Hotak dynasty
Hotaki dynasty | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1709–1738 | |||||||||
| Capital | Isfahan | ||||||||
| Common languages | Persian (official) Pashto (native language of the rulers) | ||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 1709 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1738 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
 |
| History of Greater Iran |
|---|
| Part of a series on |
| Pashtuns |
|---|
| Empires and dynasties |
The Hotaki dynasty (Pashto: د هوتکیانو واکمني) was an Afghan (Pashtun) dynasty that ruled the Persian Empire after the Safavid dynasty, before the rise of the Afsharid dynasty. It was founded in 1709 by Mirwais Khan Hotak, the chief of the Ghilzai Pashtuns[1] of Kandahar. Mirwais Khan and his Afghan followers rose against the Persian Safavids in Kandahar City in 1709. He began by killing George XI (Gurgīn Khān), the Georgian governor of Kandahar province and the direct representative of the Persian kings. Next, Mirwais ordered the deaths of the remaining Persian government officials in the region. The Afghans then defeated twice a large Persian army that was dispatched from Isfahan (capital of the Safavid Empire).[2]
Several half-hearted attempts to subdue the rebellious city having failed, the Persian Government despatched Success of the rebels. Khusraw Khán, nephew of the late Gurgín Khán, with an army of 30,000 men to effect its subjugation, but in spite of an initial success, which led the Afgháns to offer to surrender on terms, his uncompromising attitude impelled them to make a fresh desperate effort, resulting in the complete defeat of the Persian army (of whom only some 700 escaped) and the death of their general. Two years later, in A.D. 1713, another Persian army commanded by Rustam Khán was also defeated by the rebels, who thus secured possession of the whole province of Qandahár.
Mirwais Khan died peacefully in 1715 from natural cause and was succeeded by his son Mir Mahmud Hotaki, who later led an Afghan army to invade Persia. In 1722, Mir Mahmud sacked the city of Isfahan and declared himself Shah (King) of Persia. The majority Persians rejected the Afghan regime as usurping. For the next 7 years the Hotakis became the de facto rulers of eastern Persia and the Peshawar Valley.
The Hotaki dynasty was a troubled and violent one as internecine conflict made it difficult to establish permanent control. The dynasty lived under great turmoil due to bloody succession feuds that made their hold on power tenuous, and after the massacre of thousands of civilians in Isfahan – including more than three thousand religious scholars, nobles, and members of the Safavid family – the Hotaki dynasty was eventually removed from power in Persia.[3][4] In October 1729, they were defeated by Nader Shah, head of the Afsharids, in the Battle of Damghan. He had driven out the Afghans, who were still occupying Persia, by 1730. In 1738, Nadir Shah reconquered Afghanistan starting with Kandahar, In the same year he occupied Ghazni, Kabul and Lahore.
See also
References and footnotes
- ^ See Malleson, George Bruce (1879) "Chapter 7: The Ghilzai Rule" History of Afghanistan, from the Earliest Period to the Outbreak of the War of 1878 W.H. Allen & Co., London, OCLC 4219393, limited view at Google Books, for details on the origins of Mir Wais, chief of the Ghilzai tribe.
- ^ Packard Humanities Institute - Persian Literature in Translation - Chapter IV: An Outline Of The History Of Persia During The Last Two Centuries (A.D. 1722-1922)...Link
- ^ Prof. D. Balland, "Ašraf Ghilzai", in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition 2006, (LINK)
- ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica - The Hotakis (from Afghanistan)...Link
External links