"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٨‎٣] (١٧٨٢/٢٢٦)

(io$
JlotflCU S''
J."'
83
rendition of Azarbaijan to Pereia. These mearares promised success;
m t ey were frustrated by the pusillanimous behaviour of Shah Tahmasb,
who, after being defeated in a battle by the Turks, concluded a treaty with
Ahmad Pasha, the Turkish governor of Baghdad, whereby he resigned
is claims to all the countries beyond the Araxes in favour of the Sultan
and ceded Kirmansbah and its dependencies to the Pasha himself,
lahmasb Quli Khan immediately denounced this treaty as a betrayal of
the national interests; and not long afterwards, on the 16th of August
' ' . 6 et lone ^ ^ ie Shah, substituting for him a puppet in the person
o hie infant son, whom some historians have styled Shah 'Abbas III.
In July 1733 Tahmasb Quli Khan marched on Baghdad, which he
invested; but he was defeated near Samarrah by Topal 'Osman, a gallant
ur ish soldier, and obliged to abandon the siege. In less than three
months' time, however, he renewed his invasion of 'Iraq, overthrew a
urkish army under Topal 'Osman, who was slain in the battle, and
again prepared to invest Baghdad; but at this juncture a revolt broke
out m the province of Fare and recalled him to Persia.
In the spnng of 1756, eonsidering his position to be now sufficiently Reign of
established, Tahmasb Quli Khan assumed the name of Nadir Shah and Nadir Shah,
accepted the crown of Persia, which was offered to him by the nobles and 1736 ~ 47 '
mihtary chiefs of the realm; but, before doing so, he prevailed on
the electors to agree to the extraordinary condition that the Shi'ah sect
should be abolished and that the people of Persia should become Sunnis*
On ascending the throne Nadir Shah made a peace with Mahmud I,
Sultan of Turkey, by which the frontier that had bounded the two
empires m the time of Murad IV was restored j this done, he gave rein
* It was intended that the converted Persians should form a fi^h^SunnT^ectTtTbe
known as the Ja fan, distinct from the already existing Sunni sects of Hanafi. Shlfi'i.
Malik* and Hanbali; the name proposed was taken from that of Ja'far.as-Sadin
w lorn > i a s inspected as the sixth Imam and to whom Sunnis could not obiect as he
bve fte d^s before the SM'ah S cM sm . The recognition of the Ja'fari
the subject of a corrospondenca between Nadir Shah and the Sultan of Turkey ; but
e latter, though he agreed to proposals for a release of prisoners on both sides, for
tree trade, and for mutual reception of Ambassadors, would have nothing to do with the
rehgious scheme; and even in Persia the Ja'fari sect does not seem to have made
much real headway. The principal objects of Nadir Shah in his attempted innovation
were probably (1) to conciliate his a:my, which consisted partly of Sunnis . (2) to
facilitate the incorporation in the empire that he aspired to found of Sunni
countries such as India, Afghanistan and Turkey; and (3) to obliterate the recollec-
ion of the displaced Safavi dynasty, under whom the Sbi'ah faith had been the
na lon & J" 6 igion of Persia and with whom it was closely identified. Nidir Shah's
proceedings in this respect had evidently a great interest for Niebuhr ; see hig Vovaa"
Z IT' P " 1!M W ~ im - M toy Shi'ahfl in Turkey are iL
quently termed Ja'faris,
15 a