The Mughals consolidated their control of what is today India and Pakistan in the 16th century, and gradually came into conflict with the powerful Safavids and Afsharids, led by Abbas the Great and Nader Shah respectively.

He sent an army to lay siege to Kandahar, a vital southern Afghan city held by Shah Muhammad, a governor appointed by the Mughal regent Bairam Khan.

Having secured crushing victories against the Ottomans, Shah Abbas desired to capture the strategic fortress on Kandahar since he had lost it in 1595.

[3] After celebrating the new year at Tabas Gilaki in southern Khorasan, Abbas joined with his army and marched on Kandahar where he arrived on 20 May and immediately began the siege.

Attracted by its wealth and knowing that the victim was much weaker, Emperor Nadir Shah, the Shah of Iran (1736–47) and founder of the Afsharid dynasty, invaded Northern India with a fifty-five thousand strong army, eventually attacking Delhi in March 1739 where he completely sacked and looted the city, after issuing orders for a general massacre to take place.

[14] The Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah had to beg Nader to grant him and his people mercy, after ceding the keys of the city and royal treasury to him.

The Battle of Karnal (13 February 1739), was a decisive victory for Nader Shah, the emperor of the Afsharid dynasty during his invasion of India.