It now became a point of honour with theShah Abbas II. prepares to recover it. Persian sovereign to recover Qandahar. Shah Abbas II, who had ascended the throne of Isfahan in 1642 as a boy of ten only, wanted to signalise his coming of age by a great exploit. In August, 1648, he began to assemble matchlockmen and pioneers in Khurasan, lay in stores of grain at convenient centres, and mobilise a large force at Herat. At the same time the traffic from Persia to Qandahar by this route was stopped, in order to withhold news from the doomed city. But preparations on such a vast scale cannot be kept secret. At the end of September Shah Jahan learnt of the project; he was even informed that the Persians would make the attack in winter, when the heavy snowfall of Afghanistan would prevent the arrival of relief from India. Shah Jahan, then at Delhi, took counsel with his ministers. Shah Jahan delays sending relief. It was at first decided to move the Court to Kabul, and to warn the nobles to join the expedition with their quotas of troops. But a
Akhari, i. 313—314, 409, 504; Elliot, vi. 130; Rugat-i-Shah Abbas Sani, 77—79, Alam Arai Abbasi (Mulla Firuz MS.), ii. 119; Khafi Khan, i. 115—122, 326; Abdul Hamid, ii. 24—40; Masir-ul-Umara, ii. 795—798 (Life of Ali Mardan Khan), iii. 296 et seq; Encyclopaedia of Islam, i. 167 and 168.
