Ghilzai leader Mirwais Hotak led an uprising that killed the Safavid-appointed governor and expelled Safavid authority from Kandahar, creating the power base from which later Hotak expansion into Iran was launched.
Safavid expeditions (often involving Georgian forces) repeatedly failed to recapture Kandahar, confirming Hotak control and underscoring Safavid military and administrative weakness in the east.
Mahmud, Mirwais’ successor, attacked and looted Kerman, demonstrating how far Safavid authority had eroded and foreshadowing a direct move against the capital.
Hotak forces defeated a much larger Safavid army near Isfahan, prompting the Safavid survivors to retreat into the capital and enabling the subsequent blockade and siege.
Following Gulnabad, Mahmud Hotak’s army tightened a blockade around Isfahan, relying on siege and starvation rather than storming the walls—setting up a prolonged humanitarian catastrophe and political collapse.
After months of famine and epidemic, Isfahan capitulated on 23 October 1722, and Shah Sultan Husayn formally abdicated to Mahmud—marking the effective end of Safavid rule from the capital.
Sultan Husayn’s son, Tahmasp II, claimed the Safavid throne outside Afghan-occupied Isfahan, establishing a rival legitimacy that later commanders (notably Nader) would use to rally anti-Hotak forces.
Peter the Great’s Caspian campaign concluded with the 1723 treaty, forcing Safavid Iran to cede key Caspian littoral territories—an external intervention enabled by Safavid collapse during the Afghan occupation.
Russia and the Ottoman Empire agreed to divide large portions of weakened Safavid territory between them, formalizing great-power exploitation of Iran’s political breakdown during the Afghan interlude.
A palace coup in Isfahan removed Mahmud Hotak and elevated his cousin Ashraf, shifting Hotak leadership but not resolving the regime’s legitimacy crisis among Iran’s largely Shiʿa population.
After Ottoman–Hotaki fighting, the October 1727 Treaty of Hamedan ended the war and had the Ottomans formally correspond with Ashraf as shah while retaining extensive occupied territories—deepening Iran’s territorial fragmentation.
Nader (serving Tahmasp II) inflicted a major defeat on Ashraf’s forces near Damghan, a turning point that accelerated the rollback of Hotak control in Iran.
In October 1729, Nader avoided and then crushed Ashraf’s planned ambush near Varamin, clearing the approach toward central Iran and the final drive on Isfahan.
Nader routed Ashraf’s army near Isfahan on 12 November 1729, the decisive engagement that directly enabled the Hotaks’ loss of the capital.
Nader entered Isfahan on 16 November 1729, restoring Safavid authority in the capital under Tahmasp II’s cause and ending the core phase of the Afghan occupation that began with the city’s fall in 1722.
Afghan Invasion and Fall of the Safavid Dynasty (1722–1729)
