Nader Shah's Empire Dissolves

1751

Three years after Nader Shah's assassination, Persia had already unraveled into warring successor states. Ahmad Shah Durrani took Afghanistan and founded a dynasty in Kandahar; Karim Khan Zand took Shiraz and, uniquely among eighteenth-century warlords, tried to rule gently. Isfahan sank into ruin between them. The contest for Persian sovereignty would grind on until the Qajar dynasty imposed a fragile unity at the century's end.