The British finally withdrew from Qandahar in April 1881. In 1880 'Abdor Rahman Khan, a cousin of Shir 'Ali, had returned from exile in Central Asia and proclaimed himself amir of Kabul. During the reign of 'Abdor Rahman, the boundaries of modern Afghanistan were drawn by the British and the Russians. The Durand Line of 1893 divided zones of responsibility for the maintenance of law and order between British India and the kingdom of Afghanistan; it was never intended as a de jure international boundary. Afghanistan, therefore, although never dominated by a European imperial government, became a buffer between Tsarist Russia and British India.

'Abdor Rahian exerted his influence, if not actual control, over the various ethnolinguistic groups inside Afghanistan, fighting some 20 small wars to convince them that a strong central government existed in Kabul. 'Abdor Rahman was so successful that, at his death, his designated successor and eldest son, Habibollah Khan, succeeded to the throne as Habibollah I without the usual fratricidal fighting. 'Abdor Rahman can be considered the founder of modern Afghanistan.