Wow! eBook
Sword of Persia: Nader Shah, from Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant
Author(s): Michael Axworthy (Author)
- Publisher: I B Tauris & Co Ltd
- Publication Date: 28 July 2006
- Language: English
- Print length: 368 pages
- ISBN-10: 1850437068
- ISBN-13: 9781850437062
Book Description
Nader Shah, ruler of Persia from 1736 to 1747, embodied ruthless ambition, energy, military brilliance, cynicism and cruelty. His reign was filled with bloodshed, betrayal and horror. Yet, Nader Shah is central to Iran’s early modern history. From a shepherd boy, he rose to liberate his country from foreign occupation, and make himself Shah. He took eighteenth century Iran in a trajectory from political collapse and partition to become the dominant power in the region, briefly opening the prospect of a modernising state that could have resisted colonial intervention in Asia. He recovered all the territory lost by his predecessors, including Herat and Kandahar, and went on to conquer Moghul Delhi, plundering the enormous treasures of India. Nader commanded the most powerful military force in Asia, if not the world. He repeatedly defeated the armies of Ottoman Turkey, the preeminent State of Islam, overran most of what is now Iraq and threatened to take Baghdad on several occasions. But from the zenith of his success he declined into illness, insane avarice and horrific savagery, committing terrible atrocities against the Persian people, his friends, and even his family, until he finally died as violently as he had lived. The “Sword of Persia” recreates the story of a remarkable, ruthless man, capable of both charm and brutality. It is a rich narrative, full of dramatic incident, including much new research into original Iranian and other material, which will prove indispensable to historians and students. The book includes many contemporary illustrations, and maps.
Editorial Reviews
Review
‘both scholarly and highly readable from start to finish…valuable for both specialists and graduate students of history…this new volume presents a wealth of information hitherto unknown and offers some fresh and unique interpretations on the rise and reign of Nader Shah Afshar.’ –George Bournoutian, American Historical Review
About the Author
Michael Axworthy visited Iran many times in the 1970s as a teenager and travelled extensively over the country with his family. In the early 1980s he studied history at Peterhouse, Cambridge before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1986. After a variety of jobs in London and postings in Malta and Germany he served as the Head of Iran Section in the Middle East Department of the FCO from 1998-2000, that period coinciding with the improvement in UK/Iran relations at the beginning of the Presidency of Mohammad Khatami. He left the FCO in 2000 and since then has been making a living as a writer, editor and lecturer. Middle East History at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter on an informal basis.
