The siege of Kandahar began when
Nader Shah's
Afsharid
Afsharid Iran ( fa, ایران افشاری), also referred as the Afsharid Empire was an Iranian empire established by the Turkoman Afshar tribe in Iran's north-eastern province of Khorasan, ruling Iran (Persia). The state was ruled by the ...
army invaded southern
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
to topple the last
Hotaki
The Hotak ( ps, هوتک) or Hotaki () is a tribe of the Ghilji confederacy of the Pashtun people. The Hotak started centuries ago as a political family. The first king to take power in Kandahar, Afghanistan, was Mirwais Hotak (1673–1715). Af ...
stronghold of
Loy Kandahar
Lōy Kandahār ( ps, لوی کندهار, lit. "Greater Kandahar") is a historical and cultural region of Afghanistan, comprising the modern Afghanistan provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Farah, Uruzgan, as well as parts of Nimruz and Zabul, ...
, which was held by
Hussain Hotaki. It took place in the
Old Kandahar
Old Kandahar (locally known as Zorr Shaar; ps, زوړ ښار, , Old City, also Shahr-i-Kona in Dari) is a historical section of the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. Many believe that there are hidden ancient treasures buried in and aroun ...
area of the modern city of
Kandahar
Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a List of cities in Afghanistan, city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population ...
in Afghanistan and lasted until March 24, 1738, when the Hotaki Afghans were defeated by the Persian army.
Background
After
expelling the Afghans from Iran in 1729, Tahmasp Qoli Khan had planned to attack the Hotaks and reconquer Qandahar in 1730. However, multiple events postponed this. As Hussain Hotak was afraid of an Afsharid attack on Qandahar he incited the Abdalis of Herat to revolt,
causing Nader to abandon
his campaign against the Ottomans and incorporate Herat back into the Safavid Empire. This was done with the Fall of Herat on February 27, 1732.
When Nader made peace with the Ottomans in 1736, he began to prepare to attack.
The Siege
Much of the duration of the siege saw little fighting as Nader's forces' lack of heavy artillery forced them to settle into a blockade of the fortified town.
[Axworthy p.182] As the
Persians
The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian.
...
became more impatient, they made several attempts to take the city by storm but the Afghans defiantly repulsed these attempts.
Bakhtiari assault
In anticipation of the siege, the Afghans had stockpiled large amounts of provisions in the fortified town and although starvation had begun to take hold by the end of 1737, Nader realized that it would take a long time for the Afghans to exhaust the last of their provisions. He was unsure of his position in Persia; although he had deposed
Tahmasp II
Tahmasp II ( fa, طهماسب, translit=Ṭahmāsb or ; 1704? – 11 February 1740) was one of the last Safavid rulers of Persia (Iran).
Name
"Tahmasp" ( fa, طهماسب, translit=Ṭahmāsb) is a New Persian name, ultimately derived from Ol ...
, the deposed ex-king was still alive and Nader did not want to remain bogged down in the siege. On March 23, 1738, Nader selected 3,000 men from among the
Bakhtiari contingent of his troops to lead a
human wave
The human wave attack, also known as the human sea attack, is an offensive infantry tactic in which an attacker conducts an unprotected frontal assault with densely concentrated infantry formations against the enemy line, intended to overrun and ...
assault on Kandahar.
A Bakhtiari named Mullah Adineh Mostafi was selected to lead the assault party.
Nader initially tried to dissuade the
mullah from taking part in the attack given the threat he faced but Adineh insisted on taking part.
The night before the attack, Nader personally addressed the Bakhtiaris and told them that they would each be given 1,000
rupees
Rupee is the common name for the currencies of
India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...
and a share of the spoils of the city if the assault succeeded.
On March 24, the assault commenced and the Bakhtiaris surged forth from their concealed positions on the cliffs of Chehel Zina and charged towards the city. The Afghan gunners in the fortified city guard towers managed to kill some of the attackers but many of the Bakhtiaris reached the city walls and used their ladders to scale it. Mullah Adineh was the first to make it to the top and a fierce struggle took place atop the Kandahar city walls.
Gradually, the Bakhtiaris managed to take control of the walls and proceeded to take the inner fortifications of the city. The attackers then raised guns atop the walls and used them to bombard the city.
The Afghans made several attempts to retake the city's fortifications but they were beaten back by heavy fire from the Bakhtiari Jazayerchis. Realizing the hopelessness of the struggle,
Hussain Hotaki and a few Afghans retreated into the Kandahar citadel, leaving the rest of the inhabitants of the city to be killed or captured.
The Persians then proceeded to commandeer the cannons installed on the city's walls and used these cannons to bombard the citadel. Finally, the next day, on March 25, 1738, Hussain Hotaki and the rest of his retinue which had taken shelter in the citadel, surrendered.
Aftermath
Nader Shah generously rewarded the Bakhtiaris and personally rewarded Adineh Mostafi with a bag full of gold. Hussain Hotaki was treated leniently and was exiled to
Mazandaran along with the rest of the Hotaki royal family; it is presumed that he and his family were later killed during the
Zand Zand may refer to:
* Zend, a class of exegetical commentaries on Zoroastrian scripture
* Zand District, an administrative subdivision of Iran
* Zand Boulevard, in Shiraz, Iran
* Z And, a variable star
As a tribal/clan and dynastic name
* Zand tr ...
massacres of Afghans in what is now northern Iran. On the other hand, Nader was suspicious of Hussain's main military commander, Mohammad Seidal Khan, and suspected him of being a troublemaker; Nader therefore ordered that he be blinded.
The city of Kandahar was systematically destroyed by artillery fire and the surviving inhabitants were transferred to a new city that the Afsharid forces had prepared and planned to build about 6 miles south-east of the ancient city.
Nader named the city "
Naderabad", after himself. The old city was not reoccupied but the ruins of the old Kandahar Citadel remain visible to this day. The capture of Kandahar is a resonant event in Bakhtiari Oral history and in
Lur
A lur, also lure or lurr, is a long natural blowing horn without finger holes that is played with a brass-type embouchure. Lurs can be straight or curved in various shapes. The purpose of the curves was to make long instruments easier to car ...
culture in general; it is an event which has become a cultural touchstone.
See also
*
Military of the Afsharid dynasty of Persia
The military forces of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran had their origins in the relatively obscure yet bloody inter-factional violence in Khorasan during the collapse of the Safavid state. The small band of warriors under local warlord Nader Qoli ...
*
Durrani dynasty
The Durrani dynasty ( fa, سلسله درانیان; ps, د درانيانو کورنۍ) was founded in 1747 by Ahmad Shah Durrani at Kandahar, Afghanistan. He united the different Pashtun tribes and created the Durrani Empire. which at it ...
References
Sources
*
Michael Axworthy, ''The Sword of Persia: Nader Shah, from Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant'' Hardcover 348 pages (26 July 2006) Publisher:
I.B. Tauris
I.B. Tauris is an educational publishing house and imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. It was an independent publishing house with offices in London and New York City until its purchase in May 2018 by Bloomsbury Publishing.
It specialises in non ...
Language: English
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kandahar, Siege of
Conflicts in 1738
1738 in Afghanistan
Battles involving Afsharid Iran
Sieges involving Afghanistan
History of Kandahar Province