Ahmad Khan Bangash

Ahmad Khan Bangash was a Rohilla Afghan nobleman of the late Mughal period and Nawab of Farrukhabad from 1750 to 1771 (one portrait museum dates his rule from 1749). He was the second son of Muhammad Khan Bangash, who built the family's hold on Farrukhabad in the Doab, east of Delhi. He appears in this record because he stood with Ahmad Shah Abdali at Panipat in 1761, in the age of Abdali's invasions of Punjab.

Key moments

• 1749: his elder brother Qaim Khan Bangash was killed at Badaun, and Ahmad Khan fled to Delhi.
• 1750: his forces defeated Nawal Rai, the deputy of Safdar Jang, at Khudaganj, and he took back Farrukhabad.
• 1751 to 1752: Safdar Jang, with Maratha, Jat and Rohilla allies, drove him out. He regained his lands in 1752 by promising half of them to the Marathas.
• 1756: Imad-ul-Mulk, the Mughal wazir, made him Amir-ul-Umara and Mir Bakhshi.
• 1761: at the Third Battle of Panipat he supported Ahmad Shah Abdali against the Marathas under Sadashivrao Bhau. As a result he recovered large territories in the Mian Doab.
• 1764: he declined a request from Shuja-ud-Daula to fight the East India Company.
• 1769: the Marathas invaded his lands again, and he defended them with great difficulty.

He died on 12 July 1771 and was succeeded by his son Diler Himmat Khan.

He is remembered as a leading figure among the Indo-Afghan nobility of north India, a Pashtun chief who held his state between the rival powers of Delhi, Awadh and the Marathas.