afghanistanof the Kandahar region and appointed Persian overseers, experienced in
agriculture and irrigated cultivation, to improve cultivation and to reform
the tax system. Other specialists supervised the cleaning and digging of
new karez, the subterranean, spring-fed aqueducts that are such a feature
of both Afghanistan and Iran. 3
A month or so after the fall of Kandahar, Nadir Shah crossed the Mughal
frontier at Muqur and marched on Ghazni, justifying his invasion on the
grounds that the Mughal governor of Kabul had given protection to flee-
ing Ghilzais. Ghazni quickly submitted and, as Nadir Shah continued his
relentless advance, the governor of Kabul desperately pleaded with Delhi
for reinforcements and cash, for his troops had not been paid for more than
five years. Delhi, though, ignored his calls for help and when the Persian
army arrived before the city walls, the town elders came out and tendered
their submission. The garrison, however, refused to surrender so Nadir Shah
The tomb of Zahir
al-Din Babur, founder
of the Mughal Empire,
on the western face of
Kabul’s Sher Darwaza
hill. The marble
screen is modern,
constructed as part
of restoration work
instituted by the
Aga Khan Trust for
Culture.