Fall of Isfahan to the Ghilzai Afghans

March 8, 1722

After a six-month siege that starved the Safavid capital to cannibalism, Mahmud Hotak's Afghans entered Isfahan. Shah Sultan Husayn surrendered his turban. The gardens of the Four Heavens burned. Two centuries of Safavid rule over Persia ended in a matter of weeks. The Persian throne itself would wander for a generation.