Ashraf Hotak

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Shah Ashraf Hotak
شاه اشرف هوتک
Balochistan, Hotak dynasty
Names
Ashraf Khan Hotak[1]
DynastyHotak dynasty
FatherAbdul Aziz Hotak[2]
ReligionSunni Islam

Shāh Ashraf Hotak, (

Shah of Persia
after he killed his cousin Mahmud.

The nephew of Mirwais Hotak, his reign was noted for the sudden decline in the Hotak tribal rule under increasing pressure from the two great powers of the time Turkish, Russian, and Persian forces.[3]

Ashraf Khan halted both the Russian and Turkish onslaughts. He defeated the Ottoman Empire, who wanted to reestablish their former arch rivals, the

Caliph of the East and the Ottoman Sultan Caliph of the West. This caused great umbrage to the Ottomans, but a peace agreement was finally signed (Treaty of Hamedan) due to superior Ottoman diplomacy in October 1727.[4]

Map of the Hotaki Empire during Shah Ashraf's reign

Ultimately, the royal Persian army of Shah

Nader defeated Ashraf's Ghilji forces in a decisive battle known as the Battle of Damghan in October 1729, banishing and driving out the Afghans back to what is now Afghanistan.[3]

Death

When escaping from Persia, Ashraf was captured and murdered by the

Khan of Kalat Mir Mohabbat Khan Baloch in 1730.[5]

Ashraf, having taken

Shah Husayn, and carried off most of the ladies of the royal family and the King's treasure. When Ṭahmásp II entered Iṣfahán on December 9 he found only his old mother, who had escaped deportation by disguising herself as a servant, and was moved to tears at the desolation and desecration which met his eyes at every turn. Nádir, having finally induced Ṭahmásp to empower him to levy taxes on his own authority, marched southwards in pursuit of the retiring Afgháns, whom he overtook and again defeated near Persepolis. Ashraf fled from Shíráz towards his own country, but cold, hunger and the unrelenting hostility of the inhabitants of the regions which he had to traverse dissipated his forces and compelled him to abandon his captives and his treasure, and he was finally killed by a party of Balúch tribesmen.[3]

, 1924

Ashraf Khan's death marked the end of Hotak rule in Persia, but the country of Afghanistan was still under Shah Hussain Hotak's control until Nader Shah's 1738 conquest of Kandahar, where the young Ahmad Shah Durrani was held prisoner. There was only a short pause before the establishment of the last Afghan Empire[6] (modern state of Afghanistan) by Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1747.[7][8]

See also

References

Further reading

Ashraf Hotak
Born: c. 1700 Died: c. 1730
Preceded by
Shah of Persia

1725–1729
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Mahmud Hotak
Emir of Afghanistan

1725–1730
Succeeded by