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Battle of Jamrud
Part of the Afghan-Sikh wars
A portrait of the Jamrud Fort
Date 30 April 1837 Location Jamrud, modern day Khyber Agency34°00′12″N 71°22′43″E / 34.0034°N 71.3786°E / 34.0034; 71.3786 Result Disputed
Belligerents
Emirate of Afghanistan	Sikh Empire
Commanders and leaders
Akbar Khan Afzal Khan	Hari Singh Nalwa  † Mahan Singh Mirpuri
Strength
7,000 cavalry 2,000 matchlock 20,000 Khybers 50 pieces artillery	800 Jamrud garrison 10,000 relief force/reinforcements

The Battle of Jamrud was fought between the Emirate of Afghanistan and the Sikh Empire on 30 April 1837. The Sikhs were building up towards crossing the Khyber pass in order to invade Jalalabad. This led Afghan forces to confront the Sikh forces at Jamrud. The death of Sikh General Hari Singh Nalwa limited the Khyber pass as the western extent of the Sikh Empire. By the time Sikh reinforcements had arrived,The garrison army was able to hold the Afghans. After the battle, Amir Dost Muhammad took up the title of "Commander of the Faithful."

Background

The Battle of Jamrud was fought between the Sikhs under Maharajah Ranjit Singh and the Afghans under Emir Dost Muhammad Khan. Following the consolidation of the Sikh Empire in Punjab, Maharajah Ranjit Singh had turned the wave of invasions on Afghan-held territories. The Afghans had been losing their long held territories to Sikhs over the preceding years due to internal conflicts, and had seen their once mighty empire shrink with the loss of the Punjab region, Multan, Kashmir, Derajat, Hazara and Peshawar.

Prelude and Battle

Towards the end of 1836, Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa attacked and captured the small, though very strategic, fortified Misha Khel Khyberi village of Jamrud, situated on the south-side of a range of mountains at the mouth of the Khyber pass. With the conquest of Jamrud, the frontier of the Sikh Empire now bordered the frontier of Afghanistan.

In 1837, the Sikh army was in Lahore for the wedding of Kanwar Nau Nihal Singh, the grandson of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.The Emir of Afghanistan, Dost Muhammad Khan, accompanied by five of his sons, rushed with his army to drive the Sikhs out of Peshawar. The Sikh general Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa was killed in the battle. Many eyewitnesses claimed Nalwa ordered his dead body to be hung outside the fort before he died, discouraging the Afghans from attacking, believing Nalwa was still alive.

Result of the battle

The result of the battle is disputed amongst historians. Some contend the failure of the Afghans to take the fort as a victory for the Sikhs. Whereas, some simply state an Afghan victory, while another source states an Afghan victory due to the killing of Sikh leader Hari Singh Nalwa. James Norris, Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M International University, states neither side could claim victory.

See also

• Battle of Panipat (1761)
• Battle of Attock
• Battle of Multan
• Battle of Shopian
• Battle of Nowshera
• Battle of Peshawar (1834)
• Baba Deep Singh

References

1. ^ Maharaja Ranjit Singh: A short life sketch, Ganda Singh, Maharaja Ranjit Singh: First Death Centenary Memorial, (Nirmal Publishers, 1986), 43.
2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-01-09. Retrieved 2010-01-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
3. Frank Clements (2003), Conflict in Afghanistan: A Historical Encyclopedia, He also defeated the Sikhs at the Battle of Jamrud in 1837 and took on himself the title of "Commander of the Faithful.", p. 74, ISBN 9781851094028
4. Chief and families of Note in Punjab, Vol II, op.cit., pp. 87,89,90
5. Several scholars consider Sikhs to have been victorious:
   • Hasrat, Bikrama Jit (1977), Life and Times of Ranjit Singh: A Saga of Benevolent Despotism, V.V. Research Institute Book Agency, p. 137: "The doubtful Sikh victory at Jamrud in 1837 had made it clear to Ranjit Singh that policy of hatred and repression in the northwestern frontier so far pursued had failed in its objective."
   • Paddy, Docherty (31 July 2010), Khyber pass, Il Saggiatore, pp. 186–187, ISBN 978-88-6576-029-1
   • Ingram, Edward (1993), "India and the North-West Frontier: The First Afghan War", in A. Hamish Ion; Elizabeth Jane Errington (eds.), Great Powers and Little Wars: The Limits of Power, Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 44, ISBN 978-0-275-93965-6: "The second was Peshawar, which controlled the entry to the Khyber Pass and had been seized in 1834 by Ranjit Singh from Dost Mohammed, Who tried in 1837 to get it back but lost his chance at the Battle of Jamrud."
6. Other scholars consider the Afghans to have been victorious:
   • Roberts, Jeffery J. (2003), The Origins of Conflict in Afghanistan, Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 4, ISBN 978-0-275-97878-5: "In 1837 Dost's son, Akbar Khan, led an Afghan army to victory at Jamrud. Akbar, however, did not follow up his success with an advance to Peshawar, and the city remained in Sikh hands."
   • Gulzad, Zalmay Ahmad (1991), The History of the Delimitation of the Durand Line Development of the Afghan State (1838-1898), University of Wisconsin--Madison, p. 62: "In 1837 they fought a pitched battle at Jamrud in which the Afghan forces were victorious."
   • Clements, Frank; Adamec, Ludwig W. (2003), Conflict in Afghanistan: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, p. 74, ISBN 978-1-85109-402-8: "He also defeated the Sikhs at the Battle of Jamrud in 1837 and took on himself the title of 'Commander of the Faithful'."
7. Gurbachan Singh Nayyar, The Campaigns of General Hari Singh Nalwa, (Punjabi University, 1995), 57.
8. John, Norris; Norris, J. A. (1967), The First Afghan War 1838-1842, Cambridge University Press, p. 109, ISBN 978-0-521-05838-4: "At the battle of Jamrud neither side could honestly claim a victory, but the Sikhs suffered severely at the hands of the Afghan horsemen, and they lost one of their king's favorite generals, Hari Singh."

External links

• Battle of Jamrud (1837)

• Conflicts in 1837
• Battles involving Afghanistan
• Battles involving the Sikhs
• 1837 in Asia
• Ranjit Singh
• April 1837 events