riod to have been the policy of the
conqueror to conciliate the Afghans. He had in a very great degree
disarmed the prejudices of that nation, by the proclamation which he
issued, on ascending the throne, against the tenets of the Shiahs; and
he now sought, not merely to soften that resentment, but to attach them
to his person and government by favors. He completely succeeded; some of
the tribes of that nation continued during his life to rank among the
bravest soldiers of his army and formed a powerful check upon the
discontent and turbulence of his own countrymen.

While Nadir was employed in besieging Kandahar his generals had been
successful in reducing the strongholds in its vicinity; and his eldest
son, Reza Kuli, had, during this short period, obtained a fame which
seemed to promise that his name would one day equal that of his father.
The Afghan Prince of Kandahar had expected aid from the chief of Bulkh,
against whom Nadir detached his son, with a chosen body of twelve
thousand horse. The Prince not only defeated this ruler and took his
capital, but passed the Oxus, and did not hesitate to give battle to the
monarch of the Usbegs, who had advanced from Bokhara with an army far
outnumbering the Persians. The rash valor of Reza Kuli was crowned with
a signal victory; and the career of the young hero was only arrested by
a mandate from his father, who desired him to recross the Oxus.

Nadir at the same time addressed two letters to the King of the Usbegs,
and to the other chiefs of that part of Tartary, informing them that he
had sent orders to his son to retreat within the limits of the Persian
empire, and not to disturb countries which were the inheritance of the
race of Genghis Khan and of high Turkoman families.

This conduct, which was evidently the result of that policy which
affects moderation, that it may better accomplish its ambitious
purposes, has been ascribed by some to a jealousy which they conceive
Nadir, even at this early period, entertained of the rising reputation
of his son; but those who impute it to this cause forget that Reza Kuli,
when he returned, was not only received with extraordinary favor and
affection, but soon afterward was intrusted with all the power of a
sovereign, and left to govern Persia, while his father proceeded with
his vast designs of subjugating to his authority the distant regions of
India.

When Nadir Shah marched against the Afghans he had sent an ambassador to
De