Aḥmad Shah Durrani, also known as Aḥmad Shah Abdali, was the 1st Emir of the Durrani Empire from 1747 to 1772. He united the Afghan tribes and laid the foundation of modern-day Afghanistan. His vast empire stretched from the Amu Darya to the Indian Ocean and from Khorasan to Kashmir and Punjab. While he initially led the forces of Persian ruler Nadir Shah, following his death, he continued Shah’s legacy of plunder and expansion. One of his best-known campaigns was the one against the Marathas, in the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761. He invested in the military and made efforts to spread Islam. Apart from being an able leader and fighter, he was a skilled poet, too, and mostly wrote in Pashtun, his native language. His final years were marred by frequent rebellions and face cancer. He eventually succumbed to cancer around the age of 50.
