The Sword of Persia 1. Son of the Sword. This is the sword traditionally believed to have been carried by Nader Shah on his campaigns. It is now in Tehran. It was inscribed and embellished in the reign of Fath Ali Shah 50 or more years later. The scabbard is encrusted with diamonds. Nader used the imagery of the sword to describe himself on a number of occasions. (Photo courtesy of the Royal Ontario Museum.) The Sword of Persia Nader Shah From Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant Michael Axworthy To my father Published in 2006 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fi�h Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com In the United States of America and in Canada distributed by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St Martin’s Press 175 Fi�h Avenue, New York NY 10010 Copyright © Michael Axworthy, 2006 The right of Michael Axworthy to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmi�ed, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior wri�en permission of the publisher. ISBN 10: 1 85043 706 8 ISBN 13: 978 1 85043 706 2 A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress catalog card: available Typeset in Palatino Linotype Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow Contents List of Maps and Illustrations vii Acknowledgements ix Note on Transliteration xi Preface xv Prologue Zenith 1 Chapter One The Fall of the Safavid Dynasty 17 Chapter Two Tahmasp Qoli Khan 57 Chapter Three War with the Afghans 75 Chapter Four War with the O�omans 99 Chapter Five Coup d’État 117 Chapter Six Nader Shah 137 Chapter Seven To the Gates of Delhi 175 Chapter Eight The Ruin of Persia 211 Chapter Nine Towers of Skulls 243 Chapter Ten Full Circle 275 Notes 287 Select Bibliography 329 Index 339 Maps and Illustrations Maps 1. Persia xii 2. Golnabad 46 3. Karnal 201 Illustrations 1. Son of the Sword ii 2. View from the East xx 3. A party of Turkmen slavers with their captives 16 4. Not Enough to be Nice 56 5. Zanburak 74 6. Isfahan 98 7. Jazayer 210 8. Nader’s camp 242 9. View from the West 274 vii Acknowledgements In writing this book I have benefited from the generous help and advice of a large number of people. Chief among these were Chris and Homa Rundle, Nargess Majd, Christos Nifadopoulos and Leo Drollas, without whose translations of source material and patient re-examination of individual points and queries the finished result would have been much inferior. Peter Avery was an encouragement and inspiration, as well as a great help on a number of specific points, and translations. Chris Rundle also read through the manuscript, as did Sandy Morton, Charles Melville, Willem Floor, Ali Ansari and Jill Bowden; and their comments and suggestions much improved the book (though they were not always accepted), as did those of Andrew Newman, who looked at parts of the manuscript at an early stage. Willem Floor allowed me sight of some of his unpublished research, which proved very important for the book. Paul Lu�, along with Ali Ansari and Anoush Ehteshami, was instrumental in securing me a Research Fellowship from Durham University for the purposes of this project, and was helpful and encouraging in a variety of other ways. Ali Ansari was a stimulus and a guide at the very beginning of my interest in Nader Shah, without whom none of this would have happened. Many others also gave me guidance, encouragement and support, whether in suggesting new lines of research or analysis, answering specific queries, or by helping me find material that was proving ix x The Sword of Persia difficult. These included Ernie Tucker, John Appleby, Kathryn Babayan, John Gurney, Mansur Sefatgol, Heidi Hofste�er (especially), Aaron Dunne, Hannah Carter, John Carter, Sergei Tourkin, Adrian Steele, Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Michele Bernardini, Jennifer Scarce, Ian Heath, Stephen Blake, Robert Hillenbrand, Bernard O’Kane, Ian Maddock, Poppy Hampson, Bella Pringle, and Iona Molesworth-St. Aubyn. I am also grateful to my sister, Helen Axworthy, for her help with the maps and for her support generally. Inez Lynne, Gosia Lawik, Edith Gray and the other staff of the London Library were generous and tolerant beyond normal limits in finding and lending books, equalled only in helpfulness by the staff of the Cambridge University Library, especially Claire Welford and the others in the Rare Books room, and Les Goodey. I must also thank Iradj Bagherzade for giving me the chance to write this book in the first place, Kate Sherra� and Clare Dubois at I.B.Tauris, and my wife Sally, who happily translated one crucial Russian text for me, and without whose forbearance and support the book would never have been finished.