The Battle of Jamrud on 30 April 1837 was the climax of three years’ growing hostility between the Afghans and the Sikhs over Ranjit Singh’s occupation of Peshawar. As soon as he had dealt with Shah Shuja’s invasion of 1834, Dost Mohammad had turned his attention to trying to liberate the Afghan winter capital from Sikh control. Whether out of piety or strategy, or a mixture of the two, in February 1835 he had himself awarded the Islamic title of Amir al-Muminin, the Commander of the Faithful,
