A puppet king of Afghanistan. He rose to power after his elder brother was captured by his enemies in 1800. Escaping arrest Shah Shuja wandered the mountains until returning to seize power in Kabul in 1803. His rule lasted until his defeat at the Battle of Nimla in 1809. For several years Shah Shuja wandered north India as a fugitive with his most precious possession, the Koh-I-Noor diamond. In 1816 he accepted the offer of asylum in Ludhiana extended by the British East India Company. He sought the assistance of the Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh by offering him the diamond Koh-i-Noor. Ranjit Singh took the diamond but did not give him any assistance. After three failed attempts to regain his power, Shah Shuja finally succeeded in his fourth attempt in 1839, but this time he was installed as a puppet ruler by the Company. In 1842, after the British army in Kabul had abandoned him and marched off to its own destruction Shah Shuja was assassinated by his own godson.