Ghilzai Revolt and Fall of Isfahan
A revolt by Ghilzai Afghans in Kandahar in 1709 ended with the fall of Isfahan thirteen years later and the destruction of the Safavid empire. The Safavids had ruled Iran since 1501, had made Twelver Shi'ism the state religion, and had built one of the great imperial capitals at Isfahan — a city of perhaps half a million with a square, palaces and mosques that visitors compared to anywhere in Europe. By the reign of Shah Sultan Husayn the state was fiscally exhausted, militarily hollow, and religiously intolerant in a way that had made enemies of its Sunni frontier provinces. The governor of Kandahar, a Georgian convert named Gurgin Khan, governed harshly enough that the Ghilzai chief Mirwais Hotak went to Isfahan as a prisoner, obtained a religious ruling in Mecca on the way, returned with his standing restored, and killed the governor at a banquet. Three Safavid armies sent to recover the province were destroyed. Mirwais's son Mahmud invaded Iran in 1722 with perhaps 20,000 men, beat a much larger Persian army at Gulnabad through incompetent command, and then simply blockaded Isfahan for six months. Some 80,000 people are estimated to have died of starvation inside before the shah rode out and handed over his crown in October. The empire fragmented immediately, with the Ottomans and Russians taking western and northern provinces. Nader Shah, a Turkmen chieftain, expelled the Afghans by 1729 and went on to sack Delhi, and Iran spent most of the century in civil war. The episode also created Afghanistan as a political fact. The Ghilzai and Abdali confederations that emerged from these wars produced Ahmad Shah Durrani's kingdom in 1747, which is the ancestor of the modern state.
- Year: 1709 CE
- Category: Political
