Shah Mahmud Hotaki, (Pashto, Persian, Urdu, Arabic: شاہ محمود ہوتکی), also known as Mahmud Ghilzai (1697? — April 22, 1725), was an Afghan ruler of the Hotaki dynasty who defeated and overthrew the Safavid dynasty to become the king of Persia from 1722 until his death in 1725.

He was the eldest son of Mirwais Hotak, the chief of the Ghilzai-Pashtun tribe of Afghanistan, who had made the Kandahar region independent from Persian rule in 1709. When Mirwais died in 1715, he was succeeded by his brother, Abdul Aziz, but the Ghilzai Afghans persuaded Mahmud to seize power for himself and in 1717 he overthrew and killed his uncle.

Shafie Ayar (born 1961) is an Afghan-born activist and author. He ran the Afghan Revolutionary Youth Association at Kabul University in 1978.

Ayar is the author of five books: Hamasa-e-Eman, Paqnjal Hae-e-Khoneen, Nawrooze tan Behrooz, Afghanistan – Jihad and Peace, and Afghan Hearts & Minds.

John Iwasaki, in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, wrote that Ayar was critical of the Afghan regime: "With Karzai able to appoint one-third of the upper house of the Afghan legislature, 'it's not democracy at all'". Apart from the politics, wrote Iwasaki, Ayar saw Afghanistan in a poor state: the roads were potholed "'even on streets in front of the Capitol,' Ayar said", while "The only eggs he saw for sale were trucked in from Pakistan and Iran". And while the Soviets had long gone (since 1984), "Twenty years is enough time for people to have chicken farms".

The poet Nicholas Klacsanzky, reviewing Afghan Hearts & Minds, wrote that "Through pleasant and conversational language, author Shafie Ayar induces the reader into a state of enjoying simple pleasures through his sincere gratitude for a life other than torture."

Mahmud of Ghazni (Persian: محمود غَزنوی‎ / Maḥmūd-e Ġaznawī; November 2, 971 – April 30, 1030), actually Yamīn ad-Dawlah Abdul-Qāṣim Maḥmūd Ibn Sebüktegīn, was the most prominent ruler of the Ghaznavid dynasty who ruled from 997 until his death in 1030 in the eastern Iranian lands and the northwestern Indian subcontinent. Mahmud turned the former provincial city of Ghazni in modern-day Afghanistan into the wealthy capital of an extensive empire which covered most of today's Afghanistan, eastern Iran, as well as Pakistan and North-West India. He was also the first ruler to carry the title Sultan ("authority"), signifying the extent of his power, though preserving the ideological link to the suzerainty of the Caliph.

In 994, Mahmud joined his father Sebüktigin in the capture of Khorasan from the rebel Fa'iq in aid of the Samanid Emir, Nuh II. During this period the Samanid state became highly unstable, with shifting internal political tides as various factions vied for control, the chief among them being Abu'l-Qasim Simjuri, Fa'iq, Abu Ali^{[citation needed]}, the General Behtuzun as well as the neighbouring Buyids and Qarakhanids. Mahmud took over his father's kingdom in 998. In 1002, Mahmud of Ghazni invaded Sistan, dethroned Khalaf I, last of the Saffarid amirs, and ended the Saffarid dynasty.

The Khalaj people are a Turkic people that speak the Khalaj language, which is thought to be one of the closest languages to Old Turkic.

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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 or August 6, 1698 – 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 or the Second Alexander. Nader Shah was a member of the Turkic Afshar tribe of northern Persia, which had supplied military power to the Safavid state since the time of Shah Ismail I.

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.