Adil Shah - Rise To Power

Rise To Power

From 1743 to 1747, Ali-qoli khan commanded Nader's troops against the Yazidis of Kurdistan, the Karakalpaks and Uzbeks of Khwarazm and in Sistan. He then ran afoul with his uncle over the letter's decision to levy 100,000 tomans on him and Nader's suspiciousness. In April 1747, Ali-qoli khan, in conjunction with the rebels of Sistan, occupied Herat and induced the Kurds into rebellion. Nader, on his march against the insurgents, was murdered by a group of his officers, who offered the crown to Ali-qoli.

On arriving at Mashad, Ali-qoli sent a loyal force to the fortress of Kalat, which killed all Nader's issue with the exception of his 14-year-old grandson Shahrukh. On July 6, 1747, he was declared the shah under the name of Adel-Shah, "the just king". He sent his brother Ebrahim Mirza as a governor to Isfahan, while himself remained in Mashad with his unpopular Georgian favorite, Sohrab Khan. Later that year, he defeated his erstwhile Kurdish allies, who had refused to supply grain for his famine-stricken army and capital, and had several of his supporters put to death on suspicion of conspiracy. He then marched against Mazandaran in a futile attempt to bend the Qajar tribe into submission. The Qajar chief Mohammad Hasan Khan was killed and his four-year-old son, the future Agha Mohammad Khan, was castrated on Adil's order.