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 308

HISTORY OF INDIA

[Book III

His invasion of India.

A.D. i7:i7. good his claim t(tlic crown wiiich his unc;(.stors had so lori;^ worn. Of these various combatants, it might have been supposed that the Turks and Russians, from the superiority of their discipline, would be the most fonni<lable. It proved otherwise. Ashref compelled the Turks, after repeated defeats, t<; acknowledge his title ; and, before he had measured his strength with the Russians, had the satisfaction to learn that the- death of the czar had induced them to withdraw. Tahmasp alone remained, and was not to be so easil' disposed of In himself he was not very foimidable, but fortune had drawn to Rue of Nadir his standard one of the greatest warriors whom Persia has ever produced. Tliis

Sliah, ...

was Nadir Kouli, who began life as the head of a band of freebooters, and at last, after freeing his country from a foreign yoke, became the usurper of its throne. Victory scarcely ever failed to attend him ; and by dexterously playing the two leading Afghan tribes, the Khiljies and the Abdalees or Dooranees, against each other, succeeded in crushing both. Patriotism .seemed for a time to be his ruling passion, and Tahmasp, as the legitimate monarch, ascended the Persian throne ; but patriotism was eventually supplanted by ambition, and Nadir, unable to brook a superior, first declared the throne vacant, and then took possession of it in his own name in 1737, alleging that he had been called to it by the popular voice.

Henceforth known as Nadir Shah, he resolved to pursue his career of

victory; and proceeding eastward, at the head of an army of 80,000 men, laid siege to Kan- dahar. It originally belonged to the Persian monarchy, but had been wTested from it, and was now in possession of the Khiljies. It was valiantly defended, and stood several assaults before it was taken. The capture of Kandahar and conquest of the adjoining teni- tory made Persia conterminous with India. Nadir Shah, as he looked eastward into the valley of the Indus, and beheld a mighty empire torn by intestine wars and tottering to its fall, must have been strongly tempted, if not to become its conqueror, to obtain a share in its spoils. He had already some ground of quarrel with its government. Diu-ing the siege of Kandahar, not only had an application which he made for the delivery of some Afghans who had taken refuge within its territory been treated with neglect, but even the validity of his title to the Persian crown had been called in question. Instead of wasting time in unavailing remonstrance, he took a more effectual mode of expressing his resentment by seizing upon Cabool. The court of Delhi ought now to have

Nadir Shah. — From Fraser's Hist, of Nadir Sluih.