'Report on the Persian Army' [‎13v] (26/170)

beleaguered and ultimately taken by about 22,000 Afghans,
ill equipped and exhausted with long marching and fatigue.
At the battle of Gulnabad, the Persian artillery, which consisted
<>1 24 heavy pieces served by 2,000 artillerymen, was practically
useless, while the Zamburcks, small swivel guns worked from
the backs ot camels, which the Afghans had brought with
them, and were unknown in Persia before then, did excellent
service and caused dismay in the Persian ranks. (“ Histoire de
Perse,” La Mamye Clairae, Paris, 1750.)
Less than twenty years after this disaster we see the
Persian Conqueror, Tahmasp Kuli Khan, better known as
Nadir Shah, overrunning Persia and adjacent countries,
upsetting kingdoms and empires, and presenting in the
eighteenth century the phenomenon in Asia that Europe owed
to Napoleon in the nineteenth century.
As soon as Nadir was master of the throne he destroyed
with the assistance of his troops those very noblemen who had
iavoured his ambition and also seized the property of the
clergy the yearly revenues of which are said to have amounted
to a million tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. , to distribute to his soldiers. (The toman 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
was then worth £1 18.,. 0,/.) His army was principally com
pose,! of Indians, Uzbegs, Afghans, Turkomans, and others
belonging to the Sunni faith, of which he himself was a
member, and Persians he employed but little. All his genius
was specially directed to the military administration. At that
time, as it had been for ages before, the Persian soldiei-s were
men taken haphazard from all classes and all parts of the
™P' r *- Uiey served in the army just as long as they pleased
y ,’ -' fought as long as they were well paid or had prospects
ot plunder. But Nadir, convinced that the advantages which
the Europeans gained over the Turks were due to the discipline
and order which they employed in war, instructed himself in
the foreign methods as much as possible, began organising-
an artillery, and, m order to hasten the organisation, entrusted
the direction and command of the new cores to European
othcers. Most of these officers were French. L the “ Histofre
de Ihamas Koul, Khan” (Nadir Shah) wc read that “Nadir
;I d not depend only on help from Persia but also looked for
help from foreigners; ho attached to himself by his bounty a
gloat number of Europeans, among them engineers ami
officers who instructed the army in the manner of fight and
the evolutions which the Christians observe.” K g
He ordered that the army was henceforth to be permanent
^n manded bv n lnto two battalions,
were a^n d vidpd f T f ^ °r“Chief of a thousand,” which
a 1 ° f a hundred under
nu basin, Lhiet of a hundred” or centurion and everv
ten men were commanded by an On-basH, “ Chief of ten.”