Disturbances in Eastern Afghanistan, 1839–42

T he collapse of the authority of the Saddozai rulers of Afghanistan in the early years of the nineteenth century left their empire divided into a number of separate states. By 1838 the only states still under Afghan rule were those of Herat, Qandahar, and Kabul. At that time fear that Russia had gained a preponderant influence in Persia which would be extended to Afghanistan caused the British authorities in India and England to decide to remove Dost Muḥammad Kh ān, the ruler of Kabul, and his brothers, who ruled in Qandahar, and to restore Sh āh Sh ujā' al-Mulk, the deposed Saddozai monarch, to the government of those territories.