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the southern part of Mesopotamia, known in the early Islamic period as del-e Irānšahr (lit. “the heart of the kingdom of Iran”), served as the central province of the Sasanian empire as well as that of the ʿAbbasid caliphate.A version of this article is available in printVolume XIII, Fascicle 5, pp. 543-550 IRAQ AND ITS RELATIONS WITH IRANRelations between Iran and Mesopotamia, the core region of present-day Iraq, can be traced back to the early waves of the westward migration of Iranian tribes in the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C.E. when the Irani…

Karīm Khān Zand (c.1117–93/1705–1779), who ruled the western part of Iran from 1164/1751 to 1193/1779, was the first of the Zand dynasty, which lasted until 1209/1794. His choice of Shiraz as his capital reflects his leadership of the Zands. The Zands were a branch of the Laks, a subgroup of the northern Lurs, who spoke Luri, a Western Iranian language. Their annual migration extended from the Zagros foothills in summer to the plains of Hamadan in winter. An upheaval amongst the neighbouring Bakht…

Mahdī Khān Astarābādī (d. mid 1170s/early 1760s) was Nādir Shāh’s court historiographer and scribe, who achieved fame also as a lexicographer and scholar of the eastern Turkic Chaghatay language. Neither the dates nor the locations of his birth and death are known, but his name suggests family ties to Astarābād. He first served at the Ṣafavid court in about 1140/late 1720s and was noted to have sent a letter of congratulation to Nādir upon his capture of Isfahan from the Afghans in the autumn of 1…

Luṭf ʿAlī Khān (b. c.1182/1769, d. 1209/1794), the last ruler of the Zand dynasty and great-nephew of its founder, Karīm Khān, inherited a realm in turmoil when he took power in 1204/1789. His five years of rule (1204–9/1789–94) marked the last phase of the unravelling of Zand rule that had begun with the death of Karīm Khān Zand in 1193/1779. Luṭf ʿAlī Khān’s immediate predecessors had been engaged in continuous struggles amongst themselves over the succession to Karīm Khān Zand, while facing the continuing external threat of Āqā Muḥammad Khān Qājār (r. 1193–1212/1779–97). Āqā Muḥammad…

ʿAbd al-Karīm Kashmīrī (d. 1198/1784) was an Indo-Persian chronicler of the Turkmen ruler Nādir Shāh (r. 1147–60/1736–47) and a traveller in India and the Middle East. Little is known of his early life, including the year of his birth, but we do know that he was living in Delhi when it was conquered by Nādir Shāh (r. 1148–60/1736–47), in 1151/1739. After the seizure of the city and the subjugation of the Mughal emperor Muḥammad Shāh (r. 1131–61/1719–48), ʿAbd al-Karīm Kashmīrī joined Nādir Shāh’s court as mutaṣaddī (supervisor of merchants). He remained in his entourage until 11…

ʿAlī Murād Khān Zand (r. 1195–9/1781–5) was the fourth ruler of the Zand dynasty, which dominated southern and central Iran in the late twelfth/eighteenth century (1163–1209/1750–1794). ʿAlī Murād became the nephew of the dynasty’s the first ruler, Karīm Khān Zand (r. 1164–93/1751–79), when his mother, a sister of Karīm Khān’s commander Zakī Khān (d. 1193/1779), married Karīm Khān’s brother Ṣādiq Khān (r. 1193–5/1779–81, d. 1196/1782). After Karīm Khān died, ʿAlī Murād Khān first allied with Zakī K…

The Afshārids (r. 1149–1210/1736–96) were a Persian dynasty founded by Nādir Shāh Afshār, replacing the Ṣafavid dynasty. This dynasty drew strength from the tribal solidarity of the Afshār uymāq. This was a prototypical military tribal grouping of Turkish origin, held together by the reputation and/or proclaimed attributes of its chiefs), one of the twelve main Turkmān Qizilbāsh groups that had originally formed the basis of Ṣafavid military power. Although Nādir’s goal had been to replace the Ṣafavids on the throne and ex…

Āzād Khān Afghān (d. 1195/1781) was an important participant in the struggle to determine who should rule western Iran after the death of Nādir Shāh (d. 1160/1747, r. from 1149/1736 until his death), the ruler and conqueror who created an Iranian empire that stretched from the Indus River to the Caucasus Mountains. Āzād was a member of the Ghilzay Pashtūn Afghān tribal confederation from Kabul. He became a member of Nādir Shāh’s army, probably after the fall of Kabul, in 1151/1738, and participate…

ʿĀdil Shāh (r. 1160–61/1747–48) was the regnal name of ʿAlī Qulī Khān, Nādir Shāh's nephew and immediate successor in the Afshārid dynasty of Iran (r. 1148–1210/1736–96). He was the eldest son of Nādir's brother, Ibrāhīm Khān (d. 1151/1738). In 1150/1737 he was made governor of Mashhad and married Kethewan, the daughter of the Georgian king Teimuraz II (r. 1145–76/1732–62). After Nādir's return from India in 1153/1740 and his successful campaign in Transoxania later that same year, ʿAlī Qulī marr…

Abū l-Ḥasan b. Muḥammad Amīn Gulistāna was a government official in Kirmānshāhān (southeastern Kurdistan) who wrote an important chronicle of Iranian history after Nādir Shāh (r. 1147–60/1736–47). He came from a family of Ḥasanī sayyids (claiming descent from the Prophet) from Isfahan. In the post-Ṣafavid era, many of his relatives became government officials in various parts of Iran. One uncle, Mīrzā Muḥammad Taqī, held several positions of fiscal responsibility under Nādir and his successors in Kirmānshāhān and Persian Iraq, u…

Ashraf Ghilzay ruled over a considerable portion of Iran as Ashraf Shāh from 1137/1725 until 1142/1729. Ashraf was the eldest son of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (r. 1127-9/1715–7), a brother of Mīr Vays (the mayor of Qandahar who launched an Afghan uprising against the Ṣafavids in 1121/1709 and ruled independently 1121–7/1709–15). He was a leader of the Hotak tribe of the Ghilzay Pashtūn confederation. Ashraf was a leader in the Afghan invasion of Iran in 1133–5/1721–2, but upon the installation of his cousin …

ʿ Abbās III (r. 1145–9/1732–6) was the last shah of the Ṣafavid dynasty. At first protected by Ṭahmāsp Qulī Khān (1100–60/1688–1747, the future ruler Nādir Shāh), ʿAbbas III was then deposed by Nādir Shāh and later murdered on the orders of his son. When he made the eight-month-old ʿAbbās III his monarch, Nādir dropped his own previous title, Ṭahmāsp Qulī Ḳhān, now preferring to be referred to as vakīl al-dawla (lit. ‘administrator of the state’, i.e., prime minister) or nāʾib al-salṭana (viceroy). ʿAbbās III was deposed in 1148/1736, when Nādir (r. 1147–60/1736–47) became …

- Nādir Shah Afshār; Tahmāsp Qulī Khān; Nāder Shah Date: 12 April 1736 Original Language: Persian DescriptionThis is a royal decree apparently issued by Nādir shortly after his coronation on the Mughān steppe in Azerbaijan in the spring of 1736. The decree notes that, according to the Prophet Muḥammad, the Christian community is composed of several different sects that follow rites and practices different from each other. Each of these sects is associated with a particular people ( qawm), and each sect follows its own rules and customs. In recognition that all these people were fa…

Gospel translation of Nādir-Shah Nādir Shah Afshār; Tahmāsp Qulī Khān; Nāder Shah Date: 1741 Original Language: Persian Description This is part of a Persian translation of the Bible commissioned by Nādir around 1740, following his defeat of the Mughals and his conquest of India. Nādir had teams of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scholars brought to Isfahan to translate into Persian: the Pentateuch and Psalms; the Acts of the Apostles, New Testament Epistles, the Apocalypse of John, and the Four Gospels; the Qurʾ…

Nādir Shah Afshār; Tahmāsp Qulī Khān; Nāder Shah Date of Birth: November 1688 Place of Birth: Darrah Gaz, Khurāsān Date of Death: 20 June 1747 Place of Death: Qūchān, Khurāsān BiographyNādir Shah Afshār was the founder of the Afshārid dynasty. Although he was on the throne for only 11 years (1736-47), he briefly conquered large parts of India and Central Asia. A Turkman tribesman from northern Khurāsān, by the late 1720s he had joined the army of Shāh Ṭahmāsp II (d. 1740), son of the previous Safavid ruler Shāh Sulṭān Ḥusayn (r. 1694-1722). Ṭahmāsp II was fighting several challengers,…