Orhan Yazıcı

FIRST OTTOMAN-AFGHAN RELATIONS IN IRAN AFTER THE FALL OF THE SAFAVIDS

Orhan Yazıcı, Research paper

This study aims to reveal that Ottoman-Afghan relations claimed to have started with a letter by Ahmad Shah Durrani to Ottoman Sultan Mustafa III earlier in Iranian geography. The insurrection of the Afghan tribes residing in Kandahar under Safavid control at the turn of the 18th century changed the region’s history completely. Georgi Khan, appointed as governor of Kandahar by Shah Hussein in 1704, demonstrated severe administration on the region’s tribes, prompting the Ghilzai tribe’s chief, Mir Wais Khan, to revolt. The first Ottoman-Afghan relations started when Mir Wais was arrested and sent to Isfahan. In 1709, with special permission from Shah Hussein, Mir Wais went on pilgrimage and returned to Kandahar with a fatwa from the Hijaz Ulamas, establishing the first autonomous Afghan Emirate. The Ottoman Ulamas’ fatwa authorizing the Sunni people’s insurrection against Shiite Iran played a vital role in the foundation of this Emirate. With Mir Mahmud’s capture of Isfahan in 1722, Afghans became the eastern neighbors of the Ottomans. With Mir Ashraf’s ascension to the throne of Isfahan in 1725, Ottoman-Afghan relations deteriorated, Ottoman Empire suffered a heavy defeat in the Encidan War. However, Ottoman-Afghan relations remained via Kandahar when Nadir Shah Afshar terminated the Afghan rule in Isfahan. In this article, the first relations of the Ottomans with the Afghans through Mir Mahmud and Mir Ashraf, who established an independent emirate in Kandahar and captured Isfahan and established dominance there, were discussed using the archives, chronicles and travelogues of the period.

Keywords: Afghans, Encidan War, Mir Ashraf, Ottoman Empire, Safavids.

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