Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42

by William Dalrymple

Haji Khan Kakar was a slippery, ambitious and unscrupulous figure even by the standards of nineteenth-century Afghan power politics. His ancestors had long played the role of regional power-brokers and king-makers. Having risen in the service of Dost Mohammad, who had appointed him first governor of Bamiyan and then commander of his elite cavalry, he had already twice deserted the Amir, most recently at the Battle of Jamrud in 1837. But he always played his hand with skill. He managed to choose his moment of side-changing with perfect timing, rising in power and importance with each successive act of treachery. Maulana Hamid Kashmiri, in the Akbarnama, describes him as “the outsider, the traitor, the master of betrayal” who would use charm and flattery to achieve his duplicitous ends, “mixing poison in sugar.” Now, at this crucial juncture, on the excuse of leading a raid on the British camp, he took the opportunity to cross sides with all his followers, hoping to make his fortune from the rich and naive foreigners, and to take up Shuja’s written offer of a senior place in his government. In the process, he began a haemorrhage of defections and broke the already wavering morale of Kandahar’s defenders.