Afsharid dynasty

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The Afsharids were Turkish origined Iranian dynasty that ruled Persia in the 18th century and were based in Khorasan.

The dynasty was born with Nadir Shah, who proclaimed himself the Shah of Iran in 1736. Soon aftwards he waged a war against the Afghans and captured Kandahar, the home of the Ghilizai Afghans.

In 1738 he invaded India, and in a single campaign captured an incredible wealth, including the legendary Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-Noor diamond. He seems to have continued a career of conquest for lack of anything better to do. He made Mashad his capital and - apparently for the sake of conciliating the Afghans - favored his Sunni subjects at the expense of the Shi'as.

A despotic ruler, he was assassinated in 1747, and for the next fifty years Iranian history is well nigh unintelligible. There was in essence a three-sided struggle between the descendants of Nader Shah, the Zand dynasty and the Qajars. For much of the time, Shahrokh, grandson both of Nader and Shah Hossein, remained nominally on the throne at Mashad, but, blinded and intermittently imprisoned, he exercised no effective power.

List of Afsharid Monarchs

• Nadir Shah (1736-1747)
• Adil Shah (1747-1748)
• Ebrahim (1748-1748)
• Shah Rukh (1748-1796)
• Nadir Mirza of Khorasan (1797-1802)

See also

• Full list of Iranian Kingdoms