'ABDOR RAHMAN KHAN

born c. 1844, Kabul, Afg. died 1901, Kabul amir of Afghanistan (1880-1901) who played a prominent role in the fierce and long-drawn struggle for power waged by his father and his uncle, A'zam Khan, against his cousin Shir 'Ali, the successor of Dost Mohammad Khan. 'Abdor Rahman was the son of Afzal Khan, whose father, Dost Mohammad Khan, had established the Barakzai dynasty in Afghanistan. Shir 'Ali's victory in 1869 drove 'Abdor Rahman into exile in Russian Turkistan, where he lived at Samarkand until Shir 'Ali's death in 1879, a year after the outbreak of the war between the British and the Afghans. 'Abdor Rahman returned to Afghanistan in 1880, was heartily welcomed by his people, and remained in northern Afghanistan until the British negotiated a settlement recognizing 'Abdor Rahman as amir in return for his acknowledgment of the British right to control his foreign relations. 'Abdor Rahman pacified the country and consolidated his authority. During the years 1880-87, he crushed a revolt by the powerful Ghilzai tribe and an unexpected rebellion led by his cousin Ishaq Khan; he also decisively defeated Shir 'Ali's son Ayub, who raided intermittently from his base in Herat. 'Abdor Rahman's reign is notable for the agreement reached on the demarcation of Afghanistan's northwestern border with Russia, the result of talks held near Kabul in 1893 with a British delegation led by Sir Mortimer Durand, under which 'Abdor Rahman accepted the Durand line as his frontier, relinquishing some hereditary rights over the tribes on the eastern border. 'Abdor Rahman also reorganized the administrative system of the country and initiated internal reforms. He brought in foreign experts, imported machinery for making munitions, introduced manufacture of consumer goods and new agricultural tools, and established Afghanistan's first modern hospital. He imposed an organized government upon a divided population and maintained the balance in dealing with the British in India and the Russian Empire.