Ali Mardan Khan Bakhtiari
Ali Mardan Khan Bakhtiari | |
---|---|
Vakil-e daulat ("deputy of the state") | |
Reign | 1750–1751 |
Successor | Karim Khan Zand |
Died | Spring 1754 Near Kermanshah |
Religion | Shia Islam |
Ali Mardan Khan Bakhtiari (
He was the autonomous ruler of
Biography
Aftermath of the death of Nader Shah and the Bakhtiaris return to western Iran
Ali Mardan is first mentioned after the death of the
Ali Mardan and his men eventually reached the
De facto rule in Isfahan and its surroundings
In May 1750, they stormed the gates of Isfahan—its governor Abu'l-Fath and other prominent residents assembled to protect the fortress of the city, but agreed to surrender and collaborate with them after Ali Mardan's reasonable proposals.[2] Abu'l-Fath, together with Ali Mardan and Karim Khan, formed an alliance in western Iran under the cover of restoring the Safavid dynasty, appointing a 17 year old Safavid prince, Abu Torab, as a puppet ruler—on June 29, Abu Torab was declared shah, and assumed the dynastic name of Ismail III.[2]
Ali Mardan then took the title of
War with Karim Khan Zand over supremacy in western Iran
The situation worsened further for Ali Mardan, when Karim Khan returned to Isfahan in January 1751 and restored order in the city. A battle shortly occurred between them in
There he became acquainted with Mostafa Khan Bigdili Shamlu, the former diplomat of Nader Shah, who had been in 1746 sent to Baghdad to confirm the Treaty of Kerden with the Ottomans. A son of the former Safavid shah Tahmasp II (r. 1729–1732), who had managed to escape Isfahan during the massacre of the members of the Safavid family by Mahmud Hotak in 1725, was also in the city. This provided a key opportunity for Ali Mardan, Ismail Khan Feyli and Mostafa Khan to use the prince to return to Iran in the pretext of attempting to restore the Safavid dynasty. A year later, in early 1753, they began assembling an army in Lorestan, and received the support of the Pashtun military leader Azad Khan Afghan. Some months later, they marched into the domains of Karim Khan, but Tahmasp II's son, who had been announced as Sultan Husayn II, began revealing himself as an unfit candidate as Safavid shah—this hindered their march, and resulted in the desertion of many of their men.[6] Furthermore, after doing a thorough check of Sultan Husayn II's background, Ali Mardan and his associates exposed his true identity, and found out that he was in reality not of Safavid descent, but the son of an Azeri man and an Armenian woman.[7]
Ali Mardan's men in Kermanshah, after two years of besiegement by the Zand forces, surrendered and were spared by Karim Khan, who shortly clashed with Ali Mardan once again, defeating the latter and capturing Mostafa Khan. Ali Mardan managed to flee with Sultan Husayn II, but not after long had him blinded and sent to Iraq, due to being more heavy weight than of use to him.[8]
In the spring of 1754, Ali Mardan captured two of Karim Khan's relatives, Mohammad Khan Zand and Shaykh Ali Khan Zand. He then took them into his encampment near Kermanshah, and began negotiating with them about the possibility of an alliance, which, however, was fruitless. The two Zand chiefs, at a coordinated signal, attacked Ali Mardan and killed him with his own dagger, and then fled from the camp on horseback, under fire from Ali Mardan's men.[8]
References
- ^ a b Perry 1991, p. 63.
- ^ a b c Perry 1991, p. 66.
- ^ Garthwaite 2005, p. 184.
- ^ a b c d Perry 1991, p. 67.
- ^ Perry 1991, p. 68.
- ^ Perry 1991, p. 69.
- ^ Perry 1971, p. 63.
- ^ a b Perry 1991, p. 72.
Sources
- Perry, John R. (2011). "Karim Khan Zand". KARIM KHAN ZAND – Encyclopaedia Iranica. Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XV, Fasc. 6. pp. 561–564.
- Perry, John (1991). "The Zand dynasty". The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 7: From Nadir Shah to the Islamic Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–63. ISBN 9780521200950.
- Perry, John R. (1983). "Abu'l-Fath Khan Bakhtiari". Archived copy. Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 3. p. 285. Archived from the original on 2013-05-16. Retrieved 2017-04-11.
{{cite encyclopedia}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - Garthwaite, Gene R. (2005). The Persians. Wiley. pp. 1–311. ISBN 9781557868602.
- Perry, J. (1971). "The Last Ṣafavids, 1722-1773". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 9 (2): 59–69. JSTOR 4300438.
External links
- Matthee, Rudolph P. (2008). "ʿAlī Mardān Khān Bakhtiyārī". In Fleet, Kate; ISSN 1873-9830.