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The Afghan, riding home, stopped and held a jirga (assembly) which elected him shah, Durr-i-Durran, Pearl of Pearls: he declared independence from Persia, advanced on Kandahar and crushed intriguers under the feet of elephants, then set about creating for the first time the vilayet – in this case meaning the state – that later became Afghanistan. Exploiting the mayhem in Persia and India, he emulated Nader in his conquests but learned from the folly of the Hotaki: he would build an empire around an Afghan core. Marching east, he annexed territory down to the Indus in Sindh (Pakistan), then moved westwards to take Mashhad and Nishapur (Iran) where – honouring his promise to Nader – he established Big Daddy’s blind grandson Shahrukh as puppet.

Durrani was not the only player who benefited from the downfall of Nader:^* in Arabia, two dynasties emerged who still rule today. When the news of Nader’s killing reached Arabia, the Iranian garrison in Oman was invited to a banquet by his local ally, Ahmed bin Said. In his fortress at Barka, he slaughtered them all, founding a new empire that would ultimately extend from the coasts of Pakistan to the shores of Africa. In 1749, he was elected imam,^* a rise that was regarded with hostility by his Arabian rivals – the Saudis, who were building their first kingdom. Ever since Saladin, a single family – founded by Qatada, a sharif, descendant of Muhammad – had ruled Mecca, Jeddah and Hejaz, controlling the revenues of pilgrimage; their position was confirmed by Selim the Grim in 1517. But the Ottomans never ruled the interior of Arabia, Nadj. A typical tiny oasis town, Diriyyah, with just a few hundred inhabitants, was the fief of al-Saud, now led by Muhammad ibn Saud, landowner and merchant. Then in 1744 a former date farmer named Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, son of a line of religious notables, arrived in Diriyyah. Wahhab had started to preach after his return from the hajj, disgusted by the impure pollution of Mecca and Medina, tainted by the cults of saintly tombs and holy men. Any mediation between God and man was heresy. Visiting Basra, he had seen Christians and Jews living together under the heterodox Nader.

This firebrand preached holy war to purify Islam, assert tawhid – the doctrine of one God – and create a sacred amirate, based on the return to the origin – salaf – of Islam. Unambitious for himself, Wahhab was adept at forming political alliances while inspiring awe among his followers. ‘What is there beyond truth but error?’ he asked, disowning his father, his brother and some of his children. There was no compromise in his Manichaean worldview: ‘unsheath the sword’ against idolaters, charlatans, Shiites. Any mixing with infidels was evil. He shocked his home town of Uyayna by stoning an adulteress. He was expelled and escaped to Diriyyah, where he made the alliance that changed world history.

‘This oasis is yours,’ said ibn Saud. ‘Don’t fear your enemies. We’ll never throw you out!’

‘You’re the town’s chieftain,’ replied Wahhab. ‘Promise me you’ll wage jihad against Unbelievers. I’ll be leader in religious matters.’

The imam and sheikh immediately launched their jihad, conscripting all men aged eighteen to sixty, later joined by Bedouin cameleteers, conquering the towns of Nadj one by one, and assassinating opponents. After the death of Saud in 1764, his son Abdulaziz, advised by Wahhab, took Riyadh. The Saudi–Wahhabi alliance had boundless ambitions, aiming to conquer not just Mecca and Medina but Iraq, to vanquish even the Ottomans. But first they threatened the Hashemites of Hejaz and the loathed Ibadites of Oman.

Ahmed bin Said and his immediate successors were expanding, making Muscat the entrepôt between India and Africa. As the French expanded their sugar and coffee plantations on Mauritius (Isle de France) and as the military conflict intensified in India, the Omanis supplied the slaves from their east African empire based at Zanzibar, then seizing Kilwa. The sultans of Oman annually traded 50,000 slaves, but even this was dwarfed by what was happening in the Atlantic.

AGAJA, THE VICEROY OF OUIDAH AND THE MONSTER OF JAMAICA