The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c20.301

v4.c20.301

A dark cloud descended on the intellect of Nādir Shāh of Persia towards the close of his reign. He had always been a hard taskmaster and a rigid though fair disciplinarian, but with advancing years he suspected all his subjects, and suspicion became a sufficient ground for punishment. He blinded his eldest and most promising son, and none knew when mad caprice might single him out for destruction. On 2 June, 1747, Nādir was stabbed to death in his own camp. His line did not at once die out, but his great empire dissolved. Among his chief commanders was Ahmad, of the Sadozāi section of the Abdālī or Durrānī tribe, an Afghān who had been captured when Nādir conquered Herāt. He afterwards gained his captor’s favour and rose to high rank in his service. When Nādir was assassinated Ahmad returned to his own country and with the help of his tribe and a force of Qizilbāsh horse who threw in their fortunes with him established himself in Herāt, captured Qandahār from the Ghilzāi who held it for Nādir Shāh, and expelled from Kābul Nāsir Khān, who having entered Nādir Shāh’s service had been governor of that province for him as formerly for Muhammad Shah of Delhi, and, having thus reduced to obedience the whole of Afghānistān proper, assumed the royal title. He had hardly established his authority in Afghānistān when the treachery of Shāh Nawāz Khān, governor of the Punjab, encouraged him to devise schemes of foreign conquest.