1 NADIR SHAH. 209
2 Herdt, during the remainder of Nadir Shah’s life.* His taste for splendour
3 induced him to have these elegant articles finished in the highest perfec-
4 tion of art, which exhibited at one view the richest and the finest pearls
5 and precious stones, that’were once the pride of the Great Moghal.
6 Nadir Shah extended the empire of Persia as far as the Oxus on the
7 north and the Indus on the south. He had conquered province after
8 province and subdued many warlike nations. He was now old, and wished
9 for rest by placing the diadem on the head of his son, Nasrullah, as soon as
10 the completion of his military projects should enable him to resign it. He
11 fixed upon the castle of Keldét as the place of his retreat, and furnished it
12 with a sumptuous palace, elegant baths, aqueducts and spacious houses for
13 his grandees and Omerdhs. As he advanced in years, he lost all power of
14 mind, which becathe distracted and weak. Once he entered into a religious
15 controversy with the mullahs of Bagdid, and spent many idle days in reli-
16 gious disputes, a strange circumstance in one of his active nature. At an-
17 other time, in a fit of rage, he had his son Raza Kuli’s eyes torn out. He
18 repented his hasty passion; and remorse, anguish and despair followed, and
19 produced a disorder of the mind. His madness increased, and, with it, his
20 tyranny. Allavi Khan, the royal physician, in prescribing medicine for him,
21 had the courage also to administer wholesome advice. The hékim Bashi
22 also corrected the impetuosity of his temper for the benefit of mankind.
23 By this skilful treatment, his disposition so far improved, that for a fortnight
24 he did not think of ordering anybody to be deprived of his sight or life. But,
25 on the departure of Allavi Khan, his morbid humours again got the upper
26 hand, and he returned to his old courses. For the most trifling offences, he
27 would order people to be deprived of their eyes and others of life. The go-
28 vernor of Fars revolted, and his example was followed by the governors of
29 some other provinces. This drove Nadir Shah to a degree of fury which can
30 scarcely be conceived ; he put to death a great number-ef his governors and
31 Omcerahs on the slightest suspicion ; not satisfied with taking the lives of the
32 leaders of the rebellion, he depopulated whole cities, and a great; number of
33 his subjects sought refuge in mountains and deserts to avoid torture and
34 death. He had further resolved to cause a general massacre of his Persian
35 troops at the hands of the Afghans and the Uzbeks, in whom he reposed the
36 most implicit confidence. But the tyrant’s own end was now near. The
37 very night preceding the morning on which he had determined to put his
38 bloody scheme into execution, he was himself murdered. A plan was
39 formed by his nephew, Ali Kuli Khan, who aspired to the throne, and
40 coveted the vast treasures of his uncle, to put an end to his life. Nadir
41 Shah was then encamped at Fathdbad, in the neighbourhood of Mashhad,
42 with the view of carrying out his schemes. Fatigued with a long march,
43 he had retired early to his tent, and slept quietly till midnight of the Sth
44 June, 1747. At the instigation of his nephew, Muhammad Kuli Khan,
45 Ardemi, a relation of the Shah, and Khushki Bdsht (commanding officer
46 of the body-guard), with seventy of the khusheks, or guards, had bound
47 themselves by an oath to assassinate Nddir Shah that very night. When
48 the appointed hour came, fifty seven of their number were seized with a
49 panic, and refused to join in the execution of the plot. The other thirteen,
50 however, tore down the Sera parda,t and entered the harem. The eunuch
51 on guard resisted them, but he was cut down. The assassins at first in-
52 * Gladwin’s Afemoirs of Khwdja Abdul Karim. The author informs us that, after the
53 death of Nadir Shah, his nephew, Adil Shah, and his grandson, Shah Rukh, took the tent to
54 pieces and dissipated the materials,
55 Nadir fixes on Kelat
56 as the place of his
57 retreat.
58 His mind distracted.
59 He puts out the eyes
60 of his son,
61 And becomes a
62 despotic tyrant.
63 Revolt of provinces.
64 Conspiracy to put an
65 end to the tyrant’s life.
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