“The Sword of Persia: Nader Shah from Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant” by Michael Axworthy

Nader Shah was born in the fortress of Dasgerd into the Qereqlu clan of the Afshars; a semi-nomadic Turkic tribe settled in the northern valleys of Khurasan. His father, Emam Qoli, was a herdsman.

At the age of 13, his father died, and Nader became the breadwinner for his family. In 1704, when he was about 17 years old, a band of Uzbek Tartars invaded the province of Khurasan. Nader was living with his mother. The Uzbek took him, and his mother died as slaves. In 1708, Nader convinced a Turkmen to let him go, and in return, one day, he will help him.

In this era, Iranian lacked a stable central government and the Safavid dynasty headed by Shah Hussain, who was an incompetent leader. It created a power vacuum and allowed warlords like Hotaki Pashtuns to gain momentum to wage war against Shah Hussein. Shah Hussein lacked the confidence to defend the national sovereignty of Iran, and it collapsed.

Tahmasp II and the Qajar leader Fath Ali Khan needed a more military force to confront Hotaki Pashtuns troops in Iran, and they contacted Nader and asked Nader to join their cause. Nader agreed with them. During this military campaign, he pushed the Afghan forces out of Iran as he became a hero for Iranians. Later on, Nader became aware that Fath Ali Khan was in treasonable correspondence with Malek Mahmud and revealed this to the Tahmasp II. Tahmasp executed Fath Ali Khan. Tahmasp made Nader the chief of his army.

Nader suggested to his confident friends (Tahmasp Khan Jalayer and Hasan-Ali Beg Bestami) that he should become the new king rather than the young Abbas III. No one uttered a word to him. When Nader asked him why they remained silent, Hasan-Ali replied that the best thing for Nader to do would be assembling all leading men of the state, to receive their agreement. Nader approved the proposal and wrote to the chancellery, which included the court historian Mirza Mehdi Khan Astarabadi, instructed to send out orders to the military, clergy, and nobility of the nation to summon at the plains. On March 08th, 1736, Nader ascended to the throne in the attendance of the army, religious, and nobility of the country and the Ottoman ambassador Ali Pasha.

Nader suffered from illnesses and grew angry. He could not control his thoughts. He demanded more tax from Iranians. It caused friction between Iranians and Nader. New revolts broke out throughout Iran, and Nader used military force to respond to those delicate matters. Nader admired Timur that, after capturing a city, Timur built towers from his victims' skulls. Nader imitated Timur's war policy and built a tower from his defeated enemies' heads.

In 1747, Nader deployed his army to suppress Kurdish uprising. His army lacked solidarity. There was a cloud of doubt and suspicion among his army commanders, including two of his relatives: Muhammad Quli Khan, the captain of the guards, and Salah Khan, the overseer of Nader's household. The army officers wanted to save their lives; they decided to assassinate Nader Shah on June 20th, 1747. He was sleeping as the assassinates charged him. He called for his sword. It was too late. No one wanted to help him. Nader killed two assassinate. However, he could not have a melee with fifteen armed men. The fifteen men stabbed Nader to death.

Nader Shah was an ambitious man. He wanted to rule the world. One contemporary Punjabi poet described Nader foreign policy, "when all of India trembled with horror. Nader Shah, the horror of Asia, the pride and savior of his country, and the restorer of her freedom and conqueror of India, who have a simple origin, rose to such greatness that monarchs rarely have from birth."

Joseph Stalin read books about Nader Shah and admired his domestic and foreign policies. Nader Shah's local and international policies were about brute force to bring the opposing force under its subjugation. Stalin viewed Nader Shah in light of Ivan the Terrible. Napoleon Bonaparte applauded Nader Shah's actions and considered himself a new Nader or European Nader Shah.