afghanistanNadir Shah’s conquest of Balkh and MervWhile Nadir Shah was occupied with his India campaign, north of the
Hindu Kush events were unfolding that would lead to another significant
shift in the geopolitics of the region. In the summer of 1737 Nadir Shah
sent his son and heir, Reza Quli Mirza, to subdue Abu’l-Hasan, ruler of the
Tuqay-Timurid wilayat of Balkh. 7 The Persian army triumphed and Abu’l-
Hasan was deposed, but the decade of Persian occupation of Balkh was an
economic catastrophe for the region. Balkh produced large surpluses of
grain, melons, grapes and dried fruit as well as being an important supplier
of pack animals and cavalry horses, so the Persian governor proceeded to
strip the region bare in order to supply Nadir Shah’s military juggernaut.
In 1742 alone 4,000 kharwar, 8 or between 1,200 and 2,240 metric tonnes, of
grain were requisitioned from Balkh and thousands of men were forcibly
conscripted into Nadir Shah’s army; thousands more were sent to labour
in western Khurasan and Merv. As a consequence Balkh was denuded of
essential manpower needed for its own agricultural activities. Among the
levies was a contingent of Uzbeks from Maimana commanded by Hajji Bi
Ming. They later became part of Nadir Shah’s royal guard, where Hajji Bi
struck up a friendship with Ahmad Shah ‘Abdali.
The economic hardship and resentment that resulted from Persia’s
ruthless exploitation of Balkh eventually coalesced around a millenarian
movement led by a peripatetic dervish called Rasul, though this was prob-
ably an assumed name since rasul (‘apostle’, ‘messenger’) is a title applied to
Muhammad and a handful of other prophets in Islam. Nothing is known
about Rasul’s ethnicity, but it is possible he was an ‘Abdali, since he came
from the Obeh region and had a considerable appeal to nomadic tribes,
both Turkic and Afghan. 9
Rasul’s early years were troubled but he eventually bound himself to a
dervish who taught him numerology, geomancy and sleight-of-hand tricks.
There is some indication in the sources that he also associated with Hindu
sadhus and yogis. In or around 1739 Rasul arrived in Ghazni, probably
shortly after the Persian occupation, where he earned a reputation as a
healer and for his knack of predicting the future. Nadir’s governor, however,
saw him as a threat, so in the autumn of 1741 Rasul and a band of devotees
set out for Balkh, taking the Murghab route through Herat and Maimana.
When he arrived outside Andkhui, Rasul ordered his followers to tie
fresh leaves to their clothes and to don green turbans prior to entering the
settlement, but the Persian governor, fearing the presence of a large crowd
fired with religious fervour might lead to trouble, refused him admittance.