Mughal–Afghan Wars
The Mughal-Afghan Wars unfolded over more than two centuries, from 1526 to 1752. They ranged across the Indian subcontinent, from the mountain passes of the northwest to the rivers and marshlands of Bengal. At their center was a contest neither side could resolve by force alone. Who would control the strategic borderlands of Afghanistan? Who would govern northern India? The Mughals sought to build and hold a vast unified empire. The Afghans, particularly the Pashtun tribes, had a long tradition of defying foreign rulers. They had already contested the Persian Safavids and the Uzbek Shaybanids before the Mughals arrived. What followed was not one war but a series of invasions, rebellions, and catastrophic reversals on both sides. Afghan forces would at one point drive the Mughals entirely out of India. Later, a defeat in the mountain passes would leave the Emperor Akbar undone by grief. He refused all food and drink for two days.
Babur led his forces through the Hindu Kush mountain passes and into India. On the 21st of April, 1526, he met Ibrahim Lodi's army at the first Battle of Panipat. Ibrahim Lodi was the last sultan of the Delhi Sultanate, a Muslim monarchy that had governed much of northern India for generations. The Sultanate had been weakened by internal disputes among its nobles. Babur was a descendant of Genghis Khan who had long wanted to extend his domain south. His army carried muskets and field artillery. The Lodi forces had no matching firepower. Ibrahim Lodi died in the fighting. Babur seized Delhi and took control of much of northern India.
Before Panipat, Babur had already been probing the region. He raided western Punjab in 1520 and subdued Lahore in 1524. By 1529, at the battle on the Ghagara river, his forces were using musket barrages to break the last organized Afghan resistance. Sher Shah Suri was one of the Afghan chieftains who outlasted those campaigns. His challenge to the Mughal Empire was still ahead.
Sher Shah Suri defeated Mughal Emperor Humayun at the Battle of Chausa in 1539. A year later, at the Battle of Kanauj in 1540, he defeated Humayun again. Those two victories stripped the Mughals of their hold on northern India. Sher Shah founded the Sur Empire on the conquered territory. It would rule from 1540 to 1556.
Akbar, the third Mughal emperor and Humayun's son, launched the campaign to reclaim what had been lost. In 1555, his forces defeated the Sur Empire at the Battle of Sirhind. The following year, in 1556, Akbar's army finished the task at the Battle of Machhiwara. The Sur Empire collapsed. The Mughals recovered northern India through superior military technology, organization, and resources. Afghan resistance did not end with the Sur Empire. It took new forms: a spiritual movement gathering followers in Peshawar, and armed opposition continuing in the empire's eastern territories.
In 1575, Todar Mal, the Mughal governor of Bihar, led an imperial force into Bengal. His target was the Karrani dynasty, whose king, Daud Khan Karrani, held power over the region. Daud Khan's forces fought effectively and inflicted significant casualties on the Mughal army. The Mughals overcame the resistance. They took the Karrani capital, Gaur, and dismantled the dynasty's hold over Bengal.
Daud Khan's defeat did not end Karrani-affiliated resistance across the empire. Afghan groups allied with the Karranis also challenged Mughal authority in other parts of the empire. The Bengal campaigns were part of a broader Afghan effort to resist Mughal expansion on multiple fronts. Todar Mal, the commander who had taken Gaur, would be called on again. This time, he would march west to punish the Yousufzai tribes after one of the worst defeats in Mughal military history.
In 1570, a religious leader named Pir Roshan founded a movement in Peshawar. It fused spiritual teaching with organized resistance to the Mughal Empire. His teachings centered on a Sufi concept called Wahdat al-Wujud. The Roshani movement attracted popular support among Afghans who resented Mughal expansion into their lands. From its founding, it served as both a religious community and a political force opposing Mughal authority. Pir Roshan spent the rest of his life in direct conflict with the empire. He died in 1572.
Ghazni, deep in Afghan territory, fell to Pir Roshan's successors at one point. That seizure forced the Emperor Jahangir to address the Roshanis as a genuine military threat. Jahangir launched sustained campaigns against the movement. After years of fighting, the Roshani movement eventually weakened and ended. Jahangir's suppression of the Roshanis did not bring lasting quiet to the frontier. By 1612, a separate Afghan coalition had formed under Bayazid Karrani II, with his capital at Pratapgarh.
During Akbar's reign, the Mughal Empire moved against the Yousufzai tribes, who held a region known as Afghania. Akbar ordered a siege of the Yousufzai country. The effort stretched past two months without success. He then sent Raja Birbal to lead a renewed campaign. Birbal was described as one of the emperor's most trusted and intelligent ministers. He advanced alongside a commander named Shujat Khan. The Yousufzai defeated them both. Birbal was killed.
Mughal historian Khafi Khan recorded that more than 40,000 soldiers and officers died in the fighting. Abd al-Qadir Badayuni offered a lower figure: more than 8,000 dead at the Karakar and Malandari Pass. The disaster was recorded as one of the greatest military losses in Mughal history. Akbar did not learn of it until two days after it occurred.
Rajah Todar Mal set out on the 19th of February with a punitive force. His troops killed large numbers of Yousufzai fighters and sold many survivors as captives, transporting them to Turan and Persia. Those who documented the campaign wrote that the countries of Swat, Bajaur, and Buner had been "cleansed of evildoers." In the rivers and marshlands of Bengal, a separate Afghan coalition was already taking shape.
By 1612, during the Mughal push into the Greater Sylhet region, Bayazid Karrani II commanded the eastern half of the Eastern Afghani Confederates. He ruled from his capital at Pratapgarh. His position rested on an alliance that traced back to Musa Khan. His coalition included Khwaja Usman, based at Usmangarh, and Anwar Khan of Baniachong.
Islam Khan I, the Mughal governor of Bengal, dispatched an imperial force to cut off Bayazid before he could send reinforcements to his allies. The first commander appointed to lead the expedition was Ghiyas Khan, but his hesitancy led to his removal. Shaikh Kamal assumed command. His officers included Mubariz Khan, Tuqmaq Khan, Mirak Bahadur Jalair, and Mir Abdur Razzaq Shirazi. Mir Ali Beg served as the bakhshi, or paymaster. The Mughal force consisted of four thousand matchlock-men, one thousand cavalry from Islam Khan's personal guard, and one hundred imperial war elephants. The fleet was provided by confederates of Musa Khan, men who had surrendered to the Mughals the year before.
Bayazid drew on soldiers sworn to him and to his brother Yaqub, as well as several hill-tribe chieftains. The fighting was fierce. Khwaja Usman was killed in one of the engagements. His death broke the Afghan coalition's resolve. Bayazid surrendered, and Anwar Khan submitted shortly after. Sylhet came under Mughal authority for the first time. A new challenge to the Mughal Empire was developing in Afghanistan under Ahmad Shah Durrani.
Ahmad Shah Durrani invaded India in 1748. A territorial dispute over Punjab had provided the immediate cause. Punjab occupied the strategic border between the two empires and controlled the routes connecting Afghanistan and northern India. Durrani returned in 1752. Both campaigns secured Lahore for the Durrani Empire.
Lahore had been in Mughal hands since Babur subdued it in 1524. Its transfer to Durrani control after 1752 marked the end point of the Mughal-Afghan Wars. Punjab had served as Babur's entry point into the subcontinent and, in the last phase, as the contested ground that determined the wars' outcome. After 1752, it was no longer Mughal.
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Common questions
What were the Mughal-Afghan Wars?
The Mughal-Afghan Wars were a series of conflicts from 1526 to 1752 between the Mughal Empire of India and various Afghan tribes and kingdoms. The central dispute was over control of Afghanistan's strategic borderlands and northern India. They comprised six distinct phases, from Babur's invasion of India through Ahmad Shah Durrani's capture of Lahore.
What caused the Mughal-Afghan Wars?
The primary cause was a territorial dispute over the lands of modern-day Afghanistan, which were strategically vital for both sides. The Mughals sought to expand their empire and control the region, while the Afghan tribes, particularly the Pashtuns, resisted foreign rule and Mughal expansion.
How did Sher Shah Suri defeat the Mughals in the Mughal-Afghan Wars?
Sher Shah Suri defeated Mughal Emperor Humayun at the Battle of Chausa in 1539 and again at the Battle of Kanauj in 1540. These victories let him found the Sur Empire, which ruled northern India from 1540 to 1556. The Mughals only recovered control when Akbar defeated the Sur forces at the Battle of Sirhind in 1555 and the Battle of Machhiwara in 1556.
What was the Roshani movement in the Mughal-Afghan Wars?
The Roshani movement was founded in Peshawar in 1570 by Pir Roshan, who combined a Sufi teaching called Wahdat al-Wujud with organized opposition to the Mughal Empire. After Pir Roshan's death in 1572, his successors captured Ghazni, forcing Emperor Jahangir to launch sustained military campaigns. The movement eventually weakened and ended after years of fighting.
Who defeated Raja Birbal during the Mughal-Afghan Wars and how many Mughal soldiers were killed?
The Yousufzai tribes defeated the Mughal force led by Raja Birbal and Shujat Khan in the campaign against the Yousufzai country, and Birbal was killed. Mughal historian Khafi Khan recorded that more than 40,000 soldiers and officers died; Abd al-Qadir Badayuni gave a lower figure of more than 8,000 dead at the Karakar and Malandari Pass. The disaster was considered one of the greatest military losses in Mughal history.
How did the Mughal-Afghan Wars end?
The Mughal-Afghan Wars ended with Ahmad Shah Durrani's invasions of India in 1748 and 1752. Both campaigns targeted Punjab, which lay on the strategic border between the two empires. Durrani's forces captured Lahore from the Mughals, concluding the Mughal-Afghan Wars.
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