59 
1887,] E. E. Oliver —The Safwi Dynasty of Persia. 
youth had, in the most insulting language, gloried in his attempt to rid 
the world of a tyrant. The act, however, not only “ put out the eyes of 
Persia,” hut seems to have changed the nature of Nadir; and even 
partial historians describe the last years of his reign as exceeding in 
barbarity all that has been recorded of the most bloody tyrants. His 
attack on the religion of the people, if his attempt to diminish the 
power and wealth of the priests can be so called, was almost as fatally 
impolitic as his cruelties. His proceedings produced something like 
rebellion, and the spirit of insurrection changed Nadir’s violence to 
fury. Towards the last he was maddened to desperation, and in 1160 H. 
he was finally assassinated by a committee of four principal officers of 
his court, including representatives of his own tribe and his own 
guards. Nevertheless his assassination was the death-blow of the 
mighty empire he had created, and disastrous anarchy almost imme¬ 
diately followed. 
The death of Nadir saw the immediate rise of a powerful Afghan 
empire. Few among his retainers were braver, more loyal or devoted 
than Ahmad Khan, the Abdali Chief, none more ready to revenge his 
death. But within a few months Ahmad had founded a dynasty of his 
own, had changed the name of himself and his tribe, and become 
Ahmad Shah Duri Durani, a name also destined to carry terror to 
India. Three or four years saw the province of Khurasan severed and 
converted into a separate principality. Mazandaran and Gllan before 
long were seized by the chief of the Qajars, the governor of A'zar- 
baijan declaired his independence, and almost half a century passed 
before Persia became a power again. 
THE PUPPET KINGS. 
The Safwi dynasty, founded by rulers of the calibre of Shah Isma’il, 
and the great ’Abbas, than whom Persia had seen no greater since the 
days of the famous Sassanian, Naushirwan, practically ended with the 
capture of Isfahan by the Af gh ans, after a life extending over nearly 
two and a quarter centuries. The descendants who were re-established 
by Nadir, as already noticed, were the merest puppets in his hands, and 
with his formal proclamations as Shah, the dynasty dropped into 
oblivion. The puppet Tahmasp II. was murdered by Raza Quli who 
had himself married a daughter of Shah Husain, and Raza’s son 
Shah Rukh was therefore descended from the Safwis on the mother’s 
side. After the brief reign of Nadir’s nephew, ’Adil Shah, and 
his brother, Ibrahim, both of whom had been slain, Shall Ruldi was in 
