Dost Mohammad Khan
first Emir of Afghanistan (1823-1863)
Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzai, (23 December 1792 – 9 June 1863) nicknamed the Great Emir, was the founder of the Barakzai dynasty and one of the prominent rulers of Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War. With the decline of the Durrani dynasty, he succeeded his brother Sultan Mohammad Khan, and became the Emir of Afghanistan in 1826. An ethnic Pashtun, he belonged to the Mohammadzai branch of the Barakzai tribe. He was the 11th son of Payandah Khan, chief of the Barakzai Pashtuns, who was killed in 1800 by King Zaman Shah Durrani.
At the beginning of his rule, the Afghans lost their former stronghold of Peshawar Valley in March 1823 to the Sikh Khalsa Army of Ranjit Singh at the Battle of Nowshera. The Afghan forces in the battle were led by Mohammad Azim Khan, half-brother of Dost Mohammad Khan. By the end of his reign, he had reunited the principalities of Kandahar and Herat with Kabul. Dost had ruled for a lengthy 36 years, a span exceeded only by Mohammad Zahir Shah more than a century later.
Dost Mohammad is regarded as one of the most prominent rulers in the history of Afghanistan. A skilled military commander and strategist, he successfully unified the regions of Kabul, Kandahar, and Herat into a single state - a feat that few of his predecessors, with the exception of Ahmad Shah Durrani and Timur Shah Durrani, had accomplished.
“Dost Mohammad Khan” enters the record as first Emir of Afghanistan (1823-1863). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Dost, Mohammad and Khan can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q32027. VIAF identifies the subject as 18032259. The Library of Congress control number is no99039766. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1792, 1863, 1826 and 1800.
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