The Pearl of Pearls: The Abdali-Durrani Confederacy and its Transformation under Ah&dotbelow;mad Shah, Durr-i Durra

This dissertation traces the history of the Abdali-Durrani tribal confederacy from its putative origins to the career of arguably its most influential historical personality, Ah&dotbelow;mad Shah Durr-i Durran, the "Pearl of Pearls" (r. 1747--72). Drawing upon extensive research of primary sources on the topic such as tribal genealogies, court chronicles, local histories, and other documents, this study examines the process whereby the Abdali-Durrani evolved from a petty Afghan tribal confederacy active in Qandahar, a frontier region of the early modern empires of the Safavids and Mughals, to founders of the autonomous Durrani empire that, at its height under Ah&dotbelow;mad Shah, was one of the most powerful polities in Asia.;Despite the considerable influence of the Abdali-Durrani, the crucial transitional period of the confederacy's history, spanning roughly from 1550 to 1818, remains understudied. "The Pearl of Pearls" is aimed at better understanding this history by exploring neglected topics such as: the construction of the Afghan identity of the Abdali- Durrani; the nature of the confederacy's interactions with the Safavid, Mughal, and Nadirid states; the gradual formation of the Durrani state; the large-scale sedentarization of the Durrani in the reign of Ah&dotbelow;mad Shah and his successors; and the accompanying Persian acculturation of the tribal confederacy's ruling elite. While directed primarily towards supplementing our limited knowledge of the Abdali-Durrani and the early modern Durrani state, this dissertation also considers the enduring legacies of Ah&dotbelow;mad Shah's rule in relation to the modern history of Afghanistan.