The battle for Khyber Pass is a battle between the Persian empire of Nadir Shah and the governor of Peshawar , the vassal of the Mughal empire . The result of the battle was the victory of the Persians, which opened the way for them to invade the Mughal lands.
| Battle of Khyber Pass | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Main Conflict: Wars of Nadir Shah | |||
 Map of the flanking maneuver of Nadir Shah | |||
| date | November 26, 1738 | ||
| A place | Khyber Pass | ||
| Total | the victory of the Persians | ||
| Opponents | |||
| |||
| Commanders | |||
| |||
| Forces of the parties | |||
| |||
| Losses | |||
| |||
Content
Context
The first major military event of the Nadir Shah , who proclaimed himself a Persian Shah, was the conquest of Kandahar , after which he began to look for a reason to invade Mughal India. Having managed to capture Kandahar and put an end to the rule of the Afghan Hotakov dynasty , Nadir accused the Moguls of not giving out Afghan spies to the Persians, which secretly helped the Afghans.
Reza Kuli, the son of Nadir, was appointed governor of Khorasan , which allowed Nadir to move east, towards Jalalabad , where he camped. Intelligence reported to him that the governor of Kabul and Peshawar had assembled an army of 20 thousand people (mainly Afghans) and, despite the lack of assistance from Delhi , they intended to resist the invasion of Nadir in their lands.
Battle
The Afghans took an extremely advantageous position to confront the Persian army - a narrow Khyber pass , where it was impossible to line up military formations. Nadir, convinced of the futility of a frontal attack, chose a more refined approach. The local conductor informed him of the presence of an impassable passage parallel to Khybersky - Chatchubi Pass.
Having escaped from Jalalabad on November 26 , the Persian army arrived in Barikab (33 km from the Khyber Pass), where Nadir divided his army, leaving Mortez Mirza behind with the bulk of the forces and sending forward 12 thousand people to the Khyber Pass led by Nasrolla Mirza. Nadir himself collected 10 thousand light cavalry and began an epic passage of more than 80 km through one of the most impassable passes in Asia. Passing Chatchubi with casualties of 2 thousand people, he left the village of Ali-Masjid, from where he turned to the north, to the rear of the Afghans who settled on the Khyber Pass [4] .
The Persian cavalry attacked the Afghans who did not expect an attack from the rear. The Afghans, who exceeded the enemy by a factor of 2, fought bravely, but in the end, being trapped by Persians on both sides and unable to escape, they fell in battle or were captured. The governor of Peshawar was also captured. The military historian General Stepan Osipovich Kishmishev wrote about this Nadir’s maneuver as a “masterpiece of the war” [5] .
Agreements
Shortly after Peshawar and Kabul fell, Nadir moved to Lahore . Governor Lahore’s army was defeated when Nadir attacked her from an unexpected direction, forcing the rest of the city’s defenders to withdraw to the city walls and soon surrender, as well as pay high tribute in gold.
The news of these disasters terrified the Mughal ruler in Delhi , and he began to urgently gather resources and troops throughout northern India.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Axworthy, Michael (2009). The Sword of Persia: Nader Shah, from tribal warrior to conquering tyrant , p. 252. IB Tauris
- ↑ Axworthy, Michael (2009). The Sword of Persia: Nader Shah, from tribal warrior to conquering tyrant , p. 251. IB Tauris
- ↑ Moghtader, Gholam-Hussein (2008). The Great Battles of Nader Shah , p. 56. Donyaye Ketab
- ↑ Ghafouri, Ali (2008). History of Iran's wars: from the Medes to now , p. 383. Etela'at Publishing
- ↑ Cit. by: Christopher Bellamy, The Evolution of Modern Land Warfare: Theory and Practice (London, 1990), 214.
Literature
- Campaigns of Nadir Shah in Herat, Kandahar, India and events in Persia after his death . - Tf., 1889. - 303 p.