Mir Mahmud Hotaki

Mir Mahmud Hotaki (1697? — April 25 1725) was an Afghan tribal leader who overthrew the Safavid dynasty to become Shah of Persia in 1722. He was the eldest son of Mirwais Khan Hotak, the leader of the Ghilzai Afghans of Kandahar, who had successfully rebelled against the Safavid shah of Persia, Soltan Hosein. When Mirwais died in 1715, he was succeeded by his brother, Abd al-Aziz, but the Ghilzai Afghans persuaded Mahmud to seize power for himself and in 1717 he overthrew and killed his uncle. [Axworthy p.38]

Mahmud takes the throne of Persia

In 1720, Mahmud and the Ghilzais defeated the rival Afghan tribe of the Abdalis. He sent the heads of some of the defeated Abdalis to Shah Soltan Hosein, who made him governor of Kandahar. However, Mahmud had designs on the Persian empire itself. He had already launched an expedition against Kerman in 1719 and in 1721 he besieged the city again. Failing in this attempt and in another siege on Yazd, in early 1722, Mahmud turned his attention to the shah's capital Isfahan. Rather than biding his time within the city and resisting a siege in which the small Afghan army was unlikely to succeed, Soltan Hosein marched out to meet Mahmud's force at Golnabad. Here, on March 8, the royal army was thoroughly routed and fled back to Isfahan in disarray. The shah was urged to escape to the provinces to raise more troops but he decided to remain in the capital which was now encircled by the Afghans. Mahmud's siege of Isfahan lasted from March to October, 1722. Lacking artillery, he was forced to resort to a long blockade in the hope of starving the Persians into submission. Soltan Hosein's command during the siege displayed his customary lack of decisiveness and the loyalty of his provincial governors wavered in the face of such incompetence. Starvation and disease finally forced Isfahan into submission (it is estimated that 80,000 of its inhabitants died during the siege). On October 23, Soltan Hossein abdicated and acknowledged Mahmud as the new shah of Persia. [Axworthy pp.39-55]

Mahmud's reign as shah

In the early days of his rule, Mahmud displayed benevolence, treating the captured royal family and bringing in food supplies to the starving capital. But he was confronted with a rival claimant to the throne when Soltan Hosein's son, Tahmasp declared himself shah in November. Mahmud sent an army against Tahmasp's base, Qazvin. Tahmasp escaped and the Afghans took the city but, shocked at the treatment they received at the hands of the conquering army, the population rose up against them in January, 1723. The revolt was a success and Mahmud was worried about the reaction when the surviving Afghans returned to Isfahan to bring news of the defeat. Fearing a revolt by his subjects, Mahmud invited his Persian ministers and nobles to a meeting under false pretences and had them slaughtered. He also executed up to 3,000 of the Persian royal guards. At the same time, the Ottomans and the Russians took advantage of the chaos in Persia to seize land for themselves, limiting the amount of territory under Mahmud's control. [Axworthy pp.64-65]

His failure to impose his rule across Persia made Mahmud depressed and suspicious. He was also concerned about the loyalty of his own men, since many Afghans preferred his cousin Ashraf. In February 1725, believing a rumour that one of Soltan Hosein's sons, Safi Mirza, had escaped, Mahmud ordered the execution of all the other Safavid princes who were in his hands, with the exception of Soltan Hosein himself. When Soltan Hosein tried to stop the massacre, he was wounded, but his action led to Mahmud sparing the lives of two of his young children. Mahmud began to succumb to insanity as well as physical deterioration. On April 22, 1725, a group of Afghan officers freed Ashraf from the prison where he had been confined by Mahmud and launched a palace revolution which placed Ashraf on the throne. Mahmud died three days later, either from his illness - at it was claimed at the time - or murder by suffocation. [Axworthy pp.65-67]

References

ources

* Michael Axworthy, "The Sword of Persia: Nader Shah, from Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant" Hardcover 348 pages (26 July 2006) Publisher: [http://www.ibtauris.com/ibtauris/display.asp?K=510000000117668&cid=ibtauris&sf_01=CAUTHOR&st_01=Michael+Axworthy&sf_02=CTITLE&sf_03=KEYWORD&sf_04=VX%5FISBN%3B%3D&m=1&dc=1 I.B. Tauris] Language: English ISBN 1-85043-706-8

External links

* [http://persian.packhum.org/persian/index.jsp?serv=pf&file=90001014&ct=29 Chapter IV. An outline of the History of Persia during the last two centuries (1722-1922), The Afghan Invasion (1722-1730)]