Ahmad Khan seized the bullion, and immediately put it to use to buy allies and influence. Within a few months, at a grand jirga, or gathering of the clans, held at the shrine of Sher Surkh near Kandahar in July 1747, the twenty-four-year-old Ahmad Khan was elected paramount chief, not just of his own Abdali clan, but of all the Afghan tribes. A celebrated Sufi darwish then placed some barley sheaves in Ahmad Shah’s turban, crowning him Padshah, Durr-i-Durran – Emperor, and Pearl of Pearls.1 From this point on, Ahmad Khan Abdali became known as Ahmad Shah Durrani.
