The book looks at his entire life: how a shepherd boy mastered fighting skills, assembled armies, reunited Iran and freed it from Afghan occupation, invaded and plundered both India and Ottoman Turkey, and crowned himself Nader Shah of Iran after usurping the Safavid throne in 1736. This book peers into the shadows by drawing on unusual source materials - unpublished letters and reports written by the staff of the Dutch East India Company, who watched in dismay as the tyrant sacrificed the nation's economic health (and Dutch hopes for trade) to feed his war machine. Yet much about the man and his tumultuous times remains obscure. Rising from the humblest of origins, he became a military commander of genius, restored an embattled Persia to imperial greatness, and proceeded to wield the power of the throne with a ruthlessness that approached derangement. By any measure, Nader Shah - founder of the Afsharid Dynasty - ranks as a towering figure in Iranian history.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |