AHistoryIndependent states
The Afsharids (1736-1796)
The state of Nader Shah, a man of the Turkic Afshar tribe, who campaigned as far as India; its capital was Mashhad.
Nader was born in Khorasan in 1688 into the Qirqlu clan of the Afshar tribe. In the Safavid state's darkest years, after the Afghans took Isfahan, he won the country back as the commander of Shah Tahmasp II. In 1736 a great assembly on the Mughan plain chose him as shah, and he founded his own dynasty in place of the Safavids.
Nader Shah was one of the strongest commanders of his age. In 1739 he defeated the Mughal army at Karnal and took Delhi, carrying off the famous Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-Noor diamond. Under his rule a vast area from the Caucasus to India and from Bukhara to the Gulf was held in one hand.
In 1747 Nader Shah was killed by his own officers in Khorasan and the state quickly fell apart. Khanates arose in Azerbaijan, while the Afsharid line held on in Mashhad under his grandson Shahrokh until 1796, when Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar took the city.
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Updated: November 10, 2026