page_title: Abdur Rahman Khan
section_title: Dictatorship and the "Iron Amir"
hierarchical_section_title: Abdur Rahman Khan / Dictatorship and the "Iron Amir"
caption_attribution_description: Emir Abd or-Rahman (1844-1880-1901), Ameer of Afghanistan, son of Mhd Afzel, seated in a carved armchair. Rawalpindi, April, 1885 Archives &amp; Manuscripts Keywords: Costume; Portraiture; Afghanistan; Clothing; Fry
context_page_description: Abdur Rahman Khan was Emir of Afghanistan from 1880 to 1901. He is known for uniting the country after years of internal fighting and negotiation of the Durand Line Agreement with British India.
  Abdur Rahman Khan was the first child and only son of Mohammad Afzal Khan, and grandson of Dost Mohammad Khan. Abdur Rahman Khan re-established the writ of the Afghan government after the disarray that followed the second Anglo-Afghan war.
  He became known as The Iron Amir because his government was a military despotism resting upon a well-appointed army administered through officials absolutely subservient to an inflexible will and controlled by a widespread system of espionage; and for his crushing of a number of rebellions by various tribes who were led by his relatives.
context_section_description: Abdur Rahman Khan's government was a military despotism resting upon a well-appointed army; it was administered through officials absolutely subservient to an inflexible will and controlled by a widespread system of espionage; while the exercise of his personal authority was too often stained by acts of unnecessary cruelty. He held open courts for the receipt of petitioners and the dispensation of justice; and in the disposal of business he was indefatigable.
  In the 1880s, the "Iron Emir" decided to strategically displace some members of different ethnic groups in order to bring better security. For example, he "uprooted troublesome Durrani and Ghilzai Pashtun tribes and transported them to Uzbek and Tajik populated areas in the north, where they could spy on local Dari-speaking, non-Pashtun ethnic groups and act as a screen against further Russian encroachments on Afghan territory." From the end of 1888, the Amir spent eighteen months in his northern provinces bordering upon the Oxus, where he was engaged in pacifying the country that had been disturbed by revolts, and in punishing with a heavy hand all who were known or suspected to have taken any part in rebellion.
  In 1895–1896, Abdur Rahman directed the invasion of Kafiristan and the conversion of its indigenous peoples to Islam. The region was subsequently renamed Nuristan.  In 1896, he adopted the title of Zia-ul-Millat-Wa-ud Din ("Light of the nation and religion"), and his zeal for the cause of Islam induced him to publish treatises on jihad.
  Chitral, Yarkand and Ferghana became shelters for refugees in 1887 and 1883 from Badakhshan who fled from the campaigns of Abdul Rahman.
caption: Abdur Rahman Khan in 1897
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