The map of Iran, in the Afsharid era of the year 1747, was drawn by Emanuel Bowen the British geographer and monographer. This map shows the boundaries and the extent of Afsharid Iran. Apart from displaying the name of the Persian Gulf, the map also has the names of many regions, cities, lakes and seas which were parts of Iran at that time. [1]
The map calls the sea in the north of Iran the Caspian Sea and the one in the south the Persian Gulf. The water zone, today called the Arabian Sea, is written as Persian sea and what is today Iran's south east county of Sistan and Baluchestan Province is named as Makran province. Today's central province of Fars is mentioned as Farsistan. [2]
Next to the map's description at the bottom, there are some drawings which show the following:
1.A large 12 horse carriage carrying a large room.
2.A person riding on a Camel carriage
3.Four men, one with a sword on his waist and a spear in his hand, another carries a bow and arrow with the third holding an arrow in his hand.
4.Standing horse.
Iran's eastern neighbor in the map is the Mughal Empire. The Samarqand Empire and Balkh Kingdom are to the northeast, [3] the Kharazm province and Uzbeks are in the north, and the Black Sea and Ottoman Empire are in the north and west respectively. [4]
The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. It is connected to the Gulf of Oman in the east by the Strait of Hormuz. The Shatt al-Arab river delta forms the northwest shoreline.
Bactria, or Bactriana, was an ancient Iranian civilization in Central Asia centered on modern day Northern Afghanistan and including parts of southwestern Tajikistan and southeastern Uzbekistan.
Merv, also known as the Merve Oasis, formerly known as Alexandria, Antiochia in Margiana and Marw al-Shāhijān, was a major Iranian city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, near today's Mary, Turkmenistan. Human settlements on the site of Merv existed from the 3rd millennium BC until the 18th century AD. It changed hands repeatedly throughout history. Under the Achaemenid Empire, it was the centre of the satrapy of Margiana. It was subsequently ruled by the ancient Macedonians, Seleucids, Parthians, Sasanians, Arabs, Ghaznavids, Seljuqs, Khwarazmians and Timurids, among others.
Balkh is a town in the Balkh Province of Afghanistan, about 20 km (12 mi) northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some 74 km (46 mi) south of the Amu Darya river and the Uzbekistan border. Its population was recently estimated to be 138,594.
Khorasan, also called Traxiane during Hellenistic and Parthian times, was a province in northeastern Iran but historically referred to a much larger area, comprising the east and the northeast of the Persian Empire. The name Khorāsān is Persian and means "where the sun arrives from". The name was first given to the eastern province of Persia during the Sasanian Empire and was used from the late middle ages in distinction to neighbouring Transoxiana.
Bagram is a town and seat in Bagram District in Parwan Province of Afghanistan, about 60 kilometers north of the capital Kabul. It is the site of an ancient city located at the junction of the Ghorband and Panjshir Valley, near today's city of Charikar, Afghanistan. The location of this historical town made it a key passage from Ancient India along the Silk Road, leading westwards through the mountains towards Bamiyan, and north over the Kushan Pass to the Baghlan Valley and past the Kushan archeological site at Surkh Kotal, to the commercial centre of Balkh and the rest of northern Afghanistan. Bagram was also a capital of Kushan empire
Bushehr Province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the south of the country, with a long coastline on the Persian Gulf. The city of Bushehr is the provincial capital. At the 2006 census, the province's population was 886,490 in 188,762 households. The following census in 2011 counted 1,032,949 people in 246,742 households. At the 2016 census, the province's population was 1,163,400 in 321,826 households.
Fars Province, also known as ParsProvince as well as Persis, is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. With an area of 122,400 km², it is located in Iran's southwest, in Region 2, and its administrative center is Shiraz. Fars province neighbours Bushehr province to the west, Hormozgan province to the south, Kerman and Yazd provinces to the east, Isfahan province to the north, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province to the northwest.
Balkh is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the north of the country. It is divided into 15 districts and has a population of about 1,509,183, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a Persian-speaking society. The city of Mazar-i-Sharif serves as the capital of the province. The Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport and Camp Marmal sit on the eastern edge of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Shirvan is a historical region in the eastern Caucasus, as known in both pre-Islamic Sasanian and Islamic times. Today, the region is an industrially and agriculturally developed part of the Republic of Azerbaijan that stretches between the western shores of the Caspian Sea and the Kura River, centered on the Shirvan Plain.
North Khorasan Province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, located in the northeastern part of the country. The capital of the province is the city of Bojnord. North Khorasan is one of the three provinces that were created after the division of Khorasan in 2004. Khorasan was the largest province of Iran until it was divided into three provinces on September 29, 2004. The provinces approved by the parliament of Iran and the Council of Guardians were Razavi Khorasan, North Khorasan, and South Khorasan.
South Khorasan Province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, located in the eastern part of the country. Birjand is the centre and capital of the province. At the time of the National Census of 2006, the province had a population of 600,568 in 159,255 households. The following census in 2011 counted 662,534 people in 183,114 households. In 2014, it was placed in Region 5. At the most recent census in 2016, the population of South Khorasan province was 768,898 in 223,984 households.
Greater Khorāsān, or Khorāsān, is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plateau between Western and Central Asia. The name Khorāsān is Persian meaning "where the sun arrives from" or "the Eastern Province". The name was first given to the eastern province of Persia during the Sasanian Empire and was used from the late Middle Ages in distinction to neighbouring Transoxiana. Greater Khorasan is today sometimes used to distinguish the larger historical region from the former Khorasan Province of Iran (1906–2004), which roughly encompassed the western portion of the historical Greater Khorasan.
Greater Iran refers to a sociocultural region in which Iranian traditions and Iranian languages have had a significant impact. It spans parts of Western Asia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, South Asia, and Xinjiang. The region is defined by having been long-ruled by the dynasties of various Iranian empires, under whom the local populaces gradually incorporated some degree of Iranian influence into their cultural and/or linguistic traditions; or alternatively as where a considerable number of Iranian peoples settled to still maintain communities who patronize their respective cultures, geographically corresponding to the areas surrounding the Iranian plateau. It is referred to as the "Iranian Cultural Continent" by Encyclopædia Iranica.
The military history of Iran has been relatively well-documented, with thousands of years' worth of recorded history. Largely credited to its historically unchanged geographical and geopolitical condition, the modern-day Islamic Republic of Iran has had a long and checkered military culture and history; ranging from triumphant and unchallenged ancient military supremacy, affording effective superpower status for its time; to a series of near-catastrophic defeats at the hands of previously subdued and conquered peripheral nations, most notably including the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon as well as the Asiatic nomadic tribes at the northeastern boundary of the lands traditionally home to the Iranian peoples.
Turkmen Sahra is a region in the northeast of Iran near the Caspian Sea, bordering Turkmenistan, the majority of whose inhabitants are ethnic Turkmen. The most important cities of Turkmen Sahra are Gonbad-e Kavus, Aqqala, Kalaleh, Maraveh Tappeh, Gomishan and Bandar Torkaman. There are, according to Ethnologue, roughly 719,000 Turkmens in Turkmen Sahra today.
Bandar Siraf, also Romanized as Bandar-e Sīraf; also known as Sīraf, Ṭāherī, and Tāhiri; as well as Bandar-e Ṭāherī and Bandar-i Ṭāhirī, is a city in, and the capital of Siraf District of Kangan County, Bushehr province, Iran.
Emperor Nader Shah, the Shah of Iran (1736–1747) and the founder of the Afsharid dynasty, invaded Northern India, eventually attacking Delhi in March 1739. His army had easily defeated the Mughals at the Battle of Karnal and would eventually capture the Mughal capital in the aftermath of the battle.
Iran sustained maritime forces during Afsharid dynasty that were revived in 1734 by Nader Shah, with peak of its activity lasting more than a decade until Division of the Afsharid Empire. It operated in the Caspian Sea, where it was considered a threat by the Russian Empire. Headquartered in Bushehr, the southern flotilla maintained presence in the Persian Gulf as well as the Sea of Oman, effectively pushing against maritime Arabian empires in Sultanate of Muscat and Imamate of Oman, Pirates based in coasts that were later called Trucial, and also local rebels and mutineers. The Afsharid navy also ordered several vessels from the both the British and Dutch East India Company.
Afsharid Iran, also referred as the Afsharid Empire was an Iranian empire established by the Turkoman Afshar tribe in Iran's north-eastern province of Khorasan, ruling Iran (Persia). The state was ruled by the Afsharid dynasty in the mid-eighteenth century. The dynasty was founded in 1736 by the brilliant military commander Nader Shah, who deposed the last member of the Safavid dynasty and proclaimed himself as the Shah of Iran.