Iran / Persia: Nader Shah Afshar, Shah of Iran (r. 1736-1747)

Nāder Shāh Afshār (Persian: نادر شاه افشار‎; also known as Nāder Qoli Beg - نادر قلی بیگ or Tahmāsp Qoli Khān - تهماسپ قلی خان) (November, 1688 or August 6, 1698 – June 19, 1747) ruled as Shah of Iran (1736–47) and was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty. Because of his military genius, some historians have described him as the Napoleon of Persia or the Second Alexander. Nader Shah was a member of the Turkic Afshar tribe of northern Persia, which had supplied military power to the Safavid state since the time of Shah Ismail I.

Nader rose to power during a period of anarchy in Iran after a rebellion by the Hotaki Afghans had overthrown the weak Persian Shah Sultan Husayn, and both the Ottomans and the Russians had seized Persian territory for themselves. Nader reunited the Persian realm and removed the invaders. He became so powerful that he decided to depose the last members of the Safavid dynasty, which had ruled Iran for over 200 years, and become shah himself in 1736. His campaigns created a great empire that briefly encompassed what is now Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, parts of the Caucasus region, parts of Central Asia, and Oman but his military spending had a ruinous effect on the Persian economy.

Nader idolized Genghis Khan and Timur, the previous conquerors from Central Asia. He imitated their military prowess and—especially later in his reign—their cruelty. His victories briefly made him the Middle East's most powerful sovereign, but his empire quickly disintegrated after he was assassinated in 1747.

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