History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v1.c10.10

v1.c10.10

From its position Qandahar was naturally a bone of contention between India and Persia. Early in the sixteenth century two powerful monarchies sprang up side by side, when Babar conquered Delhi and Shah Ismail founded the glorious "Sophy" dynasty in Persia. In 1522 Babar finally wrested the province of Qandahar from the Arghun family who had held it under nominal submission to the ruler of Herat. On his death, it passed as an appanage to his younger son Kamran. In 1545, Humayun, then a fugitive from India, captured the fort from his brother Askari, but broke his promise of ceding it to the son of the Persian king, who had given him shelter and whose forces had aided the conquest. But this breach of faith availed him little. In the troubles following Humayun's death and Akbar's minority, the Persian king conquered Qandahar (1558) and bestowed it on his nephew Sultan Husain Mirza. Akbar's turn came in 1594, when Sultan Husain's successor, Mirza Muzaffar Husain, surrendered his principality to the Mughal Emperor and entered his service as a high grandee. So also did Muzaffar’s brother Rustam, the lord of Dawar. For the next twenty-nine years Qandahar remained united to Delhi, though a fruitless attack was made on it in 1606, just after Akbar’s death. But the Persians were not to be denied. After negotiating in vain with Jahangir for a friendly cession of the fort, Shah Abbas the Great in 1623 besieged it for 45 days, and took it from Abdul Aziz Khan Naqshbandi, who was holding it for the Emperor. Fifteen years afterwards, Ali Mardan Khan, the Persian Governor of Qandahar, alarmed at the hostile intentions of the Shah, saved himself and his family by betraying the fort into Mughal hands (Feb., 1638) and entering the Imperial service, where he gained the highest rank and office, and the personal friendship of his new master. Shah Jahan, on getting possession spent immense sums in strengthening the defences and replenishing the stores and arsenals of Qandahar and its dependencies, Bist and Zamin Dawar.∗