The Mughals were a Muslim dynasty of Turkic-Mongol origin that ruled most of northern India from the early 16th to the mid-18th century. Muslims were already living in India when the Mughals first arrived. The Safavids were a dynastic family that ruled over modern-day Iran. They sustained one of the longest running empires of Iranian history, lasting from 1501 to 1736.
The war began after a Persian army captured the fortress city of Kandahar and other strategic cities that controlled the region while the Mughals were at war with the Janid Uzbeks. In the summer of 1648 Shah Abbas II of Safavid marched from Isfahan with an army of 40,000. After capturing Bost he laid siege to Kandahar and easily captured it after a brief siege on 22 February 1649.
The Mughals attempted to retake the city in 1651 but the arrival of winter forced them to suspend the siege. Shah Jahan sent Aurangzeb with 50,000 soldiers, but although he defeated the Safavids outside the city he was unable to take it.
He attempted to take the fortress city again in 1652. The Safavid defenders of Kandahar possessed more accurate gunners (due to the Safavid Empire often warring with the Ottoman Empire in Persia), while the Mughal artillery was noted as being inaccurate.
This issue was compounded when the Mughal Emperor ordered that no assault be conducted before the city walls had been breached, which the outgunned and outfought Mughal army was unable to do. After two months of fighting Persian resistance and the growing activities of the Uzbeks, Aurangzeb was forced to abandon the campaign.
In 1653 Shah Jahan sent his favorite son, Dara Shikoh, with a large army and two of the heaviest artillery pieces of the empire, but after a 5 month the Mughals attempt to breach city walls by cannon fire also failed. The Mughals finally gave up all attempts to recover Kandahar.
Mughal-Safavid War of (1649-1653)
