Mir Masjidi Khan

Sahibzada Mir Masjidi Khan (died 1841) was a celebrated Afghan resistance leader who opposed the installation of Shuja Shah Durrani (or 'Shah Shujah') as Emir of Afghanistan by the Government of British India during the First Anglo-Afghan War. He kept up a fierce struggle against the occupation forces in and around Kabul and Northern Afghanistan, until his death.

Mir Masjidi Khan was born in a saintly Sayyid family, resident in Khwaja Khizri village near Charikar, in the Kohistan region of Northern Afghanistan. His father, Sahibzada Ishaq Jan Khan, was a well-to-do landowner of the locality and the family were deeply venerated in the area for their Islamic learning, piety and integrity in public affairs.

Mir Masjidi's childhood years were spent in idyllic rural surroundings, in acquiring equestrian and martial skills, in addition to the study of the Quran and Shariah and of Persian literature.

Since his family was an influential one, and he possessed an innate dignity and wisdom from early on, he rose to early prominence and in due course became one of the most respected of the Afghan chiefs and notables of the period.

Initially, like most Afghans, Mir Masjidi viewed the return of Shuja Shah ('Shah Shujah') with mixed feelings: glad to have a 'legitimate' Sadozai Durrani ruler yet suspicious of the motives of the British forces which forcefully enthroned him.

Soon, however, it became apparent that the Shah was a mere figurehead, with real policy control with Sir William Hay Macnaghten and other British officers. In addition, the British garrison in Kabul offended Afghan sensibilities with their excesses, in particular their liberties with Afghan women, and the populace, inflamed by the mullahs and other religious, spiritual leaders including Mir Masjidi, came out in open revolt, declaring themselves for the exiled ex-Emir Dost Mohammad Khan.

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