Later Mughals v2.c17.s8: Sec. 105.—Nadir Conquers Northern Afghanistan from the Mughals.
Later Mughals v2.c17.s8
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Sec. 105.—Nadir Conquers Northern Afghanistan from the Mughals.
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On 10th May 1738, the Persian monarch began his march into Northern Afghanistan to make an end of his Afghan enemies. Crossing the Mughal frontier at the Mukhur spring he halted at Qarabagh, 36 miles s. w. of Ghazni. A powerful detachment was sent under his younger son Nasr-ullah to operate against the Afghans of Ghorband and Bamian in the north-west of Kabul. When Nadir reached Qarabagh, Baq Khan the Mughal governor of Ghazni fled away in terror; the qazis scholars and rich men of the city waited on the invader with presents and offer of submission. So, he entered Ghazni in peace, 31st May, and treated the people well.
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Two other detachments had been operating against the Hazaras or hill Afghans south-west of Ghazni, who had defied Nadir's troops. All who made timely submission were pardoned. But the men who resisted were put to the sword, their women dragged into captivity and their houses destroyed. Thus securing his flank and Rear, Nadir advanced on Kabul. The chief men of the city tried to avert the storm by advancing two marches to welcome him on the way, and he sent them back with robes of honour presents and reassuring words. But Sharza Khan, the commandant of the citadel, with the soldiers of the garrison decided to offer resistance, and shutting the fort-gates prepared for defence.
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On 10th June, Nadir's advance-tents arrived near the fort, but a part of the garrison sallied out and made a hostile demonstration. The porters were not prepared for resistance, and therefore declining the challenge they quietly set up the tents at a safe distance from the walls, at Ulang, half a league to the east of the city. Nadir arrived here on the 11th, and next day he rode out towards the Black Rock to view the environs of the city and the defences of its citadel. The garrison issued in force and began to discharge their fire-arms at him; but a charge of the Persian escort drove them back to the foot of the wall. Nadir now began an investment of the city. His guns and mortars, dragged up to the neighbouring heights, played upon the walls. On the seventh day (19th June) the tower of Aqa-bin collapsed from the shock of a big gun fired from it, and a part of the wall* fell down; the citadel capitulated, and the imperial treasury horses elephants and stores at Kabul passed into Nadir's possession. [*Jahankusha* 333—335.]
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Here he passed forty days to settle the affairs of the province, and here he was joined (1st July) by his son Nasr-ullah who had returned after subduing Ghorband and Bamian. In the meantime, a letter had been received from his envoy at Dihli reporting that the Emperor would neither reply to his letter nor give the ambassador his congé. At this Nadir Shah wrote a strong protest to the Emperor and sent it with a fast courier accompanied by some leading men of Kabul, who offered to explain the real state of things in Afghanistan to the Mughal Court. In this letter, Nadir Shah charges Muhammad Shah with the violation of his promise, delay in replying to embassies and detention of the last Persian envoy for more than a year, in violation of the usage of nations. He points out how the Afghans had done even greater havoc to India than to Persia, and therefore in crushing them he was really doing a service to the Mughal Empire. He explains how the hostility of the imperial garrison in Kabul and their alliance with the Afghans had forced him to fight them, but that after their submission he had guarded them from harm, as his sole intention was the punishment of his Afghan enemies. The party entrusted with this letter left Kabul on 3rd July. On their reaching Jalalabad, the Kabuli notables were forced by the local governor to go back, while the courier and his nine guards were robbed and murdered by a neighbouring chieftain, the son of Mir Abbas.*
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∗ Anandram 10. He tells the incredible story that the breach thus caused was large enough to let 500 horsemen gallop through it abreast. The recoil of a single gun could not have overthrown a quarter-mile of stone-wall. Hanway (ii. 359) says that Nadir massacred the greater part of the garrison, including Sharza Khan and his son, after the fall of Kabul.
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Meantime Nadir Shah had left Kabul (19th July) on account of scarcity of provisions there, and moved into the more fertile and populous hills of Chahar-ek-kar Najrad and Safi. The hill-crests occupied by the local clansmen were stormed and the vanquished were forced to submit and enter the Persian military service. After passing 22 days here, he started for Gandamak on 25th August.
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Then came the news of the murder of the courier. The Persian advanced guard made a sudden dash on Jalalabad and seized the grain stored there. The governor fled, the chief men submitted and yielded up the fort (7th September). But the city was subjected to a massacre in punishment of the attack on Nadir's courier. The hill-fort of Mir Abbas's son was stormed, the men were put to the sword, and the women (including his sister and wives) were brought away to the Persian camp as captives. [Jahankusha 337-339, Ali Hazin 289.]
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After spending some days in regulating the administration of the country, the Persian king advanced to Bahar-Showlani† to the south of Jalalabad. In view of his expected long absence in India, the distance of Dihli from his base in Persia, and probably also the accidents of war, Nadir Shah invested his eldest son Mirza Raza Quli with the crown of the deputy-king or regent of Persia (3rd November), and sent him back to that country amidst great pomp at the head of a strong force.
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∗ Jahankusha 335-337, Ali Hazin 288.
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† Bahar 17 m. s. w. of Jalalabad; Showlani (spelt Safli in Jahankusha) 8 m. e. of Bahar.
Linked texts (1)
- Jahāngushā-yi Nādirī — Mīrzā Mahdī Khān Astarābādī 1747, Persian