His son Mir Mahtnud, in 1820 invaded Persia. Ile moved on Kirman with 12,000 men, 5000 of whom perished amid the intervening deserts ; but the town was taken and held for four months, when it wa.s retaken by Lutf Ali Khan, and Mir 31ahmud escaped with a few followers. • In 1722 he raised an army 28,000 strong, and again took the town of Kirman, but failed to take the citadel ; failed also to take Yezd, but marched on Isfahan, which he invested for eight months, when Shah lInsen abdicated, and Mir Mitlimutl massacred the troops who had defended the city. He took Kasvin, Whose inhabitants he massacred. In 1724 he reduced Irak and Fars, and took Shiraz after an eight months' siege ; but becoming more cruel, he was put to death, and his relative,t Mir Ashraf, was raised to the throne. Ile defeated the Turks near Burujard, took Kasvin, and defeated Thamasp, son of Shah Huseu ; but Nadar Kuli Khan advanced against and defeated bitn, and he fled to Isfahan, leaving 12,000 dead on the field. lio was again defeated by Nadar Kuli Khan' near Isfahan, losing 4000 Afghans, and fled to Shiraz. He again met Nadar, only again to be defeated, ancl his soldiers then niade terms with Naclar, and 31ir Ashraf fled into Seistan, where he was murdered by a Baluch chief. The seven years of the Ghilji occupation of Persia cost that country a third of its population. The• Daurani tribe assumed the sovereignty of Kandahar, and put down a subsequent attempt which the Ghilji made to reassume sovereignty. Towards the middle of the 19th century, when the British advanced to place Shah Shuja on the throne, the Ghilji opposed them, but were driven off on the 22d July 1839. In the same year, Captain Outram with a very stnall body of troops marched all through the' Ghilji country. In 1840 Captain Anderson defeated the Ghilji at Tazi. In 1841
they were defeated by Colonel Wymer near Kalat-i-Ghilzai. But on the 9th October 1841 they atta,cked Colonel Monteith at Butkak ; on the 12th they attempted to occupy the Khurd Kabul pass ; on the 14th they attacked the British camp in the Khurd Kabul valley, they attacked Colonel Sale's force in the defiles of Jagdalak, and they hung upon Sale's troops till they reached Jalalabad.
On the 6th January 1842 the British began to retreat from Kabul, and from I3utkak, till the last man of that force was killed or taken prisoner, the Ghilji surrounded them, attacking, plundering, massacring all. 3000 souls went down in the Khurd Kabul ; at Tezin the number wa,s raised to 12,000 ; at Gandamak 20 muskets were all that could be mustered, and in a few hours more these too were gone. The Ghilji drank their fill of British and Indian blood, in that brigade.
In the latter part of 1842 (8th September) they were repulsed in an attack on General Pollock's force, and again on that ou Colonel 3PCaskill's force.
In the south, on the 20th November 1841, they atta,cked Ghazni, and in March 1842 the garrison surrendered, and many of the sepoys were mas sacred. On the 9th December 1811 they invested Kalat-i-Ghilzai, and by May 1842 had completely surrounded it. On the 21st May they assaulted it in two columns, but were defeated with the loss of 400 men. They subsequently attacked General Nott at Bonei Badam, and the force of General Pollock at Tezin, Haft Kotal, and Jagdalak. Sub sequently, iu 1849, they were reduced by Amir Dost Muhammad Khan, who sent 25.000 Abdali against them ; and when they again rehelled under Muhammad Shah, they were again reduced.— MacGregor ; Moorcroft's Tr. ii. p. 360; Masson's Journeys, ii. p. 198 ; Pottinger s Tr. p. 200 ; .111ohnn Lal's Tr. p. 323 ; Elplrinstone's Caubul.