Tahmasp II

Shah Tahmasp II
Shahanshah of Iran Sahib-i-Qiran Sultan bar Salatin
Coin minted during the reign of Tahmasp II
10th Safavid Shah
Reign	1729–1732
Predecessor	Ashraf Khan
Successor	Abbas III
Born	1704
Died	11 February 1740 Sabzevar
House	Safavi
Father	Sultan Husayn

Tahmasp II (1704? – 11 February 1740) was one of the last Safavid rulers of Persia (Iran).

Tahmasp was the son of Sultan Husayn, the Shah of Iran at the time. When Husayn was forced to abdicate by the Afghans in 1722, Prince Tahmasp wished to claim the throne. From the besieged Safavid capital, Isfahan, he fled to Tabriz where he established a government. He gained the support of the Sunni Muslims of the Caucasus (even that of the previously rebellious Lezgins), as well as several Qizilbash tribes (including the Afshars, under the control of Iran's future ruler, Nader Shah).

In June 1722, Peter the Great, the then tsar of the neighbouring Russian Empire, declared war on Safavid Iran in an attempt to expand Russian influence in the Caspian and Caucasus regions and to prevent its rival, Ottoman Empire, from territorial gains in the region at the expense of declining Safavid Iran.

The Russian victory ratified for Safavid Irans' cession of their territories in the Northern, Southern Caucasus and contemporary mainland Northern Iran, comprising the cities of Derbent (southern Dagestan) and Baku and their nearby surrounding lands, as well as the provinces of Gilan, Shirvan, Mazandaran, and Astrabad to Russia per the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1723).