and terrible conquerors who succeeded one another in the 12th, 14th and 18th centuries. : Genghis Khan, the founder of the immense Mongol empire, Timur Lang ("Timur the Lame" or "Tamerlane" in the West) whose dream was to reconstitute this lost empire, and finally Nadir Shah whose territorial ambitions were more Limited, but with the same ferocity in the methods ...

Babur seizes the city at the expense of the Safavids
In the reign of Husayn Baiqara, the last of the great Timurid sovereigns, the Qandahar region was ruled by Shah Beg (safavid) who was drove out by Babur in 1509, at the time in search of a kingdom, himself drove out from his fief of Ferghana by the Shaybanides. Shah Beg recovered the city shortly thereafter and remained there until 1522 (929 AH), when Babur finally took it back and used it as a starting point for his Indian conquests.

Quarrels between Mughals
At the death of Babur, Humayun became the mughal emperor and his half brother Kamran was the governor of  Kabul and Qandahar;  soon after, Kamran rebelled and even named himself emperor on coins struck in the city. Humayun besieged Qandahar with the aid of a Persian army and after its fall made it over to his allies, only for a while indeed and re-took the city for himself.

Safavids / Mughals : the perpetual struggle for the city.
The Safavid Shah Tahmasp I besieged  Qandahar and took it in 1556AD before Akbar seized it again in 1594 (1003AH). Qandahar remains in mughal hands till 1621 when the Persian Shah Abbas I seize it from Jahangir before than his successor Safi I lost it In 1637 (1047 AH) facing a mughal army sent by Shah Jahan. The mughals ruled here for only eleven new years, and the city fell again to Persian in 1058 AH (Shah Abbas II) and remained in their hands till 1135 AH (1709 AD).

The afghan revolt
In 1135, the afghan Mahmud Ghilzai Hotaki seized the Persian throne and  his brother Husain became governor of Qandahar; the city is re-named "Husainabad", only for a short time ...

The Afsharid reaction
The coming to power of Nadir Shah was a fatal event to Ghilzai, Mahmud was swept from Iran and after a siege of eight months Qandahar is taken and totally destroyed.  The population was forced to move to the new city named Nadirabad which was the erstwhile siege camp of Nadir built close to the old Qandahar .

The Durrani rule
After the death of Nadir (assassinated) Ahmad Shah Durrani became the ruler of Afghanistan and built a new city in years 1170 named Ahmadshahi . Later, this new city recovered its ancestral name but not really a peaceful life... The struggle for control of the region continued with the Durrani, the Barakzai and the British who occupated Qandahar in 1296 AH (1879) and even struck a copper falus with the british crown.

The coins are today witnesses of each of the dynasties that succeeded one another in this city, illustrated hereafter by a sample of coins of the tumultuous mughal / persian period.

(the lower picture is an illustration from B-B Tavernier who visited the region in 1632, titled : "Map of the famous fortress of Candahar, the best place in whole Asia")

[aws22]

Thanks Saro for sharing this information with us; it is very well explained.

Maythem

[Figleaf]

Impressive, saro. That's how coins allow you to hold history in your hands. What a delight it must be to look at the products of all the conquerers who did not understand that the real wealth of the city was not its wealth, but its trade and the know-how of its population.

I am hoping for more posts with more coins of Qandahar to illustrate the history of this important city.

Peter

[saro]

Thank you Maythem and Peter.
On the joined pictures, it is possible to have an idea of the efficiency of Nadir's artillery....

[aws22]

Thank you Saro for the illustration.

Maythem

[capnbirdseye]

Interesting stuff saro,  I wonder why it's now more often translated as Qandahar and not Kandahar as it was in the past,

Kandahar (Pashto: کندهار‎) Kandahār,( Persian: قندهار, Qandahār), known in older literature as Candahar)

[saro]

I wonder why it's now more often translated as Qandahar and not Kandahar as it was in the past,
Kandahar (Pashto: کندهار‎) Kandahār,( Persian: قندهار, Qandahār), known in older literature as Candahar)

A good question ! both writing "Kandahar" and "Qandahar" are admitted, depending of the language, even if Kandahar is most often used today; "Candahar" seems to be a western phonetic transcription of the name found in old documents.
The mintname appears first (I think..) on a coin of Husayn Bayqara and then on Babur's silver tankas, and is since always written in persian script: "Qandahar". I don't know if a coin exists with "Kandahar" ?

[THCoins]

Interesting thread !

Anthony

[saro]

The mintname appears first (I think..) on a coin of Husayn Bayqara and then on Babur's silver tankas, and is since always written in persian script: "Qandahar". I don't know if a coin exists with "Kandahar" ?

I recovered the bibliographic reference...
From E.J Bill's "First Encyclopedia of Islam" / 1913-36:
"Kandahar had become the capital, and henceforward it plays a prominent part in history, it was conquered by Timur and formed a part of the province bestowed on his grandson, Pir Muhammad. At the close of the 15th century it formed part of the Kingdom of Husain Baiqara of Herat, and the name Kandahar first appears as a mint on his coins"

The last thing is now to find a picture of this coin which is probably rare 

[Afrasi]

Interesting thread !
Anthony

I can second this.     

Many thanks!

[capnbirdseye]

In the Arabic alphabet Qandahar begins with kaf  whereas Kandahar begins with Kef  if you Google pronunciation of either of these you mostly get the  same sound with one or two rather confusing ones

https://www.howtopronounce.com/kandahar/

https://www.howtopronounce.com/qandahar/

[saro]

When we speak about coins,  I have a  preference for "Qandahar" with a "qaf" like it is found on all of them, and I agree that sounds are not very different for our western ears between "qaf" and "kaf"... the qaf is pronounced very rear of the throat (deaf consonant uvular), the kaf is similar to the anglo-saxon "k". (but arabian or persian people make the difference !)

it is to notice that very few words start by "K" in french and none in italian...it's probably the reason why "Qandahar" has been transcripted by some 16-18th  travellers by "Candahar".