Author: Syriana
Original thread: [ETW AAR] Land of the Aryans: A Persian AAR


[AAR] ETW: Land of the Aryians: A Persian AAR




Prologue: The Land of the Aryans

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Persia was one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations, with historical settlement spanning back to 7000 BCE. From their base in the Near East, the late empires of Iran once pierced the heart of Europe itself, extending as far as Greece. At the height of its power, the empire spanned three continents and incorporated around eight million square kilometres of land. Since its defeat at the hands of Alexander the Great, Persia had become diminished over the centuries, passed down between autocrats and despots. The caretaker of Greater Iran in the 18th century was the Safavid dynasty, the continuous Shahs of Persia since 1501 CE.

In the dawn of the new century, Safavid Persia was in acute decline. Shah Suleiman I of Persia died in 1694, leaving behind a legacy of rampant corruption, poor military discipline and political division in the upper echelons of power. His successor – Shah Hosayn I – was a devout Shia Muslim and weak-willed autocrat, whose apathy to affairs of state earned him the nickname of Yakhshidir (“Very well!”), a response he was prone to giving when asked to make a decision.



A profile on Shah Solten Hoseyn I.

Outside political affairs, Persia suffered more serious issues. Her army had become antiquated and inept, obsolete even by Arabic standards. In addition, civil unrest in agrarian Afghanistan – the Safavid’s share of Greater Khorasan – had escalated, in response to religious differences between the Shia Muslim state and the predominantly Sunni Muslim population. An Afghan insurrection would have crippled eastern Iran and leave the capital defenseless.

There were some positive aspects to the present situation. The Ottoman Empire – nemesis of the Safavids – continued to lurk to the west, after Suleiman I failed to exploit momentary Ottoman weakness following the Battle of Vienna. Yet the Ottomans were similarly suffering from stagnation, while their heated relations with the European powers had left them in a constant state of conflict. Likewise, to the east, the Mughal Empire was failing, its tenuous grip on the Indian sub-continent undermined by the Maratha Confederacy.

The actions of the Persian government in this century determined whether the Land of the Aryans would rise to prominence once more or be forgotten to the annals of history as yet another failed nation.


Chapter 1: The Rise of Mustapha Setarezhad (1694-1702)

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The Safavid Persian Empire, c. 1700.

One positive aspect of the Shah’s apathy to political affairs was that he left them in the hands of his far more competent – though often corrupt – subordinates. Principle among these was Mustapha Setarehzad, favoured adviser to the Shah.


Portrait of Mustapha Setarehzad on the day of his inception into the Supreme Vizierate.

Mustapha was born in 1672 to a Circassian slave and a wealthy Persian eunuch. He lived a sheltered childhood in Esfahan, the extravagant Persian capital. Studying at one of the many schools and universities that had been introduced under the late Shah Abbas the Great, he soon became embroiled in imperial politics. His father enjoyed a favourable position with Shah Suleiman I, and it was through this avenue that he worked his son into the upper echelons of power. Such was Mustapha’s intimate acquaintance with the Shahanshah that, before his death in 1694, he came close to achieving his goal of assuming the office of the Supreme Vizierate.


A painting of Islamic scholars with Esfahan in the background.

Mustapha, however, had to contend with the litany of Persian eunuchs who coveted power for themselves and were distrustful of the young half-Circassian. Mustapha drew his support from various sectors of Persian society. He promised to reform the military, a position which made him popular with the disgruntled Persian Spahbods and military governors. He also wanted to expand the empire by pushing further into the Caucasus, granting Persia access to the Black Sea. When Hoseyn I came to power, Mustapha played on his religious devotion to further his own goals, at a time when the Shahanshah’s extreme beliefs were met with bemusement in court. As such, Hoseyn I appointed him as Vazīr-e Azam (Supreme Vizier) of Persia, cementing his authority. As the Shah’s prime minister, Mustapha faced three main issues; the military, the government and the Ottoman Empire.


A contemporary drawing of a Persian soldier belonging to the Qizilbash.

His approach to military matters was rather unorthodox. Recognizing Turkish naval dominance and the fact that Persia possessed no Mediterranean ports, he decided to focus his efforts on the army. The armed forces were in a pathetic state after the neglectful tenure of Suleiman I; ill-disciplined and inefficient. Mustapha had neither the time nor the capital to bring the army up to European standards, a task that even the Ottoman Empire was struggling with. Instead, he set about prioritising agility over ability and size over strength. Convincing the Shahanshah to appoint him as Eran Spahbod, Mustapha swelled the ranks of the army with slaves and labourers, while simultaneously drawing up plans for an extended western assault, spanning from Azerbaijan to Anatolia. The framework for this invasion called for a series of rapid victories, followed up by a brief consolidation of power and an immediate deployment to the next target. For this purpose, Mustapha refined the supply network of the army, in order to prevent the Persian Spah from outrunning their overextended supply lines.


The executive officials of Persia after Mustapha purged the old government (excluding Mustapha himself).


In order to put his military reforms through and maintain his authority, Mustapha now had to break the power of the eunuchs, who had flourished under the ineptitude of Suleiman I. This latent power base was undermining the ability of the Shahanshah, but the main purpose behind the actions Mustapha took was the need to consolidate his own power. He launched a massive corruption drive, purging the executive of kleptocratic eunuchs and his own opponents. In their place, a new cabinet was installed, composed of able but subservient statesmen loyal to Mustapha. With his rivals removed and his puppet council in place, Mustapha was unchallenged.


Chapter 2: The New Foreign Policy (1702-1707)

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Now Mustapha addressed the most troublesome issue facing his empire; her neighbours. Persia was bordered on the west and the east by the Ottoman and Mughal empires, two weakened nations with colourful Persian histories. While the Ottoman Empire had long since departed from its Golden Era, it was still a formidable force in European politics. The Mughal Empire, on the other hand, was rapidly declining, with the Maratha Confederacy appearing to be the most likely candidate to fill the power vacuum left behind by its demise. With this in mind, Mustapha decided to strike against the Ottomans first. Securing his eastern borders with the 1701 Treaty of Kandahar – in which both parties solemnly vowed never to interfere in the affairs of the other – Mustapha now turned his attention to Turkey.


The Mughal Empire, c. 1700.


The Ottoman Empire (excluding Egypt and the Balkans), c. 1700.

The first step of the operation was to ensure that the supply lines for the invasion could be maintained. For this to occur, Persia would need to expand. The Georgian principalities and their ally the Avar Khanate were an obvious choice; both had challenged Persian ambitions in past, Georgia had access to the Black Sea and neither of them had any support from the major powers. Mustapha acted decisively, annexing Georgia in 1703. Despite the military alliance, Avaristan abstained from the conflict, allowing Persian forces to quickly overwhelm Georgia and subjugate Tbilisi.

The next phase in the plan was to gain the support of a European naval power, to make up for the lack of Persian maritime capabilities. Russia was a perfect candidate; she had a strong navy and a direct link to the Caucasus region, while Russo-Ottoman relations had deteriorated into outright war. In order to gather Russian support, Mustapha signed a series of trade agreements with Tsar Pyotr I, and even introduced legislation which allowed Russian soldiers to move directly across Persian land. These agreements were later culminated into a military alliance known as the Perso-Russian Pact. In it, each party affirmed the other’s respective sphere of power – the Near East for Persia, the Balkans for Russia. Mustapha vowed not to interfere in European affairs, while Pyotr I promised that Russia would defend Persian interests in any conflict with the Ottomans.

Russian progress, however, was hindered by the Avar Khanate, who had already seized some southern Russian territories in swift raids, poor infrastructure delaying the response of Russian armies. In order to clear a path for Russian intervention, Mustapha declared war on Avaristan. Diverting forces from the western frontier to bolster the invasion, Mustapha was about to face the most significant crisis of his entire career. For no sooner had Persian forces – under the command of Hormezyâr Mahmudnizhad, Marzban of Georgia – marched into Dagestan proper than the Ottoman Empire declared war on Persia.


Chapter 3: The Ottoman Campaign (1707-1732)

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Mustapha, great statesman though he was, had been deceived. Assured that the trade agreements he had made with Turkey would keep the Ottomans satisfied, he had left his border vulnerable to attack. His armies were now tied up in Chechnya-Dagestan, and Russian land reinforcements were nowhere in sight.

In a deadly gambit, Mustapha called off the advance on Dagestan. The invading forces were hastily redistributed to the eastern border, in preparation for the Ottoman assault. From their naval base in Mesopotamia, Ottoman ships ravaged the Iranian coast along the Persian Gulf, cutting off Persian sea trade. The fledgling Russian Imperial Navy was too far away to render assistance, while all naval assets of the Mughal Empire were entangled in conflict with the Marathas, allowing the Ottoman fleet to carry out their operations unhindered. Undeterred, Mustapha fortified the coast with a minor assortment of irregular soldiers, in the unlikely event of an invasion from the sea.

Fortunately for Persia, four important factors weighed in their favour. Firstly, the Ottoman Empire was universally detested in Europe, where it was waging war with a coalition of powers, ranging from Russia to Morocco, in which Persia became a co-belligerent. This diverted forces from the Ottomans’ western front, facilitating an invasion by Persia. Secondly, the declaration of war was a risky gambit on the part of the Ottomans. Exploiting a momentary weakness, the Turks had created a conflict for which they did not have adequate provisional manpower and resources to wage. The border territories of Armenia and Mesopotamia were poorly defended, and Persian military swiftness allowed them to be seized long before Ottoman reinforcements finally blundered into Persian armies in Syria and suffered total annihilation. Thirdly, the Barbary States – who were on friendly terms with both parties – abstained from the conflict, overextending the Ottoman fleet and contributing to their destruction at the hands of combined navies of Russia, Venice and Great Britain. Lastly, the Imperial Russian Army stormed into Chechnya-Dagestan shortly after the Ottomans declared war, decisively crushing the Avar Khanate.

The success of Mustapha’s military reforms was apparent. Within seven months of the conflict, Armenia and Mesopotamia were occupied after two short and victorious battles. Syria fell shortly afterwards. From his new base in Damascus, Persian Spahbod Fereydun Talaromi cut along the northern African coast, sweeping up Palestine and Egypt and wiping out pockets of Ottoman resistance in his wake. Spurred by this victory, the Persians – under Spahbod Hormezyâr Mahmudnizhad – pushed into Anatolia, annexing the territory and halving the Ottoman Empire. By 1724, Persia had expanded two-fold, transformed from a declining Islamic nation into a strong regional power.


The Persian conquest of Egypt.



Profile of Spahbod (General) Hormezyâr Mahmudnizhad.



Profile of Spahbod (General) Fereydun Talaromi.

With his empire secure, Mustapha was free to turn his vision inwards. Looting of Ottoman territories – encouraged as an efficient method of collecting pay and supplies for soldiers – had provided him with a massive surplus of wealth. This wealth he invested in Iran herself, hoping to instill an industrial revolution in the backwards Persian nation. This was successful, to a degree; infrastructural development took place – especially in the capital – and economic growth increased. However, the eastern territories remained dangerously untamed.



Profile of Shah Abul I.


The Shahanshah died peacefully in 1727, leaving his eldest son Abul to inherit the autocracy. Abul I, although competent, showed no signs of altering the status quo that had existed under his father, leaving Mustapha unchallenged. It was in this relaxed atmosphere that the Maratha Confederacy – having absorbed over three quarters of the Mughal Empire – declared war on Persia.


Chapter 4: A Passage to India (1727-1732)

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The Afghan-Punjab border, c. 1730.

The failure to maintain an interest in India can be marked as the turning point of Mustapha’s career. While the Persians were ravaging the Ottomans, the Marathas were experiencing similar successes, pushing the Mughals back to their northern-most territories. With the seizure of the Punjab region, the Mughal Empire was split in half, creating a channel directly towards Persia. It was through this opening that the Marathas invaded Afghanistan, vastly outnumbering the token defenders assigned to its border forts under the command of Marzban Dariush Azarmanesh. Mustapha had seriously underestimated the military prowess of the Confederacy while simultaneously failing to develop relations between the two powers, relying on the Mughals to act as a buffer to Maratha expansion. Persia was now faced with the same dilemma that was so disastrous for the Ottoman Empire; a war on two fronts. Mustapha hastily offered a generous peace deal to the Marathas, who promptly turned it down. The Confederacy’s comprehension of the situation in Persia was matched only by Mustapha’s misunderstanding of the situation in India.


The invasion force of the Maratha Confederacy, several months before the fall of Kabul.

When it became clear that the Confederacy would not be satiated by anything less than military conquest, Mustapha changed tactics. He enacted a scorched earth policy in Afghanistan, depriving the Confederacy of the benefits of conquest. At the same time, he built up his forces to the south at the expense of the security of the capital. Mustapha was banking on the Mughals regaining their Punjabi territory, cutting off the Afghan invasion force and allowing them to be picked off by a Persian counter-invasion. Similarly, the Afghan peoples – already unruly – would be no happier under a Hindu autocracy. With enough civil unrest, the Marathas may even become convinced to pull out of Afghanistan altogether.


An artist's impression of Persians torching a warehouse in Afghanistan.

In order to finance this military build up, Mustapha was forced to raise taxes. His popularity in Persia was already in decline, following the widespread – though arguably unfair – belief that it was his ineptitude that allowed the Afghan crisis to occur. The thought of purposefully allowing the territory to be occupied did not sit well with the eunuchs, who were used to hearing reports of victory after victory. In addition, Mustapha’s unassailable position in the Persian hierarchy and dominance of the Shah had created envious murmurs of discontent in the upper echelons. Even his most ardent supporters had begun to begrudgingly admit that the now 70-year old statesman – in power for over two decades – was becoming a liability.

Rightly anxious over these seditious comments, Mustapha sought to distract from the dire situation in the east by increasing the war effort in the west. Although the most logical action would be to make peace with the Turks, thus freeing up soldiers from the western front for action in the east, it is easy to understand the political soundness of this action; a successful military campaign would silence his critics and reaffirm his position as the leading military figure in Iran. Rumelia was taken easily, the bankrupt Ottomans having been forced to move the last vestiges of their armies north to combat the encroaching Europeans. Once captured, however, holding onto Rumelia was challenging; the state was in near-anarchy, the industries were in disarray and rebel forces had sprung up in the west. The move also put the Persians into conflict with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, who had designs on the Balkans and had recently seized Bulgaria. While half of the Persian forces deployed into Rumelia were occupied mopping up resistance in the west, the Commonwealth invaded the territory and launched a siege on Istanbul. The disadvantages of the Persian military plan were made evident in the ensuing conflict; while perfectly capable of capturing territory, the light forces were less than adept at holding onto it. Artillery proved to be a significant issue, with the invading forces possessing five artillery pieces to every single Persian piece.



The siege of Persian-held Istanbul by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

This was the final straw for Mustapha. Unpopular both at home and at the front, the politician who had shaped the dysfunctional backwater of Persia into a mighty empire finally left office. He offered his resignation to Shah Abul I, who promptly accepted. Whatever the future of Safavid Persia, it would no longer be steered by Mustapha. Retiring to Moscow – where the late Vizier was far more popular – in the same year, he spent two years writing his memoirs and socialising with the Russian elite until his death in 1735. The mysterious circumstances of his demise prompted speculation as to whether he had been assassinated on the order of a jealous eunuch, or even the Shahanshah himself. His body was taken to Persia and given a modest state funeral, before being interred in a necropolis reserved for figures of importance. His headstone bore only the inscription, Mustapha Setarehzad Nawab Khan. Loyal official to Shah Hosayn I, defender of Persia, servant of Allah.”



Chapter 5: The Battle of Istanbul (1732-1733)

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Mustapha’s tenure had come to an end, but the Rumelian crisis was far from over. The siege of Istanbul continued, as the mighty guns of Poland-Lithuania laid waste to the erstwhile Ottoman capital, salvo after salvo pounding against the fortifications and the Persian soldiers that resided within. The Persians were totally outgunned. Realising this, Spahbod Fereydun Talaromi – now Beylerbey of Rumelia – was forced with two choices; abandon the city and withdraw to Anatolia, leaving Rumelia to the Poles and cutting off the forces of Spahbod Hormezyâr Mahmudnizhad in the west, or leave the safety of Istanbul and face the enemy head on. The former was unacceptable to the noble Spahbod, on both moral and political grounds. So it was that, on the 5th of May 1733, the Persians left the safety of Istanbul and advanced to meet the armies of Poland-Lithuania on the field of battle.



The belligerents of the Battle of Istanbul (left: Persia, right: Poland-Lithuania).

The Commonwealth army was headed by Wlodzimierz Banaszak, a young and fresh-faced General who had been promoted for this very purpose. This inexperience provided a boon for Spahbod Fereydun Talaromi, whose rough and irregular force was totally outclassed by his sophisticated European opponent. The former’s army was composed thusly; three experienced regiments of Bedouin warriors (who had been fighting under Talaromi since his excursion into northern Africa), two cavalry regiments of Zamindari horsemen, two regiments of Fellahin soldiers (arbitrarily divided into two groups; one for musketry, one for melee), a smattering of Kurdish bandits, two regiments of Bhumiya mercenaries (again divided, this time into groups for melee and archery) and approximately seven regiments of Tufangi militias. In stark contrast, his opponent commanded seven regiments of Polish line infantry (albeit still not fully replenished after the Armenian campaign), a single cavalry regiment and a litany of artillery pieces, ranging from 12-pounder guns to mortar units. The event highlighted the fundamental differences between the compositions of the Persian armies and the European militaries; trained and regimented soldiers against skilled and irregular mercenaries.



Starting formation of Persian soldiers during the Battle of Istanbul.



Starting formation of Polish-Lithuanian soldiers during the Battle of Istanbul.

The attack began in the early hours of the morning, in a light but precipitous day. Banaszak’s army fortified a small village on the outskirts of Istanbul, prepared for the altercation. Spahbod Talaromi – with minimal artillery support – was forced to engage directly with Banaszak, sacrificing the high ground to meet his enemy in the village proper. Thusly, the Persians advanced.



The opposing armies stare each other down.

The beginning of the battle was momentarily serene. The two forces stood opposite each other, the Persians in a curved arc formation and the Europeans in perfect lines. Then Banaszak ordered the artillery barrage to commence, and any pretentions to serenity were quickly disposed of. A folly committed by Banaszak worked crucially in the favour of the Persians; in order to fully utilise his mortar units, he had moved his artillery adjacent to the village, rather than holding them back. As such, when Spahbod Talaromi ordered his soldiers to advance, Banaszak was forced to do the same, in order to prevent his artillery pieces being overrun. Mistaking the arc-like formation of the advancing Persian forces as a flanking movement, the Polish General divided his forces to cut them off. This painfully inexperienced decision allowed the Persians to form two firing corridors around the Commonwealth soldiers, with devastating results.


The Polish-Lithuanian artillery complement.


The fragmented Polish-Lithuanian line advances towards the Persians.

While this occurred, three Tufangi militias clandestinely made their way through the foliage to the east of the village, cutting around Banaszak’s flank. The forces took his artillery pieces by surprise, cutting down several crews before they were engaged by infantry units pulled from the front. Any military tactician could foresee that Banaszak was doomed; his flank had been compromised, his forces were being herded into killing zones and he had lost his greatest asset. Ironically, it was a flanking maneuver which very nearly called the battle for the Persians. During the chaos, a Polish cavalry regiment had managed to circumvent the Persian front and drive directly for Talaromi himself. If it was not for the ferocity of his bodyguards and the timely intervention of two Tufangi regiments held in reserve, the outcome of the battle could have been very different.


Tufangi militias flank the Polish-Lithuanian forces.


Persian soldiers advance as the broken Polish-Lithuanian army is routed.


Spahbod Talaromi and his bodyguards hunt down a fleeing artillery crew.


Polish-Lithuanian soldiers fortify an empty warehouse as Fellahin warriors enter the building from the lower levels.

As it was, the Polish-Lithuanian soldiers were massacred. The Persian line pushed forward, firing on the disorganised mass from every angle, scything down the army like wheat. With a sharp battle cry, the Spahbod himself lunged into the fray, cutting down the retreating Europeans. In a last-ditch effort, the remaining forces garrisoned themselves in a warehouse in defiance of the Persians. Talaromi ordered his minor artillery units to open fire, and before the defenders could recover, Fellahin warriors raided the building and massacred all those inside. Banaszak himself fled, one of the sole eleven survivors of the Battle of Istanbul, an event which firmly put an end to any preconceived European notions of inherent superiority.



Chapter 6: The Hungarian Retort (1733-1734)
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Contemporary depiction of the Battle of Istanbul.

Despite the rousing victory against Poland-Lithuania, Persian woes remained unsolved. The Battle of Istanbul had exposed the deeply flawed construct of the Persian military; speed and agility, which had been so decisive in the East, was no match for strength and ability. Indeed, it can be argued that, if not for the ineptitude of Banaszak, the Persians would never have triumphed. At any rate, the threat from Poland-Lithuania was far from over; a secondary army, equal in size to the primary invasion force, had been en route to Istanbul. However, once it became known that the primary force had been smashed, this other army would most likely turn on its heels and return to Bulgaria. For this very reason, Spahbod Mahmudnizhad drove his army north towards Sofia, hoping to capture the defenseless capital before the returning occupants arrived. To the west, the penniless yet defiant Ottoman State continued to launch raids against the border provinces from neighbouring Greece. While pitiful, these attacks were undermining the Rumelian economy and fostering unrest. The Ottoman threat would have to be put down, once and for all.


Ottoman horsemen advance into Rumelia, sacking farms and towns in their wake.

This action would have to wait, however. As expected, the Polish-Lithuanian army pulled back, intercepting Madmudnizhad’s invasion force. The battle was swift and brutal, leaving the Persians with a pyrrhic victory; they defeated their numerically superior and cavalry-equipped opponents yet lost three entire regiments and suffered a multitude of casualties. The lack of mounted units was an issue which would need to be addressed; the Spahbod himself was actually forced to enter the fray to counter European cavalry. Fortunately, the citizens of Sofia – no happier under Catholic Poland-Lithuania than Islamic Persia and possessing no weapons – submitted to the invaders without a fight, allowing the capital to be seized. However, Persian rule in Bulgaria is no guarantee; spies report that Poland-Lithuania is already massing forces in the north-east, and the garrison at Sofia is in no shape for another battle.


The Persian conquest of Bulgaria.

In preparation for this, reinforcements from Anatolia moved across the Golden Horn, freeing up Persian soldiers to join Sofia. Whether these will arrive before the Europeans do, however, is debatable. Meanwhile, a brigade of Persian soldiers located Banaszak – coward of the Battle of Istanbul – at a farm house in central Rumelia. On the order of the Beylerbey of Rumelia, the unfortunate General was castrated, had his feet whipped and was finally stoned to death. His head was dispatched to Warsaw, along with a request for peace. Needless to say, the Polish-Lithuanian government did not accept.



Persian mercenaries perform falaka (foot whipping) on the late General Banaszak.


Chapter 7: Coronary Thrombosis (Summer-Winter)

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Persian pride, however, was not only misplaced, but dangerous. The Persians were antagonising their European neighbours at a time when they should have been appeasing them. Poland-Lithuania was funneling soldiers into north-west Bulgaria, in preparation for a mighty invasion. The meagre garrison at Sofia would be decimated in such an attack, while Spahbod Talaromi dared not leave the Ottoman capital to render assistance to his outmatched comrade. This belligerent attitude can be traced directly to Shah Abul I, who – following the downfall of Mustapha Setarehzad – appointed himself as Eran Spahbod and now personally oversaw all military activities in the European theatre. Abul I wanted Persia to become a world power, rivaling the European empires in both European and colonial affairs. This patently ignored the foreign policy of the late Mustapha, who had managed only to gain Russian support with the solemn vow that Persia would not interfere in Europe.



A contemporary British cartoon, satirizing the relationship between Russia (the master) and Poland-Lithuania (the dog).

Indeed, Perso-Russian relations were already strained. The conflict between Persia and Poland-Lithuania placed Russia – who held alliances with both parties – in an awkward situation. Poland-Lithuania was Russia’s long-time friend and ally, as well as a buffer to Austrian and Ottoman expansion. On the other hand, it was the Persians who had eliminated the Ottoman Empire, allowing Russia to expand her ports into the Black Sea. As it was, the Tsar had remained neutral so far, abstaining from the conflict. As long as the conflict continued, however, the danger of the Russian Bear throwing its weight in favour of the enemy was a persistent worry to the Persian leadership.



Portrait of Kianoosh Mohammadi, Supreme Vizier of Persia.

In the end, it was the intervention of Kianoosh Mohammadi – the new Persian Supreme Vizier – that found a solution to the Bulgarian question. It was universally agreed by all but the Shah that the Persians could not maintain a grip on the territory. The poor infrastructure, exhausted defenders and encroaching European armies made such a Herculean task impossible. Furthermore, Poland-Lithuania would not accept a peace deal while Bulgaria was still in Persian hands. Mohammadi pushed forward an unorthodox and controversial motion; give the lands away. Not to Poland-Lithuania, obviously, who would simply use it as a platform for another incursion into Rumelia. The recipient of this prize would be none other than the Russian Empire. Mohammadi hoped that such an event would put an end to Polish-Lithuanian expansion, knowing that the Commonwealth would not dare challenge Tsar Pyotr the Great.



The newly-formed Principality of Bulgaria, vassal state to the Russian Empire.

Needless to say, the suggestion did not go down well with the Shahanshah. Abul I was furious at the prospect of giving away territory that was rightfully his, believing that it would compound the belief that Persia was merely Russia’s angry Islamic pet. Mohammadi argued tirelessly that the Balkans was of no interest to Persia, and if she wanted to be taken seriously, she had to prioritise the conquest of Indian economic powerhouse. After hours of debate, Abul I capitulated. As of 1734, the Principality of Bulgaria – a Russian vassal state – was proclaimed. The establishment of the principality vexed King Augustus III of Poland-Lithuania, who - in an extremely futile act - attempted to persuade the Russian Tsar not to accept the offering, citing Persian political intrigue. Regardless of the background, however, the Russian Empire would not turn down an opportunity to gain a territory bloodlessly - especially one in the Balkans. Spahbod Mahmudnizhad withdrew from Sofia and – meeting with Anatolian reinforcements in Rumelia – cut down into the Greece, hoping to eliminate the lingering Ottoman naval presence in the Mediterranean.



Persian armies marching under Spahbod Mahmudnizhad advance on Athens.

Perhaps it was the distraction of the Bulgarian question which allowed the next crisis to occur. In the winter of that same year, Persian scouts reported that an immense Maratha invasion force crossed over the mountainous Afghan border, advancing towards Esfahan, the defenseless Persian capital. Immediately, Marzban Zand bin Espendiyar withdrew from his position in Baluchistan and marched towards the capital, a full day behind the invaders. With only a minor security complement, the capital would not hold out in any battle. As the two armies raced towards Esfahan, the fate of the Safavid dynasty and the Persian Empire hung precariously in the balance.



The Maratha invasion force advances on Esfahan from the north as Persian border guards move up from the south.


Chapter 8: A Capital Idea (1735)
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The belligerents of the Battle of Esfahan (left: Persia, right: Maratha Confederacy).

Unfortunately, it was the Indian invaders – under the command of Peshwa Balkrishna Indukuri – who first arrived at the steps of “nesf-e jahān”. The city’s defenders, consisting mainly of Bedouin mercenaries and armed militia, were marshalled under Ezatollah Rahmati, who had become Marzban of the Iranian heartland after the fall of Afghanistan. The impromptu army was suitably large and its commander experienced, but as Voltaire once said: “God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best”. The Persians, lacking artillery and skilled marksman, were decisively crushed by the Maratha Confederacy. For the first time since 1387, Esfahan had fallen into enemy hands.


The belligerents of the Siege of Esfahan (left: Persia, right: Maratha Confederacy).

When the Indians had been encroaching on Iran, the Shah and his court had fled from the capital, forming a provisional seat of government in the Azerbaijani capital, Ardabil. Little effort had been made to evacuate citizens and treasures from Esfahan; the Persians laboured under the belief that, once reinforcements from the south arrived, the capital would be retaken. For this very reason, the Persians made no effort to raise forces in Azerbaijan and continued to wage their war in Greece. As it was, when the army from Baluchistan arrived, Marzban Zand bin Espendiyar – fearful of defeat – made the decision to lay siege to the city. This strategy went completely against the desires of Shah Abul I, who was hoping for a swift and decisive victory to bolster his popularity and stem leadership concerns in court.


The belligerents of the Battle of Athens (left: Persia, right: Ottoman Empire).

The Shah was at least consoled by recent victories in Europe. Spahbod Hormezyâr Mahmudnizhad pushed down into Greece, forming a salient between eastern, western and southern Turkish forces. Despite being outnumbered, the Spahbod ordered an attack from all three angles, and won a rousing victory for Persian forces. The broken Turks fled north to Serbia and Bosnia, the last bastions of the dying Ottoman Empire. The Turkish threat, however, was far from over; marauding bands still raided the Rumelian frontier. In death, the Ottoman Empire had proved to be even more of an irritation than they were in life.


An overview of the Balkans c. 1735.


Chapter 9: The Winter of Our Discontent
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As expected, Turkish forces massed on the Bosnian border. As they fled to the north, the Turks had continued the scorched earth policy which had been in effect since Istanbul fell to the Persians; torching their own villages and murdering their own people in order to spite their enemies. Spahbod Hormezyâr Mahmudnizhad, the conqueror of Greece, chose to replenish his forces in Athens before continuing the campaign to finally rid Europe of the Ottoman State.


Retreating Turkish armies regroup in Serbia and Bosnia, the remaining territories of the Ottoman Empire.

In the west, at least, recent events had looked favourably upon Persia. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had made no further moves against Rumelia after Bulgaria was ceded to Russia. Furthermore, Poland-Lithuania had become embroiled in a secondary conflict of her own; Austria, in close competition with the Commonwealth for former Turkish holdings in the Balkans, had declared war. The hope of the two nations becoming locked in conflict, however, was quickly dashed; the Austrian Empire was fighting a major war on all fronts and was unlikely to survive the decade.


An overview of the Austrian Empire in 1935. Note the hostile nations to the east, north, south and west.

More troubling were developments to the north. The Russian Empire had chosen not to enter the war on behalf of Poland-Lithuania, much to the suspicions of the Persian leadership. These reservations were partially confirmed when Persian spies reported that the Imperial Russian Army was massing on the Georgian border. Ostensibly, these forces were intended to maintain control of neighbouring Chechnya-Dagestan, a Russian possession that had proven to be unruly. However, the Shah and his court did not rule out the possibility of the Tsar exploiting Persian weakness to invade Azerbaijan, using their alliance with Poland-Lithuania as casus belli. Such an event would effectively split the empire in half.


Russian forces - positioned on the Georgian border - raise concerns in the Persian court.

But the worst news, by far, came from the east. Superior in strength and emboldened by recent victories, Peshwa Balkrishna Indukuri left the safety of Esfahan and fought Marzban Zand bin Espendiyar directly on the field of battle. Exhausted yet experienced Indians clashed with fresh yet fledgling Persians in an altercation which would decide the fate of the capital. The Persians fought valiantly, but they were outnumbered by their foes, the latter smashing through the Persian line and scattering their forces. As the Qizilbash were routed, the Maratha army surged forward, leaving their backlines exposed. Plucky Persian cavalry utilised this momentary weakness to flank the Indian lines and attack the Peshwa himself. By the time the Indians had realised their folly, Peshwa Indukuri was dead, butchered by the Persians and crushed under his own mount.


The belligerents of the Second Battle of Esfahan (left: Persia, right: Maratha Confederacy).


The results of the Second Battle of Esfahan, prior to the retreating Persians being near-annihilated by the pursuing Indians.

Enraged by their loss, the Indians – marching under the late Peshwa’s lieutenant – harried the fleeing Persian forces, unprofessionally abandoning the capital. By the time Marzban Zand bin Espendiyar reached the Baluchistan border, his freshly created army had been reduced to a handful of battered regiments. The Indian snake had been rendered headless, and the capital city was granted a brief reprieve from occupation, but at an unimaginable cost. The sacrifice of Persian soldiers had at least gave a window of opportunity to Esfahan residents, who promptly fled west with all the possessions they could carry. With no militia left to defend it, and no liberating army on the horizon, the Persians abandoned their sinking flag ship to the inevitable revenge of the returning Indian army.

Shah Abul I was disconsolate. He had assumed the office of the King of Kings when Safavid Persia was at its apex, at the head of an empire which had risen from depression to conquer the Ottoman State itself. He had envisioned Persia becoming one of the world’s great powers, to challenge even the European powers and their considerable colonial assets. With considerable influence over northern Africa and the Turkish Straits under its control, the Russian Tsar and the British King and the French Emperor alike would be forced to bow down before the Shah. Now, his homeland and its might capital were in enemy hands, his armies were on the run and a neighbouring aggressor looked set to reverse decades of Persian expansion within a matter of years.


The recently captured territory of Greece is ceded to the Russian Empire.

The Shah moved his court once more, this time to Baghdad. The Persian eunuchs were no longer under any illusions as to the sustainability of a war on two fronts. It became clear that, if they were to salvage their empire, concessions had to be made. With Polish-Lithuanian peace talks stalled, Persia ceded the newly-captured territory of Greece to the Russian Empire, freeing up Qizilbash regiments in the west and appeasing the Tsar. Spahbod Hormezyâr Mahmudnizhad vacated Athens and marched towards Istanbul, allowing Spahbod Fereydun Talaromi to cross the Golden Horn and rush to the defence of the provisional capital. Militias were hastily formed in Azerbaijan and Mesopotamia in preparation for the Indian invasion.

As Persians everywhere scrambled to the defence of the empire, the question lingered: would this be the Safavids’ finest hour, or their swansong?


An overview of the Safavid Persian Empire (1935).


Chapter 10: Our Land Immortal
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Ali Qapu palace in Esfahan.

Shah Abul, for all his faults, was not a poor leader. He was a major improvement over Soltan Hosayn, whose apathy and incompetence had come far closer to destroying Persia than the Marathas. Abul was intelligent and, more importantly, rational. So when he heard that the remnants of Marzban Zand bin Espendiyar’s army had been routed down and destroyed by the Indians, that Baluchistan was about to fall to the Confederacy, that the Mughals had retreated to the north, that Mesopotamia and Azerbaijan were open to invasion and that Spahbod Fereydun Talaromi was still hundreds of miles away, he realised that he had to act swiftly to prevent the total destruction of the Persian Empire. He had a message sent to the Maratha Raja. Persia was prepared to surrender.

Within Persia, internal opinion was heavily divided on the Shah’s decision. The governors of the western provinces tended to be opposed to it, as they could not see why Persia had given in with most of her empire still intact. However, the officials who lived in the east, having seen how close the nation had come to Indian subjugation, tended to support the deal, albeit not vocally. At any rate, it had long been acknowledged that, in order to survive, Persia had to close at least one of her war fronts.


Persian troops enter Esfahan after the end of the war.

A week after the ceasefire, a Persian delegation arrived in Pune. The Shah had refused to attend. The terms of peace were presented to the Persians on the same day. They were, as expected, punitive. The regions of Afghanistan and Baluchistan were ceded to the Maratha Empire. Persia was to pay reparations for ten years, even though the war had devastated her industry. Moreover, the Indians were given free reign to mobilise across her eastern frontier, in the case of non-payment. Shah Abul was to recognise Chattrapati Shahuji as the Raja of Satara and break his alliance with the Mughal Emperor. When the delegates quibbled, they were threatened with the immediate resumption of the war, with the Peshwa claiming that he “would do to Esfahan what the Mongols did to Baghdad”. Chastened, the Persians agreed.



"Not in my name!" - an anti-treaty propaganda painting featuring a female personification of Persia.

Controversially, the Turks were not invited to the peace conference, and the resulting Treaty of Pune did not force Persia to return any of the territories she had taken from the Maratha’s erstwhile ally, Turkey – even thought it was the invasion of the Turkish Empire that the Indians used as a casus belli for their attack on Persia. In the view of the Peshwa, the Turks had outlived their usefulness as an ally, and he would much rather have the Safavids entangled in the west than in the east. The Sultan was enraged, and the Turks would never forget their betrayal.

As the time progressed, it became obvious that it was not necessary for the Indians to dismantle the Persian Empire. The treaty sparked off a riot of indignation within Persia, with some more bellicose generals calling for an immediate attack on Punjab. Shah Abul was shocked when he heard of the terms, and it was only with the utmost bitterness that he was forced to accept them. To make matters worse, the treaty was announced on the same day that the body of Mustapha Setarezhad arrived in Esfahan for proper burial. Rumours that he was killed on the order of the Shah, who feared that the wily statesmen might exploit the current crisis to dethrone him, did not help matters. Nor did the modest ceremony that accompanied the burial of the Father of Persia.

Abul would survive his leadership challenge and the fallout from the treaty. But Persia would not survive the coming years. With Esfahan in ruins, the Safavid Government squeezed its dominions for the necessary money to repay the Indians and rebuild its fallen capital. Unrest spread like a virus across the empire. Nowhere was hit harder than Rumelia, the former heart of the Ottoman Empire, where the Turkish population was poorly treated by its Persian masters. A revolt broke out in Constantinople, and quickly spread to envelop the whole region. The Turkish population was liberated by soldiers from the vestigial Ottoman Empire. Persia – her armies overextended and exhausted – was powerless to resist. The fall of Rumelia had a domino effect on the rest of the empire. Anatolia fell soon after, and from there, the Ottomans began to reclaim their territory in the Levant, starting with Greater Syria and ending with Palestine. The empire disintegrated.


The Governor of Constantinople is strangled to death by Janissaries.


Much to the surprise of Europe, the Ottoman Empire recovered from its defeat, although it would never again be as powerful as it once was. She picked up the pieces after the Persian collapsed, and – with the backing of the Western powers, who did not want Russia to become too powerful – even reclaimed the territories that had been lost to the Tsar. The Persian conquest would have a major effect on the make-up of the new Ottoman Empire; Egypt, although suzerain to the Ottoman Sultan, became effectively autonomous, and the Balkans became more restless. Poland-Lithuania would not survive the century, and over the course of four years, it was dismembered between Prussia, Austria and Russia. The Maratha Confederacy had emerged from the war with Persia looking like a Great Power, but this was illusory. Power became divided between the various states of the Confederacy. The northern territories revolted and the Indians were dealt a major defeat at the Battle of Panipat. The empire limped on until the next century, when it was finally defeated by the British East India Company in the Third Anglo-Maratha War. An independent Indian nation would only rise from the ashes of the Confederacy a whole two centuries later.


Europe after the fall of the Persian Empire c. 1800.

As for the Safavid dynasty, it would not survive the fall of the empire. Abul I desperately tried to cling on to imperial power in the face of total structural collapse. Under the last years of his reign, Persia fought a series of wars to maintain control of her western dominions. The wars bankrupted the Safavid State and bled her armies dry. By 1937, Persia was being raided on all sides – by the Baloch and Hotaki tribes in the east and by the Turks and the Arabs in the west. The last strongholds of Persian power in the Near East – Georgia and Mesopotamia – fell to the Turks and the Russians. Despite this, the Shah ordered an invasion of Afghanistan, in order to stem the raids that had ravaged the Persian frontier. Instead, his eastern vassals revolted. One such vassal, Nader Qoli of the Afshar tribe, invaded Iran and laid siege to Esfahan. Reality finally dawned on Abul I, who was forced to step down, while Nader proclaimed himself Shah. For the rest of his life, Abul was a guest of the Shah, until Nader became paranoid. In 1740, Abul was ordered to the palace in Esfahan and forced to renounce his claim to the throne, in the same room that Hosayn had been informed of Persia’s victory over the Turks in Thrace. A year later, he was murdered on Nader’s orders. Thus the male line of the Safavid dynasty was ended. Under Nader, Persia would go on to reclaim some of her former glory, expanding to its largest extent since the days of Mustapha Setarezhad. However, it would not outlive its creator, and when Nader Shah was assassinated in 1747, the nation collapsed into civil war.



Persia under the Afsharid dynasty.

The Afsharid dynasty was the final hoorah for Imperial Persia. Her eastern territories were soon lost to the Durrani Empire, an Afghan-based monarchy that rose to become the second-most powerful Islamic power in the world. Similarly, her western borders were redrawn to 1700 levels, and she lost control of the Caucasus. The Safavids rose to prominence one final time, when Karim Khan placed Ismail III on the throne in 1757 to legitimise his control of Persia. By 1760, Karim Khan had consolidated his power enough that he no longer required to feign obedience to the Shah, and the last Safavid king was deposed. His Zand dynasty would last until 1794, but like the Afsharids, it would swiftly decline after its founder's death. Persia fell to the Qajars, who watched helplessly as the country was reduced in size and strength, and finally fell from power after Persia was occupied during the First World War. In 1921, a military coup saw the rise of Reza Khan, who ascended to the throne as Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1925. The Pahlavis were Persia's last imperial family. In 1979, a revolution saw Mohammad Reza Pahlavi exiled and the monarchy dissolved. The new government formally changed the country's English name to Iran.

Greater Persia never rose again.