Mughal Foreign Policy – Relations with the Uzbeks and Safavid Iran (the Qandahar Issue)

At a Glance

• Frontier Hindukush, with Qandahar as the outer bastion
• Akbar Took Qandahar in 1595
• Jahangir Lost Qandahar in 1622
• Shah Jahan Won it in 1638; lost it in 1649; Balkh 1646 to 1647
• Aurangzeb Gave up the contest over Qandahar
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Medieval History: Mughal Period

Where Does It Fit?

This is the twenty-second topic of the category on the Mughal period. The previous topic covered the Deccan resistance, and this topic turns to the northwest frontier. The next topic returns to Jahangir’s internal consolidation. Previous topic: Malik Ambar’s Resistance to Mughal Expansion in the Deccan.

What Was the Setting of Mughal Foreign Policy?

In short: the Mughals faced three great Asian empires and sought security, trade and equality, not conquest.

The Uzbeks tried to use sectarian differences and stirred up Afghan and Baluchi tribesmen between Peshawar and Kabul, but the Mughals, though Sunni, were too broad-minded to be swayed. They refused an Uzbek proposal for a tripartite Ottoman-Mughal-Uzbek alliance against Iran because it would have upset the balance of power and left them alone facing the Uzbeks. They were also chary of a closer relationship with the Ottomans because they would not accept the Ottoman sultan’s claim to superiority as successor to the caliph.

How Did Akbar Handle the Uzbeks?

Babur’s brief recovery of Samarqand in 1510 with Safavid help began a tradition of friendship, and Humayun later received help from Shah Tahmasp. In 1572 to 1573 Abdullah Khan Uzbek seized Balkh, the buffer between the Mughals and the Uzbeks, and in 1577 proposed that Akbar join him in partitioning Iran, which was passing through anarchy after Tahmasp’s death in 1576. Akbar refused because a strong Iran was needed to keep the Uzbeks in check, and said differences of law and religion were not grounds for conquest. His key principle was to avoid embroilment unless the Uzbeks threatened Kabul or Indian possessions. He gave refuge to Mirza Sulaiman of Badakhshan, made the Khyber Pass fit for wheeled traffic and moved to Attock, where Raja Birbal died in a battle in the Khyber Pass. In 1585 Abdullah conquered Badakhshan and Mirza Hakim died, so Akbar annexed Kabul and the two frontiers ran side by side. An agreement apparently defined the Hindukush as the boundary: the Mughals gave up Badakhshan and Balkh and the Uzbeks left Kabul and Qandahar alone. Akbar completed his defensible frontier by acquiring Qandahar in 1595, and stayed at Lahore till Abdullah’s death in 1598, after which the Uzbeks split into warring principalities.

Why Was Qandahar So Important?

The 1595 conquest was not part of an agreement with the Uzbeks to partition Iran, as some modern historians argued, but a defensive line against an Uzbek invasion, since Khurasan had by then passed to the Uzbeks and Qandahar was cut off from Persia.

How Did Qandahar Change Hands?

Under Shah Abbas I (ruled 1588 to 1629), regular embassies and gifts were exchanged with Jahangir. The alliance proved more useful to Shah Abbas, who recovered Qandahar after Jahangir had neglected the Uzbeks. The failures at Qandahar showed the strength of the fort and the ineffectiveness of medieval artillery against strong forts, not any weakness of Mughal guns.

What Was the Balkh Campaign?

Shah Jahan was concerned about recurrent Uzbek attacks on Kabul. Nazr Muhammad, ruler of Bokhara and Balkh, appealed to him after his son Abdul Aziz rebelled. Shah Jahan sent a large army under Prince Murad in 1646, with instructions to restore Nazr Muhammad if he was submissive. Murad’s impetuosity ruined the plan; Nazr Muhammad fled, and the Mughals had to hold Balkh against a hostile population. Aurangzeb replaced Murad and, in a running battle outside Balkh in 1647, routed Abdul Aziz’s army, reported at 120,000. Shah Jahan insisted Nazr Muhammad apologise to Aurangzeb, a mistake, and the Mughals left in October 1647, with grievous losses on a nearly disastrous retreat that Aurangzeb’s firmness prevented from becoming a rout. The campaign succeeded militarily and raised Mughal prestige, but gained little politically; it would have saved men and money to keep to Akbar’s Kabul-Ghazni-Qandahar line. It did prevent a united Uzbek state.

What Is the Overall Judgement?

Aurangzeb dropped the contest over Qandahar and quietly restored diplomatic relations with Iran. In 1668 Shah Abbas II insulted the Mughal envoy and threatened an invasion, but he died before anything happened, and Persian danger vanished until Nadir Shah more than fifty years later. Even the Ottoman sultan sent an embassy to Aurangzeb in 1680 seeking support. The Mughals kept a scientific frontier on the Hindukush with Qandahar as the outer bastion, used friendship with Iran as the keynote, insisted on equality with the Safavids and Ottomans, and used the talk of recovering their Central Asian homelands as a diplomatic ploy. As an analytical point, the policy was defensive and succeeded in giving India security from foreign invasion for a long time. The origin of the Uzbek enmity is in Ibrahim Lodi, who succeeded Sikandar…">Struggle Between Ibrahim Lodi and Babur, and the Qandahar quarrel also helps explain Shah Jahan’s revolt in Jahangir’s Reign and Territorial Consolidation (Mewar, Kangra).

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Frontier policy Hindukush and Qandahar as questions
• Dates 1595, 1622, 1638, 1649
• Evaluation Balkh campaign as a success without gain

What Came Next?

The next topic describes Jahangir’s reign and the settlement of Mewar and Kangra. Next topic: Jahangir’s Reign and Territorial Consolidation (Mewar, Kangra).

Key People and Terms

• Qandahar Frontier fortress and trade hub
• Hindukush Defensible frontier
• Abdullah Khan Uzbek Uzbek ruler under Akbar
• Shah Abbas I Safavid ruler who recovered Qandahar
• Balkh Uzbek territory occupied in 1646
• Ali Mardan Khan Persian governor who defected

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions on foreign policy ask for aims and results. These points add depth.

• Aim Defence of the northwest
• Diplomacy Friendship with Iran, neutrality with the Ottomans
• Assessment Qandahar a sentimental attachment