Mīrwais Khān Hotak (Pashto: مير ويس خان هوتک‎), also known as Shāh Mirwais Ghiljī (Pashto: شاه ميرويس غلجي‎) (1673 – November 1715), was an influential tribal chief of the Ghilji Pashtuns from Kandahar, Afghanistan, who founded the Hotak dynasty that existed from 1709 to 1738. After revolting and killing the Safavid Persian governor over the region, Gurgin Khan in April 1709, he declared what is now southern Afghanistan independent. He is widely known as Mīrwais Nīkə (ميرويس نيکه) or Mīrwais Bābā (ميرويس بابا, "Mirwais the father") in the Pashto language.

In 1707, Kandahar was in a state of chaos, fought over by the Shi'a Safavid state of Persia and the Sunni Mughal state of India. Mirwais Khan, a Sunni tribal chief whose influence with his fellow-countrymen made him an object of suspicion, was held as a political prisoner by Gurgin Khan, the Persian governor in the region, who then sent him to the Safavid court at Isfahan. He was later freed and even allowed to meet with the Shah, Sultan Husayn, on a regular basis. Having ingratiated himself with the Persian court, Mirwais sought and obtained permission to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca in the Ottoman Empire (after which he was known as Hajji). At that time the once powerful Safavids were declining politically and militarily, riven by internal strife, royal intrigues, and endless wars against their arch rivals, the Ottomans. During his time in Persia, Mirwais tried to learn all the military weaknesses of the Safavids.

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