Afsharid dynasty | ||||||||||||||||||
افشاریان Afsharian |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
The Afsharid Persian Empire at its greatest extent under Nader Shah
|
||||||||||||||||||
Capital | Mashhad | |||||||||||||||||
Languages |
Persian (official language; court language; civil & fiscal administration) Turkic (military administration) |
|||||||||||||||||
Government | Absolute Monarchy | |||||||||||||||||
Shahanshah | ||||||||||||||||||
• | 1736–1747 | Nader Shah | ||||||||||||||||
• | 1747–1748 | Adil Shah | ||||||||||||||||
• | 1748 | Ebrahim Afshar | ||||||||||||||||
• | 1748–1796 | Shahrukh Afshar | ||||||||||||||||
History | ||||||||||||||||||
• | Established | 22 January 1736 | ||||||||||||||||
• | Disestablished | 1796 | ||||||||||||||||
Area | 4,500,000 km² (1,737,460 sq mi) | |||||||||||||||||
Currency | toman | |||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Today part of |
Uzbekistan Iran Turkmenistan Tajikistan Kyrgyzstan Kazakhstan Azerbaijan Georgia Armenia Afghanistan Pakistan India Iraq Kuwait Turkey Russia Oman United Arab Emirates Bahrain |
The Afsharids (Persian: افشاریان) were members of an Iranian dynasty which originated from the Turkic Afshar tribe in Iran's north-eastern province of Khorasan, ruling Persia in the mid-eighteenth century. The dynasty was founded in 1736 by the brilliant military commander Nader Shah, who deposed the last member of the Safavid dynasty and proclaimed himself Shah of Iran. During Nader's reign, Iran reached its greatest extent since the Sassanid Empire, and at its height it controlled modern day Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, most of the North Caucasus (Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, and parts of modern-day Chechnya), Afghanistan, Bahrain, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan, and parts of Iraq, Turkey, North India, and Oman. After his death, most of his empire was divided between the Zands, Durranis, Georgians, and the Caucasian khanates, while Afsharid rule was confined to a small local state in Khorasan. Finally, the Afsharid dynasty was overthrown by Mohammad Khan Qajar in 1796, who would establish a new native Iranian empire and restore Iranian suzerainty over several of the aforementioned regions.