Ahmad Shah, who, unlike his Iranian predecessor, has little interest in the area west of Afghanistan, is principally concerned with creating a state that will lie astride the major overland trade routes that pass from northern India to Central and western Asia.

Qandahar is naturally important in this scheme, but a great deal of attention must also be paid to such centers in North India as Multan and Lahore.

Therefore, Ahmad Shah has mounted nine and possibly ten expeditions to the Punjab, beginning with the first year of his reign, after he had taken Kabul in 1747.

In the same way that the Powindah (pastoral nomads) annually migrate from Afghanistan to India in the agricultural off-season, the Abdali-led armies always set out to the east in autumn and winter; when summer's heat approaches, they beat a tactical retreat to the Afghanistan hill country.