Ahmad Shah died in 1773, and was succeeded by his son Timur, who died in 1793, and left the throne to his son Zaman Shah.
This prince was deposed by his half-brother Mahmud, who was in his turn deposed by Shah Shuja, the full brother of Zaman Shah.
At the age of twenty he obtained from Zaman Shah, the king of Afghanistan, a grant of Lahore, which he seized by force of arms in 1799.
He left twentythree sons, of whom the fifth, Zaman Mirza, by help of Payindah Khan, head of the Barakzai family of the Abdalis, succeeded in grasping the royal power.
The attention of the British government had been directed to Afghan affairs ever since the time of Sir John Shore, who feared that Zaman Shah, then holding his court at First Lahore, might follow in the path of Ahmed Shah, Afghan and overrun Hindustan.