Iranian-Uzbek Encounters in the Nadirid Age (1737-1747)

Nādir Shāh (r. 1736-1747) is often regarded the last great conqueror who established a huge empire extending from Iranian territory up to the borders of India and Central Asia. In the first part of the eighteenth century, his military exploits led him and his army as far as Hindustan, Bagdad and the Caucasus. Yet in contrast to his campaign to India in 1737-39, his expeditions across the Oxus, ending with the conquest of Bukhara and Khiva in 1740, have hitherto been mentioned only in marginal lines.

Based on data gleaned from Iranian and Transoxanian sources (e.g. ʿĀlamārā-yi nādirī, Jahāngushā-yi nādirī, Tuḥfat al-khānī, Gulshan al-mulūk, Tārīkh-i pādishāhān-i Uzbak wa Afghān and others), this paper argues that Nādir Shāh had been longing at least for Bukhara and the lands beyond the Oxus (Māwarāʾ al-nahr) for a longer time. The campaign of 1740 was planned by him beforehand. Moreover, from 1740 onward, his relationship with local Uzbek elites played a crucial role for his political conduct at home in Khurāsān. Although the narratives of our sources suggest stable ties between Iranian and Uzbek actors at first glance, we observe three major shifts in the perceptions and attitudes of either side in a relatively short period. Depending on a variety of factors, which will be explained and described in the speech, the relationship between the Iranians, especially the Qizilbāsh, and the Uzbeks went through different phases from aversion and suspicion to trust and companionship and finally back to hostile relations. The central question of the paper, however, concerns the impact of social power in the form of patronage and unequal exchange. Indeed, Nādir Shāh’s support and material help contributed to the rise of new elites in Transoxania, and, similarly to the example of the Durrani Afghans, set the course for the establishment of new dynasties in the post-Nadirid age.