Founded at Kandahar in 1747 by Ahmad Shah — remembered as the father of the Afghan nation — it broke the Marathas at Panipat and set the map of the region.
The Durrani Empire was the first modern Afghan state, founded in 1747 at Kandahar by Ahmad Shah Durrani — crowned Durr-i-Durran, “Pearl of Pearls,” and remembered as the father of the Afghan nation. At its height it stretched from Khorasan to Delhi, and its 1761 victory at the Third Battle of Panipat broke the Marathas and reshaped the Indian subcontinent.