Four Europeans were involved: the British, Sir John McNeill and Eldred Pottinger as well as the Russians, Count Simonich and Jan Prosper Witkiewicz.

[6] The siege ended when neither side gained a clear advantage, the British threatened to take military action and the Russians withdrew their support.

After a few decades of chaos, the country was reunited by king Tahmasp III and his general Naderqoli Afshar, who managed to reconquer Afghanistan.

Starting in 1816, Qajar dynasty captured Herat claiming the city as part of Persia, but retreated afterwards as there was no military advantage.

For a week, Ghourian was ravaged by constant artillery fire which completely destroyed three sides of its fort, effectively leaving it in ruins.

[4] In August 1837, Eldred Pottinger (an Anglo-Indian explorer, diplomat and officer of the Bengal Artillery) entered Herat in disguise.

At this time, Herat was officially held by a Sadozai man named Kamran, though his vizier Yar Mohammed exercised the real political power.

Sher Mohammad Khan Hazara, fearing Iranian expansion and playing on religious antagonism towards Shi'a, organized a local Sunni confederacy to aid the Heratis.

In response, the shah sent the governor of Khorasan, Asef al-Dowleh, with 12,000 of his best soldiers and 9 guns to eliminate the Sunni threat to the Iranian flanks.

[4] Asef al-Dowleh's troops left Torbat-e Jam and marched to Qara Tappeh via Kariz, Kohsan, and Qush Robat.

[6] Following the defeat of the Jamshidis, Sher Mohammad Khan Hazara decided it would be best to retreat into the Dasht-i Tahaboy, a limestone tableland in the Nakhjaristan plateau and far from the Asef al-Dowleh's forces.

[6] Lee reports that by this time, the Sunni confederates at Maruchaq had comprised 15,000 men from the people of Badghis, Ghor, Murghab, Panjdeh, Bukhara, Khiva, Urganj, and the Chahar Wilayat.

[6] Mohammad Yusuf states that the army was composed of 15,000 Khivans and Turkmens, 6,000 Uzbeks from the Chahar Wilayat, and 4,000 men from the Aimaq tribes and Badghis.

Therefore, after 10 days of resting in the town, the Asef al-Dowleh made the decision to push on and seize Bala Murghab before his supplies were completely cut.

[6] In a battle lasting four hours, despite higher casualties the Persians succeeded in defeating the Aimaqs (killing 250 of them) and occupied Pada Kaj.

Realizing the impracticality of sending a force across Afghanistan, they sent a naval expedition to the Persian Gulf and, on June 19, 1838, occupied Kharg Island.

[6][8] Fayz Mohammad seems to have been the only historian to cover this event in any significant detail, recognizing its importance towards the defeat of the Iranian army in Herat.