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The Shah dynasty was a ruling dynasty of the Kingdom of Nepal.

The Rajput Lineage[link]

The former royal family of Nepal claims descent from the Parmar Rajput dynasty of the Narsinghgarh state in Malwa (Madhya Pradesh, India).^[1] Famous kings of the Malwa region included Raja Bhrathari, Samrat Vikramaditya and Raja Bhoj. Similarly the Rana dynasty, which produced Nepal's hereditary prime ministers from 1846 to 1953, claims descent from the Ranawat clan of Sisodiya Rajput dynasty of Mewar, Rajasthan, of which the former capital was Chittor (Udaipur). In 1495, Ajaya Simha declared himself prince of Nuwakot (Syangja), Lamjung, Kaski, and Tanahun. His successor, Jagdeva, conquered Kaski. Drabya Shah, great-grandson of Jagdeva, conquered Gorkha and established himself as the founder of the Shah dynasty. Drabya's descendant Prithvi Narayan entered the Kathmandu valley and defeated the Malla dynasty, becoming king in 1768. Narayan's successors conquered all the remaining small principalities and unified the kingdom. At its peak, the Kingdom of Nepal spanned the Himalayas from the Tista river in the East to the Sutlej river in the West and to Gopalganj in the south.^[2]

Beginning of Shah dynasty[link]

In the 1500s, Prince Yashobramha Shah of Kaski (son of King Kulamandan Shah) was enthroned in the principality of Lamjung. The rulers of the neighbouring principality of Ligligkot, now in Gorkha, were Ghale people. They had a tradition of choosing a ruler every autumn by way of a running race open to everyone. Whoever won the race was to become ruler for a year. However, Dravya Shah was not a physically robust man and so he tricked his way to the win with the backing of the Bhattarai, Aryal, Adhikari, Pant and the Acharya clans of Bahun. He then did away with the tradition of choosing a ruler every autumn. He ruled in a brutal way and executed anyone who suggested the reinstatement of the running race^{[citation needed]}. By the time of Dravya Shah's death in 1570, the running race tradition was but a memory among the people. Dravya Shah had used the Magar army to invade neighbouring states and his successors continued this aggression to increase the kingdom's territory.

Absolute monarchy (1768–1846)[link]

In 1743, Prithvi Narayan Shah came to the throne of Gorkha. He unified Nepal. In September 1768, he became the King of Nepal. In 1815, the Gurkha War between Nepal and the British East India Company began. By the end of the war in 1816, Nepal had lost one third of its territory.

Hereditary Prime Ministers (1846–1951)[link]

In 1846, the Rana dynasty gained power in Nepal. The Rana reduced the King of Nepal to a figurehead position while ruling country through the position of an hereditary prime minister. After India became a secular state in 1950 and retired all its remaining rajahs, Nepal was left the only hindu kingdom. In 1951, after the resignation of Prime Minister Mohan Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana, the Shah dynasty regained control and continued on in this way until 1990.

Constitutional monarchy (1990–2008)[link]

In 1990, under King Birendra, Nepal became a constitutional monarchy. Birendra believed in cooperation between absolute power of the monarchy and democratic governance. Birendra's brother, Gyanendra and his wife Queen Aishwarya staunchly opposed Birendra's view .

Murder of the royal family[link]

On 1 June 2001, a number of members of the Shah dynasty were murdered in the royal palace. A High Commission report concluded that the royal family was slaughtered by Crown Prince Dipendra. This remains controversial . Among the dead were the Crown Prince's father, King Birendra and his brother, Prince Nirajan. After the attack, Dipendra was in a coma and was declared king for a short time. He died a few days later. Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah, Dipendra's uncle, took the throne. In February 2005, he dismissed the parliament and to govern in his own right.

Abolishment of the Shah Monarchy[link]

On 24 December 2007, the Nepalese Constituent Assembly met. It was decided by majority vote that the monarchy would be abolished in 2008 after the Constituent Assembly elections.^[3] On 28 May 2008, the Assembly declared Nepal a Federal Democratic Republic and the monarchy was abolished, removing the hindu Shah dynasty from power. Kul Bahadur Gurung said of the 601 member assembly, 560 voted in favour, 4 were against and 37 were absent or abstained . After this Assembly agreement involving the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Gyanendra stepped down.

The last Shah monarch leaves power[link]

Gyanendra was asked to vacate his palace in Kathmandu within 15 days of the decision. It later become a museum. Supporters of Gyanendra were seen to cry as the royal couple drove away from the Kathmandu palace. Until they could find permanent accommodation, the royal couple were offered residence as commoners at the Nagarjuna Palace, a former royal summer residence. The Nagarjuna palace lies in forested hills about eight kilometres northwest of the Kathmandu.

See also[link]

• Kingdom of Nepal
• List of monarchs of Nepal
• Line of succession to the Nepalese Throne
• Nepalese royal massacre
• Rana dynasty

References[link]

External links[link]

• Royal Court of Nepal
• The Royal House of Nepal

• Massacre at the Palace; the doomed royal dynasty of Nepal, Gregson, Jonathan, 2002

Mohammed Zahir Shah (15 October 1914 – 23 July 2007) was the last King (Padishah) of Afghanistan, reigning for four decades, from 1933 until he was ousted by a coup in 1973. Following his return from exile he was given the title 'Father of the Nation' in 2002 which he held until his death.^[2]

Family background and early life[link]

Zahir Shah was an ethnic Pashtun who was born on 15 October 1914, in Kabul, Afghanistan.^[2] He was the son of Mohammed Nadir Shah, a senior member of the Barakzai royal family and commander in chief of the Afghan army under former king Amanullah Khan. Nadir Shah assumed the throne after the execution of Habibullah Ghazi on 10 October 1929.^[3] Mohammed Zahir's father, son of Sardar Mohammad Yusuf Khan, was born in Dehradun, British India, his family having been exiled following the second Anglo-Afghan war. Nadir Shah was a descendant of Sardar Sultan Mohammed Khan Telai, half-brother of Amir Dost Mohammad Khan. His grandfather Mohammad Yahya Khan (father in law of Amir Yaqub Khan) was in charge of the negotiations with the British leading to the Treaty of Gandamak. After the British invasion following the killing of Sir Louis Cavagnari in 1879, Yaqub Khan, Yahya Khan and his sons, Princes Mohammad Yusuf Khan and Mohammad Asef Khan, were seized by the British and transferred under custody to the British Raj, where they forcibly remained until the two princes were invited back to Afghanistan by Emir Abdur Rahman Khan in the last year of his reign (1901). During the reign of Amir Habibullah they received the title of Companions of the King (Musahiban).

Zahir Shah was educated in a special class for princes at Habibia High School in Kabul.^[4] He continued his education in France where his father had been sent as a diplomatic envoy, studying at the Pasteur Institute and the University of Montpellier.^[5] When he returned to Afghanistan he helped his father and uncles restore order and reassert government control during a period of lawlessness in the country.^[6] He was later enrolled at an Infantry School and appointed a privy counsellor. Zahir Shah served in the government positions of deputy war minister and minister of education.^[4] Zahir Shah was fluent in Pashto, Persian, and French.^[7]

The last king of Afghanistan[link]

King Zahir Shah in 1963

Zahir Khan was proclaimed King (Shah) on 8 November 1933 at the age of 19, after the assassination of his father Mohammed Nadir Shah. Following his ascension to the throne he was given the regnal title "He who puts his trust in God, follower of the firm religion of Islam".^[4] For the first thirty years he did not effectively rule, ceding power to his paternal uncles, Sardar Mohammad Hashim Khan and Sardar Shah Mahmud Khan.^[8] This period fostered a growth in Afghanistan's relations with the international community as in 1934, Afghanistan joined the League of Nations while also receiving formal recognition from the United States.^[9] Throughout the 1930s, agreements on foreign assistance and trade had been reached with many countries, most notably Germany, Italy, and Japan.^[10]

Zahir Shah provided aid, weapons and Afghan fighters to the Uighur and Kirghiz Muslim rebels who had established the First East Turkestan Republic. The aid was not capable of saving the First East Turkestan Republic, as the Afghan, Uighur and Kirghiz forces were defeated in 1934 by the Chinese Muslim 36th Division (National Revolutionary Army) led by General Ma Zhancang at the Battle of Kashgar and Battle of Yarkand. All the Afghan volunteers were killed by the Chinese Muslim troops, who then abolished the First East Turkestan Republic, and reestablished Chinese government control over the area.^[11]

Following the end of the Second World War, Zahir Shah recognised the need for the modernisation of Afghanistan and recruited a number of foreign advisers to assist with the process.^[12] During this period Afghanistan's first modern university was founded.^[12] During his reign a number of potential advances and reforms were derailed as a result of factionalism and political infighting.^[13]

Zahir Shah was able to govern on his own in 1963^[8] and despite the factionalism and political infighting a new constitution was introduced in 1964 which turned Afghanistan into a modern democratic state by introducing free elections, a parliament, civil rights, women's rights and universal suffrage.^[12]

By the time he returned to Afghanistan in the twenty-first century, his rule was characterized by a lengthy span of peace, but with no significant progress.^[14]

Exile[link]

In 1973, while Mohammed Zahir Shah was in Italy undergoing eye surgery as well as therapy for lumbago, his cousin and former Prime Minister Mohammed Daoud Khan staged a coup d'état and established a republican government. As a former prime minister, Daoud Khan had been forced to resign by Zahir Shah a decade earlier.^[14] In the August following this coup, Zahir Shah abdicated rather than risk an all-out civil war.^[14]

Zahir Shah lived in exile in Italy for twenty-nine years in a modest four-bedroom villa^[6] in the affluent community of Olgiata^[7] on Via Cassia, north of the city of Rome where he spent his time playing golf and chess, and tending to his garden.^[15] He was barred from returning to Afghanistan during Soviet-backed Communist rule in the late 1970s. In 1983 during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, Zahir Shah was cautiously involved in plans to head a government in exile. Ultimately these plans failed because he could not reach a consensus with the powerful Islamist factions.^[4]

In 1991, Zahir Shah survived an attempt on his life by a knife-wielding assassin who pretended to be a Portuguese journalist.^[14]

Return to Afghan politics[link]

Zahir Shah is seated at the far right during the oath ceremony of Hamid Karzai on 7 December 2004.

In April 2002, while the country was under NATO occupation, Zahir Shah returned to Afghanistan to open the Loya Jirga, which met in June 2002.^[16] After the fall of the Taliban, there were open calls for a return to the monarchy.^[14] Zahir Shah himself let it be known that he would accept whatever responsibility was placed on him by the Loya Jirga.^[16] However he was obliged to publicly step aside at the behest of the United States as many of delegates to the Loya Jirga were prepared to vote for Zahir Shah and block the US-backed Hamid Karzai.^[16] While he was prepared to become head of state he made it known that it would not necessarily be as monarch: "I will accept the responsibility of head of state if that is what the Loya Jirga demands of me, but I have no intention to restore the monarchy. I do not care about the title of king. The people call me Baba and I prefer this title."^[14] He was given the ceremonial title "Father of the Nation" in the current Constitution of Afghanistan^[17] symbolizing his role in Afghanistan's history as a nonpolitical symbol of national unity. The title of the 'Father of the Nation' dissolved with his death.^[18]

Hamid Karzai, a prominent figure from the Popalzai clan, became the president of Afghanistan and Zahir Shah's relatives and supporters were provided with key posts in the transitional government. Zahir Shah moved back into his old palace. In an October 2002 visit to France, he slipped in a bathroom, bruising his ribs, and on 21 June 2003, while in France for a medical check-up, he broke his femur.

On 3 February 2004, Zahir was flown from Kabul to New Delhi, India, for medical treatment after complaining of an intestinal problem. He was hospitalized for two weeks and remained in New Delhi under observation. On 18 May 2004, he was brought to a hospital in the United Arab Emirates because of nose bleeding caused by heat.

Zahir Shah attended the 7 December 2004 swearing in of Hamid Karzai as President of Afghanistan. In his final years, he was frail and required a microphone pinned to his collar so that his faint voice could be heard.^[14] In January 2007, Zahir was reported to be seriously ill and bedridden.

Death[link]

On 23 July 2007, he died in the compound of the presidential palace in Kabul after prolonged illness. His death was announced on national television by President Karzai.^[14][19] His funeral was held on 24 July. It began on the premises of the presidential palace, where political figures and dignitaries paid their respects; his coffin was then taken to a mosque before being moved to the royal mausoleum on Maranjan Hill.^[20]

Family[link]

He married Humaira Begum (1918–2002) on 7 November 1931 and had six sons and two daughters:^[1]

In January 2009 an article by Ahmad Majidyar of the American Enterprise Institute included one of his grandsons, Mostafa Zaher, on a list of fifteen possible candidates in the 2009 Afghan Presidential election.^[21] However Mostafa Zaher did not become a candidate.

See also[link]

• Kingdom of Afghanistan

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mohammed Zahir Shah

• Mohammad Zahir Shah at the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Zahir Shah: The last king of Afghanistan, Robert Fisk, The Independent
• Profile, The Observer
• Genealogy of Mohammed Zahir Shah
• Mohammed Zahir Shah collected news and commentary at The New York Times

v t e Heads of state of Afghanistan since 1709 22x20px Hotaki Empire Mirwais Hotak · Abdul Aziz Hotak · Mahmud Hotaki · Ashraf Hotaki · Hussain Hotaki Durrani Empire Ahmad Shah Durrani · Timur Shah Durrani · Zaman Shah Durrani · Mahmud Shah Durrani · Shuja Shah Durrani · Ali Shah Durrani · Ayub Shah Durrani 22x20px Emirate (Barakzai dynasty) Dost Mohammad Khan · Akbar Khan · Sher Ali Khan · Mohammad Afzal Khan · Mohammad Azam Khan · Mohammad Yaqub Khan · Ayub Khan · Abdur Rahman Khan · Habibullah Khan · Nasrullah Khan · Amanullah Khan Kingdom (Barakzai dynasty) Amanullah Khan · Inayatullah Khan · Habibullah Kalakani · Mohammed Nadir Shah · Mohammed Zahir Shah 22x20px Republic Mohammed Daoud Khan Communist Republic Nur Muhammad Taraki · Hafizullah Amin · Babrak Karmal · Haji Mohammad Chamkani (acting) · Mohammad Najibullah · Abdul Rahim Hatef (acting) Islamic State Sibghatullah Mojaddedi · Burhanuddin Rabbani Islamic Emirate Mohammed Omar Islamic Republic Hamid Karzai Monarchs of Afghanistan · Presidents of Afghanistan

It has been suggested that Conquest of Persia by Afsharids be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since May 2012.

Nader Shah
Shahanshah of Persia
Nader Shah's portrait from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Reign	1736–1747
Born	1688
Birthplace	Dargaz (Khorasan, Iran)
Died	June 19, 1747(1747-06-19)
Place of death	Quchan (Khorasan, Iran)
Predecessor	Abbas III
Successor	Adil Shah

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}} Nāder Shāh Afshār (Persian: نادر شاه افشار‎; also known as Nāder Qoli Beg - نادر قلی بیگ or Tahmāsp Qoli Khān - تهماسپ قلی خان) (November, 1688^[1] or August 6, 1698^[2] – June 19, 1747) ruled as Shah of Iran (1736–47) 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 Shah was a member of the Turkic Afshar tribe of northern Persia,^[5] which had supplied military power to the Safavid state since the time of Shah Ismail I.^[6]

Nader rose to power during a period of anarchy in Iran after a rebellion by the Hotaki Afghans 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, which had ruled Iran for over 200 years, and become shah himself in 1736. His numerous campaigns throughout the Naderian Wars created a great empire that 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 idolized Genghis Khan and Timur, the previous conquerors from Central Asia. He imitated their military prowess and—especially later in his reign—their cruelty. His victories briefly made him the Middle East's most powerful sovereign, but his empire quickly disintegrated after he was assassinated in 1747. Nader Shah has been described as "the last great Asian military conqueror".^[7] He is credited for restoring Iranian power as an eminence between the Ottomans and the Mughals.^{[8][9][10][11]}

Early life[link]

Nader Shah was born in Darra Gaz ^[12] into the Qereqlu (in Persian قرقلو) clan of the Afshars, a semi-nomadic Qizilbash tribe settled in northeastern valleys of Khorasan, a province in the north-east of the Persian Empire.^[13] His father Emamqoli, a poor shepherd ^[1] or Coat-maker (poostinduz in Persian language),^[14] died while Nader was still a child. According to legends, Nader and his mother were carried off as slaves by marauding Uzbek or Turkmen 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 through the ranks to become a powerful military figure. Nader married the two daughters of Baba Ali Beg, a local chief.^[1]

Fall of the Safavid dynasty[link]

Nader grew up during the final years of the Safavid dynasty which had ruled Persia since 1502. At its peak, under such figures as Abbas the Great, Safavid Persia had been a powerful empire, but by the early 18th century the state was in serious decline and the reigning shah, Sultan Husayn, was a weak ruler. When Sultan Husayn attempted to quell a rebellion by the Ghilzai Afghans in Kandahar, the governor he sent was killed. Under their leader Mahmud Hotaki, the rebellious Afghans moved westwards against the shah himself and in 1722 they defeated a vastly superior force at the Battle of Gulnabad and then besieged the capital, Isfahan.^[15] After the shah failed to escape to rally a relief force elsewhere, the city was starved into submission and Sultan Husayn abdicated, handing power to Mahmud. In Khorasan, Nader at first submitted to the local Afghan governor of Mashhad, Malek Mahmud, but then rebelled and built up his own small army. Sultan Husayn's son had declared himself Shah Tahmasp II, but found little support and fled to the Qajar tribe, who offered to back him. Meanwhile, Persia's imperial rivals, the Ottomans and the Russians, took advantage of the chaos in the country to seize territory for themselves.^[16]

Fall of the Hotaki dynasty[link]

Tomb of Nader Shah, a tourist attraction in Mashhad

Tahmasp and the Qajar leader Fath Ali Khan (the ancestor of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar) contacted Nader and asked him to join their cause and drive the Ghilzai Afghans out of Khorasan. He agreed and thus became a figure of national importance. When Nader discovered that Fath Ali Khan was in treacherous correspondence with Malek Mahmud and revealed this to the shah, Tahmasp executed him and made Nader the chief of his army instead. Nader subsequently took on the title Tahmasp Qoli (Servant of Tahmasp). In late 1726, Nader recaptured Mashhad.^[17]

Nader chose not to march directly on Isfahan. First, in May 1729, he defeated the Abdali Afghans near Herat. Many of the Abdali Afghans subsequently joined his army. The new shah of the Ghilzai Afghans, Ashraf, decided to move against Nader but in September 1729, Nader defeated him at the Battle of Damghan and again, decisively, in November at Murchakhort. Ashraf fled and Nader finally entered Isfahan, handing it over to Tahmasp in December. The citizens' rejoicing was cut short when Nader plundered them to pay his army. Tahmasp made Nader governor over many eastern provinces, including his native Khorasan, and married him to his sister. Nader pursued and defeated Ashraf, who was murdered by his own followers.^[18] In 1738 Nader Shah besieged and destroyed the last Hotaki seat of power at Kandahar. He built a new city near Kandahar, which he named "Naderabad".^[1]

Ottoman campaign[link]

Painting of Nader Shah

In the spring of 1730, Nader attacked the Ottomans and regained most of the territory lost during the recent chaos. At the same time, the Abdali Afghans rebelled and besieged Mashhad, forcing Nader to suspend his campaign and save his brother, Ebrahim. It took Nader fourteen months to defeat the Abdali Afghans.

Relations between Nader and the Shah had declined as the latter grew jealous of his general's military successes. While Nader was absent in the east, Tahmasp tried to assert himself by launching a foolhardy campaign to recapture Yerevan. He ended up losing all of Nader's recent gains to the Ottomans, and signed a treaty ceding Georgia and Armenia in exchange for Tabriz. Nader saw that the moment had come to ease Tahmasp from power. He denounced the treaty, seeking popular support for a war against the Ottomans. In Isfahan, 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 in favor of the Shah's baby son, Abbas III, to whom Nader became regent.

Nader decided he could win back the territory in Armenia and Georgia by seizing Ottoman Baghdad and then offering it in exchange for the lost provinces, but his plan went badly amiss when his army was routed by the Ottoman general Topal Osman Pasha near the city in 1733. Nader decided he needed to regain the initiative as soon as possible to save his position because revolts were already breaking out in Persia. He faced Topal again with a larger force and defeated and killed him. He then besieged Baghdad, as well as Ganja in the northern provinces, earning a Russian alliance against the Ottomans. Nader scored a great victory over a superior Ottoman force at Baghavard and by the summer of 1735, Persian Armenia and Georgia were his again. In March 1735, he signed a treaty with the Russians in Ganja by which the latter agreed to withdraw all of their troops from Persian territory.^[19][20]

Nader becomes shah[link]

In January 1736, Nader held a qoroltai (a grand meeting in the tradition of Genghis Khan and Timur) on the Moghan plain in Azerbaijan. The leading political and religious figures attended. Nader suggested he should be proclaimed the new shah in place of the young Abbas III. Everyone agreed, many—if not most—enthusiastically, the rest fearing Nader's anger if they showed support for the deposed Safavids. Nader was crowned Shah of Iran on March 8, 1736, a date his astrologers had chosen as being especially propitious.^[21]

Religious policy[link]

Nader Shah and two of his sons on the reverse side of Nader Shah's Sword

The Safavids had introduced Shi'a Islam as the state religion of Iran. Nader was probably brought up as a Shi'a ^[13] but later espoused the Sunni^[22] 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. His army was a mix of Shi'a and Sunni and included his own Qizilbash as well as Uzbeks, Afghans and others. 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.^[23] Nader hoped that "Ja'farism" would be accepted as a fifth school (mazhab) of Sunni Islam and that the Ottomans would allow its adherents to go on the hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca, which was within their territory. In the subsequent peace negotiations, the Ottomans refused to acknowledge Ja'farism as a fifth mazhab but they did allow Persian pilgrims to go on the hajj. Nader was interested in gaining rights for Persians to go on the hajj in part because of revenues from the pilgrimage trade.^[1] Nader's other primary aim in his religious reforms was to weaken the Safavids further since Shi'a Islam had always been a major element in support for the dynasty. He had the chief mullah of Persia strangled after he was heard expressing support for the Safavids. Among his reforms was the introduction of what came to be known as the kolah-e Naderi. This was a hat with four peaks which symbolised the first four caliphs.^[1][21]

Invasion of India[link]

Afsharid forces negotiate with a Mughal Nawab.

In 1738, Nader Shah conquered Kandahar, the last outpost of the Hotaki dynasty. His thoughts now turned to the Mughul Empire of India. This once powerful Muslim state was falling apart as the the Hindu Maratha Empire made inroads on its territory from the south-west. In 1737, Maratha forces sacked Delhi, following their victory against the Mughals in the First Battle of Delhi, further weakening the Mughal authority. 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 of his Afghan enemies taking refuge in India to cross the border and capture Ghazni, Kabul, Peshawar, Sindh and Lahore. He then advanced deeper into India crossing the river Indus before the end of year.

"Battle of Karnal" painting by adel adili

He defeated the Mughal army at the huge Battle of Karnal on 13 February 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 Mughal soldiers attacked and killed Persian troops. Nader reacted by ordering his soldiers to plunder the city. During the course of one day (March 22) 20,000 to 30,000 Mughal were killed by the Persian troops, forcing Mohammad Shah to beg for mercy.^[24]

In response, 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 to the Persian emperor. 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-ye Noor diamonds (Koh-i-Noor means "Mountain of Light" in Persian, Darya-ye Noor means "Sea of Light"). The Persian troops left Delhi at the beginning of May 1739. Nader's soldiers also took with them thousands of elephants, horses and camels, loaded with the booty they had collected. The plunder seized from India was so rich that Nader stopped taxation in Iran for a period of three years following his return.^[25]

After India[link]

A map of the extent of Nader Shah's empire

The Indian campaign was the zenith of Nader's career. Afterwards he became increasingly despotic as his health declined markedly. Nader had left his son Reza Qoli Mirza to rule Persia in his absence. Reza had behaved highhandedly and somewhat cruelly but he had kept the peace in Persia. Having heard rumours that his father had died, he had made preparations for assuming the crown. These included the murder of the former shah Tahmasp and his family, including the nine-year old Abbas III. On hearing the news, Reza's wife, who was Tahmasp's sister, committed suicide. Nader was not impressed with his son's waywardness and reprimanded him, but he took him on his expedition to conquer territory in Transoxiana. In 1740 he conquered Khanate of Khiva. After the Persians had forced the Uzbek khanate of Bokhara to submit, Nader wanted Reza to marry the khan's elder daughter because she was a descendant of his hero Genghis Khan, but Reza flatly refused and Nader married the girl himself. Nader also conquered Khwarezm on this expedition into Central Asia.

Nader now decided to punish Daghestan for the death of his brother Ebrahim Qoli on a campaign a few years earlier. In 1741, while Nader was passing through the forest of Mazanderan on his way to fight the Daghestanis, an assassin took a shot at him but Nader was only lightly wounded. He began to suspect his son was behind the attempt and confined him to Tehran. Nader's increasing ill health made his temper ever worse. Perhaps it was his illness that made Nader lose the initiative in his war against the Lezgin tribes of Daghestan. Frustratingly for him, they resorted to guerrilla warfare and the Persians could make little headway against them. Nader accused his son of being behind the assassination attempt in Mazanderan. Reza angrily protested his innocence, but Nader had him blinded as punishment, although he immediately regretted it. Soon afterwards, Nader started executing the nobles who had witnessed his son's blinding. In his last years, Nader became increasingly paranoid, ordering the assassination of large numbers of suspected enemies.

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 and its main capital the city of Muscat. In 1743 Nader started another war against the Ottoman Empire. Despite having a huge army at his disposal, in this campaign Nader showed little of his former military brilliance. It ended in 1746 with the signing of a peace treaty, in which the Ottomans agreed to let Nader occupy Najaf.^[26]

Domestic policies[link]

Nader changed the Iranian coinage system. He minted silver coins, called Naderi, that were equal to the Mughal rupee.^[1] Nader discontinued the policy of paying soldiers based on land tenure.^[1] Like the late Safavids he resettled tribes. Nader Shah transformed the Shahsevan, a nomadic group living around Azerbaijan whose name literally means "shah lover", into a tribal confederacy which defended Iran against the Ottomans and Russians.^[27][28] 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[link]

A Western view of Nader in his later years from a book by Jonas Hanway (1753). The background shows a tower of skulls.^[29]

Nader Shah's dagger with a small portion of his jewelry. Now part of the Iranian Crown Jewels.

Nader Shah's tomb was designed by Hooshang Seyhoon.

Nader became crueller and crueller as a result of his illness and his desire to extort more and more tax money to pay for his military campaigns. More and more revolts broke out and Nader crushed them ruthlessly, building towers from his victims’ skulls in imitation of his hero Timur. In 1747, Nader set off for Khorasan where he intended to punish Kurdish rebels. Some of his officers feared he was about to execute them and plotted against him. Nader Shah was assassinated on 19 June 1747, at Fathabad in Khorasan. He was surprised in his sleep by Salah Bey, captain of the guards, and stabbed with a sword. Nader was able to kill two of the assassins before he died.^[30][31]

After his death, he was succeeded by his nephew Ali Qoli, who renamed himself Adil Shah ("righteous king"). Adil Shah was probably involved in the assassination plot.^[19] Adil Shah was deposed within a year. During the struggle between Adil Shah, his brother Ibrahim Khan and Nader's grandson Shah Rukh almost all provincial governors declared independence, established their own states, and the entire Empire of Nader Shah fell into anarchy. Finally, Karim Khan founded the Zand dynasty and became ruler of Iran by 1760, while Ahmad Shah Durrani had already 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 written by his Minister Mirza Mehdi Khan Astarabadi into French.^[32] It was published in 1770 as Histoire de Nadir Chah.^[33] 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".^[34]

See also[link]

• Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent
• Safavid conversion of Iran from Sunnism to Shiism
• Treaty of Kerden
• Talpur

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Michael Axworthy, The Sword of Persia: Nader Shah, from Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant Hardcover 348 pages (26 July 2006) Publisher: I.B. Tauris Language: English ISBN 1-85043-706-8
• The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 7 (Cambridge University Press, 1968)

Additional reading[link]

• Lawrence Lockhart Nadir Shah (London, 1938)
• Ernest Tucker, Nadir Shah's Quest for Legitimacy in Post-Safavid Iran Hardcover 150 pages (4 October 2006) Publisher: University Press of Florida Language: English ISBN 0-8130-2964-3
• Michael Axworthy, Iran: Empire of the Mind: A History from Zoroaster to the Present Day (Paperback) ISBN 0-14-103629-X Publisher Penguin 6 November 2008

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nader Shah

• Nader Shah's portrait
• Nader Shah Mausoleum and Museum