Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s15.1

v2.c27.s15.1

Ahmad Shah Abdali had been trained under the eyes of the great Nādir Shah, first as his personal attendant and then as his favourite lieutenant. After his master's death he had inherited Nādir's veteran army and Nadir's system of military discipline. The Turks,—whether belonging to the tribes long settled in Persia and called *Qizilbashes* ('Red Caps') or mercenaries from their cradle-land in Central Asia,—were not only hardy soldiers and born horsemen, but also amenable to training and discipline in a degree unequalled by any other Asiatic race of former times and surpassed only by the modern Japanese. Under a great captain who shared their camp-life and hardships and led them personally in battle, and whose banners were ever victorious, these soldiers were prepared to perform every exertion, bear every hardship, and undergo every strictness of control and punishment almost to the extreme verge of human endurance. Nādir's strict control of his troops and their willing submission rivalled the condition of Frederick the Great's army. Two examples of it are recorded by Ashub (the foster-brother of the Emperor Muhammad Shah) during the Persian conqueror's occupation of Delhi, which contrast vividly with the slack chaotic condition of the Indo-Mughal army.