The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c20.258

v4.c20.258

On 12 March Nādir Shāh set out for Delhi and six days later encamped in the Shālamār garden¹ while he contemptuously allowed Muhammad Shāh to precede him into the city to make preparations for his reception. The Persian festival of the new year coincided in this year with the Muhammadan feast of the sacrifice and on 21 March, the day after Nādir Shāh's entry into Delhi, both festivals were celebrated by the recitation of the *khutba* in his name in all the mosques of Delhi, by which ceremony he was acknowledged as lord of all India. His troops were quartered in and around the city. On the following day a dispute regarding billets and the price of food and forage arose, and some Persians were attacked. Mischief-makers spread the rumour that Nādir Shāh was dead, and the rumour caused a rising. Persians strolling aimlessly about the city, either alone or in twos and threes, were massacred. The nobles who had been supplied, at their own request, with Persian guards, either delivered these guards to the fury of the populace or took no measures to save them. Nādir Shāh, on hearing of this outrage, at once issued orders directing his troops to stand fast and defend themselves in their quarters and billets while abstaining from reprisals.