Mohammad Yaqub Khan (

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...

Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...

: ; 1849November 15, 1923) was Emir of Afghanistan from February 21 to October 12, 1879. He was the son of the previous ruler,

Sher Ali Khan Sher Ali Khan (); c. 1825 – 21 February 1879) was Amir of Afghanistan from 1863 to 1866 and from 1868 until his death in 1879. He was one of the sons of Dost Mohammed Khan, founder of the Barakzai dynasty in Afghanistan. Life Sher Ali Khan ...

. Mohammad Yaqub Khan was appointed as the governor of

Herat province Herat ( Persian: ) is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the north-western part of the country. Together with Badghis, Farah, and Ghor provinces, it makes up the north-western region of Afghanistan. Its primary city a ...

in 1863. In 1870, he decided to rebel against his father but failed and was imprisoned in 1874. The

Second Anglo-Afghan War The Second Anglo-Afghan War (Dari: جنگ دوم افغان و انگلیس, ps, د افغان-انګرېز دويمه جګړه) was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the l ...

erupted in 1878, leading Sher Ali Khan to flee the capital of Afghanistan, and eventually die in February 1879 in the north of the country. As Sher Ali's successor, Yaqub signed the Treaty of Gandamak with Britain in May 1879, relinquishing sole control of Afghanistan foreign affairs to the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

. An uprising against this agreement led by

Ayub Khan Ayub Khan is a compound masculine name; Ayub is the Arabic version of the name of the Biblical figure Job, while Khan or Khaan is taken from the title used first by the Mongol rulers and then, in particular, their Islamic and Persian-influenced s ...

in October of the same year, led to the

abdication Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority. Abdications have played various roles in the succession procedures of monarchies. While some cultures have viewed abdication as an extreme abandonment of duty, in other societ ...

of Yaqub Khan. He was succeeded by the new ruler, Amir Ayub Khan.

Treaty of Gandamak

Mohammad Yaqub Khan with British officers in May of 1879

During the

, the British defeated the Amir Sher Ali's forces, wintered in Jalalabad, waiting for the new Amir Yakub Khan to accept their terms and conditions. One of the key figures in the negotiations was

Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari Sir Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari (4 July 1841 – 3 September 1879) was an Italian-British military administrator. Cavagnari was the son of Count Louis Adolphus Cavagnari, of an old family from Parma in the service of the Bonaparte family, ...

, who served with the East India Army in the 1st Bengal Fusiliers and then transferred into political service, becoming Deputy Commissioner at Peshawar, and was appointed as envoy by the Viceroy Lord Lytton in the 1878 mission to Kabul which the Afghans refused to let proceed. This refusal was one of a series of events which led to the Second Afghan War. Indian Celebrities- Mustanfi Habibulah Khan WDL11442

Indian Celebrities- Mustanfi Habibulah Khan WDL11442

In May 1879, Yakub Khan travelled to Gandamak, a village just outside

Jalalabad Jalalabad (; Dari/ ps, جلال‌آباد, ) is the fifth-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 356,274, and serves as the capital of Nangarhar Province in the eastern part of the country, about from the capital Kabul. Jala ...

and entered into negotiations with Cavagnari as a result of which the Treaty of Gandamak was signed whereby the Amir ceded territories to the British and accepted a British envoy in Kabul. Cavagnari took up the post of British Resident in Kabul in July 1879. He was known to be reckless and arrogant rather than discreet and his role as envoy was viewed as injudicious even by some of the British. The situation in Kabul was tense and eventually some Afghan troops who had not been paid by the Amir rebelled and attacked the Residency, killing Cavagnari and his mission in September 1879. The war was far from over despite the treaty and British troops were recalled over the mountains to occupy Kabul, secure it and launch punitive action against the Afghans. Yakub Khan abdicated, taking refuge in the British camp and was subsequently sent to India in December.

In popular culture

Mohammed Yaqub Khan appears in M.M. Kaye's 1978 novel ''

The Far Pavilions ''The Far Pavilions'' is an epic novel of British-Indian history by M. M. Kaye, published in 1978, which tells the story of an English officer during the British Raj. There are many parallels between this novel and Rudyard Kipling's '' Kim'' th ...

''. The novel was adapted by a 1984 mini-series, in which

Atul Tandon Atul Tandon (born 1 October 1959) is a nonprofit executive, entrepreneur, humanitarian and author. From the Daryaganj to Wall Street Tandon moved to the United States in 1992. He played a role in turning around Citi's West Coast busines ...

portrayed Khan.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Muhammed Yakub 1849 births 1923 deaths 19th-century Afghan monarchs Emirs of Afghanistan Barakzai dynasty Governors of Herat Province Pashtun people People of the Second Anglo-Afghan War 19th-century Afghan politicians 19th-century monarchs in Asia Monarchs who abdicated

Treaty of Gandamak

In popular culture

Quotes

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