Career
He then ruled from 1839 until his death in 1842. Shuja Shah was of the Sadozai line of the Abdali group of Pashtuns. He became the fifth Emir of Afghanistan.
According to Mountstuart Elphinstone, "The King of Kabul was a handsome man".
He also wrote "of an olive complexion with a thick black beard...his voice clear, his address princely." Shuja wore the Koh-i-Noor diamond in one of his bracelets when Elphinstone visited him. William Fraser, who accompanied Elphinstone was "struck with the dignity of his appearance and the romantic Oriental awe.." Fraser also "judged" him to be "about five feet six inches tall" and his skin colour was "very fair, but dead..his beard was thich jet black and shortened a little by the obliquely upwards, but turned again at the corners..The eyelashes and the edges of his eyelids were blackened with antimony" He also described Shuja"s voice as "loud and sonorous".
Depositions, imprisonments and alliances Shuja Shah was the governor of Herat and Peshawar from 1798 to 1801. In June, 1809, he was overthrown by his predecessor Mahmud Shah and went into exile in India, where he was captured by Jahandad Khan Bamizai and imprisoned at Attock (1811-1812) and then taken to Kashmir (1812-1813) by Atta Muhammad Khan.
He stayed in Lahore from 1813 to 1814.
In return for his freedom, he handed the Koh-i-Nor diamond to Maharaja Ranjit Singh and gained his freedom. He stayed first in Punjab and later in Ludhiana with Shah Zaman. The place where he stayed in Ludhiana is presently occupied by Main Post Office near Mata Rani Chowk and a white marble stone inside the building marking his stay there can be seen.
In July, Shuja Shah was narrowly defeated at Kandahar by the Afghans under Dost Mohammad Khan and fled.
This triggered the First Anglo-Afghan War (1838–1842). Shuja was restored to the throne by the British on August 7, 1839, 30 years after his deposition, but did not remain in power when the British left.
He was assassinated by Shuja ud-Daula, on April 5, 1842.