98 State of Khorásán, A. H. 935, Inroads of CHAPTER III. AFFAIRS OF KHORÁSÁN AND KANDAHÁR. THE STATE OF KHORÁSÁN. INROADS OF OBEID KHAN, AND THE UZBEKS. OBEID KHAN BESIEGES MESHHÍD AND HERÁT. LAGED. ADVANCE OF SHAH TAHMASP - WHICH IS PIL AND RETREAT OF THE BOOK IV. WHILE these events were passing in Malwa and Gujrát, Khorásán and the Persian frontier were the scene of important transactions. After the great defeat which the Uzbeks sustained at Jám, about nine years before this time, it was expected that Khorásán would, for a long period, have been delivered from their inroads and invasions. But they were an enemy not easily daunted. That same year, as soon as Shah Tahmasp had quitted the province, Obeid Khan again collected an army, crossed the Amu, and marched against Meshhíd, which he took possession of, after a blockade of two months. Thence he proceeded to Herát, besieged it for seven months, and took it by capitulation. His Sunni zeal is said, by the Persian writers, to have led him to retaliate the Shía persecutions of Shah Ismael and his successor, and even to put to death many of the opposite sect, as Shías and heretics. Obeid Khan and the Uzbeks. They are expelled from Kho rásán ; Next year, the victorious Uzbek advanced to Farra, which he beleagured for some time, but without success, so that he was compelled to raise the seige; and, on .. 936, A.D. 1530. hearing of the march of Shah Tahmasp into Khorásán, CHAP. III. at the head of seventy thousand men, he hastily abandoned Herát, and retreated to Merv. He summoned all the force of the Uzbeks to join him there; and the Sultans, from beyond the Amu, obeyed his call. But when met, their opinions differed. Kuchum Khan, of Samarkand, the Grand Khan, dying, was succeeded by his son Abusaíd, who set his face against the war, declaring his resolution not to join in it, and advising Obeid to desist. His views were supported by some other chiefs; and Obeid, seeing himself thus deserted, and hearing of the Shah's near approach, turned his back, with an indignant heart, upon Khorásán. Shah Tahmasp, having expelled the enemy, marched to Herát; and the fishstandard of Persia again gleamed over the whole province. Having established his brother Behrám Mírza as viceroy, with Gházi Khan, of the Taklu tribe, as his Protector and Amír-ul-omra, he returned to Irák. Obeid Khan, though unsupported by the Uzbek confederacy, next year sent a detachment into Khorásán, who marched as far as Meshhíd, but were driven back by the local force. Nothing dismayed, however, by this repulse, he, the following season, again entered the A. H. 938, country with a powerful host, having induced the other Uzbeks to join him, and marched straight for the capital, while divisions of his troops overran the provinces of Meshhíd, Asterábád, Sebzáwár and Bostám with various success. For a year and a half, the country was and besiege plundered in all directions, and Obeid continued to push on the siege of Herát. Shah Tahmasp, completely and painfully occupied by the rebellion of Aláma Taklu in Azerbaiján, who had called in the Osmanli Turks to his assistance, was unable to succour them. At length, famine began to rage in the besieged capital. The inhabitants were expelled, their provisions, money and property seized by the domineering Taklus, and the floors of their houses dug up to discover hidden trea Again over- run it ; A.D. 1531. A. D. 1532. Herát ; BOOK IV. sure. Cats and dogs, and food deemed the most impure, were eagerly eaten. The strength of the troops, who suffered alike from want and fatigue, began to fail. An offer was made to give up the place, provided Obeid would withdraw his troops a march or two, so as to let the garrison quit the city unmolested. He, on the other hand, haughtily insisted that they should march out and defile under his tent-ropes.* This condition Behrám Mírza and his Taklu allies rejected, and the operations of the siege were continued. which is relieved by masp; Meanwhile, however, Tahmasp, having quelled the Shah Tah rebellion of Aláma, was proceeding by forced marches to the relief of Herát. A party that he sent out surprised the Uzbeks who were in Asterábád, one morning when most of them were in the bath, put them to death with little resistance, and sent him five hundred heads. The Uzbeks, who held Sebzáwár, were in like manner attacked, but retired fighting bravely, first to Nishapúr, and then to Meshhíd. Abdal-azíz, who was near that city, hurried to Herát with seven thousand horse, to support his father. Obeid did not venture to meet the Shah in the field, and retired to Bokhára, while Shah Tahmasp once more entered Herát, to the great joy of the inhabitants, and spent the winter in the A.D. 1532, neighbourhood. and the Uzbeks once more repelled. Jemádi II. 2. Dec. 30. A. H. 939, A. D. 1533. In the spring, he sent a division of his troops to reduce the adjoining province of Ghurjistán among the mountains, and was preparing to retaliate upon the Uzbeks by invading Máwer-al-neher, when the news that his grand enemy, Soliman the magnificent, was on his march to attack his dominions in the west, compelled him to relinquish his intention. As the Taklu Turks had been guilty of great oppression during the government of their chief, and were very unpopular, he named his brother, Sám Mírza, to be Viceroy; ap Tenáb-e-Khíma. pointing Aghziwár Khan, of the Shamlu tribe, his Pro- CHAP. III. tector and Amír-al-omra of Khorásán; then entrusting the defence of the city to the townspeople*, he set out for Irák. For rather more than two years, Khorásán enjoyed quiet under Sám Mírza and Aghziwár Khan, as the Uzbeks did not renew their ravages. But, when news reached Herát, of the death of Husein Khan Shamlu, and the destruction of his tribe under the royal indignation, the Mírza, and still more Aghziwár Khan, himself a Shamlu, began to look to rebellion for safety. Collecting money, by extortion and violence in every shape, they raised an army, and resolved to attack Kandahár; proposing, according to the Persian authorities, to erect it, along with Herát, into an independent sovereignty. Sam Mirza in Herát and Kanda hár. A. D. 1535. latter place; We have seen that Humayun, on the death of his father, had given up the countries from the Satlej to Khorásán, to his brother Kámrán Mírza. Early in the A.H. 941, summer of 1535, Sám Mírza and his protector Aghziwár Khan, being joined by Sultan Murád Afshár of Farra, advanced with a considerable army, crossed the Helmend, and laid siege to Kandahár. The place was Siege of the bravely defended for eight months by Khwaja Kilán, the governor, who had succeeded Askeri Mírza in the management of the province. Kámrán Mírza, when apprised of the invasion, marched from Láhúr, and led an army of twenty thousand men to its relief. On his raised by approach, the besiegers retired one march, and en- Mirza; camped. They were attacked, however, in their new position, on the 25th of January, 1536, and defeated A. H. 942, with great slaughter, principally by the military skill and bravery of Khwaja Kilán. Aghziwár Khan Shamlu, the young prince's Atálík, or Protector, having been thrown from his horse, was taken prisoner and put to * Shahr-zadegan. Alem-arái Abási, ff. 24—27. Kámrán Shábán 1, A. D. 1536, Jan. 25, who routs the in vaders. BOOK IV. death. The Mirza effected his escape to the Germsír, whence he soon after proceeded to Tabas. Having by this exploit secured the western part of his dominions, Kámrán returned back to Láhúr. Unsuccess ful attempt on Lahúr med Zemán Mírza. It was while he was absent on this expedition, that Muhammed Zemán Mírza, who, it will be recollected, by Muham- after the rout of Beháder Shah at Mandsúr, had set out to try his fortune, or to make a diversion on the side of the Penjáb, reached the borders of Sind. Shah Husein, the son of Shah Shuja Beg Arghún, the sovereign of Sind, unwilling that an ambitious prince of such pretensions should enter his dominions, encouraged him to proceed to the conquest of Láhúr, which he represented as a tempting and practicable object, since Kámrán was absent with the army in Kandahár, so that that fertile and populous country was left comparatively defenceless. The Mírza accordingly went on to the Penjáb and laid siege to Láhúr. But unfortunately for his views, Kámrán Mírza returned victorious at that very crisis, and the invader saw himself forced to retire with precipitation, and to return to Gujrát, which he reached with a few followers in the utmost want and misery. We have seen that he there enjoyed a short-lived sovereignty, before he was compelled to flee once more to Sind, and finally to Hindustán. New invasion of Khorásán by the Uzbeks; A. H. 941, The march of Sám Mírza to attack Kandahár, was a signal for the Uzbeks to renew their inroads. In the north, a body of five or six thousand entered and laid waste Khorásán. Sufián Khalifa, the governor of MeshA.D. 1535. híd, an undaunted but hot-headed soldier, was successful in coming up with, and defeating them. To the eastward, another inroad was made from Ghurjistán. Khalifa Sultan Shamlu, whom the Protector had left governor of Herát, having marched to repel them, with a motley and ill-assorted body of troops, collected in haste, in absence of the regular forces, was attacked, defeated and slain. The inhabitants of Herát, thus left |