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- 151 - of Kamran. From that date onwards the influence of these Barakzai brothers became paramount at Kandahar. Sirdar Shair Dil Khan was the head of the administration at the time. It was a time, too, when on the eastern side of the realm Sirdar Mohamed Azeem Khan and Sirdar Dost Mohamed Khan had raised their standard against the Saduzais from Kashmir, and had driven Shah Mahmud-the Saduzai-from his throne at Kabul and had put him to flight towards Herat. in the eastern province these two brothers had completely taken over the goernment into their hands. Nor was it all, because personal animosity and rivalry reared its head amongst them, and a contest for power had started. The Sirdars of Kandahar were now ruling over a territory beginning from Kelat upto Grishk, and from the distant regions of the river Indus to the south.west of Afghanistan. For years the rulership of Shikar Pore was in their hands, so that one of the brothers looked after the government there. These Sirdars of Kandahar had, at their time of greatest power, not desisted from casting eyes upon matters pertaining to Kabul, and when Sirdar Mohamed Azeem Khan died, and his son Sirdar Habibullah Khan took the place of his father, the Kandahari brothers interfered in Kabul scenes, and once Pur Dil Khan and on another occasion Shair Dil Khan entered into the Kabul intrigues, when agreements were made regarding the division of the territory amongst these brothers, and when Sirdar Dost Mohamed Khan made the rulership of Kabul secure for himself. Despite of it all, and throughout his entire period of reign however the Predominence of the Kandahari Sirdar remained in tact in Kandahar. When the English and Shan-shuja under Macnaughton invaded Afghanistan and were converging upon Kandahar, Sirdar Kohin Dil Khan was ruling over Kandahar, and with the help of Sirdars Rahm Dil Khan and Mihr Dil Khan prepared to offer resistance to the aggressors. The foreigner's troops were able to overpower that resistance due to the internal strife and treachery of some of the people themselves. As a result these Sirdars had to take refuge in the territory along the river, and for a time had to remain as refugees in Persia. When Amir Dost Mohamed Khan