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fief and was allowed to assume the title of Sultan.
Then he marched against the Turks and captured
Hamadan, Kirmanshah and Tabriz.
At this juncture, he got the news that the
Abdalis of Herat were besieging Meshad. Nadir
marched eastward at the head of a strong force.
Zulfikar Khan, son of Mohammed Zaman Khan
and brother of Ahmad Khan (later Ahmad Shah
Abdali or Durrani) appealed to Sultan Hussein
of Kandahar for help. A force of 3,000 Ghilzais
under Saidal Khan came to his support. Seven
miles west of Herat an action took place. Saidal,
the Ghilzai Chief, made a surprise night attack
on the Persian camp. Nadir, with only eight
men, was cut off from the rest of his army in a
small tower. This would have been the end of
his military career, but no one recognized him
and the golden opportunity was allowed to slip
away.
Having received re-inforcements shortly after-
wards, Nadir once more took the offensive and
marched on Herat. The besieged fought des-
parately, but dissensions in their camp forced
them to sue for peace. Nadir treated the
Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting. How this was measured.