At a qoroltai (grand assembly) held on the Mughan plain, leading military, religious, and political figures agreed to Nader’s accession, marking the formal start of Afsharid rule in Iran.
Nader was crowned shah on the Mughan plain, replacing the Safavid dynasty in practice and inaugurating the Afsharid Empire under his personal rule.
After a long siege, Nader’s forces captured Kandahar, eliminating the last major Hotak stronghold and strengthening Afsharid control over Afghanistan as a base for further expansion.
Leaving his eastern base, Nader marched toward Kabul as part of the campaign that would carry Afsharid forces through the Khyber region and into the Mughal Empire.
Nader’s army routed the Mughal forces at Karnal, opening the way to Delhi and demonstrating the tactical superiority of his disciplined gunpowder-era formations against a larger Mughal host.
After Karnal, Nader entered Delhi alongside the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah, effectively imposing submission on the Mughal court before the ensuing exactions and violence.
Following riots and killings of Afsharid troops, Nader ordered a mass killing in Delhi (often referred to as qatl-e-aam), a pivotal episode that cemented the invasion’s notoriety and intensified the sack of the city.
Afsharid forces campaigned against Uzbek polities, bringing Bukhara and Khiva under Persian dominance and marking a major (if hard-to-administer) high-water mark of Nader’s conquests.
After an assassination attempt, Nader suspected his eldest son Reza Qoli of involvement and had him blinded—an act widely seen as deepening the succession crisis and Nader’s later instability.
Nader besieged Ottoman-held Mosul in a renewed western offensive; the unsuccessful siege became an early major episode in the Ottoman–Persian War of 1743–1746.
Afsharid Iran and the Ottoman Empire concluded peace with the Treaty of Kerden, ending the 1743–1746 war and temporarily stabilizing the western frontier.
Nader was assassinated by his own men while campaigning in Khorasan, triggering a rapid breakdown of central authority and accelerating Afsharid fragmentation after his death.
Nader Shah and the Afsharid Empire (1736–1747)
