Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c10.s3.19

v1.c10.s3.19

His treasury having been exhausted by his ceaseless warfare, Nādir now resorted to the cruellest extortion to fill his coffers. Many of his revenue collectors perished under torture to make them yield more and more money. All wealthy subjects lived in dread of their lives. "These rebellions only increased the violence of his temper, and his acts became even more wild", as his secretary admits. People were put to death, mutilated or blinded on the merest suspicion. On the plain outside Isfahān, he burnt alive some Hindus Muslims and Armenians. When in January 1747 he set out from his capital for Khurāsān, in every province that he passed through he built towers of human heads after killing local nobles and commons. Each rebellion was suppressed with ferocious cruelty, but a new one soon broke out in another quarter. In short, "the last years of Nādir Shāh's reign were years of unspeakable misery for his subjects". [Mujmil, 10-40; Sykes.]