Persia: Difference between revisions

'''Persia''', sometimes formally known as the '''Sublime State of Persia''', is a country in western Asia. It is bordered by [[Russia]] and [[Turkestan]] to the north, [[Afghanistan]] and [[Balochistan]] to the east, and the [[Ottoman Empire]] and various Mesopotamian states to the west. Home to one of the world's oldest civilizations, the country has been ruled by the Dareshuri dynasty since the late 18th century. Its capital is, the piedmont city of Shiraz, is situated in the extreme south of the Persian plateau. Alternatively, theThe country is also referred to by its indigenous Persian name, '''Iran''' ([[Persian language|Persian]]: ایران, ''ērān'').

Under the last Safavid shah Tahmasp II, the Safavid dynasty unexpectedly collapsed in the 1680s. Fiscal crises, foreign invasions, and the weakening of central authority caused the country's capital, Isfahan, to fall to a raid led by the Andar clan of the Pashtun Khelji tribe on the empire's eastern frontier (what was to become Afghanistan). Shortly after the capture of the city, Timur Khan Andari established the Khelji empire there — a dynasty that would last for over seven decades. In 1684, an [[England|Anglo]]-[[Netherlands|Dutch]] coalition seized the islands of Kishma and Ormus from Persia. Through the 18th century, Safavid princes served as powerless yet legitimizing figureheads under the Khelji ''khan''s.

From 1687 to the 1739 murder of Tahmasp III, four members of the Safavi dynasty served as powerless yet legitimizing figureheads under the Khelji ''khan''s. For the next 24 years, brothers Asfand Yar Khan and Inayatullah Khan ruled their realm until Persia's collapsecollapsed into civil war in the 1760s. By the end of the decade, a Turkic Kizilbash tribe from Fars, the Dareshuri, captured the cities of Shiraz, Isfahan, Hamadan, and Yazd, establishing their dominance on the Persian plateau. In 1771, Eskander Qoli Khan declared the creation of a new dynasty, whichconquering quicklythe conqueredvast majority of the country by the end of the century.