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

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.

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.

The origins of the division within Islam go back to the era of the Prophet himself. Shi‘a Muslims believe that Mohammad chose his cousin Ali as his successor.* But despite this, others were elected as caliph or temporal leader after the Prophet’s death in AD 632: in succession, Abu Bakr, Omar, and Osman ibn Affan, the last of whom was assassinated

When asked for a decision, Shah Soltan Hosein would tend to agree with whoever approached him last – usually with the words Yakhshi dir (‘It is good’ in the Turkic court language).

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

This martyrdom of Hosein and others of the Prophet’s closest descendants at Karbala was the defining moment in the early history of Shi‘a Islam. Ever since, the death of Hosein has been commemorated by Shi‘a Muslims each year, and they have nursed a sense of injustice and betrayal. Thereafter the Shi‘a Emams, as descendants of Ali and Hosein, were

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

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