Campaigns of Nader Shah

Overview

The campaigns of Nader Shah, or the Naderian Wars, were a series of conflicts fought in the early to mid-eighteenth century throughout Central Eurasia primarily by the Iranian conqueror Nader Shah. His campaigns originated from the overthrow of the Iranian Safavid dynasty by the Hotaki Afghans. In the ensuing collapse and fragmentation of the empire after the capture of the Iranian capital of Isfahan by the Afghans, a claimant to the Safavid throne, Tahmasp II, accepted Nader into his service. After having subdued north-west Iran as well as neutralising the Abdali Afghans to the east and turning Tahmasp II into a vassal, Nader marched against the Hotaki Afghans in occupation of the rest of the country. In a series of incredible victories the Afghans were decimated and Tahmasp II returned to the throne as a restored Safavid monarch.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Campaigns of Nader Shah, known as the Naderian Wars, were a series of interconnected conflicts fought across Central Eurasia in the early to mid-eighteenth century that arose directly from the Hotaki Afghan overthrow of the Safavid dynasty and the capture of Isfahan. The fragmentation of Iranian imperial power created the conditions under which the Safavid claimant Tahmasp II enlisted Nader into his service. Nader's subsequent subjugation of north-west Iran and neutralization of the Abdali Afghans to the east consolidated a base from which he could confront the Hotaki occupation of the rest of the country. In a sequence of decisive engagements, the Hotaki forces were decisively defeated and Tahmasp II was restored to the Safavid throne, reversing the dynastic collapse that had initiated the conflict. Within the long arc of the Ottoman–Persian Wars, the campaigns represented a critical reassertion of Iranian sovereignty and military capacity following a period of imperial collapse, restoring a centralized Persian political authority capable of contending with rival powers across the region.

Commanders (31)