‘Kandahar from the South’, 1839 circa (coloured lithograph)

‘Kandahar from the South’, 1839 circa. Coloured lithograph from ‘Views in Affghaunistaun from sketches taken during the Campaigns of the Army of the Indus’, by W L Walton after Captain Sir Keith A Jackson, Bt, 4th (Queen’s Own) Light Dragoons, published by W H Allen and Co and T McLean. In spring 1839 a 12,000 strong British-Indian force, the Army of the Indus under Sir John Keane, forced the Bolan Pass and captured Kandahar without a fight in April. Kandahar was the southern capital of Afghanistan and controlled by the brother of Emir Dost Mohammed. When the British advanced on the city he fled north to join his brother in Kabul. After bribing many of Kandahar’s tribal leaders the British then organised a triumphant entry into the city for Shah Shuja, their chosen Emir of Afghanistan.