...both rulers enter Delhi together on March…
March 1739 CE
...both rulers enter Delhi together on March 20, 1730.
The keys to the capital of Delhi are surrendered to Nader, who occupies Shah Jehan’s imperial suite in the Red Fort.
Coins are struck, and prayers said in Nader’s name in the Jama Masjid and other Delhi mosques.
The next day, the Shah holds a great durbar in the capital.
The Persian occupation leads to price rises in the city.
The city administrator attempts to fix prices at a lower level and Persian troops are sent to the market at Paharganj, Delhi to enforce them.
However, the local merchants refuse to accept the lower prices and this results in violence, during which some Persians are assaulted and killed.
When a rumor spreads that Nader had been assassinated by a female guard at the Red Fort, some Indians attack and killed Persian troops during the riots that break out on the night of 21 March.
Nader, furious at the killings, retaliates by ordering his soldiers to carry out the notorious qatle-aam (sack) of Delhi.
The Shah on the morning of March 22 rides out in full armor and takes a seat at the Sunehri Masjid of Roshan-ud-dowla near the Kotwali Chabutra in the middle of Chandni Chowk.
He then, in a grand flourish, unsheathes his great battle sword, which is the signal to start the onslaught and carnage.
Almost immediately, the fully armed Persian army of occupation turns their swords and guns on to the unarmed and defenseless civilians in the city.
The Persian soldiers are given full license to do as they please and promised a share of the booty as the city is plundered.
During the course of six hours in a singe day, between twenty thousand to thirty thousand Indian men, women and children are slaughtered by the Persian troops in the city.
All across the city, gunshots are heard, explosions are set off, shops are looted and houses are set afire.
Clouds and plumes of fire and smoke are soon seen in every part of the city.
Persian troops stand outside the burning buildings and slaughter the Indians as they attempt to escape the smoke and flames.
Men ware chased down alleyways and killed.
Women are assaulted, raped and abducted, some have their breasts hacked off while others choose to commit suicide.
Babies are torn from their mothers' arms, swung by their ankles and their heads smashed against walls.
Areas of Delhi such as Chandni Chowk and Dariba Kalan, Fatehpuri, Faiz Bazar, Hauz Kazi, Johri Bazar and the Lahori, Ajmeri and Kabuli gates, all of which are densely populated by both Hindus and Muslims, are soon covered with corpses.
Muslims, like Hindus and Sikhs, resort to killing their women, children and themselves rather than submit to the Persians.
These events are recorded in contemporary chronicles such as the Tarikh-e-Hindi of Rustam Ali, the Bayan-e-Waqai of Abdul Karim and the Tazkira of Anand Ram Mukhlis.
Muhammad Shah is forced to beg for mercy.
Finally, after many hours of desperate pleading by the Mughals for mercy, Nadir Shah relents and signals a halt to the bloodshed by sheathing his battle sword once again.
The city is sacked for several days.
An enormous fine of twenty million rupees is levied on the people of Delhi.
Muhammad Shah hands over the keys to the royal treasury, and loses the Peacock Throne, to Nader Shah, which will hereafter serve as a symbol of Persian imperial might.
Among a treasure trove of other fabulous jewels, Nader also gains the Koh-i-Noor and Darya-ye Noor diamonds; they are now part of the British and Iranian Crown Jewels, respectively.