Sword of Persia: Nader Shah, from Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant

Did he do a deal with Nader? We will probably never know. The Nezam does seem to have been given an easier ride in the collection of tribute than the other great nobles; Nader’s warning to Mohammad Shah about the Nezam before he left could have been a dark joke, a double bluff.

He made the man who had forcibly married her sign and seal a divorce decree before witnesses, and got Nader’s secretaries to write a raqam saying that the girl was to remain a Christian and should marry a Christian, and that the abductor should not be allowed to bring litigation over the case. Then he gave the girl and the raqam to the father, and

The Afghans refused to believe Nader was dead, and after a pitched battle they broke through to the tent and found the body lying in its own blood, with an old woman weeping over the head. The Afghans fought their way out of the camp and set off back to Kandahar. Not far from the camp they ran into a convoy of looted treasure that Mohammad Qoli Kha

Some accounts say that the Nezam ol-Molk and Sa’adat Khan directly invited Nader to invade, and in later years the story that the Nezam in particular had betrayed his master, was widespread.

Any form of government is a conjuring trick to some extent; even a despotism depends ultimately on the consent of subjects to be ruled, and the respect in which the rulers are held. Once the prestige and respect begin to crumble, the compliance of subjects (particularly the more unruly ones) starts to erode too, and a slide toward anarchy gathers p

The early Greek philosopher Heraclitus, emphasising the contingent and changing nature of existence, is supposed to have said that no-one ever steps into the same river twice, because new waters are always flowing down. Others have taken this as an image for human personality – that the notion of a fixed personality is an illusion.

Rather than see a rival become dominant by defeating the enemies of the State, the eunuchs and courtiers systematically crippled any serious effort to deal with Persia’s growing mass of problems. In the end, Safavid Persia fell because those entrusted with its security failed to understand the nature of their responsibility, the true basis of the p

Herat was symbolically as well as strategically important. It was one of the great cities of Asia, and was ringed with strong fortifications from the time of Shahrokh, Timur’s son, who had made it the capital of his empire.

One account says that the little boy began to cry during the crowning ceremony. Nader asked those nearby whether they knew why he was crying. Prudently, they said Nader surely knew best himself. Nader said Abbas was crying because he wanted to rule over the Afghans of Kandahar and the Ottoman Sultan, and declared to general acclaim that to gratify