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Return of a King
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Return of a King reconstructs the First Anglo-Afghan War, when British and East India Company forces invaded Afghanistan in 1839 to restore Shah Shujah Durrani. The occupation of Kabul depended on an unpopular ruler, uncertain intelligence and expensive political subsidies, while resistance gathered around Afghan leaders including Dost Mohammad Khan and Mohammad Akbar Khan.
The uprising of 1841 and the disastrous winter retreat from Kabul exposed the strategic failures of the occupation. Using Afghan, Persian, Indian and British sources, Dalrymple presents the campaign as a contest between competing Afghan factions as well as an imperial invasion, and traces the human consequences of miscalculation on all sides.