Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/672

PERSIA [MODERN 1738-1747. that from the Kabul plain he addressed a new remonstrance to the Dehli court, but that his envoy was arrested and killed, and his escort compelled to return by the governor of Jalalabdd. The same authority notes the occupation of the latter place by Persian troops and the march thither from Gandamak. There are some doubts as to the exact route now taken, but it was probably through the Khaibar (Khyber) Pass that he passed into the Peshawar plain, for it was there that he first defeated the imperial forces. The invasion of India had now fairly commenced, and its successful progress and consummation were mere questions of time. It will not do to cite a triumphal march of an irresistible horde in example of what may still be achieved by an inroad upon modern Hindustan. The prestige of this Eastern Napoleon was immense. It had not only reached but had been very keenly felt at Dehli before the conquering army had arrived. There was no actual religious war ; all sectarian distinction had been disavowed ; the contest was between vigorous Muhammadans and effete Muhammadans. Nadir had not, like Caesar, come, and seen, and conquered. His way had been prepared by circumstances, and as he progressed from day to day his army of invaders increased. There must have been larger accessions by voluntary recruits than losses by death or desertion. The victory on the plain of Karnal, whether accomplished by sheer fighting or the intervention of treachery, was the natural outcome of the previous situation ; it was the shifting of the scene as anticipated and prepared, and the submission of the emperor followed as a matter of course. But the coming and going of Nadir are studies quite as interesting and instructive as the coming and going of Alexander, and belong to compara tively recent days. Dehli must have experienced a sense of relief at the de parture of its conqueror, whose residence there had been rendered painfully memorable by carnage and riot. The marriage of his son to the grand-daughter of Aurangzib and the formal restoration of the crown to the dethroned emperor, both prominent parts of the first pageant, were doubtless politic, and his parting counsels to the wretched Muhammad Shah were, it is probable, good and appro priate ; but the descendant of Bdbar could not easily forget how humiliating a chapter in history would remain to be written against him. The return march of Nadir to Per sia is not recorded with precision. On the 5th May 1739 he left the gardens of Shalimar, north of Dehli, to proceed, by Lahore and Peshawar, through the passes to Kabul. Thence he seems to have returned to Kandahar and, either in person or by his lieutenants, to have recrossed the Indus into Sind. But the subjection of Niir Muhammad, the Kalhora chief then ruling in that province, would hardly have been a sufficient inducement to bring back the great Nadir Kuli so far as Umarkot; and in May 1740 just one year after his departure from Dehli he was in Herat displaying the imperial throne and other costly trophies to the gaze of the admiring inhabitants. Sind was cer tainly included in the cession to him by Muhammad Shah of "all the territories westward of tho river Attok," but only that portion of it, such as Thattah (Tatta), situated on the right bank of the Indus. North- From Herat he moved upon Balkh and Bukhara, and em con- a ^ a snor t distance from the latter city received the sub- ques s. m i ss j on O f Abu 1-Fdiz Khdn, the Uzbek ruler, whom he restored to his throne on condition that the Oxus should be the acknowledged boundary between the two empires. The khan of Khwarizm was his next opponent ; and, as this chief rejected conciliation, and had given serious cause of offence by repeated depredations in Persian terri tory, he was made prisoner and doomed, with some of his officers, to execution. Nadir then visited the strong fortress of Kelat, a place which now bears his name and to which he was greatly attached as the scene of his boyish exploits, and Mashhad, which he constituted the capital of his empire. Here he spent three months in festivity ; and if extension of dominion be a cause for gratulation he could well justify the demonstration, for he had extended his boundary on the east to the Indus, and to the Oxus on the north. On the south he was restricted by the Arabian Ocean Wars and Persian Gulf ; but the west remained open to his in tlle further progress. He had in the first place to revenge westl the death of his brother Ibrahim Khan, slain by the Lesghians ; and a campaign against the Turks might follow in due course. The first movement was unsuccessful, and indirectly attended with disastrous consequences. Nadir, when hastening to the support of some Afghan levies who were doing good service, was fired at and wounded by j a stray assailant ; suspecting his son, Ri/a Kuli, of com- plicity, he commanded the unfortunate prince to be seized and deprived of sight. From that time the heroism of the monarch appeared to die out. He became morose, tyrannical, and suspicious. An easy victory over the Turks gave him but little additional glory ; and he readily concluded a peace with the sultan which brought but insignificant gain to Persia. 1 Another battle Avon from the Ottoman troops near Diarbekir by Ndsr Ullah Mirza, the young prince who had married a princess of Dehli, left matters much the same as before. " It was agreed that prisoners on both sides should be released, that Persian pilgrims going to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina should be protected, and that the whole of the provinces of Irak and Adarbaijan should remain with Persia, except an inconsiderable territory that had be longed to the Turkish Government in the time of Shah Ismail, the first of the Suffavi kings." 2 The last years of Nadir s life were full of internal trouble. On the part of the sovereign, murders and executions ; on that of his subjects, revolt and conspiracy, these were the ordinary topics of common interest throughout the country. Such a state of things could not last, and certain proscribed persons plotted together for the destruction of a sovereign who had now become a half-demented tyrant. He was despatched by Salah Bey, captain of his guards, to whom, with three others, was committed the work of his assassina tion (1747). He was some sixty years of age, and had reigned eleven years. About the time of setting out on his Indian expedition he was described as a most comely man, upwards of 6 feet high, well-proportioned, of robust make and constitution ; inclined to be fat, but prevented by the fatigue he underwent ; with fine, large black eyes and eye brows ; of sanguine complexion, made more manly by the influence of sun and weather ; a loud, strong voice ; a moderate wine-drinker ; fond of simple diet, such as pilaos and plain dishes, but often neglectful of meals altogether, and satisfied, if occasion required, with parched peas and water, always to be procured. 3 Malcolm winds up a long account of his idiosyncrasies with the following. " The character of this wonderful man is, perhaps, exhibited in its truest colours in those impressions which the memory of his actions has left upon the minds of his countrymen. They speak of him as a deliverer and a destroyer ; but while they expatiate with pride upon his deeds of glory, they dwell with more pity than horror upon the cruel enormities which disgraced the latter years of his reign ; and neither his crimes, nor the attempt he made to abolish their religion, have subdued their gratitude and veneration for the hero, who revived in the breasts of his degraded countrymen 1 Professor Creasy says the war broke out in 1743, but was termi nated in 1746 by a treaty which made little change in the old arrange ments fixed under Murad IV. 2 Malcolm. 3 Eraser s History of Nddir Shdh (1742).