Hajji Jamal Khan
Hajji Jamal Khan Barakzai was chief of the Barakzai tribe, Afsharid governor of Farah and Grishk, and Grand Vizier of the Durrani Empire under the reigns of Ahmad Shah Durrani and Timur Shah Durrani until his death in 1772.
Early life
Jamal Khan was born to Mohammad Yusuf Khan, a member of the Mohammadzai branch of the Barakzai Pashtun tribe and to a Ghilji Pashtun mother. He attained the title of Hajji after of his trip to Mecca for performing the Islamic pilgrimage of Hajj.Rise to power
During a grand national assembly regarding electing a new Afghan king that took place in the city of Kandahar after the assassination of Nader Shah, Jamal Khan was a candidate alongside his Sadozai rival Ahmad Khan Abdali. The prominence of the Barakzai tribe of Pashtuns among the Abdali confederacy, as well as the status and seniority of Jamal Khan gave him more legitimacy and a right to claim the throne.However, Ahmad Khan then rose to fame under the intervention of Pir Sabir Shah who believed argued that Ahmad Khan's Sadozai lineage gave him a legitimate claim to the throne. Despite disagreements among other Abdali tribes, Sabir symbolically placed a turban with a sheaf wheat on Ahmad Khan's turban, declaring him King, and ever since then he was called Ahmad Shah, while his tribal confederacy was changed from Abdali to Durrani in honor of bearing the title "Shah, Pearl of the Pearls".