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{{Short description|Conflict within present-day Afghanistan}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict = Mughal–Safavid War
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| partof = [[Mughal–Persian Wars]]
| date = 1649–1653
| place = [[Afghanistan]]
| result = [[Safavid]] victory
*[[Safavid]]s recapture [[Kandahar]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/safavids|title=SAFAVID DYNASTY – Encyclopaedia Iranica|website=iranicaonline.org|access-date=2019-06-02|quote=Aside from the conflict with the Mughals in 1648-50, during which the shah seized Kandahar from Shah Jahān, no major external wars were fought}}</ref>
| territory = Kandahar falls again to the [[Safavid]]s.
| combatant1 = [[File:Safavid Flag.svg|25px|border]] [[Safavid Empire]]
[[File:War flag of Khanate of Bukhara.svg|25px]] [[Khanate of Bukhara]]
| combatant2 = [[Mughal Empire]]
{{flagicon image|Flag of Jaipur.svg}} [[Jaipur State]]
| commander1 = [[File:Safavid Flag.svg|25px|border]] [[Abbas II of Persia|Abbas II]] [[File:Safavid Flag.svg|25px|border]] [[Mihrab Khan|Mehrāb Khan]] [[File:Safavid Flag.svg|25px|border]] [[Otar Beg|Autar Khan]] [[File:War flag of Khanate of Bukhara.svg|25px]]Abdul Aziz
| commander2 = [[Shah Jahan]] [[Jai Singh I]] [[Aurangzeb]] [[Murad Baksh]] [[Dara Shikoh]] [[Kilich Khan]] 
| strength1 = 40,000 10,000 12,000 [[Zamburak]]
| strength2 = 80,000 18,000 [[Sowar]]s (Cavalry) 110 [[Cannon]]s
| casualties1 = 5,000
| casualties2 = 17,000
}}
The '''Mughal–Safavid War of 1649–1653''' was fought between the [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] and [[Safavid Empire|Safavid]] empires in the territory of modern [[Afghanistan]]. While the Mughals were at war with the [[Khanate of Bukhara|Janid Uzbeks]], the Safavid army captured the fortress city of [[Kandahar]] and other strategic cities that controlled the region. The Mughals attempted to regain the city, but their efforts were proven unsuccessful.

==Background==
[[File:The Surrender of Kandahar.jpg|thumb|''The Surrender of Kandahar'', a miniature painting from the ''[[Padshahnama]]'' depicting Persians surrendering keys to the city to Kilij Khan in 1638]]

The [[Safavids]] had territorial claims over Kandahar since the reign of [[Shah Tahmasp]]. The overthrow of [[Humayun]], the [[Mughal Emperor]], is known to have gained the support of Shah Tahmasp, in return for his permission to allow the [[Safavids]] to capture Kandahar. Subsequently, conflicts emerged in the region during the reign of another Mughal emperor, [[Jahangir]].

Since 1638, when the Kurdish turncoat [[Ali Mardan Khan]] handed Kandahar over to [[Shah Jahan]], both [[Kabul]] and [[Kandahar]] were under Mughal control. It was considered vital for the Mughal Empire that the twin 'gateway-cities' to Hindustan, i.e. Kabul and Kandahar, be brought under Mughal rule, for two primary reasons. Firstly, the Mughal Empire in India was often viewed by them as a painfully small compensation for the loss of their ancient capital – [[Samarkand]] – which they had been driven out of by the Uzbeks. Beyond the internal administrative agendas, the Mughals always kept it a priority to expand the western frontier of the empire in the sentiment of reconquista. Secondly, Central Asian trade provided the Mughals with warhorses, without which not only the military forces would be incapacitated, but could also potentially spark tribal revolts and foreign invasions.<ref name="Kinra">Kinra 2015, p.157</ref> Kandahar in particular was at the crossroads of a number of major commercial trade routes in Central Asia. The two cities were thus the subject of deep strategic concern.<ref name="dlx.b-ok.org">{{Cite web|url=http://dlx.b-ok.org/genesis/628000/06ae9010b197a442876290ce257027ff/_as/|title=Z-Library single sign on}}</ref>

In February 1646, Shah Jahan dispatched an army of 60,000 to [[Kabul]], and thence to [[Badakshan]] and [[Balkh]], with his son [[Murad Baksh]] as the commander-in-chief. This was done in support of Nazr Muhammad and his son, Abd al-Aziz, against the Toqai-Timurid ruler of Balkh. However, Nazr Muhammad and Abd al-Aziz betrayed the Mughals after the end of the campaign, and fled to [[Isfahan]]. The subsequent Balkh campaign in 1647 against them was led by [[Aurangzeb]], and cost the Mughal empire 20 million rupees along with the recently acquired Balkh and Badakshan.<ref name="dlx.b-ok.org"/>

In 1639, the armies of [[Safi of Persia|Shah Safi of Persia]] captured [[Bamyan, Afghanistan|Bamyan]] and it appeared that they would attack Kandahar next. In 1646, Shah Jahan, assisted by Kamran Khanand [[Malik Maghdood]], had marched on Kandahar and negotiated the surrender from the Persian commander, Ali Mardan Khan. He expected the Persians to attempt to regain the city soon and so he ordered that the wall be repaired rapidly while a large Mughal army based in [[Kabul]] protected the area. In 1646, when no Persian attack came, the Emperor sent his son, [[Murad Baksh]], to invade Uzbek-controlled [[Badakhshan]]. In the following year, [[Aurangzeb]], another son, routed an [[Uzbeks|Uzbek]] force outside of [[Balkh]] and captured the city.<ref name="Chandra226">Chandra 2005, p. 226</ref> Though victorious in the field, the Mughals were unable to secure the conquered territories and Shah Jahan was forced to recall his armies from Badakhshan.

==War==

On 4 April 1648, encouraged by the Mughal reversal in Badakhshan,<ref name="Cambridge">Cambridge 1986, p. 299</ref> Shah Abbas II marched from [[Isfahan]] with an army of 40,000. After capturing [[Lashkar Gah|Bost]], he laid siege to Kandahar on 28 December<ref>{{Cite book|last=Noelle-Karimi|first=Christine|title=The Pearl in Its Midst: Herat and the Mapping of Khurasan (15th-19th Centuries)|publisher=[[Austrian Academy of Sciences]]|year=2014|isbn=978-3700172024|pages=68}}</ref> and easily captured it after a brief siege on 22 February 1649.<ref name="Iranica">Iranica</ref> The disaster of the Balkh campaign had gravely weakened the Mughals' position on the frontier. The short duration of the Kandahar siege – two months – stands testament to the vulnerability of the Mughals in Afghanistan.<ref name="dlx.b-ok.org"/> The Mughals attempted to retake the city in 1651 but the arrival of winter forced them to suspend the siege.<ref name="Iranica">Iranica</ref>

=== Sieges of Kandahar ===
{{Main|Three Sieges of Kandahar}}
Shah Jahan sent Aurangzeb with 50,000 soldiers to recapture it, but although he defeated the Safavids outside the city he was unable to take it.<ref name="Chandra228">Chandra 2005, p. 228</ref> His artillery train proved unable for the task.<ref name="Kohn338">Kohn 2007, p. 338</ref> Aurangzeb attempted to take the fortress city again in 1652. [[Abdul Aziz Khan (Bukhara)|Abdul Aziz]], Khan of Bukhara, had entered into an alliance with Shah Abbas and in May 1652, he dispatched 10,000 troops to Kabul in May to harass the Mughal supply lines.<ref name="Burton">Burton 1997, p. 266</ref> Though not strong enough to lift the siege, the Uzbeks endangered a Mughal convoy of 2,000 who were escorting one and a half million silver coins to the besieger's army at Kandahar.<ref name="Burton">Burton 1997, p. 266</ref> After two months of fighting Persian resistance<ref name="Kohn338">Kohn 2007, p. 338</ref> and the growing activities of the Uzbeks,<ref name="Iranica">Iranica</ref> Aurangzeb was forced to abandon the campaign.

In 1653 Shah Jahan sent [[Dara Shikoh]], with a large army and two of the heaviest artillery pieces of the empire,<ref name="Chandra228">Chandra 2005, p. 228</ref> but after a five-month siege the Mughals couldn't manage to starve the city, and the attempt to breach their walls by cannon fire also failed.<ref name="Chandra228">Chandra 2005, p. 228</ref> The Mughals finally gave up all attempts to recover Kandahar.<ref name="Kohn338">Kohn 2007, p. 338</ref>

==Role of environment and climate==

The tribes of the region of the Hindu Kush were often rebellious and had to be constantly pacified, disciplined, or eliminated. Their raids of Mughal supply lines and advance parties were disastrous for the army. At times these groups of fighters were independent, and at other times, they worked in coordination with the Uzbeks.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|title=A Mirror for Munshīs: Secretarial Arts and Mughal Governance|date=2015|jstor=10.1525/j.ctt1ffjn5h.6|work=Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary|pages=60–94|last=Kinra|first=Rajeev|publisher=University of California Press|chapter=Secretarial Arts and Mughal Governance}}</ref> Acquiring cash for the army was intensely difficult due to the differences in the monetary infrastructures between Mughal India and Afghanistan, hence the army was forced to lug bullion and cash across the steep passes and narrow defiles of the Hindu Kush mountains.

Further, the terrain and climate of the Hindu Kush and beyond is infamously debilitating. Neither raiding areas nor acquiring land revenue from the conquered areas was by any means extravagantly rewarding to the soldiers, due to the moderate agricultural production of the area. There was no equivalent of the Indian local grain-carriers, the Banjaras. There was also very little scope for foraging with the constant raids from Uzbek troops and resident tribal groups. The ferocity of the Afghan winter further added to these woes. Winter months meant a severe severance of transport across the Hindu Kush, something which was instrumental in the failure of several Mughal campaigns against the Safavids in Central Asia.<ref name=":0" />

==See also==
* [[Juriaen Ambdis]]
* [[Mughal-Safavid War (1622–1623)]]
* [[Foreign relations of the Mughal Empire]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book|last=Burton|first=Audrey|title=The Bukharans:a dynastic, diplomatic, and commercial history, 1550–1702|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6c1elcwgUzAC|year=1997|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=9780312173876}}
*{{cite book|last=Chandra|first=Satish|title=Medieval India: from Sultanat to the Mughals|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Rm9MC4DDrcC|volume=II|year=2005|publisher=Har-Anand Publications|isbn=9788124110669}}
*{{cite book|last=Kohn|first=George C. |title=Dictionary of wars|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OIzreCGlHxIC |year=2007|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn= 9780816065776}}
*{{cite web|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kandahar-from-the-mongol-invasion-through-the-safavid-era|title=KANDAHAR iv. From The Mongol Invasion Through the Safavid Era|publisher=Encyclopædia Iranica|access-date=13 October 2011}}
*{{cite book|title=The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 6|year=1986|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-20094-3}}
*{{cite web|url=http://dlx.b-ok.org/genesis/628000/06ae9010b197a442876290ce257027ff/_as/[J.J.L._Gommans]_Mughal_Warfare_Indian_Frontiers_(b-ok.org).pdf|title=Mughal Warfare: Indian Frontiers and Highroads to Empire, 1500-1700, by Jos Gommans}}
*{{cite book |chapter=King of Delhi, King of the World: Chandar Bhan’s Perspective on Shah Jahan, the Mughal Court, and the Realm |title=Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary |journal=Writing Self, Writing Empire |pages=95–158 |last=Kinra |first=Rajeev |jstor=10.1525/j.ctt1ffjn5h.7 |year=2015 |publisher=University of California Press}}
*{{cite book|jstor=10.1163/j.ctt1w8h2gc.7|chapter=Gods, Demons, and Kings |title= Narratives of Kingship in Eurasian Empires, 1300-1800|pages=52–77 |last=van Leeuwen |first=Richard|publisher=Brill|date=2017}}

{{Mughal Empire}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mughal-Safavid War (1649-53)}}
[[Category:Battles involving the Mughal Empire]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1649]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1650]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1651]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1652]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1653]]
[[Category:Wars involving Safavid Iran]]
[[Category:Wars involving Afghanistan]]
[[Category:History of Kandahar]]
[[Category:1640s in Asia]]
[[Category:1650s in Asia]]
[[Category:1649 in Asia]]
[[Category:1653 in Asia]]
[[Category:Invasions by India]]
[[Category:Wars involving the Mughal Empire]]

Mughal–Safavid War (1649–1653) - Revision history

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