The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c20.243

v4.c20.243

A grave peril now threatened India. The condition of the Safavī dynasty of Persia during the first quarter of the eighteenth century may be compared with that of the House of Tīmūr in India. Power and authority had fallen from the grasp of a weak and worthless prince and the country, in the hands of a band of quarrelsome but unwarlike nobles, lay an easy prey to an aggressor. Mahmūd Khān the Ghilzāī, son of Mīr Vais who had freed Qandahār from the Persian yoke, had risen against the feeble Tahmāsp II, conquered Herāt, Khurāsān, and at length, in 1722, Isfahān itself, and had driven the Safavī into the forests of Māzandarān. Russian and Turkish invasions had increased Persia's misery and confusion and the whole country, except a narrow strip in the north, lay at the mercy of aliens in race and religion. A deliverer appeared in the person of Nādir Qulī, a Turk of the Afshār tribe of Khurāsān, who in 1729 expelled the Afghāns from Isfahān and Fārs and extended the Persian monarchy to its ancient limits. 'Abbās III, the last of the Safavīs, was permitted to ascend the throne in 1731, but all power in the state had been wielded since the expulsion of the Afghāns by Nādir Qulī, who in 1736 threw aside all disguise and ascended the throne of Persia as Nādir Shāh. After defeating the Russians and the Turks, who had taken advantage of Persia's distress, he turned his attention to northern Afghānistān and captured Herāt and Balkh, reserving Qandahār, the home of the Ghilzāīs who had ravaged Persia, until later. Two envoys had been sent to inform Muhammad Shāh that Nādir Shāh purposed to punish the Afghāns of Qandahār and to request him to order his governor of Kābul to close the frontiers of that province to fugitives. Each envoy returned with a favourable answer, but nothing was done.