History of Afghanistan |
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Timeline |
This is a timeline of Afghan history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Afghanistan and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see History of Afghanistan. See also the list of heads of state of Afghanistan and the list of years in Afghanistan.
Year | Date | Event |
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2400-1900 BCE | The Bronze Age Oxus civilization in present-day northern Afghanistan, eastern Turkmenistan, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan. |
Year | Date | Event |
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1500 BCE | The earliest textual mention of Gandhara civilization, in ancient Indian manuscripts the Rigveda and the Zoroastrian Avesta. [1] [2] |
Year | Date | Event |
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678-549 BCE | Kabul valley becomes part of the Median empire. |
Year | Date | Event |
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550 BCE | Cyrus II captures Kabul, which becomes a center of learning for Zoroastrianism and Buddhism. | |
516 BCE | Darius I invades Afghanistan, makes it part of the Achaemenid Empire. |
Year | Date | Event |
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330-327 BCE | Alexander III of Macedon conquers Afghanistan. | |
312 BCE | Afghanistan becomes part of the Seleucid Empire after the death of Alexander III and breakup of the Macedonian Empire. | |
305-303 BCE | The Hindu Kush, Gandhara, Arachosia (centered around ancient Kandahar) and areas south of Bagram become part of the Maurya Empire after Chandragupta Maurya defeats Seleucus I in the Seleucid–Mauryan war. Introduction of Buddhism to the region which becomes a major religion alongside Zoroastrianism and ancient Hinduism. |
Year | Date | Event |
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15 BCE | Buddhist Apracharajas dynasty with territory covering Swat, Gandhara, Taxila, and parts of eastern Afghanistan. (till 50 CE) |
Year | Date | Event |
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19 CE | Suren kingdom founded by Gondophares with capitals in Kabul and Taxila, and territory covering southern Afghanistan, eastern Iran and northwest regions of the Indian subcontinent. (till 226 CE) | |
30 CE | 27 January | Kushan Empire founded by Kujula Kadphises in the Arghandab River valley. [3] (till 375 CE) |
Year | Date | Event |
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120 | Kanishka the Great becomes emperor of the Kushan Empire. He extends his empire from present-day southern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, north of the Amu Darya (Oxus) in the north west to Northern India, as far as Pataliputra in the Gangetic Plains. A follower of Buddhism, he encourages Buddhist teachings, art and architecture. | |
151 | Kanishka Stupa is built. Reported by modern archeologists and ancient Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang to have had a diameter of 87 metres, height of 180–210 metres and covered with jewels. [4] | |
191 | Vasudeva I becomes emperor of the Kushan Empire. HIs reign lasts till 232 CE. |
Year | Date | Event |
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320 | Kidara Huns kingdom established, lasts till about 460. |
Year | Date | Event |
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440 | Hephthalite (White Huns) empire established with its capital at Kunduz. Buddhism, Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism were their major religions. |
Year | Date | Event |
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570 | The smaller of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, known as the "Eastern Buddha" built (approximate year based on carbon dating), during Hephthalite rule. |
Year | Date | Event |
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618 | The larger of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, known as the "Western Buddha" built (approximate year based on carbon dating) during Hephthalite rule. | |
630 | Chinese monk, scholar and traveler Xuanzang visits Balkh, reports about a 100 Buddhist convents, 30,000 monks, large number of stupas and other religious monuments. The most remarkable stupa was the Navbahara, which possessed a gigantic statue of the Buddha. | |
665 | Establishment of the Buddhist Turk Shahi dynasty, with its capital in Kapisi near the present-day town of Bagram. | |
680 | Establishment of the Zunbil dynasty in present southern Afghanistan region, with its capital in Ghazni. | |
683 | Turk Shahi king routs the Arab army of the Umayyad Caliphate led by Yazid ibn Ziyad, who is killed in battle and an Arab invasion is decisively repulsed. [5] | |
698 | Zunbil king defeats an Arab 'Army of Destruction' led by Ubayd Allah b. Abi Bakra, who is forced to offer a large tribute, give hostages including three of his sons and take an oath not to invade Zunbil again. Twenty five thousand of the thirty thousand strong Arab army killed. [6] [7] |
Year | Date | Event |
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815 | Defeat of the Turk Shahis by the Arab Abbasid Caliphate. The Turk Shah is forced to convert to Islam and pay an annual tribute. | |
850 | Overthrow of the unpopular Turk Shah Lagaturman by his minister Kallar and establishment of the Hindu Shahi dynasty. |
Year | Date | Event |
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964 | Jayapala of the Hindu Shahi dynasty conducts a number of invasions of Ghazni, the capital city of the Ghaznavids. |
Year | Date | Event |
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1001 | 27 November | Mahmud of Ghazni's army defeats the Hindu Shahi army of Jayapala in the Battle of Peshawar (1001) |
Year | Date | Event |
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1219-1221 | Mongol invasion of Afghanistan as part of the Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire, resulting in thousands killed in the cities of Kabul, Kandahar, Jalalabad. | |
1221 | In pursuit of the fleeing Khwarazmian king Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu, Genghis Khan massacres the entire population of Bamiyan after his favorite grandson Mutukan is killed in the Siege of Bamiyan, but leaves the Buddhas of Bamiyan unharmed. | |
1259 | Division of the Mongol Empire after Genghis's death. Afghanistan become part of the Chagatai Khanate. |
Year | Date | Event |
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1383-1385 | Invasion of Afghanistan by Timur, leader of neighboring Transoxiana (roughly modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and adjacent areas), becomes a part of the Timurid Empire. |
Year | Date | Event |
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1504 | Babur, deposed ruler of Fergana and Samarkand captures Kabul (Siege of Kabul (1504)). |
Year | Date | Event |
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1709 | 21 April | Mirwais Hotak, an influential Afghan tribal chief, gained independence at Kandahar after a successful revolution against the Persian Safavid dynasty. [8] |
1709–1713 | The Persian government sent two large armies to regain Kandahar Province but suffered defeat by the Afghans. [8] | |
1715 | November | Mirwais died of a natural cause and his brother Abdul Aziz inherited the throne until he was killed by Mahmud Hotaki, son of Mirwais. [8] |
1722 | Battle of Gulnabad : Led by Mahmud, the Afghan army captured the Safavid capital of Isfahan and Mahmad was declared Shah of Persia. [9] | |
1725 | 22 April | Mahmud was murdered by his cousin Ashraf, son of Abdul Aziz, and succeeded him as Shah of Persia. [10] |
1729 | 29 September | Battle of Damghan : Afsharid forces led by Nader Shah defeated Ashraf and his forces. |
1738 | Nader invaded and destroyed Kandahar, and restored the Abdali ethnic Pashtus to political prominence. | |
1747 | 19 June | Ahmad Shah Durrani of the Abdali Pashtun confederacy declared the establishment of an independent Afghanistan, with its capital at Kandahar. [11] |
Year | Date | Event |
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1809 | Durrani signed a treaty of alliance with the United Kingdom. | |
1819 | Battle of Shopian : Sikh Khalsa Army of Ranjit Singh defeated the Durrani force led by governor Jabbar Khan, annexing Kashmir into the Sikh Empire. | |
1823 | Dost Mohammad Khan took the throne in Kabul, where he proclaimed himself emir . | |
1823 | Battle of Nowshera : Sikh Khalsa Army of Ranjit Singh defeated a Durrani force led by Azim Khan, capturing the Peshawar Valley. | |
1837 | November | Siege of Herat : A Persian force attempts to capture Herat but are defeated and leave in 1838. |
1839 | March | First Anglo-Afghan War : A British expeditionary force captured Quetta. |
23 July | British capture Ghazni in the Battle of Ghazni and install Shuja Shah Durrani as the puppet ruler of Afghanistan. | |
1841 | November | First Anglo-Afghan War: A mob killed the British envoy to Afghanistan. |
1842 | January | Massacre of Elphinstone's army : A retreating British With mostly Indian regiment force of sixteen thousand was massacred by the Afghans. |
1857 | Afghanistan declared war on Persia. | |
Afghan forces re-captured Herat. | ||
1878 | January | Second Anglo-Afghan War : Afghanistan refused a British diplomatic mission, provoking a second Anglo-Afghan war. |
1879 | May | Second Anglo-Afghan War: To prevent British occupation of a large part of the country, the Afghan government ceded much power to the United Kingdom in the Treaty of Gandamak. |
1880 | 22 July | Abdur Rahman Khan was officially recognized as emir of Afghanistan. |
1893 | 12 November | Abdur Rahman and British Raj representative Mortimer Durand signed an agreement establishing the Durand Line. |
Year | Date | Event |
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1901 | 1 October | Habibullah Khan, son of Abdur Rahman, became emir of Afghanistan. |
1919 | 20 February | Habibullah was assassinated. His son Amanullah Khan declared himself King of Afghanistan. |
May | Third Anglo-Afghan War : Amanullah led a surprise attack against the British. | |
19 August | Afghan Foreign Minister Mahmud Tarzi negotiated the Treaty of Rawalpindi with the British at Rawalpindi. | |
1922 | Solar Hijri calendar officially adopted in Afghanistan. [12] | |
1929 | Amanullah was forced to abdicate in favor of Habibullah Kalakani in the face of a popular uprising. | |
Former General Mohammed Nadir Shah took control of Afghanistan. | ||
1933 | 8 November | Nadir was assassinated. His son, Mohammed Zahir Shah, was proclaimed King. |
1964 | A new constitution was ratified which instituted a democratic legislature. | |
1965 | 1 January | The Marxist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) held its first congress. |
1973 | 17 July | Mohammed Daoud Khan declares himself President in a coup against the king, Mohammed Zahir Shah. |
1978 | 27 April | Saur Revolution : Military units loyal to the PDPA assaulted the Afghan Presidential Palace, killing President Mohammed Daoud Khan and his family. |
1 May | Saur Revolution: The PDPA installed its leader, Nur Muhammad Taraki, as President of Afghanistan. | |
July | A rebellion against the new Afghan government began with an uprising in Nuristan Province. | |
5 December | A treaty was signed which permitted deployment of the Soviet military at the Afghan government's request. | |
1979 | 14 September | Taraki was murdered by supporters of Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin. |
24 December | Soviet–Afghan War : Fearing the collapse of the Amin regime, the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan. | |
27 December | Operation Storm-333 : Soviet troops occupied major governmental, military and media buildings in Kabul, including the Tajbeg Palace, and executed Prime Minister Amin. | |
1988 | 14 April | Soviet–Afghan War: The Soviet government signed the Geneva Accords, which included a timetable for withdrawing their armed forces. |
1989 | 15 February | Soviet–Afghan War: The last Soviet troops left the country. |
1992 | 24 April | Civil war in Afghanistan (1989–1992) : Afghan political parties signed the Peshawar Accord which created the Islamic State of Afghanistan and proclaimed Sibghatullah Mojaddedi its interim President. |
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezbi Islami, with the support of neighboring Pakistan, began a massive bombardment against the Islamic State in the capital Kabul. | ||
28 June | As agreed upon in the Peshawar Accord, Jamiat-e Islami leader Burhanuddin Rabbani took over as President. | |
Taliban attacks and looting of the National Museum of Afghanistan result in loss of 70% of the 100,000 artifacts of Afghan culture and history. | ||
1994 | August | The Taliban government began to form in a small village between Lashkar Gah and Kandahar. |
1995 | January | The Taliban, with Pakistani support, initiated a military campaign against the Islamic State of Afghanistan and its capital Kabul. |
1995 | 13 March | Taliban tortured and killed Abdul Ali Mazari leader of the Hazara people. |
1996 | 26 September | Civil war in Afghanistan (1996–2001) : The forces of the Islamic State retreated to northern Afghanistan. |
27 September | Civil war in Afghanistan (1996–2001): The Taliban conquered Kabul and declared the establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Former President Mohammad Najibullah, who had been living under United Nations protection in Kabul, was tortured, castrated and executed by Taliban forces. | |
30 September | Taliban pass decree that all women should be banned from employment. [13] | |
1998 | August | Civil war in Afghanistan (1996–2001): The Taliban captured Mazar-e Sharif, forcing Abdul Rashid Dostum into exile. |
11 August | Destruction of the Puli Khumri Public Library by the Taliban. The library contained over 55,000 books and old manuscripts and was considered by Afghans as one of the most valuable and beautiful collections of their nation and their culture. [14] [15] | |
20 August | Operation Infinite Reach : Cruise missiles were fired by the United States Navy into four militant training camps in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. |
Year | Date | Event |
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2001 | 2 March | Destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan by the Taliban with dynamite, on orders from its leader Mullah Omar. |
9 September | Resistance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud was killed in a suicide bomb attack by two Arabs who were disguised as French news reporters. | |
20 September | After the September 11 attacks in the United States, U.S. President George W. Bush demanded the Taliban government to hand over al-Qaeda head Osama bin Laden and close all terrorist training camps in the country. | |
21 September | The Taliban refused Bush's ultimatum for lack of evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11 attacks. [16] | |
7 October | Operation Enduring Freedom : The United States and the United Kingdom began an aerial bombing campaign against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. | |
October | Reports of Taliban having destroyed at least 2,750 ancient works of art at the National Museum of Afghanistan during the year. | |
5 December | The United Nations Security Council authorized the creation of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to help maintain security in Afghanistan and assist the Karzai administration. [17] | |
20 December | International Conference on Afghanistan in Germany : Hamid Karzai chosen as head of the Afghan Interim Administration. | |
2002 | July | 2002 loya jirga : Hamid Karzai appointed as President of the Afghan Transitional Administration in Kabul, Afghanistan. |
2003 | 14 December | 2003 loya jirga : A 502-delegate loya jirga was held to consider a new Afghan constitution. |
2004 | 9 October | Hamid Karzai was elected President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan after winning the Afghan presidential election. |
2005 | Taliban insurgency : An insurgency began after a Pakistani decision to station around 80,000 soldiers next to the porous Durand Line border with Afghanistan. | |
2006 | 1 March | Bush and wife visited Afghanistan to inaugurate the renovated Embassy of the United States in Kabul. |
2007 | 13 May | Afghanistan–Pakistan border skirmishes : Skirmishes began with Pakistan. |
2010 | U.S. President Barack Obama sent additional 33,000 U.S. soldiers to Afghanistan, with the total international troops reaching 150,000. | |
2011 | After the death of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, many high-profile Afghan officials were assassinated, including among them were Mohammed Daud Daud, Ahmed Wali Karzai, Jan Mohammad Khan, Ghulam Haider Hamidi, and Burhanuddin Rabbani. | |
2011 | Afghanistan National Front was created by Tajik leader Ahmad Zia Massoud, Hazara leader Mohammad Mohaqiq and Uzbek leader Abdul Rashid Dostum | |
2020 | 29 February | U.S. signs peace agreement with Taliban, committing the U.S. to a drawdown of troops and conditional full withdrawal by 1 May 2021. The agreement further required the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for 1,000 Afghan soldiers held by the Taliban. |
2021 | 15 January | U.S. completes the final Afghanistan troop drawdown of the Trump administration, reducing the U.S. troop level to 2,500. [18] [19] |
2021 | 14 April | US President Joe Biden orders complete withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan by 11 September 2021 (later revised to 31 August 2021). |
2021 | 1 July | US forces leave Bagram Airfield, its largest base in Afghanistan after nearly 20 years. |
2021 | 15 August | Kabul falls to Taliban (Fall of Kabul). |
Cities in Afghanistan:
The history of Afghanistan, preceding the establishment of the Emirate of Afghanistan in 1823 is shared with that of neighbouring Iran, central Asia and Indian subcontinent. The Sadozai monarchy ruled the Afghan Durrani Empire, considered the founding state of modern Afghanistan.
The Muslim conquest of Persia, also known as the Arab conquest of Iran, was carried out by the Rashidun Caliphate from 632 to 654 and led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire as well as the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion.
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.
The Hotak dynasty was an Afghan monarchy founded by Ghilji Pashtuns that briefly ruled portions of Iran and Afghanistan during the 1720s. It was established in April 1709 by Mirwais Hotak, who led a successful revolution against the declining Persian Safavid empire in the region of Loy Kandahar in what is now southern Afghanistan.
Kaikhosro, of the House of Bagrationi, was a titular king of Kartli, eastern Georgia, from 1709 to 1711. He reigned in absentia since he served during the whole of this period as a Persian commander-in-chief in what is now Afghanistan.
Mir Ways ibn Shah 'Alam, also known as Mirwais Khan Hotak was an Afghan ruler from the Ghilji tribe of Pashtuns> of Kandahar, Afghanistan, and the founder of the Hotak dynasty.
Shāh Mahmūd Hotak,, also known as Shāh Mahmūd Ghiljī, was an Afghan ruler of the Hotak dynasty who overthrew the heavily declined Safavid dynasty to briefly become the king of Persia from 1722 until his death in 1725.
Shāh Ashraf Hotak,, also known as Shāh Ashraf Ghiljī, son of Abdul Aziz Hotak, was the fourth ruler of the Hotak dynasty. An Afghan from the Ghilji Pashtuns, he served as a commander in the army of Mahmud Hotak during his revolt against the heavily declining Safavid Persians. Ashraf also participated in the Battle of Gulnabad. In 1725, he briefly succeeded to the throne to become Shah of Persia after he killed his cousin Mahmud before being quickly defeated by Nader shah in the battle of Damghan
Communities of various religious and ethnic background have lived in the land of what is now Afghanistan. Before the Islamic conquest, south of the Hindu Kush was ruled by the Zunbil and Kabul Shahi rulers. When the Chinese travellers visited Afghanistan between 399 and 751 AD, they mentioned that Hinduism and Buddhism was practiced in different areas between the Amu Darya in the north and the Indus River in the south. The land was ruled by the Kushans followed by the Hephthalites during these visits. It is reported that the Hephthalites were fervent followers of the Hindu god Surya.
The name Afghānistān means "land of the Afghans",the term "Afghans" originally referred to the Pashtuns people. which originates from the ethnonym Afghan. Historically, the name Afghan mainly designated Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group of Afghanistan. The earliest reference to the name is found in the 10th-century geography book known as Hudud al-'Alam. The last part of the name, -stān is a Persian suffix for "place".
The Battle of Gulnabad was fought between the military forces from Hotaki Dynasty and the army of the Safavid Empire. It further cemented the eventual fall of the Safavid dynasty, which had been declining for decades.
Nader Shah Afshar was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian history, ruling as shah of Iran (Persia) from 1736 to 1747, when he was assassinated during a rebellion. He fought numerous campaigns throughout the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and South Asia, such as the battles of Herat, Mihmandust, Murche-Khort, Kirkuk, Yeghevārd, Khyber Pass, Karnal, and Kars. Because of his military genius, some historians have described him as the Napoleon of Persia, the Sword of Persia, or the Second Alexander. Nader belonged to the Turkoman Afshars, a semi-nomadic tribe settled in Khorasan in northeastern Iran, which had supplied military power to the Safavid dynasty since the time of Shah Ismail I.
The Safavid conversion of Iran to Shia Islam was a process of forced conversion that took place roughly over the 16th through 18th centuries and turned Iran (Persia), which previously had a Sunni majority population, into the spiritual bastion of Shia Islam. It was a process that resulted in hostility with Iran's Sunni neighbours, most notably the Ottoman Empire. The conversion also ensured the dominance of the Twelver sect within Shiism over the sects of Zaidiyyah and Isma'ilism – each of whom had previously experienced their own eras of dominance within Shi'ism. Through their actions, the Safavids reunified Iran as an independent state in 1501 and established Twelver Shi'ism as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning points in the history of Islam.
Shah Hussain Hotak, son of Mirwais Hotak, was the fifth and last ruler of the Hotak dynasty. An ethnic Pashtun (Afghan) from the Ghilji tribe, he succeeded to the throne after the death of his brother Mahmud Hotak in 1725. He was also a Pashto language poet. While his cousin Ashraf ruled most of Persia from Isfahan, Hussain ruled Kandahar, but was defeated.
Shāh Abdul Azīz Hotak was the second ruler of the Ghilji Hotak dynasty of Kandahar, in what is now the modern state of Afghanistan. He was crowned in 1715 after the death of his brother, Mirwais Hotak. He was the father of Ashraf Hotak, the fourth ruler of the Hotak dynasty. Abdul Aziz was killed in 1717 by his nephew Mahmud Hotak.
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.
Old Kandahar is a historical section of the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. Many believe that there are hidden ancient treasures buried in and around the orange citadel.
The siege of Isfahan was a six-month-long siege of Isfahan, the capital of the Safavid dynasty of Iran, by the Hotaki-led Afghan army. It lasted from March to October 1722 and resulted in the city's fall and the beginning of the end of the Safavid dynasty.
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.
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