Early Life
Nader Shah was born in the fortress of Dastgerd into the Qereqlu (in Persian قرقلو) clan of the Afshars, a semi-nomadic Qizilbash tribe settled in the northern valleys of Khorasan, a province in the north-east of the Persian Empire. His father, Emam Qoli, was a herdsman who may also have been a camel driver and coatmaker. He died while Nader was still young. According to legends, Nader and his mother were carried off as slaves by marauding Uzbek or Turkmen tribesmen, but Nader managed to escape. He joined a band of brigands while still a boy and eventually became their leader. Under the patronage of Afshar chieftains, he rose through the ranks to become a powerful military figure. Nader married the two daughters of Baba Ali Beg, a local chief.
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Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)