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82-649: The Guarded Domains of Iran , commonly referred to as Afsharid Iran or the Afsharid Empire , was an Iranian empire established by the Turkoman Afshar tribe in Iran's north-eastern province of Khorasan , establishing the Afsharid dynasty that would rule over Iran during the mid-eighteenth century. The dynasty's founder, Nader Shah , was a successful military commander who deposed the last member of

164-717: A Georgian contingent as a military commander as part of Nader's force. Following the defeat of Mughal forces priorly, he then advanced deeper into India, crossing the Indus River before the end of the year. The news of the Persian army's swift and decisive successes against the northern vassal states of the Mughal empire caused much consternation in Delhi, prompting the Mughal ruler, Muhammad Shah, to summon an overwhelming force of some 300,000 men and march this massive host north towards

246-499: A Turkmen Qizilbash tribal confederation. By the 10th century A.D, Turkmens were predominantly Muslim. They later found themselves divided into Sunni and Shia branches of Islam. Medieval Turkmens markedly contributed to the expansion of Islam with their extensive conquests of previously Christian lands, specifically those of Byzantine Anatolia and the Caucasus . Turkmens primarily spoke languages that belong or belonged to

328-639: A ceremony on the Moghan Plain . Nader subsequently made the Russians cede the taken territories taken in 1722–23 through the Treaty of Resht of 1732 and the Treaty of Ganja of 1735. Back in control of the integral northern territories, and with a new Russo-Iranian alliance against the common Ottoman enemy, he continued the Ottoman–Persian War . The Ottoman armies were expelled from western Iran and

410-517: A daunting flank march through nearly impassable mountain passes, and took the enemy forces positioned at the mouth of the Khyber Pass completely by surprise, decisively beating them despite being outnumbered two-to-one. This led to the capture of Ghazni , Kabul , Peshawar , Sindh and Lahore . As Nader moved into the Mughal territories, he was accompanied by his loyal Georgian subject and future king of eastern Georgia , Erekle II , who led

492-484: A decisive victory over a superior Ottoman force at Yeghevard (modern-day Armenia) and by the summer of 1735, Persian Armenia and Georgia were under his rule again. In March 1735, he signed a treaty with the Russians in Ganja by which the latter agreed to withdraw all of their troops from Persian territory, those which had not been ceded back by the 1732 Treaty of Resht yet, mainly regarding Derbent , Baku , Tarki , and

574-473: A few years earlier. In 1741, while Nader was passing through the forest of Mazandaran on his way to fight the Daghestanis, an assassin took a shot at him but Nader was only lightly wounded. He began to suspect his son was behind the attempt and confined him to Tehran . Nader's increasing ill health made his temper ever worse. Perhaps it was his illness that made Nader lose the initiative in his war against

656-450: A figure of national importance. When Nader discovered that Fath Ali Khan was corresponding with Malek Mahmud and revealed this to the shah, Tahmasp executed him and made Nader the chief of his army instead. Nader subsequently took on the title Tahmasp Qoli (Servant of Tahmasp). In late 1726, Nader recaptured Mashhad . Nader chose not to march directly on Isfahan. First, in May 1729, he defeated

738-493: A notable minority of Christians) and included his own Qizilbash as well as Uzbeks, Afghans, Christian Georgians and Armenians , and others. He wanted Persia to adopt a form of Shi'a Islam that would be more acceptable to Sunnis and suggested that Persia adopt a form of Shi'ism he called "Ja'fari", in honour of the sixth Shi'a Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq . He banned certain Shi'a practices which were particularly offensive to Sunnis, such as

820-615: A period of three years following his return. Nader attacked the empire to, perhaps, give his country some breathing space after previous turmoils. His successful campaign and replenishment of funds meant that he could continue his wars against Iran's archrival and neighbour, the Ottoman Empire . The Indian campaign was the zenith of Nader's career. After his return from India, Nader fell out with his eldest son Reza Qoli Mirza, who had ruled Persia during his father's absence. Reza had behaved highhandedly and somewhat cruelly but he had kept

902-401: A servant, and was moved to tears at the desolation and desecration which met his eyes at every turn. Nádir, having finally induced Ṭahmásp to empower him to levy taxes on his own authority, marched southwards in pursuit of the retiring Afgháns, whom he overtook and again defeated near Persepolis . Ashraf fled from Shíráz towards his own country, but cold, hunger and the unrelenting hostility of

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984-504: A short lived one; several years later, Nader was forced to withdraw . During the same period, Nader accused his son of being behind the assassination attempt in Mazandaran. Reza angrily protested his innocence, but Nader had him blinded as punishment, although he immediately regretted it. Soon afterwards, Nader started executing the nobles who had witnessed his son's blinding. In his last years, Nader became increasingly paranoid, ordering

1066-525: A symbol of Persian imperial might. It is estimated that Nadir took away with him treasures worth as much as seven hundred million rupees. Among a trove of other fabulous jewels, Nader also gained the Koh-i-Noor and Darya-ye Noor diamonds ( Koh-e-Noor means "Mountain of Light" in Persian, Darya-ye Noor means "Sea of Light"). The Persian troops left Delhi at the beginning of May 1739, but before they left, he ceded back to Muhammad Shah all territories to

1148-552: Is ol in modern Turkish . The Book of Dede Korkut is considered an Oghuz masterpiece. Other prominent works of literature produced during the High Middle Ages also include the Oghuzname , Battalname , Danishmendname , Köroğlu epics, which are part of the literary history of Azerbaijanis, Turks of Turkey, and Turkmens. The Book of Dede Korkut is a collection of epics and stories bearing witness to

1230-904: The Abdali Afghans near Herat . Many of the Abdali Afghans subsequently joined his army. The new shah of the Ghilzai Afghans, Ashraf , decided to move against Nader but in September 1729, Nader defeated him at the Battle of Damghan and again decisively in November at Murchakhort, banishing the Afghans from Persian soil forever. Ashraf fled and Nader finally entered Isfahan, handing it over to Tahmasp in December and plundering

1312-489: The Battle of Manzikert , the Oghuz extensively settled throughout Anatolia and Azerbaijan . In the 11th century, Turkmens densely populated Arran . The 12th-century Persian writer al-Marwazi wrote about the arrival of Turkmens to Muslim lands, portraying them as people of noble character who are strong and persistent in battle because of their nomadic lifestyle, and calling them sultans (rulers). "Turkoman" entered into

1394-669: The Lezgin tribes of Daghestan. Frustratingly for him, they resorted to guerrilla warfare and the Persians could make little headway against them. Though Nader managed to take most of Dagestan during his campaign, the effective guerrilla warfare as deployed by the Lezgins , but also the Avars , Laks and Dargins made the Iranian re-conquest of this particular North Caucasian region this time

1476-615: The Mongol Ilkhanate in the late 13th-century, a period in which regional actions, trade, written culture, and partly Shia Islam, contributed to the establishment of the early modern Persianate world. Nader Shah was born (as Nadr Qoli) into a humble semi-nomadic family from the Afshar tribe of Khorasan, where he became a local warlord. His path to power began when the Ghilzai Mir Mahmud Hotaki overthrew

1558-681: The Persian suffix -mānind , with the resulting word meaning "like a Turk". While formerly the dominant etymology in modern scholarship, this mixed Turkic-Persian derivation is now viewed as incorrect. The first-known mention of the term "Turkmen", "Turkman" or "Turkoman" occurs near the end of the 10th century A.D in Islamic literature by the Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi in Ahsan Al-Taqasim Fi Ma'rifat Al-Aqalim . In his work, which

1640-618: The Safavid dynasty in 1736, and proclaimed himself Shah . During Nader's reign, Iran reached its greatest extent since the Sasanian Empire . At its height it controlled modern-day Iran, Armenia , Georgia , Azerbaijan , Afghanistan , Bahrain , Turkmenistan , and Uzbekistan , and parts of Iraq , Pakistan , Turkey , United Arab Emirates , Oman and the North Caucasus ( Dagestan ). After his death, most of his empire

1722-851: The Sublime Porte , which were briefly disrupted after Ashraf's ambassador insisted his master should be Caliph of the East and the Ottoman Sultan Caliph of the West . This caused great umbrage to the Ottomans, but a peace agreement was finally signed ( Treaty of Hamedan ) due to superior Ottoman diplomacy in October 1727. Ultimately, the royal Persian army of Shah Tahmasp II (one of the Shah Sultan Husayn 's sons) under

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1804-794: The Terekeme , a sub-ethnic group of the Azerbaijani people . Today, a significant percentage of residents of Azerbaijan , Turkey, and Turkmenistan are descendants of Oghuz Turks (Turkmens), and the languages they speak belong to the Oghuz group of the Turkic language family. As of the early 21st century, this ethnonym is still used by the Turkmens of Central Asia , the main population of Turkmenistan, who have sizeable groups in Iran, Afghanistan and Russia, as well as Iraqi and Syrian Turkmens ,

1886-411: The hajj , or pilgrimage, to Mecca , which was within their territory. In the subsequent peace negotiations, the Ottomans refused to acknowledge Ja'farism as a fifth mazhab but they did allow Persian pilgrims to go on the hajj . Nader was interested in gaining rights for Persians to go on the hajj in part because of revenues from the pilgrimage trade. Nader's other primary aim in his religious reforms

1968-478: The 19th century. Adel made the mistake of sending his brother Ebrahim to secure the capital Isfahan. Ebrahim decided to set himself up as a rival, defeated Adel in battle, blinded him and took the throne. Adel had reigned for less than a year. Meanwhile, a group of army officers freed Shahrokh from prison in Mashhad and proclaimed him shah in October 1748. Ebrahim was defeated and died in captivity in 1750 and Adel

2050-669: The 21st century under the Afshar Naderi surname. The Safavids had introduced Shi'a Islam as the state religion of Iran. Nader was brought up as a Shi'a but later sympathised and desired unity with the Sunni faith as he gained power and began to push into the Ottoman Empire. He believed that Safavid Shi'ism had intensified the conflict with the Sunni Ottoman Empire. His army was a mix of Shi'a and Sunni (with

2132-583: The Hotak tribal rule under increasing pressure from the two great powers of the time Turkish , Russian , and Persian forces. Ashraf Khan halted both the Russian and Turkish onslaughts. He defeated the Ottoman Empire, who wanted to reestablish their former arch rivals, the Safavids , back on the throne, in a battle near Kermanshah after the enemy had come close to Isfahan . This led to peace negotiations with

2214-691: The Karluks' equivalent of the Göktürks' political term Kök Türk. Later during the Middle Ages, the term was extensively employed for Oghuz Turks, a western Turkic people, who established a large tribal confederation called Oghuz Yabgu in the 8th century A.D. This polity, whose inhabitants spoke Oghuz Turkic, occupied an area between the Aral and Caspian seas in Central Asia. The Seljuqs appeared in

2296-503: The Oghuz branch of Turkic languages , which included such languages and dialects as Seljuq , Old Anatolian Turkish , and old Ottoman Turkish . Kashgari had cited phonetic, lexical and grammatical features of the language of Oghuz-Turkmens; he also identified several dialects and presented a couple of examples displaying the differences. Old Anatolian language, introduced to Anatolia by Seljuk Turkmens who migrated westward from Central Asia to Khorasan and further to Anatolia during

2378-513: The Ottoman Empire. Despite having a huge army at his disposal, in this campaign Nader showed little of his former military brilliance. It ended in 1746 with the signing of a peace treaty, in which the Ottomans agreed to let Nader occupy Najaf . The military forces of the Afsharid dynasty of Persia had their origins in the relatively obscure yet bloody inter-factional violence in Khorasan during

2460-672: The Ottoman ambassador Ali Pasha. In 1738, Nader Shah conquered Kandahar, the last outpost of the Hotaki dynasty and established Naderabad, Kandahar. His thoughts now turned to the Mughal Empire based in Delhi. This once powerful Muslim state to the east was falling apart as the nobles became increasingly disobedient and the Hindu Maratha Empire made inroads on its territory from the south-west. Its ruler Muhammad Shah

2542-462: The Ottomans, and regained most of the territory lost during the recent chaos. At the same time, the Abdali Afghans rebelled and besieged Mashhad, forcing Nader to suspend his campaign and save his brother, Ebrahim. It took Nader fourteen months to crush this uprising. Relations between Nader and the Shah had declined as the latter grew alarmed by his general's military successes. While Nader was absent in

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2624-462: The Persian army. Nader Shah crushed the Mughal army in less than three hours at the large Battle of Karnal on 13 February 1739. After this decisive victory, Nader captured Mohammad Shah and entered with him into Delhi. When a rumour broke out that Nader had been assassinated, some of the Indians attacked and killed Persian troops. Nader, furious, reacted by ordering his soldiers to plunder and sack

2706-460: The Persians had forced the Uzbek khanate of Bukhara to submit, Nader wanted Reza to marry the khan's elder daughter because she was a descendant of his role model Genghis Khan, but Reza flatly refused and Nader married the girl himself. Nader also conquered Khwarezm on this expedition into Central Asia. Nader now decided to punish Daghestan for the death of his brother Ebrahim Qoli on a campaign

2788-619: The Qereqlu branch of the Afshars. Since the Safavid era, Mamâlek-e Mahruse-ye Irân ( Guarded Domains of Iran ) was the common and official name of Iran. The idea of the Guarded Domains illustrated a feeling of territorial and political uniformity in a society where the Persian language, culture, monarchy, and Shia Islam became integral elements of the developing national identity. The concept presumably had started to form under

2870-593: The Seljuk expansion in the 11th century, was widely spoken by Turkmens of the area until the 15th century. It is also one of the known ancient languages within the Oghuz group of Turkic languages, along with old Ottoman. It displays certain characteristics peculiar to eastern Oghuz languages such as modern Turkmen and Khorasani Turkic languages, rather than western Oghuz languages such as Turkish or Azerbaijani . Such Old Anatolian Turkic features as bol- "to be(come)", also present in modern Turkmen and Khorasani Turkic,

2952-518: The advent of the Zands and Qajars, its rulers had various forms of autonomy, but stayed vassals and subjects to the Iranian king. Under the early Qajars, these territories in Transcaucasia and Dagestan would all be fully reincorporated into Iran, but eventually permanently lost as well (alongside Georgia), in the course of the 19th century to Imperial Russia through the two Russo-Persian Wars of

3034-533: The ancient and familiar name " Turk " ( türk ), and tribal names such as " Bayat ", " Bayandur ", " Afshar ", and " Kayi ". By the 10th century, Islamic sources were calling Oghuz Turks as Muslim Turkmens, as opposed to Shamanist or Buddhist Turks. It entered into the usage of the Western world through the Byzantines in the 12th century, since by that time Oghuz Turks were overwhelmingly Muslim. Later,

3116-400: The assassination of Nader Shah at the hands of a faction of his officers in 1747, Nader's powerful army fractured as the Afsharid state collapsed and the country plunged into decades of civil war. Although there were numerous Afsharid pretenders to the throne, (amongst many other), who attempted to regain control of the entire country, Persia remained a fractured political entity in turmoil until

3198-645: The assassination of large numbers of suspected enemies. With the wealth he gained, Nader started to build a Persian navy. With lumber from Mazandaran and Gilan , he built ships in Bushehr and order to build new artillery in Amol . He also purchased thirty ships in India. He recaptured the island of Bahrain from the Arabs. In 1743, he conquered Oman and its main capital Muscat . In 1743, Nader started another war against

3280-763: The beginning of the 11th century in Mawarannahr . Muslim Oghuz people, generally identified as Turkmens by then, rallied around the Qinik tribe that made up the core of the future Seljuq tribal union and the state they would create in the 11th century. Since the Seljuk era, the sultans of the dynasty created military settlements in parts of the Near and Middle East to strengthen their power; large Turkmen settlements were created in Syria , Iraq , and Eastern Anatolia . After

3362-399: The campaigns of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar toward the very end of the eighteenth century reunified the nation. After Nader's death in 1747, his nephew Ali Qoli (who may have been involved in the assassination plot) seized the throne and proclaimed himself Adel Shah ("The Just King"). He ordered the execution of all Nader's sons and grandsons, with the exception of the 13-year-old Shahrokh ,

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3444-463: The city . During the course of one day (March 22) 20,000 to 30,000 Indians were killed by the Persian troops, forcing Mohammad Shah to beg Nader for mercy. In response, Nader Shah agreed to withdraw, but Mohammad Shah paid the consequence in handing over the keys of his royal treasury, and losing even the Peacock Throne to the Persian emperor. The Peacock Throne thereafter served as

3526-429: The city to pay his army. Tahmasp made Nader governor over many eastern provinces, including his native Khorasan, and married him to his sister. Nader pursued and defeated Ashraf, who was murdered by his own followers. In 1738, Nader Shah besieged and destroyed the last Hotaki seat of power, at Kandahar . He built a new city nearby, which he named " Naderabad ". In the spring of 1735, Nader attacked Persia's archrival,

3608-568: The collapse of the Safavid state. The small band of warriors under local warlord Nader Qoli of the Turkomen Afshar tribe in north-east Iran were no more than a few hundred men. Yet at the height of Nader's power as the king of kings, Shahanshah, he commanded an army of 375,000 fighting men which constituted the single most powerful military force of its time, led by one of the most talented and successful military leaders of history. After

3690-413: The conquered areas between themselves. On the other side of the theatre, Nader joined forces with Sultan Husayn's son Tahmasp II and led the resistance against the Ghilzai Afghans , driving their leader Ashraf Khan easily out of the capital in 1729 and establishing Tahmasp on the throne. Nader fought to regain the lands lost to the Ottomans and Russians and to restore Iranian hegemony in Iran. While he

3772-416: The courtiers asking if a man in such a state was fit to rule. In 1732 he forced Tahmasp to abdicate in favour of the Shah's baby son, Abbas III, to whom Nader became regent. Nader decided, as he continued the 1730–35 war , that he could win back the territory in Armenia and Georgia by seizing Ottoman Baghdad and then offering it in exchange for the lost provinces, but his plan went badly amiss when his army

3854-438: The cursing of the first three caliphs. Personally, Nader is said to have been indifferent toward religion and the French Jesuit who served as his personal physician reported that it was difficult to know which religion he followed and that many who knew him best said that he had none. Nader hoped that "Ja'farism" would be accepted as a fifth school ( mazhab ) of Sunni Islam and that the Ottomans would allow its adherents to go on

3936-503: The early 21st century, the ethnonyms "Turkoman" and "Turkmen" are still used by the Turkmens of Turkmenistan , who have sizeable groups in Iran , Afghanistan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan , as well as Iraqi and Syrian Turkmens , descendants of the Oghuz Turks who mostly adhere to an Anatolian Turkish heritage and identity. Most Iraqi and Syrian Turkmens are descendants of Ottoman soldiers, traders, and civil servants who were taken into Iraq from Anatolia during

4018-408: The east of the Indus that he had overrun. Nader's soldiers also took with them thousands of elephants, horses and camels, loaded with the booty they had collected. On his return march, the Sikhs came out from the hills and ambushed Nader Shah's troops, taking some of the loot and captives with them. However, the remaining plunder seized from India was so valuable that Nader stopped taxation in Iran for

4100-434: The east, Tahmasp tried to assert himself by launching a campaign to recapture Yerevan . He ended up losing all of Nader's recent gains to the Ottomans, and signed a treaty ceding Georgia and Armenia in exchange for Tabriz . Nader, furious, saw that the moment had come to depose Tahmasp. He denounced the treaty, seeking popular support for a war against the Ottomans. In Isfahan, Nader got Tahmasp drunk then showed him to

4182-549: The flags of the army regiments of King Nader were three-eared, but we cannot come to a conclusion about whether the royal flags of that time were three-eared or four-eared. Nader Shah's flag Imperial Standard of the Afsharid dynasty Nader in his Battles Afsharians parade in Persepolis an Afsharid soldier with his flag – Persepolis parade Another Imperial Standard of the Afsharid dynasty Naval flag of Afsharid period Turkoman (ethnonym) Turkoman , also known as Turcoman ( English: / ˈ t ə r k ə m ə n / ),

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4264-427: The founder of the Qajar dynasty , seized Mashhad and tortured Shahrokh to force him to reveal the whereabouts of Nader Shah's treasures. Shahrokh died of his injuries soon after and with him the Afsharid dynasty came to an end. One of Shahrokh's sons, Nader Mirza , revolted in 1797 upon the death of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar but the revolt was crushed and he was executed in April 1803. Shahrokh's descendants continue into

4346-493: The frantic turn of events in mainland Iran he would be able to remain de facto autonomous through the Zand period. Under the successive Qajar dynasty , Iran managed to restore Iranian suzerainty over the Georgian regions, until they would be irrevocably lost in the course of the 19th century , to neighbouring Imperial Russia . Many of the rest of the territories in the Caucasus, comprising modern-day [Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Dagestan , broke away into various khanates . Until

4428-475: The group did not "demur", and Hasan-Ali remained silent. When Nader asked him why he remained silent, Hasan-Ali replied that the best course of action for Nader would be to assemble all the leading men of the state, in order to receive their agreement in "a signed and sealed document of consent". Nader approved of the proposal, and the writers of the chancellery, which included the court historian Mirza Mehdi Khan Astarabadi , were instructed with sending out orders to

4510-421: The inhabitants of the regions which he had to traverse dissipated his forces and compelled him to abandon his captives and his treasure, and he was finally killed by a party of Balúch tribesmen. Ashraf Khan's death marked the end of Hotak rule in Persia, but the country of Afghanistan was still under Shah Hussain Hotak 's control until Nader Shah's 1738 conquest of Kandahar, where the young Ahmad Shah Durrani

4592-413: The kings of Kakheti and Kartli respectively by Nader himself for their loyal service, capitalized on the eruption of instability and declared de facto independence. Erekle II assumed control over Kartli after Teimuraz II's death, thus unifying the two as the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti , becoming the first Georgian ruler in three centuries to preside over a politically unified eastern Georgia, and due to

4674-470: The language, the way of life, religions, traditions and social norms of the Oghuz Turks. In Anatolia in the late Middle Ages , the term "Turkmen" was gradually supplanted by the term "Ottomans". The Ottoman ruling class identified themselves as Ottomans until the 19th century. In the late 19th century, as the Ottomans adopted European ideas of nationalism , they preferred to return to a more common term Turk instead of Turkmen , whereas previously Turk

4756-469: The leadership of Nader defeated Ashraf's Ghilji forces in a decisive battle known as the Battle of Damghan in October 1729, banishing and driving out the Afghans back to what is now Afghanistan . When escaping from Persia, Ashraf was captured and murdered by the Baloch Khan of Kalat Mir Mohabbat Khan Baloch in 1730. Ashraf, having taken Yazd and Kirmán , marched into Khurásán with an army of thirty thousand men to give battle to Ṭahmásp, but he

4838-434: The military, religious and nobility of the nation to summon at the plains. The summonses for the people to attend had gone out in November 1735, and they began arriving in January 1736. In the same month of January 1736, Nader held a qoroltai (a grand meeting in the tradition of Genghis Khan and Timur ) on the Moghan plains. The Moghan plain was specifically chosen for its size and "abundance of fodder". Everyone agreed to

4920-444: The one red and yellow striped, the other yellow edged with red: they were made of such an enormous size, to prevent their being carried off by the enemy, except by an entire defeat. The regimental colours were a narrow slip of silk, sloped to a point, some were red, some white, and some striped. Navy Admiral flag being a white ground with a red Persian Sword in the middle. Although based on the writings of Jonas Hanway , we can see that

5002-399: The other descendants of Oghuz Turks. The current majority view for the etymology of the ethnonym Türkmen or Turcoman is that it comes from Türk and the Turkic emphasizing suffix -men , meaning "'most Turkic of the Turks' or 'pure-blooded Turks.'" A folk etymology , dating back to the Middle Ages and found in al-Biruni and Mahmud al-Kashgari , instead derives the suffix -men from

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5084-573: The peace in Persia. Having heard a rumour that Nader was dead, he had prepared to seize the throne by having the Safavid royal captives, Tahmasp and his nine-year-old son Abbas III, executed. On hearing the news, Reza's wife, who was Tahmasp's sister, committed suicide. Nader was not pleased with the young man's behaviour and humiliated him by removing him from the post of viceroy, but he took him on his expedition to conquer territory in Transoxiana . Nader became increasingly despotic as his health declined markedly. In 1740 he conquered Khanate of Khiva . After

5166-400: The proposal of Nader becoming the new king, many—if not most—enthusiastically, the rest fearing Nader's anger if they showed support for the deposed Safavids. Nader was crowned Shah of Iran on March 8, 1736, a date his astrologers had chosen as being especially propitious, in attendance of an "exceptionally large assembly" composed of the military, religious and nobility of the nation, as well as

5248-400: The rest of the Caucasus , and the resultant 1736 Treaty of Constantinople forced the Ottomans to confirm Iranian suzerainty over the Caucasus and recognised Nader as the new Shah . Tahmasp and the Qajar leader Fath Ali Khan (the ancestor of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar ) contacted Nader and asked him to join their cause and drive the Ghilzai Afghans out of Khorasan. He agreed and thus became

5330-409: The rule of the Ottoman Empire. Turks of Israel and Lebanon , Turkish sub-ethnic groups of Yoruks , Manavs and Karapapaks (sub-ethnic group of Azerbaijanis) are also referred to as Turkmens. "Turkoman", "Turkmen", "Turkman" and "Torkaman" were – and continue to be – used interchangeably. Ashraf Khan The nephew of Mirwais Hotak , his reign was noted for the sudden decline in

5412-432: The son of Reza Qoli. Meanwhile, Nadir's former treasurer, Ahmad Shah Abdali , had declared his independence by founding the Durrani Empire . In the process, the eastern territories were lost and in the following decades became part of Afghanistan , the successor-state to the Durrani Empire. The northern territories, Iran's most integral regions, had a different fate. Erekle II and Teimuraz II , who, in 1744, had been made

5494-492: The surrounding lands, resulting in the reestablishment of Iranian rule over all of the Caucasus and northern mainland Iran again. Nader suggested to his closest intimates, after a hunting party on the Moghan plains (presently split between Azerbaijan and Iran), that he should be proclaimed the new king (shah) in place of the young Abbas III. The small group of close intimates, Nader's friends, included Tahmasp Khan Jalayer and Hasan-Ali Beg Bestami . Following Nader's suggestion,

5576-415: The term "Oghuz" was gradually supplanted by "Turkmen" among Oghuz Turks themselves, thus turning an exonym into an endonym , a process which was completed by the beginning of the 13th century. In Anatolia , since the Late Middle Ages , "Turkmen" was superseded by the term "Ottoman", which came from the name of the Ottoman Empire and its ruling dynasty . It remains as an endonym of semi-nomadic tribes of

5658-455: The usage of the Western world through the Byzantines in the 12th century. By the beginning of 13th century, it became an endonym among Oghuz Turks themselves. The Turkmens also included the Yiva and Bayandur tribes, from which the ruling clans of the states of Qara Qoyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu emerged. After the fall of Aq Qoyunlu, the Turkmen tribes—partly under their own name, for example Afshars , Hajilu, Pornak, Deger, and Mavsellu—united in

5740-469: The using the colour green, as green was associated with Shia Islam and the Safavid dynasty . The two imperial standards were placed on the right of the square already mentioned: one of them was in stripes of red, blue, and white, and the other of red, blue, white, and yellow, without any other ornament: though the old standards required 12 men to move them, the SHAH lengthened their staffs, and made them yet heavier; he also put new colours of silk upon them,

5822-418: The weakened and disintegrated Safavid shah Sultan Husayn in 1722. At the same time, Ottoman and Russian forces seized Iranian land. Russia took swaths of Iran's Caucasian territories in the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia , as well as mainland northern Iran, by the Russo-Persian War , while the neighbouring Ottomans invaded from the west. By the 1724 Treaty of Constantinople , they agreed to divide

5904-642: Was a term for the people of Oghuz Turkic origin, widely used during the Middle Ages . Oghuz Turks were a western Turkic people that, in the 8th century A.D, formed a tribal confederation in an area between the Aral and Caspian seas in Central Asia , and spoke the Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family . Turkmen , originally an exonym , dates from the High Middle Ages , along with

5986-588: Was also put to death at the request of Nader Shah's widow. Shahrokh was briefly deposed in favour of another puppet ruler Soleyman II but, although blinded, Shahrokh was restored to the throne by his supporters. He reigned in Mashhad and from the 1750s his territory was mostly confined to the city and its environs. He also faced the Durrani invasions into Khorasan, eventually becoming subjugated to them in Ahmad Shah 's second campaign . In 1796 Mohammad Khan Qajar ,

6068-531: Was away in the east fighting the Ghilzais, Tahmasp waged a disastrous campaign in the Caucasus which allowed the Ottomans to retake most of their lost territory in the west . Nader, displeased, had Tahmasp deposed in favour of his infant son Abbas III in 1732. Four years later, after he had recaptured most of the lost Persian lands, Nader felt confident enough to have himself proclaimed shah in his own right at

6150-503: Was completed in 987 A.D, al-Muqaddasi writes about Turkmens twice while depicting the region as the frontier of the Muslim possessions in Central Asia. According to medieval Islamic authors Al-Biruni and al-Marwazi , the term Turkmen referred to the Oghuz who converted to Islam. There is evidence, however, that non-Oghuz Turks such as Karluks also have been called Turkomans and Turkmens ; Kafesoğlu (1958) proposes that Türkmen might be

6232-586: Was completely defeated by Nádir on October 2 at Dámghán. Another decisive battle was fought in the same year at Múrchakhúr near Iṣfahán. The Afgháns were again defeated and evacuated Iṣfahán to the number of twelve thousand men, but, before quitting the city he had ruined, Ashraf murdered the unfortunate ex- Shah Husayn , and carried off most of the ladies of the royal family and the King's treasure. When Ṭahmásp II entered Iṣfahán on December 9 he found only his old mother, who had escaped deportation by disguising herself as

6314-455: Was divided between the Zands , Durranis , Georgians , Khanate of Kalat , and the Caucasian khanates , while Afsharid rule was confined to a small local state in Khorasan. Finally, the Afsharid dynasty was overthrown by Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar in 1796, who would establish a new native Iranian empire and restore Iranian suzerainty over several of the aforementioned regions. The dynasty

6396-614: Was named after the Turkoman Afshar tribe from Khorasan in north-east Iran, to which Nader belonged. The Afshars had originally migrated from Turkestan to Azerbaijan (Iranian Azerbaijan) in the 13th century. In the early 17th century, Abbas the Great moved many Afshars from Azerbaijan to Khorasan to defend the north-eastern borders of his state against the Uzbeks , after which the Afshars settled in those regions. Nader belonged to

6478-454: Was powerless to reverse this disintegration. Nader asked for the Afghan rebels to be handed over, but the Mughal emperor refused. Nader used the pretext of his Afghan enemies taking refuge in India to cross the border and invade the militarily weak but still extremely wealthy far eastern empire. In a brilliant campaign against the governor of Peshawar, he took a small contingent of his forces on

6560-476: Was routed by the Ottoman general Topal Osman Pasha near the city in 1733. Nader decided he needed to regain the initiative as soon as possible to save his position because revolts were already breaking out in Persia. He faced Topal again with a larger force and defeated and killed him. He then besieged Baghdad, as well as Ganja in the northern provinces, earning a Russian alliance against the Ottomans. Nader scored

6642-474: Was to weaken the Safavids further since radical Shi'a Islam had always been a major element in support for the dynasty. He had the chief mullah of Persia strangled after he was heard expressing support for the Safavids. Among his reforms was the introduction of what came to be known as the kolah-e Naderi . This was a hat with four peaks which symbolised the first four caliphs . Nader Shah consciously avoided

6724-513: Was used to exclusively refer to Anatolian peasants. The term continued to be used interchangeably with other ethnohistorical terms for the Turkic people of the area, including Turk, Tatar and Ajam , well into the early 20th century. In the early 21st century, "Turkmen" remains as the self-name for the semi-nomadic tribes of the Terekime , a sub-ethnic group of the Azerbaijani people . In

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