a pretext to invade the Mughal Empire. Naturally, he seized upon that opportunity to mask his invasion in the form of a hunt for the Afghan warriors who had found asylum in the rugged terrain of the northern Mughal realm. It is also noteworthy that Nader had been in contact with one of the main Mughal ministers, Nizam-ul-Mulk, who some at the time accused of treachery against the Mughal emperor. It is possible that Nizam-ul-Mulk provoked Nader's invasion of the Mughal Empire, but that is an implausible conjecture. Whether or not the Mughal Empire could have defused the situation diplomatically is still a matter of discussion. The ability of the Mughal state to find and imprison Afghan fugitives in its border regions is a seriously doubtful issue, as is anyway the actual number of fugitives who escaped to these regions. It is very possible that they were an insubstantial number. Nader Shah's intention to invade Mughal India would have continued, regardless of whether or not the Mughal authorities had granted his request to seek out and handing over fugitives. It is quite probable that Nader Shah used the demand for fugitives, which was met in full, as a pretext to invade and plunder. Nader's entry into the Mughal Empire As Nader moved into the Mughal territories, he was accompanied by his Georgian subject and future king of eastern Georgia, Erekle II, who led a Georgian contingent in the Imperial Persian army. Hearing of Nader Shah's approach from Qandahar, the governor of Peshawar and Kabul raised an army of 20,000 men, mostly of Afghan mercenaries drawn from the tribes of eastern Afghanistan to check the Persian advance. The position that had been chosen to resist the Persian army could scarcely have been better selected, as through the narrow Khyber Pass, only a small column of men could hope to march and any deployment into fighting formations would be an impossibility. Nader, convinced of the futility of a head-on struggle, instead opted for an alternative approach. A local guide informed him of a difficult yet traversable pass running parallel to that of Khyber: the Pass of Chatchoobi. Setting out on 26 November from near Jalal Abad, the Persian army arrived at Barikab (33 kilometres from the Kheibar pass) where Nader divided his army, leaving Morteza Mirza behind with the bulk of the forces at his disposal and sending forth 12,000 men to