Later Mughals v2.c17.s5: Sec. 102.—Nadir Delivers Persia and Makes Himself King.
Later Mughals v2.c17.s5
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Sec. 102.—Nadir Delivers Persia and Makes Himself King.
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Nadir Quli was the son of Imam Quli, a poor Turkoman of the Afshar tribe long settled in Khurasan, who earned his bread by making coats and caps of sheepskin. Nadir was born in 1688 and passed his early years amidst great hardship and privation, which only called forth his extraordinary genius and energy. He was carried away to Tartary by the Uzbak raiders and kept there as a prisoner for four years. On returning home he served under some petty chiefs and finally took to a life of robbery with his own band of hardy and adventurous followers. The eclipse of Government during the Afghan usurpation of Persia enabled him to pursue such a career with safety and much profit in the ill-controlled frontier province of Khurasan. Seizing the fort of Kalat by murdering his own uncle (who was its governor), he used the power thus gained to defeat the Afghan ruler of Khurasan and recover the city and district of Naishabur. This victory in the national cause secured his welcome by his lawful king Shah Tahmasp, whose service he entered in 1727. [Malcolm ii. 2-5, M.U. i. 823.]
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The fame of Nadir drew the best recruits to his side and he became the centre of the Persian national effort to throw off the foreign yoke. His genius for war and diplomacy and his concentration of all authority in his hands led to his rapid and unbroken success. Persia was recovered from the Afghans, very few of whom returned to their own country from the slaughter on the battle-field or murder at the hands of the incensed peasantry. The Afghan domination had been a seven years' horror to the afflicted people of Persia. "Within seven years nearly a million of her inhabitants had perished, her finest provinces had been rendered desert, and her proudest edifices levelled with the dust; and this by enemies who had neither the force nor the wisdom to maintain the conquest." [Malcolm, i. 472.] The national deliverance of Persia was the work of Nadir alone, and naturally the enthusiasm of the people for him was unbounded. The king showed his gratitude by granting to the general half the kingdom with a richly jewelled crown and the right of stamping coins with his own name.
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But during Nadir's absence in the eastern provinces, the king, who had injudiciously conducted expeditions in the west, lost his general's gains in that direction and made a humiliating peace. The national indignation was very great. The officers of the army felt that if Shah Tahmasp were left at the head of affairs, he would only undo all their recent work and bring back national servitude. They with one voice urged Nadir to assume the crown. [Anandram, 34; Malcolm ii. 8-11.] But though Tahmasp was deposed, 26th August 1732, his general did not as yet venture to sit on the throne. Abbas, an eight-month old son of Tahmasp, was proclaimed king, and Nadir became his regent with full authority. Four years later the infant died, and Nadir became king with the title of Shahan-Shah Nadir Shah, 26th February 1736.
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He wrested Armenia and Georgia from the Turks, and made a peace with the Russians by which he gained the lost provinces bordering the Caspian. The island of Bahrain was recovered from the Arabs. Next, the predatory Bakhtiari tribe of the Shuster hills was vanquished and enrolled in his army,—thus diverting their energies into a useful channel and keeping them from disturbing the peace. [Malcolm ii. 11-18.]
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Finally, early in 1737 Nadir Shah started with 80,000 men against Qandahar. So long as that centre of independent Afghan power was not destroyed, it would remain a menace to the safety of Persia and constantly disturb the peace and prosperity of Khurasan. Moreover, without the conquest of Qandahar the full heritage of the Safawis could not be said to have come into his possession. This fort stood on the route of his advance to the Mughal Empire and he wished to enlist the Afghans under his banners to assist him in his foreign conquests, as Mahmud of Ghazni had done seven centuries before.
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Qandahar was now in the possession of Husain, the younger brother of Mahmud (the usurping king of Persia). The old city* stood on the eastern slope of a ridge, two miles west of the modern city. Its walls were of extreme strength and the garrison had made preparations for a good defence. The Persian army invested it on 30th March 1737, but the siege dragged on for a year, and the fort fell† only on 12th March 1738. The fort and city were dismantled by the victor. In its environs he built a new city with quarters for the governor and soldiers, which was named Nadirabad by him, but is now known as modern Qandahar. He treated the defeated Afghan tribesmen very kindly, released all the prisoners taken, bestowed pensions on the tribal chiefs, enlisted the clansmen in his army, and by transplanting the Ghilzais to Naishabur and other places in Khurasan (the former homes of the Abdalis) and posting Abdali chieftains as governors of Southern Afghanistan (Qandahar, Girishk, Bist and Zamin-dawar), kept his former enemies usefully employed in his service. His policy was to tempt the other Afghan forts to surrender to him by creating a reputation for himself as a merciful enemy and liberal master, and to enlist the Afghan soldiers under his banners as devoted supporters of his projected conquests of Central Asia and India. [Jahankusha 311-328, Malcolm ii. 20, Anandram 6-8.]
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∗ For a description of the fort and its walls, see J. Sarkar's History of Aurangzib, i. 140-143. † Anandram p. 7 says, to treachery.
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After the fall of Qandahar came the turn of the Mughal Empire; and here Nadir made out a strong case for declaring war. He proceeded in such a way as to ensure that neutral States and lovers of international law would not be able to condemn his invasion of India as an act of wanton aggression and spoliation. Nadir was no mere soldier, no savage leader of a savage horde, but a master of diplomacy and statecraft as well as of the sword. The profoundness of his diplomacy was no less remarkable than the greatness of his generalship in war and the wisdom of his policy to the vanquished after his victories in the field.