but the short time he spent in that capital was solely devoted to
military preparations; he had resolved on the entire extinction of the
Afghans as a separate power, and that could not be effected without the
reduction of the city and province of Kandahar, which was then in
possession of a prince called Hasan Khan, the brother of the celebrated
Mahmud; but before he proceeded upon this expedition he adopted every
measure that could secure the internal tranquillity of Persia during his
absence. The peace of the country round Ispahan had been much disturbed
by the depredations of a numerous and barbarous tribe, called
Bukhteearees, who inhabit the mountains that stretch from near this
capital to the vicinity of Shuster. The subjugation of these plunderers
had ever been deemed possible. Their lofty and rugged mountains abound
with rocks and caverns, which in times of danger serve them as
fastnesses and dens. But Nadir showed that this fancied security, which
had protected them for ages, was a mere delusion. He led his veteran
soldiers to the tops of their highest mountains; parties of light troops
hunted them from the cliffs and glens in which they were concealed, and
in the space of one month the tribe was completely subdued. Their chief
was taken prisoner and put to death; but the policy of Nadir treated
those of his followers who escaped the first fury of his troops with
lenity and favor; he assigned them better but more accessible lands than
what they before possessed; he also took a number of them into his army;
and this corps, by its extraordinary bravery at the siege of Kandahar,
confirmed the wisdom of his generous conduct.
Nadir marched with an army of eighty thousand men through Khorasan and
Sistan to Kandahar. He met with no resistance of any consequence before
he reached that city; but he found its defences were too formidable to
give him hopes of its early surrender. His first resolution was to
subdue it by blockade; and he not only made permanent cantonments for
his army in its vicinity, but ordered the lines of a new city to be
traced out, which he called Nadirabad, or the "Abode of Nadir." He also
built towers all around Kandahar, and so connected them with small
batteries that it became impossible for the besieged to maintain any
intercourse with the surrounding country. Observing, however, that the
Afghans were not intimidated by the indications which his conduct gave
of his determined resolution to conquer them, and that they had still
abundance of provisions, he was compelled, after a year had been wasted
in the blockade, to commence a more active course of operations.
The city of Kandahar stood on the face of a hill, and was defended by a
wall and by a number of small towers. The Persians made themselves
masters of some of the most commanding eminences, to which they
conveyed, with incredible labor, both cannon and mortars. Aided by the
fire of these, they successively assailed the different towers. At some
they were repulsed with great loss; at others they succeeded; but the
bravery of the corps of Bukhteearees, who have been before mentioned,
was successful in carrying a principal tower, which enabled them to
enter the citadel, and placed the whole town at their mercy. The
Governor, however, with the principal part of the garrison, still held
out in a detached fort; but seeing that resistance was vain, he offered
to capitulate, and Nadir readily gave him a promise of forgiveness and
protection. It appears at this period to have been the policy of the
conqueror to conciliate the Afghans. He had in a very great degree
disarmed the prejudices of that nation, by the proclamation which he
issued, on ascending the throne, against the tenets of the Shiahs; and
he now sought, not merely to soften that resentment, but to attach them
to his person and government by favors. He completely succeeded; some of
the tribes of that nation continued during his life to rank among the
bravest soldiers of his army and formed a powerful check upon the
discontent and turbulence of his own countrymen.
While Nadir was employed in besieging Kandahar his generals had been
successful in reducing the strongholds in its vicinity; and his eldest
son, Reza Kuli, had, during this short period, obtained a fame which
seemed to promise that his name would one day equal that of his father.
The Afghan Prince of Kandahar had expected aid from the chief of Bulkh,
against whom Nadir detached his son, with a chosen body of twelve
thousand horse. The Prince not only defeated this ruler and took his
capital, but passed the Oxus, and did not hesitate to give battle to the
monarch of the Usbegs, who had advanced from Bokhara with an army far
outnumbering the Persians. The rash valor of Reza Kuli was crowned with
a signal victory; and the career of the young hero was only arrested by
a mandate from his father, who desired him to recross the Oxus.
Nadir at the same time addressed two letters to the King of the Usbegs,
and to the other chiefs of that part of Tartary, informing them that he
had sent orders to his son to retreat within the limits of the Persian
empire, and not to disturb countries which were the inheritance of the
race of Genghis Khan and of high Turkoman families.
This conduct, which was evidently the result of that policy which
affects moderation, that it may better accomplish its ambitious
purposes, has been ascribed by some to a jealousy which they conceive
Nadir, even at this early period, entertained of the rising reputation
of his son; but those who impute it to this cause forget that Reza Kuli,
when he returned, was not only received with extraordinary favor and
affection, but soon afterward was intrusted with all the power of a
sovereign, and left to govern Persia, while his father proceeded with
his vast designs of subjugating to his authority the distant regions of
India.
When Nadir Shah marched against the Afghans he had sent an ambassador to
Delhi requesting the monarch of India would give orders to the governors
of his northern provinces not to permit the enemies of Persia to find a
refuge from an avenging sword in the territories of an ally. No
satisfactory answer had been received to this mission; and, while the
Afghans were allowed to take shelter within the limits of the Indian
empire, obstacles were thrown in the way of the return of the Persian
envoy. Nadir, incensed at these proceedings, pursued the fugitives to
Kabul, and not only made himself master of that city, but of all the
country in its vicinity. After this conquest he addressed another letter
to the Emperor of India, in which he reproached him, in the bitterest
terms, for his past conduct, but still professed a desire of maintaining
the relations of friendship. The bearer of this letter was slain by the
Afghan chief: and Nadir, perhaps, did not regret an event which added to
the pretexts that before existed to justify him to the world in
undertaking the most splendid of all his enterprises--the invasion of
India (1738).
The progress of Nadir from Kabul to India was rapid and successful:
almost all the governors of the principal provinces through which he
passed anticipated the fate of the empire by their submission; but the
conqueror has, in a letter to his son, Reza Kuli, given us the most
authentic account we could desire to possess of events from the day on
which he left Lahore till that on which he resolved to restore the
vanquished Mahomet Shah to the throne of his ancestors. After informing
that Prince of an advantage which his troops had gained over an advanced
party of his enemies, and describing an ineffectual attempt he had made
to prevent the junction of an army under Saadut Khan with Mahomet Shah,
he states that the Indian monarch considered himself so strong from his
reënforcement that he left his intrenchments, and drew up his troops in
order of battle. The result will be best told in Nadir's own words.
"We," he observes, "who wished for such a day, after appointing guards
for our camp, and invoking the support of an all-powerful Creator,
mounted, and advanced to the charge. For two complete hours the action
raged with violence, and a heavy fire from cannon and musketry was kept
up. After that, by the aid of the Almighty, our lion-hunting heroes
broke the enemy's line and chased them from the field of battle,
dispersing them in every direction. This battle lasted two hours; and
for two hours and a half more were our conquering soldiers engaged in
pursuit. When one hour of the day remained, the field was entirely
cleared of the enemy; and as the intrenchments of their camp were strong
and the fortifications formidable, we would not permit our army to
assault it.
"An immense treasure, a number of elephants, part of the artillery of
the Emperor, and rich spoils of every description were the reward of our
victory. Upward of twenty thousand of the enemy were slain on the field
of battle, and a much greater number were made prisoners. Immediately
after the action was over we surrounded the Emperor's army, and took
measures to prevent all communication with the adjacent country;
preparing at the same time our cannon and mortars to level with the
ground the fortifications which had been erected.
"As the utmost confusion reigned in the imperial camp, and all
discipline was abandoned, the Emperor, compelled by irresistible
necessity, after the lapse of one day, sent Nizam-ul-mulk, on Thursday,
the 17th Zilkadeh, to our royal camp; and the day following, Mahomet
Shah himself, attended by his nobles, came to our heaven-like presence,
in an afflicted state.
"When the Emperor was approaching, as we ourselves are of a Turkoman
family, and Mahomet Shah is a Turkoman and the lineal descendant of the
noble house of Gurgan, we sent our dear son, Nassr Ali Khan, beyond the
bounds of our camp to meet him. The Emperor entered our tents, and we
delivered over to him the signet of our empire. He remained that day a
guest in our royal tent. Considering our affinity as Turkomans, and also
reflecting on the honors that befitted the majesty of a king of kings,
we bestowed such upon the Emperor, and ordered his royal pavilions, his
family, and his nobles to be preserved; and we have established him in a
manner equal to his great dignity.
"At this time the Emperor, with his family and all the lords of
Hindustan, who marched from camp, are arrived in Delhi; and on Thursday,
the 29th of Zilkadeh, we moved our glorious standard toward that
capital.
"It is our royal intention, from the consideration of the high birth of
Mahomet Shah, of his descent from the house of Gurgan, and of his
affinity to us as a Turkoman, to fix him on the throne of the empire and
to place the crown of royalty upon his head. Praise be to God, glory to
the Most High, who has granted us the power to perform such an action!
For this great grace which we have received from the Almighty we must
ever remain grateful.
"God has made the seven great seas like unto the vapor of the desert,
beneath our glorious and conquering footsteps and those of our faithful
and victorious heroes. He has made in our royal mind the thrones of
kings and the deep ocean of earthly glory more despicable than the light
bubble that floats upon the surface of the wave; and no doubt his
extraordinary mercy, which he has now shown, will be evident to all
mankind."
The facts stated in this letter are not contradicted either by Persian
of Indian historians; though the latter find reasons for the great
defeat of their countrymen suffered at Karnal, in the rashness of some
of their leaders and the caution of others; and they state that even
after the victory the conqueror would have returned to Persia on
receiving two millions sterling, if the disappointed ambition of an
Indian minister had not urged him to advance to Delhi. But it is not
necessary to seek for causes for the overthrow of an army who were so
panic-struck that they fled at the first charge, and nearly twenty
thousand of whom were slain with hardly any loss to their enemies; and
our knowledge of the character of Nadir Shah forbids our granting any
belief to a tale which would make it appear that the ultimate advantages
to be obtained from this great enterprise, and the unparalleled success
with which it had been attended, depended less upon his genius than upon
the petty jealousies and intrigues of the captive ministers of the
vanquished Mahomet Shah.
The causes which led Nadir to invade India have been already stated; nor
were they groundless. The court of Delhi had certainly not observed the
established ties of friendship. It had given shelter to the Afghans who
fled from the sword of the conqueror; and this protection was likely to
enable them to make another effort to regain their lost possessions, and
consequently to reinvolve Persia in war. The ambassadors of Nadir, who
had been sent to make remonstrances on this subject, had not only been
refused an answer, but were prevented from returning, in defiance of the
reiterated and impatient applications of that monarch. This proceeding,
we are told, originated more in irresolution and indecision than from a
spirit of hostility; but it undoubtedly furnished a fair and justifiable
pretext for Nadir's advance. Regarding the other motives which induced
him to undertake this enterprise, we can conjecture none but an
insatiable desire of plunder, a wish to exercise that military spirit he
had kindled in the Persians, or the ambitious view of annexing the vast
dominions of the sovereign of Delhi to the crown of Persia. But if he
ever cherished this latter project he must have been led by a near view
of the condition of the empire of India, to reject it as wholly
impracticable. We are, however, compelled to respect the greatness of
that mind which could resolve, at the very moment of its achievement,
upon the entire abandonment of so great a conquest; for he did not even
try to establish a personal interest at the court of Delhi, except
through the operation of those sentiments which his generous conduct in
replacing him upon his throne might make upon the mind of Mahomet Shah.
Nadir claimed, as a prize which he had won, the wealth of the Emperor
and a great proportion of that of his richest nobles and subjects. The
whole of the jewels that had been collected by a long race of
sovereigns, and all the contents of the imperial treasury, were made
over by Mahomet Shah to the conqueror. The principal nobles, imitating
the example of their monarch, gave up all the money and valuables which
they possessed. After these voluntary gifts, as they were termed, had
been received, arrears of revenue were demanded from distant provinces,
and heavy impositions were laid upon the richest of the inhabitants of
Delhi. The great misery caused by these impositions was considerably
augmented by the corrupt and base character of the Indian agents
employed, who actually farmed the right of extortion of the different
quarters of the city to wretches who made immense fortunes by the
inhuman speculation, and who collected, for every ten thousand rupees
they paid into Nadir's treasury, forty and fifty thousand from the
unhappy inhabitants, numbers of whom perished under blows that were
inflicted to make them reveal their wealth; while others, among whom
were several Hindus of high rank, became their own executioners rather
than bear the insults to which they were exposed, or survive the loss of
that property which they valued more than their existence.
The approach of Nadir Shah to Delhi had filled the inhabitants of that
city with dread; but the strict discipline which his troops observed on
their first arrival restored confidence to all. This, however, was but
of short duration. The monarch himself had occupied a palace in the
city, and had sent some troops to different quarters of it to maintain
tranquillity and to protect the inhabitants from insult and injury. The
conqueror entered the capital on March 8th, and on that and the two
succeeding days all was quiet; but on the night of the 10th it was
reported that Nadir was dead. This report, which was first circulated by
some designing persons, instantly spread, and a thoughtless mob made a
furious assault upon the Persians who were scattered about the town as
safeguards. These, who were divided in small parties, and quite
unsuspicious of attack, were almost all murdered; and we must cease to
cherish any general sentiments of pity for the depraved nobles of Delhi,
when assured by concurring authorities that most of those at whose
palaces troops were stationed for their protection gave them up without
effort to the fury of the populace, and even in some instances assisted
in their destruction.
Nadir, when he first heard of this tumult, sent several persons to
explain to the populace their delusion and their danger; but his
messengers were slain. He remained with all the Persians he could
assemble in the palace which he occupied till the day dawned, when he
mounted his horse and rode forth to endeavor, by his presence, to quell
the tumult. But his moderation only inflamed the insolence and fury of
those whom, even Indian historians inform us, it was his desire to
spare; and he at last gave his troops, who had arrived from their
encampment near the city, orders for a general massacre. He was too well
obeyed: the populace, the moment the Persians began to act, lost all
their courage; and from sunrise till twelve o'clock Delhi presented a
scene of shocking carnage, the horrors of which were increased by the
flames that now spread to almost every quarter of that capital.
Nadir, after he had issued the fatal orders, went into the small mosque
of Roshin-u-dowlah, which stands near the centre of the city, and
remained there in a deep and silent gloom that none dared to disturb. At
last the unhappy Mahomet Shah, attended by two of his ministers, rushed
into his presence, exclaiming, "Spare my people!" Nadir replied, "The
Emperor of India must never ask in vain," and he instantly commanded
that the massacre should cease. The prompt obedience which was given to
this command is remarked by all his historians as the strongest proof of
the strict discipline which he had introduced into his army.
The number of persons slain on this occasion has been differently
estimated, and from the nature of the scene it could not be correctly
ascertained. An author who has been often referred to conjectures that
about one hundred twenty thousand perished; while another European
writer nearly doubles this amount. But an Indian historian of
respectability reduces this exaggerated estimate to the moderate
calculation of eight thousand persons: and there is every reason to
conclude that his statement is nearer the truth than any of those which
have been mentioned. Two nobles who were supposed to have caused the
riot fled, with conscious guilt, to a small fortress near Delhi. They
were pursued, taken, and put to death with those who were deemed their
accomplices, who amounted to about four hundred persons.
A very few days after the occurrence of these events, a marriage was
celebrated between the second son of Nadir and a princess of the
imperial house of Timur; and the succession of festivities that attended
these nuptials gave a color of joy to scenes which abounded with misery;
but the majority of the inhabitants of Delhi appear to have been of a
light and dissolute character. We are indeed told by an Indian author
that numbers regretted the departure of the Persians. The drolls and
players of the capital began, immediately after they went away, to amuse
their countrymen with a ludicrous representation of their own disgrace;
and the fierce looks and savage pride of their conquerors, which had
been so late their dread, became in these imitations one of their chief
sources of entertainment.
Nadir remained at Delhi fifty-eight days (1739). Before he quitted it,
he had a long and secret conference with Mahomet Shah, in which it is
supposed he gave him such counsel as he deemed best to enable him to
preserve that power to which he was restored. To all the nobles of the
court he spoke publicly, and warned them to preserve their allegiance to
the Emperor, as they valued his favor or dreaded his resentment. To
those who were absent he wrote in similar terms; he informed them that
he was so united in friendship with Mahomet Shah that they might be
esteemed as having one soul in two bodies; and, after desiring them to
continue to walk in the path of duty to the imperial house of Timur, he
concluded these circular-letters in the following words: "May God
forbid! but if accounts of your rebelling against your Emperor should
reach our ears we will blot you out of the pages of the book of
creation."
The conqueror had behaved with considerable moderation and kindness
toward the chief omrahs of the court of Delhi; but he must have despised
their luxurious and effeminate habits. We, indeed, learn his sentiments
from a remarkable anecdote. When speaking one day to Kummer-u-din, who
was then vizier, he demanded how many ladies he had? "Eight hundred
fifty," was the reply. "Let one hundred fifty of our female captives,"
said Nadir, "be sent to the vizier, who will then be entitled to the
high military rank of a _mim-bashee_, or commander of a thousand."
The march of Nadir from India was literally encumbered with spoil. The
amount of the plunder that he carried from that country has been
estimated variously. The highest calculation makes it upward of seventy
millions sterling; the lowest is considerably more than thirty. A great
part of this was in precious stones, of which Nadir was immoderately
fond. When on his march from India he was informed that several of the
most valuable crown-jewels had been secreted by some of his followers,
he made this a pretext for searching the baggage of every man in his
army, and appropriating all the jewels that were found to himself. The
soldiers murmured, but submitted; and their not resisting this despotic
act is an extraordinary proof of the subordination which he had
established. He was, however, in general kind and liberal to his troops:
he had given to each man a gratuity of three months' pay at the fall of
Kandahar; he gave them as much more after the victory of Karnal; and
they received a still greater bounty before he marched from Delhi.
The troops of Nadir, we are told, suffered much in their retreat from
India by the intense heat to which they were exposed. Their passage over
the rivers of the Punjab and the Indus was delayed by accidents to the
temporary bridges which he had constructed, and in one instance by the
threatened attack of the mountaineers of Kabul, whose forbearance the
proud conqueror did not disdain to purchase; and when we consider the
nature of the country through which he had to pass, the immense train of
baggage with which his army was accompanied, and the danger that might
have arisen from the slightest confusion, we cannot blame the prudence
with which he acted upon this occasion.
The greatest expectation was excited in Persia at the prospect of the
return of their victorious monarch. The inhabitants of that country had
already felt the benefit of his triumphs. He had commanded that all
taxes should be remitted for three years: and they began to anticipate
scenes of unheard-of joy and abundance. The most exaggerated reports
were circulated of the vast riches which their sovereign and his
soldiers had acquired; and all conceived that Nadir was disposed to
enjoy himself, from the number of artificers and musicians which he
brought from India. Curiosity, too, was eager to behold the train of
elephants which attended his march. That noble animal had become a
stranger to the plains of Persia; and the natives of that country were
only familiar with its shape from seeing its figure represented in the
sculpture of ancient times. Sanguine minds were led, by a natural
association of ideas, to believe that their present ruler was the
destined restorer of their country to its former glory; and the
conqueror was hailed, at his return, as a hero whose fame had eclipsed
that of a Sapor or a Nushirwan.