Nadir Shah --- Shahenshah e Iran

https://iranicaonline.org/articles/afsharids-dynasty

Titled: Ishigh Bashi (Chamberlain) and then Tufangchi to Baba Ali Beg Kusa Ahmadlu, his step father, the Afsharid Governor of Abivard.ref: p. 30 of The Cambridge History of Iran, vol.7. Titled: Tahmasp Gholi Khan by Shah Tahmasp Safavi in reward for services. Nader Shah Afshar, an officer of the Safavids, was able to expel the Afghans and reunite the country. Faith ; Jafarid

Acting in behalf of the defeated Safavids, he expelled the Afghans in 1729, and in 1732 became regent. The following year he forced the Ottoman Turks out of Mesopotamia, which they had seized during the Afghan invasion, and induced the Russians to give up Iranian territory they had occupied. In 1736 he took the Iranian throne for himself as Nader Shah. By 1738 he had conquered Afghanistan, and in 1739 he invaded northern India, capturing Delhi, the capital of the Mughal Empire. In his invasion of Mughal India, Nader Shah captured two of the world's greatest diamonds, the Sea of Light (now in Iran) and the Mountain of Light (now part of the British Crown Jewels).

He soon extended his rule into what is now Western Turkistan. Nader Shah's victories made him briefly the Middle East's most powerful sovereign.

Although a great conqueror, Nader Shah can not be considered as a wise king. He did nothing to organize the war stricken country. He did not consider will of the people in his reign. All the money he gained from his conquest was put on a treasure. At the end of his life, he grew so suspicious of others that he even blinded his own son Reza Gholi Mirza in charge of treason. Nobody was safe from his anger. He became increasingly paranoid and was finally assassinated by his own guardsmen.

After his death, his great military machine collapsed, and his empire quickly disintegrated. It marked the end of a period of golden conquests and national pride. Even if Nader Shah is considered as a great and influential king, he never reached the level of Cyrus with his unusual open minuends or Shah Abbas for his creation of a united and powerful country.

He was given the title of Tahmasb Qoli Khan by Shah Tahmasb II Safavi. (ref page 215 The Book of Iran. Iranian History at a Glance by Reza Shabani)

In 1738, Nader Shah set out on campaign to Afghanistan and India, leaving his son Reza Qoli Mirza to rule his realm in his absence. Hearing rumours that his father had died, Reza made preparations for assuming the crown. According to the most "authoritative account",[4] Mohammed Hosein Khan Qajar, who had been entrusted with supervising Abbas and his father in captivity, warned Reza that the townspeople of Sabzevar would rise up in revolt, free Tahmasp II and place him on the throne again on hearing the news of Nader's death. Reza gave Mohammed Hosein orders to execute Tahmasp and his sons to forestall this. Mohammed Hosein strangled Tahmasp, cut the young Abbas down with his sword and had his brother Esmail killed too. According to Michael Axworthy, the dating of these events is speculative, but they probably took place in May or June 1739.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nader_Shah

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kvenjb/madmonarchs/nadir/nadir_bio.htm

More on Nadir Shah (courtesy Anvar Ali Khan -- mostly from Wikipedia):

Nader Shah - the Napoleon of Asia

Nader Shah successfully reunited Persia from the ruin that followed the sudden collapse of the Safavid regime, subdued the revolts and the rebellious Afghans, beat back the Ottomans to the gates of Baghdad, forced the Russians to a retreat from the Northern border, plundered the wealth of Mughal India and took its fabulous treasures back to Persia, conquered Bahrain and Oman, and defeated the Khanates of Uzbek and Khwarezm.

He was assassinated in his tent, aged 59. The Sword of Persia (as he was called by his countrymen), the Napoleon of Asia (as he was called by later orientalists) and the second Alexander (as he was sometimes dubbed) fell as rapidly as he had risen

_____________________________________________________________________________________ Reign 1736-1747

Born 1688 or 1698

Birthplace Dastgerd, (Khorasan)

Died 1747

Nāder Shāh and was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty. Because of his military genius, some historians have described him as the Napoleon of Persia[3] or the Second Alexander.[4]

Nader rose to power during a period of anarchy in Iran after a rebellion had overthrown the weak Persian Shah Sultan Husayn, and both the Ottomans and the Russians had seized Persian territory for themselves. Nader reunited the Persian realm and removed the invaders. He became so powerful that he decided to depose the last members of the Safavid dynasty, and become shah himself in 1736. His numerous campaigns created a great empire that briefly encompassed what is now part of or including Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, India, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Oman and the Persian Gulf but his military spending had a ruinous effect on the Persian economy.[1]

Nader admired Genghis Khan and Timur, the previous conquerors from Central Asia and imitated their military prowess He has been described as "the last great Asian military conqueror" and is credited for restoring Iranian power as an eminence between the Ottomans and the Mughals.[8][9][10][11]

Nader Shah was born into the clan of the Afshars, in Khorasan. His father, Emam Qoli, was a herdsman. He died while Nader was still young.[15] According to legends, Nader and his mother were carried off as slaves by marauding Uzbek tribesmen, but Nader managed to escape. He joined a band of brigands while still a boy and eventually became their leader. Under the patronage of Afshar chieftains, he rose to become a powerful military figure.

Nader grew up during the final years of the Safavid dynasty. At its peak, under Abbas the Great, Safavid Persia had been a powerful empire, but by the early 18th century the state was in serious decline. Persia's imperial rivals, the Ottomans and the Russians, took advantage of the chaos to seize territory for themselves.[17]

In 1730, Nader attacked the Ottomans and regained most of the territory lost during the recent chaos. Relations between Nader and the Shah had declined as the latter grew jealous of his general's military successes. Nader got Tahmasp drunk then showed him to the courtiers asking if a man in such a state was fit to rule. In 1732 he forced Tahmasp to abdicate Nader was crowned Shah of Iran on March 8, 1736, a date his astrologers had chosen as being especially propitious.[22]

Religious policy

The Safavids had introduced Shi'a Islam as the state religion of Iran. Nader was probably brought up as a Shi'a [23] but later espoused the Sunni[24] faith as he gained power and began to push into the Ottoman and Mughal Empires. He believed that Safavid Shi'ism had intensified the conflict with the Sunni Ottoman Empire. He wanted Persia to adopt a form of religion that would be more acceptable to Sunnis and suggested that Persia adopt a form of Shi'ism he called "Ja'fari", in honour of the sixth Shi'a imam Ja'far al-Sadiq. He banned certain Shi'a practices which were particularly offensive to Sunnis, such as the cursing of the first three caliphs. Personally, Nader is said to have been indifferent towards religion and the French Jesuit who served as his personal physician reported that it was difficult to know which religion he followed and that many who knew him best said that he had none.

Among his reforms was the introduction of what came to be known as the kolah-e Naderi - a hat with four peaks which symbolised the first four caliphs.[1][22]

Invasion of India

Afsharid forces negotiate with a Mughal Nawab.

In 1738, Nader Shah conquered Kandahar. His thoughts now turned to the Mughul Empire of India. This once powerful Muslim state was falling apart as the nobles became increasingly disobedient and the Marathas made inroads on its territory . Its ruler Muhammad Shah was powerless to reverse this disintegration. Nader asked for Afghan rebels to be handed over, but the Mughal emperor refused. Nader used the pretext to cross the border and capture Ghazni, Kabul, Peshawar, Sindh and Lahore. He then advanced deeper into India crossing the river Indus .

He defeated the Mughal army at the huge Battle of Karnal in 1739. After this victory, Nader captured Mohammad Shah and entered with him into Delhi.[10] When a rumour broke out that Nader had been assassinated, some of the Indians attacked and killed Persian troops. Nader reacted by ordering his soldiers to plunder the city. During the course of one day almost 30,000 Indians were killed, forcing Mohammad Shah to beg for mercy.[26]

Nader Shah agreed to withdraw, but Mohammad Shah paid the consequence in handing over the keys of his royal treasury, and losing even the Peacock Throne . The Peacock Throne thereafter served as a symbol of Persian imperial might. Among a trove of other fabulous jewels, Nader also gained the Koh-i-Noor and Darya-e Noor diamonds (Koh-i-Noor means "Mountain of Light" in Persian, Darya-e Noor means "Sea of Light"). Nader's soldiers also took with them thousands of elephants, horses and camels, loaded with the booty. The plunder seized from India was so rich that Nader stopped taxation in Iran for a period of three years.[27]

After India The Indian campaign was the zenith of Nader's career. Afterwards he became increasingly despotic as his health declined.  Nader's increasing ill health made his temper worse. 

With the wealth he gained, Nader started to build a Persian navy. With lumber from Mazandaran, he built ships in Bushehr. He also purchased thirty ships in India.[1] He recaptured the island of Bahrain from the Arabs. In 1743 he conquered Oman. He also started another war against the Ottoman Empire. Despite having a huge army at his disposal, Nader showed little of his former military brilliance.

Domestic policies Nader changed the Iranian coinage system. He minted silver coins, called Naderi, that were equal to the Mughal rupee.[1] He transformed the Shahsevan, a nomadic group living around Azerbaijan, into a tribal confederacy which defended Iran against the Ottomans and Russians.[29][30] In addition, he increased the number of soldiers under his command and reduced the number of soldiers under tribal and provincial control.[1] His reforms may have strengthened the country, but they did little to improve Iran's suffering economy.[1]

Death and legacy

A Western view of Nader in his later years from a book by Jonas Hanway (1753).

Nader became cruel as a result of his illness and his desire to extort more tax money to pay for his military campaigns. Revolts broke out and he crushed them ruthlessly. Nader Shah was assassinated in 1747. He was surprised in his sleep by Salah Bey, captain of the guards, and stabbed with a sword. Remarkably, Nader was able to kill two of the assassins before he died.[32][33]

After his death, the empire fell into anarchy. Finally, Karim Khan founded the Zand dynasty and became ruler of Iran by 1760, while Ahmad Shah Durrani proclaimed independence in the east, marking the foundation of modern Afghanistan.

Nader Shah was well known to the European public of the time. In 1768, Christian VII of Denmark commissioned Sir William Jones to translate a Persian language biography of Nader Shah into French.[34] It was published as Histoire de Nadir Chah.[35]

Significantly, Nader's Indian campaign alerted the British East India Company to the extreme weakness of the Mughal Empire and the possibility of expanding to fill the power vacuum. Without Nader, "eventual British [in India] would have come later and in a different form, perhaps never at all - with important global effects".[36]

The descendants of Nader Shah through his grandson Shah Rukh are under the Afshar Naderi surname.

ref: Histoire de l'Iran - Wikipedia

Tahmasp Quli, un chef de tribu Afshar, se met à la tête d’une armée au nom des descendants des Safavides, chasse les Afghans du territoire iranien, puis en 1736 prend le pouvoir sous le nom de Nâdir Shâh. Il reconquiert tout le territoire iranien depuis la Géorgie et l’Arménie jusqu’à l'Afghanistan et organise des campagnes militaires qui le mènent jusqu’à Delhi en 1739, qu’il met à sac et dont il ramène des trésors fabuleux, tel le trône du Paon . Les guerres ottomano-persanes reprennent par intermittence jusqu'au début du siècle suivant (1730–1735, 1743-1746, 1775-1776 et 1821–23) sans résultat décisif : elles se concluront par les Traités d'Erzurum (en) signés en 1823 et 1847. Mais un nouveau danger apparaît au nord avec l'expansion de l'Empire russe : les guerres russo-persanes (1722-1723, 1796, 1804-1813 et 1826-1828) entraîneront, en un siècle, la perte des provinces du Caucase. Même si Nâdir Shâh réussit à réunifier politiquement l’Iran, ses campagnes militaires incessantes et les taxes importantes qu’elles nécessitent le rendent fortement impopulaire. Il est assassiné en 1747 par un des chefs de sa propre tribu Afshar, qui donne son nom à la dynastie des Afsharides qui lui succède. Une période d’anarchie suit la mort de Nadîr Shâh et le pays est la proie de luttes entre tribus qui cherchent à prendre le pouvoir : les Afshar, les Afghans, les Qajars et les Zands. C’est finalement Karim Khan Zand qui prend le pouvoir en 1750 ; il réussit à réunifier presque tout le pays, sauf le Khorasan, qui reste plus indépendant du pouvoir central. Karim Khan Zand refuse de prendre le titre de Shah et préfère se nommer Vakil ar-Ra’aayaa, « Régent des paysans ». Il est resté connu en Iran pour un règne modéré et bénéfique pour le pays. À sa mort en 1779, une autre lutte pour le pouvoir a lieu entre les Zands, les Qajars et d’autres groupes tribaux qui plonge encore le pays dans l’anarchie. C’est finalement Mohammad Shah Qajar qui prend le pouvoir en battant le dernier Shah de la dynastie Zand, Lotf Ali Khan à Kerman en 1794 et se rend ainsi maître du pays, établissant la dynastie des Qajars en 1795 qui dure jusqu’en 1925.