page_title: Battle of Karnal
section_title: The uprising & the sack of Delhi
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Karnal / Mughal submission & the sacking of Delhi / The uprising & the sack of Delhi
caption_attribution_description: English: Jama Masjid, Delhi, painting, 1852.
context_page_description: The Battle of Karnal, was a decisive victory for Nader Shah, the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Persia, during his invasion of India. Nader's forces defeated the army of Muhammad Shah within three hours, paving the way for the Persian sack of Delhi. The engagement is considered the crowning jewel in Nader's military career as well as a tactical masterpiece. The battle took place near Karnal, 110 kilometres north of Delhi, India.
  The battle was the culminating point of Nader Shah's invasion of the Mughal Empire. After his conquest of eastern Afghanistan and invasion via Kabul and Peshawar, Nader led his forces south towards the Mughal capital. At Delhi Muhammad Shah gathered an extremely large force with which he marched north before his cumbersome army ground to a halt at Karnal. Nader gave battle and won a crushing victory. In the negotiations following the catastrophic defeat, Muhammad Shah agreed to pay a large indemnity in exchange for maintaining his imperium over his lands. Nader however, forced the Mughal emperor to submit utterly and marched him to his capital, Delhi, where the Mughal treasury was plundered.
context_section_description: The uprising in Delhi took on greater momentum as the reinforcing detachments sent by Nader to restore order came under fire from muskets and arrows. Numerous isolated contingents from the Persian army were caught holed up in scattered complexes throughout the city that night. On the morning of 22 March, Nader rode out from the palace in which he had quartered during the night and headed towards the Rowshan O-Dowleh mosque. En route, a musket was fired from a nearby building, narrowly missing Nader and instead killing one of his generals. Once atop the roof of the mosque, Nader ordered his men to enter into all the districts where Persian soldiers had been killed and leave not a single survivor. He raised his sword, signifying the start of a massacre.
  Three thousand soldiers marched out of the mosque's courtyard and began a gruesome and blood-curdling mass killing. Nader Shah "sat with sword in hand, wearing a solemn face steeped in melancholy and lost in deep thought. No man dared break the silence." Smoke rose above the city with ceaseless sounds of suffering and pleading echoing throughout. There was sparse resistance and most people were killed with no fighting chance. Many men were arrested and taken to the river Yamuna where they were all beheaded in cold blood. The soldiers entered houses and killed all the inhabitants, plundered all the riches they found and then set fire to what remained. The murder and rapine was such that many men chose to kill both themselves and their families instead of being subjected and slaughtered by the Persian soldiery.
  Two of the most important Mughal nobles who were involved in instigating the uprising were Seyed Niaz Khan and Shahnawaz Khan. Niaz Khan and a small band of followers took the small group of Persian soldiers posted outside his residence for his protection by surprise and killed all of them. He next joined up with Shahnawaz Khan and attacked the stables in which Nader Shah had stored all the captured Indian war elephants. The stables were soon overrun and the two even managed to escape the city during the cacophony of violence with the elephants. They took refuge in a fort near the city. The Persian soldiers, however, sought them out and broke into the fort, taking Niaz Khan and Shahnawaz Khan prisoner with their few hundred followers. All of them were taken to Nader near the mosque. All of them were beheaded by Nader's command on the spot. The only group of prisoners Nader released were women.
  The slaughter, which had begun late in the evening the day before, continued until dawn the next day, when Nader sent out his officers and messengers proclaiming the end of the massacre. The swiftness of the Persian army's cessation of hostility was remarkable and many contemporary commentators stated their admiration for the strict discipline of Nader's army. Although the killing lasted only a few hours, the number of dead was immense. Some 30,000 men, women and children perished at the hands of the Persian soldiers. After the conclusion of this most unfortunate episode in Delhi's history, Nader's officials began collecting taxes and some were also sent out to Delhi's environs to do the same. Not even Muhammad Shah's ministers were safe, and one in particular was tortured and his wealth seized by force of arms.
  Nader sent forth 1,000 cavalrymen to each district of the city to ensure the collection of taxes. But perhaps the greatest riches were plundered from the treasuries of the Mughal dynasty's capital. The Peacock Throne was also taken away by the Persian army, and thereafter served as a symbol of Persian imperial might. Among a trove of other fabulous jewels, Nader also gained the Koh-i-Noor ("Mountain of Light") and Darya-ye Noor ("Sea of Light") diamonds. It is estimated that the total worth of the treasures plundered came to perhaps 700 million rupees. This was roughly the equivalent to £90 million sterling at the time, or £8.2 billion sterling in the early 21st century.
  The Mughal Emperor was forced to sign a number of treaties which brought further ruin to his realm. Al
caption: Rowshan O-Dowleh Mosque, where Nader gave the signal for the initiation of the massacre by raising his sword.
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