Nadir Shah; A Critical Study Based Mainly Upon Contemporary Sources

London: Luzac & Co, 1938. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Good. The format is approximately 7.5 inches by 10 inches. xv, [1], Errata slip bound in prior to page 1, 344 pages and folding map at rear cover. List of Abbreviations. Note on the Chronology. Note on the Transliteration. Footnotes. Illustrations. Maps. Appendix I-III, Bibliography, Index of Sources. Index. Cover has some wear and soiling. Top of spine frayed. Ex-library with usual library markings. Laurence Lockhart (b. London, 9 July, 1890; d. Barrington, 3 May 1975), scholar and photographer of Iran. He studied history at Pembroke College, Cambridge University, where, in 1913, he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree. Over the next two decades (1919-39) he worked for the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (renamed the "Anglo-Iranian Oil Company" [AIOC] in 1935 and "British Petroleum" [BP] in 1954). He lived in Iran for four years (1926-30), experiencing firsthand the beginning of Re Shah Pahlavi's reign. In his spare time, he conducted extensive research on Iran and Iranian history, with a particular focus on events of the late Safavid period and the 18th century. In 1935, he eventually earned a Ph.D. degree from the London School of Oriental and African Studies in 1935. A revised version of his doctoral dissertation, the first modern, full-length scholarly study of the eighteenth-century Iranian ruler N der Shah Afš r (r. 1148-60/1736-47), was published as a monograph in 1938. One of his most engaging duties at the company was apparently his assignment to write a history of the company for private circulation. This work became the basis for later official histories of British Petroleum. Nader Shah Afshar (August 1688 - 19 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian history, ruling as shah of Iran (Persia) from 1736 to 1747, when he was assassinated during a rebellion. He fought numerous campaigns throughout the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and South Asia, such as the battles of Herat, Mihmandust, Murche-Khort, Kirkuk, Yeghev rd, Khyber Pass, Karnal, and Kars. Because of his military genius, some historians have described him as the Napoleon of Persia, the Sword of Persia, or the Second Alexander. Nader belonged to the Turkoman Afshars, a semi-nomadic tribe settled in Khorasan in northeastern Iran, which had supplied military power to the Safavid dynasty since the time of Shah Ismail I. Nader rose to power during a period of chaos in Iran after a rebellion by the Hotaki Pashtuns had overthrown the weak Shah Soltan Hoseyn, while the arch-enemy of the Safavids, the Ottomans, as well as the Russians had seized Iranian territory for themselves. Nader reunited the Iranian realm and removed the invaders. He became so powerful that he decided to depose the last members of the Safavid dynasty, which had ruled Iran for over 200 years, and become Shah himself in 1736. His numerous campaigns created a great empire that, at its maximum extent, briefly encompassed what is now part of or includes Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the North Caucasus, Iraq, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Pakistan, Oman, and the Persian Gulf, but his military spending had a ruinous effect on the Iranian economy. Nader idolized Genghis Khan and Timur, the previous conquerors from Central Asia. He imitated their military prowess and—especially later in his reign—their cruelty. His victories during his campaigns briefly made him West Asia's most powerful sovereign, ruling over what was arguably the most powerful empire in the world, but his empire and the dynasty he founded quickly disintegrated after he was assassinated in 1747. Nader Shah has been described as "the last great Asiatic military conqueror"