afghanistandeclared independence from Persia. For the next three decades Kandahar
was ruled by the Hotaki dynasty. Sultan ‘Abd Allah Khan, having defeated
the Persians, returned to Kandahar only to find its gates shut against him.
Lacking the military capability to take the city by storm, he returned
to Safa.
The loss of Kandahar was a serious blow to the Safavids and a few
months later a large Persian army commanded by Giorgi Khan’s nephew,
Kai Khusrau, was sent to reassert Persian authority. When the force reached
Herat, Sultan ‘Abd Allah Khan Saddozai pledged ‘Abdali support for the
campaign against Kandahar. This met with some initial success by defeating
Mir Wa’is in the Helmand region, however Mir Wa’is adopted a scorched
earth policy and the Persian army, unable to find sufficient food or fodder
and harassed by Baluch tribesmen, was forced to retreat. As the dispir-
ited army marched back up the road to Herat, Ghilzai and Baluch cavalry
attacked and the army broke and fled. In the ensuing massacre Kai Khusrau
and his brother Yese Khan, Giorgi Khan’s nephews, were slain, along with
Basil, a Carmelite friar who was one of three Catholic priests that had
accompanied the army.
The Persian defeat secured Mir Wa’is’ control over the region. When
he died in 1715 he was succeeded by his brother, Mir ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, or ‘Abd
Allah. However, he was assassinated at the instigation of Mir Wa’is’ son,
Shah Mahmud, who then overran southeastern Persia a year after his father’s
death. On 8 March 1722, at the Battle of Gulnabad, Shah Mahmud defeated
a much larger Persian army and laid siege to Isfahan itself. After six months
the people of Isfahan were reduced to eating rats and dogs and Shah Husain
was forced to go in person to Shah Mahmud’s camp to surrender the city
and tender his submission. Declaring that God had removed the kingdom
from him as punishment for his sins, the Shah removed the royal jigha,
the jewelled aigrette of feathers that was the Safavid equivalent of a crown,
and placed it on Shah Mahmud’s turban. 41 Shah Husain was allowed to
remain as token head of the Persian kingdom but he was confined to the
royal palace. A few years later Shah Mahmud had the Shah and most of
his family put to death, but one of his sons, Shah Tahmasp, survived and
eventually reached Mashhad.
Shah Mahmud Hotaki reigned for three years in Isfahan, during which
time his men systematically pillaged the Persian capital and other regions
under his rule and imposed swingeing taxes. One particular target of his
avarice was the wealthy Armenian community of New Julfa, the Christian
mahala of Isfahan that had been established in 1606 by Shah ‘Abbas i
to encourage trade with India and Europe in silk and silver. For nearly