ABSTRACT
A French source mentions that in 1712 English merchants, required to pay hey sums to the Shah and his ocers, borrowed money from Indian traders.2
When the Afghans besieged Isfahan in 1722, a French clergyman tried to escape in the company of Banias. ey were
arrested; the Afghans set free the Frenchman but executed the Indians.3 A few years later, in 1729, Indians residing in Shiraz su ered a far worse fate. e Afghan occupants of the city, in revenge for an attack on them by the local ruans, killed ‘practically all the Indian banias . . .’ . 4
is action of Afghan soldiers was an aberration rather than a well thought out strategy since the Afghans had brought with them a large number of Multanis (as the Indians were then called) to manage their nancial a airs. e Multanis were accorded high priority by the new rulers as is evident from an edict issued by them, in which announcement the Afghans divided the local population into seven categories, wherein the Multanis were assigned the fourth place aer Ghilzais (an Afghan tribe), Armenians, and Darzezins (another Afghan tribe).5 e Multanis were placed above Zoroastrians, Jews and Persians.6
