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3.11 History of Persia: Nādir S̲h̲āh
(2,403 words)

In Volume 1-1: Qurʾānic Literature, History, and Biography | Section 2, History, Biography, etc.

previous chapter: 3.10 The Ṣafawids

§ 407. Mīrzā M. Mahdī K̲h̲ān “Kaukab” b. M. Naṣīr Astarābādī was private secretary to Nādir S̲h̲āh, who in 1160/1747, the last year of his life, sent him with Muṣṭafā K̲h̲ān S̲h̲āmlū on a mission to the Sulṭān of Turkey. He is the author of a collection of letters (ins̲h̲āʾ) as well as of the C̲h̲ag̲h̲atāy-Persian dictionary entitled Sanglāk̲h̲ and the C̲h̲ag̲h̲atāy grammar in Persian entitled Mabānī ’l-lug̲h̲āt.

(1)
Tārīk̲h̲ i Nādirī or Tārīk̲h̲ i Jahān-gus̲h̲āy i Nādirī, a history of Nādir S̲h̲āh with, in some copies, an appendix dated 1171/1757–8 in praise of M. Ḥasan K̲h̲ān Qājār: Mehren 62 (n.d.), 63 (ah 1179/1765–6), Lindesiana p. 183 no. 154 (“Circ. 1760”), no. 409 (“Circ. 1760”), Rieu i 192a–195a (14 copies, one dated ah 1182/1768 and another ah 1184/1770), iii 1066a (slightly defective. 18th cent.), Suppt. 65 (breaks off in the year 1147/1734–5. 19th cent.), Ethé 558–65 (one of these dated ah 1188/1774 and another 1192/1778), i.o. 3920, 3932, i.o. D.P. 213, 605, 770a and b, Ross and Browne 11 (ah 1202/1787–8), Browne Suppt. 252 (ah 1188/1774–5. Christ’s), 253 (n.d. King’s 101), Browne Coll. H. 18 (12) (ah 1244/1828), Bodleian 302–6 (of which two are dated ah 1197/1783), 1971, Berlin 448–53 (one dated ah 1197/1783), Blochet i 486 (ah 1198/1783–4), 487 (ah 1214/1799–1800), Ivanow 94–7, Ivanow Curzon 21 (ah 1229/1814), ʿĀṭif Efendī 1841 = Tauer 453 (circ. ah 1200/1785–6), Dorn 304 (ah 1203/1788), Asʿad 2180 = Tauer 454 (ah 1205/1790 (?)), 2183 = Tauer 460 (ah 1244/1829), 2182 = Tauer 461 (ah 1248/1833), 2181 = Tauer 462 (ah 1250/1834), Ḥasan Ḥusnī 836 = Tauer 455 (ah 1205/1791), Rosen Inst. 19 (n.d.), 20 (ah 1216/1801–2), K̲h̲āliṣ Efendī 2206 = Tauer 456 (ah 1217/1802), 3927 = Tauer 457 (ah 1239/1824), 3926 = Tauer 458 (ah 1240/1825), r.a.s. P. 147 = Morley 146 (Pictures), P. 148 = Morley 147 (ah 1225/1810), Āṣafīyah i p. 236 nos. 431 (n.d.), 435 (ah 1252/1836–7), p. 256 no. 474 (“Nādir-nāmah” (?). ah 1229/1814), Lahore Panjab Univ. Lib. (4 copies, dated ah 1230/1815 etc. See Oriental College Magazine, vol. ii, no. 3 (Lahore, May 1926), p. 68), Bānkīpūr vi 524 (ah 1231/1816), ʿAlīgaṛh Subḥ. p. 59 no. 955/9 (? Tārīk̲h̲ i Nādirī. Defective at beginning. ah 1236/1820–1), p. 955/2 (ah 1245/1829–30), 955/1 (n.d.), Majlis 237 (ah 1239/1823–4), ʿUmūmīyah 4955 = Tauer 459 (ah 1240/1825), Būhār 48 (19th cent.), 49, Aumer 232, Buk̲h̲ārā Semenov 35, de Jong 177, Rehatsek p. 86 no. 26, Salemann-Rosen p. 13 nos. 96, 621*, 622, Leningrad Pub. Lib. (see Mélanges asiatiques iii (St. Petersburg 1859), p. 731), Mus. Asiat. (defective. See Mélanges asiatiques vii (1876), p. 403), Vollers 987 (1).

Editions: Tabrīz 1260/1844 (484 pp. See Dorn in Bulletin hist.-phil. de l’Acad. Imp. de St.-Pétersbourg, iii (1845–6) p. 203, Zenker ii no. 755, where the number of pages is given as 454), 1268/1852°, 1271/1854–5 (see Katalog der Bibliothek der D.M.G., Erster Band: Drucke, Leipzig 1900, p. 359), 1272/1855–6 (vid. ibid.), 1287/1870°, [Calcutta,]1845°*, [Ṭihrān ?] 1262/1846 (see Mélanges asiatiques v (St. Petersburg 1868) p. 519), [Ṭihrān ?] 1263/1847°, [Ṭihrān ?] 1266/1850 (see Mélanges asiatiques v p. 519), [Ṭihrān,] 1296/1879°, Bombay 1265/1848°*, 1875°*, Lahore 1921*.

French translation: Histoire de Nader ChahTraduite d’un manuscrit persanpar Mr. [afterwards Sir William] Jones. London 1770°, and also in The Works of Sir William Jones, London 1799*, vol. v, pp. 1–432, and London 1807*, vol. xi, p. 1–vol. xii, p. 172.

English translations: (1) The history of the life of Nadir Shah … with an introduction and an appendix; to which is added pieces relative to the French edition. By W. Jones. London 1773*1 (2) Translation of ‘Jehan Kushai Nadri’ [to ah 1139] … by Guffar A. Syed. Aḥmadābād [1908°*].

German translation: Geschichte des Nadir SchahAus dem Persischen ins Französische übersetzet vom Herrn W. JonesNach der französischen Ausgabe ins Deutsche übersetzet [by T.H. Gadebusch]. Greifswald 1773°.

Urdu translation: Ross and Browne 211 (ah 1268/1851–2).

(2)
Durrah i nādirah, a bombastic history of Nādir S̲h̲āh in the manner of Waṣṣāf: Rieu i 195b (ah 1182/1768), 195a (ah 1216/1802), 195b (ah 1232/1817), Asʿad 2120 = Tauer 464 (circ. ah 1200/1785–6), 2261 (1) = Tauer 466 (ah 1204/1789–90), 2585 = Tauer 467 (ah 1222/1807–8), Zuhdī Bey 144 (I) = Tauer 465 (circ. ah 1200/1785–6), Majlis 254 (ah 1202/1787–8), Blochet i 488 (ah 1220/1805), 489 (ah 1257/1841), iv 2322 (33 leaves containing only the preface and the beginning of the work, richly illuminated. ah 1206/1791–1207/1792), Flügel ii 955 (ah 1243/1827–8), K̲h̲āliṣ Efendī 1967 = Tauer 468 (ah 1251/1835), 2378 = Tauer 469 (ah 1254/1838), 3761 = Tauer 470 (19th cent.), Berlin 454 (n.d.), 454 a (ah 1286/1869), Browne Suppt. 475, Cairo p. 503, i.o. D.P. 647, Salemann-Rosen p. 14 nos. 124, 585, 586, 587.

Editions: Bombay 1271/1854–5, [Bombay,] 1280/1863°*, [Bombay ?] 1285/1868–9 (see Harrassowitz’s Bücher-Katalog 405 (1926) no. 912), Bombay 1293/1876*, [Persia,] 1274/1857–8 (see Cairo Cat. p. 503), 1281/1864–5 (mentioned by Pertsch in Berlin Cat. on the authority of Trübner’s Catalogue, p. 99), Lahore 1923* (al-Kunūz al-ʿāmirah fī s̲h̲arḥ Durrat [sic] al-nādirah, Persian text with notes by S. Aulād-Ḥusain “S̲h̲ādān” Bilgrāmī).

Extracts: Intik̲h̲āb i Durrah i nādirah (212 pp.): Lahore 1885†.

Commentary (with the text ?): Durrat al-tāj, by S. Aḥmad S̲h̲āh, Jullundur 1907†.

[Autobiographical statements in the Tārīk̲h̲ i Nādirī (see Rieu i 192) and Sanglāk̲h̲ (see Rieu, Turkish Cat., p. 265); Riyāḍ al-s̲h̲uʿarāʾ (cf. Ivanow Curzon 57) no. 1105; K̲h̲ulāṣat al-afkār (Bodleian 391) no. 232; Mak̲h̲zan al-g̲h̲arāʾib (Bodleian 395) no. 2390 (?); Schefer Chrestomathie persane ii p. 235; Rieu Catalogue of Turkish MSS. in the British Museum p. 265; Ency. Isl. under Mahdī K̲h̲ān (with supplementary bibliography in the Additions and Corrections).]

§ 408. M. Kāẓim, Wazīr of Marw, wrote a

Nādir-nāmah, which, according to Barthold, “by the wealth of its data far surpasses … all the other sources not even excepting Mīrzā Mahdi” and which “will undoubtedly become the fundamental source for the study of the reign”: Leningrad Mus. Asiat. (vol. ii (covering the years 1736–43) and vol. iii (end of the reign to the retreat of the Persians from Turkistān) only. See Minorsky’s article on Nādir S̲h̲āh in the Ency. Isl., where references are given to articles by Barthold in the Izvestiya Akademiya Nauk, Petrograd 1919, p. 927, and Zapiski Akademiya Nauk, xxv, p. 85. Cf. Semenov Ukazatel’ p. 27).

§ 409. M. Muḥsin Ṣiddīqī, or Muḥsin b. al-Ḥanīf, tells us that Bijnaur was his native place.

Jauhar i ṣamṣām, a wordy and pretentious history of Nādir S̲h̲āh’s invasion of India and of Aurangzēb’s successors composed ah 1153/1740–1 at the request of S̲h̲aik̲h̲ ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn, who had been the companion of the Amīr al-umarāʾ Ṣamṣām al-Daulah K̲h̲ān i Daurān and who had often told the author about the events related: Browne Suppt. 364 (King’s 132), Ivanow 2nd Suppt. 929 (ah 1224/1809), Rieu iii 941a (circ. ad 1850).

Abridged English translation by Major A.R. Fuller: b.m. ms. Add. 30,724, foll. 1–80.

Description and some translated extracts: Elliot and Dowson History of India viii pp. 72–5.

§ 410. S̲h̲aik̲h̲ M. ʿAlī “Ḥazīn” Lāhijī Jīlānī was born at Iṣfahān in 1103/1692 and died at Benares in 1180/1766. (For further information see the section Biography: Poets.)

(1)
(Tad̲h̲kirat al-aḥwāl), an autobiography written in 1154/1741 and containing a good deal of historical information about the Afg̲h̲ān invasion of Persia and Nādir S̲h̲āh’s invasion of India (for mss. and editions see the section Biography: Poets).
(2)
Wāqiʿāt i Īrān u Hind, on events in Persia and India from 1134/1722 to 1154/1741, beginning al-Ḥamdu li-walīyihi wa-nas̲h̲kur ʿalā naʿmā’ihi: Ethé 1714 (ah 1183/1769).
(3)
A short note on the Persian invasions of India, completed at Husainābād in 1180/1766 and beginning Muwāfiq i siyar i muʿtabarah dafaʿātī kih las̲h̲kar i Īrān ba-Sind u Hind dar āmadah: Berlin p. 54 no. 11, Ivanow 1749.

§ 411. K̲h̲wājah ʿAbd al-Karīm b. ʿĀqibat-Maḥmūd b. K̲h̲wājah Bulāqī Kas̲h̲mīrī entered the service of Nādir S̲h̲āh at Delhi in 1151/1739 and accompanied him to Qazwīn which he reached in 1154/1741. Thence he went to Mecca, and returned to Delhi in 1156/1743.

Bayān i wāqiʿ (sometimes called Tārīk̲h̲ i Nādirī or Nādirnāmah), an account of the author’s travels and of contemporary history to ah 1198/1784 or 11992/1785 in five bābs ((i) Nādir S̲h̲āh and his invasion of India, (ii) his return to Qazwīn, (iii) the author’s journey to ʿIrāq, Syria and Arabia and his return to India, (iv) events to the death of Muḥammad S̲h̲āh, (v) the reign of Aḥmad S̲h̲āh etc.): Rieu i 381b (breaks off in Bāb iv. 18th cent.), 382b (lacks beginning. ah 1233/1818), iii 1008b (ah 1230/1815), 1026b (extracts only. Circ. ad 1850), i 231b (Add. and corrections) (latter part of the work only. End of 18th cent.), 6564 (sic lege pro 6567) foll. 457a–490b. See Rieu’s Additions Būhār 50 (extends to ah 1166/1752–3. 19th cent.), Āṣafīyah i p. 256 no. 763, Bodleian 382 (ends with the chapter on the assassination of the Nawwāb Jāwīd K̲h̲ān etc.), Ethé 566 (extends to ah 1199/1785), i.o. D.P. 607 (lacks 1st leaf), 751b (b) (defective, 4 bābs only), 769 (defective), i.o. 3934, Eton 196.

An abridgment: Lahore Panjāb Univ. Lib. (ah 1293/1876. See Oriental College Magazine vol. ii, no. 3 (Lahore 1926), p. 68).

Condensed translation (lacking Bāb i and ending with ah 1162/1749) by F. Gladwin: The Memoirs of Khojeh AbdulkurreemCalcutta 1788°*, 1813°*, London 1793*.

Abridged French translation of a part of Gladwin’s version: Voyage de I’Inde à la Mekke, par A’bdoûl-Kérymtraduitpar L. Langlès (in Collection portative de voyages, tom. 1, Paris 1797°).

Fuller translation by Lieut. H.G. Pritchard: b.m. ms. Add. 30,782 foll. 64–113 (concluding with ah 1166/1753).

Description and extracts from Pritchard’s translation: Elliot History of India viii 124–139.

[Ency. Isl. i, 47.]

§ 412. Miscellaneous works relating to Nādir S̲h̲āh:—

(1)
Akhbār i Nādir S̲h̲āh i Afs̲h̲ār: Āṣafīyah i p. 218 no. 340.
(2)
Ak̲h̲bār i waqāʾiʿ i Nādir S̲h̲āh u Farruk̲h̲-siyar beginning A. i w. i N. S̲h̲. Mard i sipāhī az wilāyat i Īrān būd: Browne Pers. Cat. 76, i.o. 3955 foll. 1196–136a.
(3)
Bayān i kaifīyat i muḥārabah u muṣālaḥah i Muḥammad S̲h̲āh bā Nādir S̲h̲āh, beginning Pīs̲h̲ azīn jang Burhān al-Mulk: Edinburgh 227, Bodleian 263.
(4)
(D̲h̲ikr i aḥwāl i Nādir S̲h̲āh), a short sketch of Nādir S̲h̲āh’s history down to his return from India to Persia in 1152/1739, beginning Dh. i a. i N. S̲h̲. Rāwī i īn ak̲h̲bār c̲h̲unīn naql mīkunad: Rieu ii 837b.
(5)
Fatḥ-nāmah i Nādir S̲h̲āh: Āṣafīyah i p. 248 no. 765 (ah 1188/1774–5).
(6)
Ḥādit̲h̲ah i Nādir-S̲h̲āhī: Āṣafīyah i p. 236 no. 777 (ah 1260/1844).
(7)
Ḥālāt i Nādir S̲h̲āh, an extract relating to Nādir S̲h̲āh from Mīrzā Ḥairat’s translation of Malcom’s History of Persia. Edition: Allahabad [1929*].
(8)
History of Nādir S̲h̲āh to ah 1153/1740–1, possibly by Ṭāhir Bēg, beginning K̲h̲udawandī kih īn nādir fasānah: Blochet i 490 (defective at end. 18th cent.).
(9)
A Journal of Nadir Shah’s Transactions in India, translated from the original Copy, wrote at Dehli, by Mirza Zuman, Secretary to Surbullind Khan [beginning: On the 12th of Zeccadih, the Royal Camp, in Circuit about seven Coss, was pitched in the Fields of Karnal] (in The History of Nadir Shah … By James Fraser. 2nd ed. London 1742*, pp. 152–226, reprint Allahabad [1923*], pp. 81–120).
(10)
Kaifīyat i rāhī s̲h̲udan i salṭanat—panāh S̲h̲ahans̲h̲āh Nādir S̲h̲āh ba-samt i Hindūstān: Blochet i 614 (ah 1164/1750).
(11)
K̲h̲ulāṣah i bayān i āmadan i Nādir S̲h̲āh Pāds̲h̲āh bah S̲h̲āhjahānābād: Morley 148.
(12)
S̲h̲āh-nāmah i Nādirī, a mat̲h̲nawī giving an account of Nādir S̲h̲āh’s invasion of India with a brief record of his subsequent wars and death, composed in 1162/1749 by Niẓām al-Dīn “ʿIs̲h̲rat” Siyālkōṭī Quras̲h̲ī, who paid homage to Aḥmad S̲h̲āh Durrānī on his return from Delhi, accompanied him to Kābul and returned to Siyālkōṭ after receiving from him the documents on which to base a poetical record of his reign, the S̲h̲āh-nāmah i Aḥmadī (for which see p. 312 infra) Rieu ii 717b (late 18th cent.).
(13)
Sketch of the reign of Muḥammad S̲h̲āh to the 22nd year, ah 1153/1740–1, the date of composition, with special reference to Nādir S̲h̲āh’s campaign in India and the doings of Niẓām al-Mulk Āṣaf-Jāh, beginning Dar bayān i ṭalab i Niẓām al-Mulk? … c̲h̲ūn dar muhimmāt i salṭanat …: Blochet i 612 (latter half of 18th cent.).
(14)
Tārīk̲h̲ i Nādirī, a translation by Abū ’l-Qāsim K̲h̲ān Nāṣir al-Mulk3 of James Fraser’s4 History of Nadir Shah (London 1732, 1742, Allahabad 1923): Majlis 236 (ah 1308/1890–1).

Edition: Ṭihrān 1321/1903–4 (see Majlis p. 133, 1. 3).

(15)
Waqāʾiʿ i Nādirī: Āṣafīyah i p. 260 no. 770.
(16)
Wāqiʿah i k̲h̲arābī i Dihlī ba-ʿahd i Muḥammad S̲h̲āh az wurūd i Nādir S̲h̲āh: Āṣafīyah i p. 258 no. 779 (ah 1267/1850–1).

§ 413. A full account of Nādir S̲h̲āh’s invasion is contained in M. Iḥsān b. Ḥasan Aḥmad’s Rauḍat al-Qaiyūmīyah, which is an account of the life and miracles of S̲h̲aik̲h̲ Aḥmad Sirhindī and his first three successors begun before 1152/1739 but containing a date as late as 1164/1751. (For further information see Ivanow Curzon 82 and the section Biography: Saints and Mystics.)

For the Zubdat al-tawārīk̲h̲ of M. Muḥsin, Mustaufī to Nādir S̲h̲āh, which contains a short but valuable contemporary record of the decline of the Ṣafawids and the rise of Nādir, see p. 106 supra.

For other accounts of Nādir S̲h̲āh’s invasion of India see the histories of India dealing with the period.

next chapter: 3.12 The Zands

Notes

^ Back to text1. This English translation is not reprinted in The Works of Sir William Jones.

^ Back to text2. Ethé 566 is the only copy described as going down to this date.

^ Back to text3. b. 1858, educated at Ṭihrān and Balliol College, Oxford, Minister of Finance 1897 [?], sent on special mission to Europe 1897, for a time Governor of Kurdistān, Prime Minister 1907, Regent of Persia 1911, k.c.m.g. 1889, g.c.m.g. 1897 (see Who’s Who 1918 and Browne The Persian revolution, Cambridge 1910, 99 etc. (portrait facing p. 162), died Dec. 1927 (see Who’s Who 1929 p. xxxvi).

^ Back to text4. James Fraser b. 1713, resided at Sūrat 1730–40, returned to England and wrote his History of Nadir Shah, returned to India as a factor in the E.I.Co.’s service and rose to be a Member of Council at Sūrat, died 21 Jan. 1754. His mss. are in the Bodleian. See Buckland Dictionary of Indian biography p. 155.

Cite this page
“3.11 History of Persia: Nādir S̲h̲āh”, in: Storey Online, Charles Ambrose Storey. Consulted online on 29 September 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2772-7696_SPLO_COM_10203110>
First published online: 2021



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