"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٨‎٢] (١٧٨٢/٢٢٥)

82
retired on Kirmauehah J and a Treaty* foUowed. under the Urn. of
which Ashraf, in consideration of his title to the throne of Persia
being admitted by the Porte, acknowledged the Sultan of Turkey as his
spiritual suzerain and made other more material concessions, which, per-
haps can hardly be regarded as binding on later Persian sovereigns.
Meanwhile, however, a general combination among Persians had been
formed to expel the Afghan intruders ; Tahmasb Mirza had obtained the
support of the rising Qajar tribe of Astarabad; and in 1727 a remarkable
military leader joined his cause in the person of onet Nadir Quli, an Afshar
Turk who temporarily changed his name, in compliment to his new
master, to that of Tahmasb Quli Khan. As yet, however, the Afghans
had sustained no check ; they succeeded in reducing the town of Yazd
which had hitherto defied their assaults; and in 1728, as will be related
further on, they gave trouble at Bandar 'Abbas and plundered the
British Factory there. At length, in 1729, Tahmasb Quli Khan
defeated the Afghans at Damaghan, whence they fled to Tehran and
then retired on Isfahan, sustaining another reverse at the hands of the
victorious Persians before they reached the capital. Continuing their
retreat south-eastwards, the Afghans were once more defeated near Perse-
polis and driven into Shiraz by Tahmasb Quli Khan; Ahmad Shah, then-
leader, had in the meantime put Shah Husain, the deposed Persian
sovereign, to death; and Tahmasb Mirza had re -occupied Isfahan. At
Shiraz the Afghans did not attempt to stand a siege, but dispersed in a
directions in the endeavour to regain their native country, an object in
which but few of them were successful. Ashraf himself was slain by
Baluchis in one of the deserts between Shiraz and Sistan. Of his fol
lowers some found their way by Lar to the coast and, crossing the Persian
Gulf, landed in Hasa, where they were immediately put to death; others
were exterminated in Makran ; and others again were to be seen, in after
years, earning a scanty livelihood as labourers at Masqat.
Virtual After the cessation of the Afghan danger confidence did not long reign
• between Shah Tahmasb and his successful general Tahmasb Quli Khan.
The latter, having received four of the northern districts of Persia to
govern, at once assumed the authority of an almost independent piince,
expelled the Turks from some of the places which they held, and deman
from Mahmud I, who had recently ascended the Turkish throne,
* This Treaty disposed of all questions of frontiers, diplomatic r^piebent ^^
extraditions, pilgrimages, and trade : see Aitchison's Treaties, 4th edition,
Appendix 3. ^
t Nadir Quli belonged to no distinguished family and is said to have been
time a robber.