Latest / Aurangzeb: The Emperor Who Expanded and Broke the Mughal Empire — Fexingo History / Aurangzeb's Afghan Policy: The Khyber Pass and the Empire's Northern Frontier
Transcript
- Lucas: So, we've spent a lot of time in the Deccan, talking about Shivaji, the Marathas, those interminable sieges. But there's another front of Aurangzeb's empire that often gets overlooked, and it's just as important—the northwestern frontier, what we now call the Afghanistan region. Luna: The Khyber Pass and all that? Lucas: Exactly. The Khyber Pass, but also the whole stretch from Peshawar up to Kandahar. This was the Mughal Empire's most vulnerable border. For Aurangzeb, it was a constant drain on resources, and unlike the Deccan, he never really got a handle on it. Lucas: Quick honest thing—before we dive in, just a note. A handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds us making this many episodes. No ads, just listener support. So if you've been enjoying these deep dives into Mughal history, that's where it comes from. Luna: Yeah, it's a small group keeping it ad-free. We really appreciate that. Lucas: Right. So, to set the stage: when Aurangzeb came to power in 1658, the Mughals controlled Kabul, Ghazni, and Kandahar. But Kandahar was a constant bone of contention with the Safavids of Persia. Shah Abbas had taken it earlier, and Shah Jahan had retaken it in 1638, but it was always under threat. Luna: And the local tribes were never really pacified, were they? Lucas: Not at all. The Pashtun tribes—the Afridis, the Yusufzais, the Bangash—they were fiercely independent. They'd pay nominal allegiance to the Mughals, but they'd also raid the trade caravans and rebel whenever the central authority weakened. Aurangzeb's approach was a mix of military force and bribery, but it rarely worked long-term. Lucas: One of the most significant rebellions came from the Afridis in the 1670s. The Afridis controlled the Khyber Pass, and they had a leader named Khushal Khattak—you might have heard of him, he's a famous Pashtun poet. He actually started out loyal to the Mughals, but something turned him. Luna: What happened? Lucas: The Mughal governor of Kabul, a man named Muhammad Amin Khan, tried to impose heavy taxes and enforce a policy of forced labor. The Afridis were supposed to provide soldiers and build forts, but they were being treated like subjects, not allies. So Khushal Khattak led a coalition of tribes in a full-scale revolt. They blocked the Khyber Pass and raided the Mughal supply lines. Lucas: Aurangzeb sent a massive army under his general, Fidai Khan, to crush the rebellion. There were battles at the fort of Ali Masjid, which is a strategic point in the pass. But the Mughals had a hard time—the terrain was brutal, and the Afridis used guerrilla tactics, much like the Marathas later. Luna: So it was like a northern Deccan, in a way. Lucas: Very much so. And the Mughal response was similar—they built forts, they tried to control the passes, they even tried to co-opt tribal leaders. But the Afridis were never fully subdued. After years of conflict, the Mughals eventually made peace by essentially paying off the tribes. Khushal Khattak went into exile, but his poetry lived on, inspiring Pashtun nationalism for centuries. Lucas: Then there were the Yusufzais, further north, in the Swat valley. They rebelled in the 1660s and again in the 1680s. Aurangzeb sent his most capable generals, but the mountains made it nearly impossible to control. The maasir i alamgiri records that in one campaign, the Mughals lost thousands of men to disease and ambushes. Luna: And all this while he was also fighting in the Deccan. It's a wonder the empire held together as long as it did. Lucas: Exactly. And the drain wasn't just military—it was economic. The Mughals had to maintain a huge garrison in Kabul and Peshawar, and they were constantly sending subsidies to friendly chiefs. The treasury in Delhi was hemorrhaging money. Meanwhile, the Safavids were pressing on Kandahar. In 1649, Shah Abbas II actually retook Kandahar, and despite several Mughal attempts, they never got it back. Lucas: Aurangzeb did try to retake it. In 1653, he led an expedition himself, but the siege failed. The Safavids were better supplied, and the Mughal army was too large and slow. It was a humiliating defeat. Luna: So the empire lost its northwestern gateway. Lucas: Lost Kandahar, and with it, control of the trade routes to Central Asia. The loss also emboldened the local tribes. By Aurangzeb's later years, the Mughal presence in Afghanistan was largely confined to a few fortified cities. The countryside was in the hands of the Pashtuns. Lucas: There's another interesting angle—the religious one. The Roshaniyya movement, a syncretic Islamic sect that had a following among the Pashtuns. They were considered heretics by orthodox Muslims, and Aurangzeb's persecution of them alienated many tribes. The Roshaniyya had been a problem since Akbar's time, but Aurangzeb's strict policies pushed more people to their side. Luna: So his religious orthodoxy backfired on the frontier too. Lucas: It did. The tribes saw the Mughals as oppressors, not just militarily but religiously. And the Safavids, who were Shia, also used religious propaganda to win over some Pashtun tribes. It was a mess. Lucas: So when we talk about Aurangzeb's empire breaking, it's not just the Deccan. The Afghan frontier was a festering wound that never healed. It drained men, money, and attention, and it exposed the limits of Mughal power. By the time he died in 1707, the northwest was already slipping away. Luna: And it only got worse after him, with the rise of the Durranis and eventually the British. Lucas: Exactly. The seeds of that later instability were sown in Aurangzeb's reign. So while he's remembered for expanding the empire to its largest extent, he also left these cracks that would eventually shatter it.