The Mughal–Safavid War of 1649–1653 was fought between the Mughal and Safavid empires in the territory of modern Afghanistan. While the Mughals were at war with the Janid Uzbeks, the Safavid army captured the fortress city of Kandahar and other strategic cities that controlled the region. The Mughals attempted to regain the city, but their efforts were proven unsuccessful. War Encouraged by the Mughal reversal in Badakhshan, On 4 April 1648 Shah Abbas II marched from Isfahan with an army of 40,000. After capturing Bost he laid siege to Kandahar on 28 December and easily captured it after a brief siege on 22 February 1649. The disaster of the Balkh campaign had gravely weakened the Mughals' position on the frontier. The short duration of the Kandahar siege – two months – stands testament to the vulnerability of the Mughals in Afghanistan. The Mughals attempted to retake the city in 1651 but the arrival of winter forced them to suspend the siege. Sieges of Kandahar The tribes of the region of the Hindu Kush were often rebellious and had to be constantly pacified, disciplined, or eliminated. Their raids of Mughal supply lines and advance parties were disastrous for the army. At times these groups of fighters were independent, and at other times, they worked in coordination with the Uzbeks.[11] Acquiring cash for the army was intensely difficult due to the differences in the monetary infrastructures between Mughal India and Afghanistan, hence the army was forced to lug bullion and cash across the steep passes and narrow defiles of the Hindu Kush mountains. Further, the terrain and climate of the Hindu Kush and beyond is infamously debilitating. Neither raiding areas nor acquiring land revenue from the conquered areas was by any means extravagantly rewarding to the soldiers, due to the moderate agricultural production of the area. There was no equivalent of the Indian local grain-carriers, the Banjaras. There was also very little scope for foraging with the constant raids from Uzbek troops and resident tribal groups. The ferocity of the Afghan winter further added to these woes. Winter months meant a severe severance of transport across the Hindu Kush, something which was instrumental in the failure of several Mughal campaigns against the Safavids in Central Asia.

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