Ashraf Khan

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Ashraf Khan (b.? - d.1729) was the last ruler of the Hotaki dynasty. He was an ethnic Pashtun ("Afghan") from the Ghilzai tribe, who succeeded to the throne after the death of Mir Mahmud Hotaki in 1725. The nephew of Mirwais Khan Hotak, his reign was noted for the sudden decline in the Hotaki Empire under increasing pressure from Turkish, Russian, and Persian forces.^[1]

Ashraf Khan halted both the Russian and Turkish onslaughts, in case of the Ottomans they were defeated in a battle near Kirman-shah, despite having reached within miles of Isfahan. This led to peace negotiations with the Sublime Porte, which were briefly disrupted after Ashraf's ambassador insisted his master should be Caliph of the East and the Ottoman Sultan Caliph of the West. It caused great umbrage to the Ottomans, but finally concluded in a peace agreement signed at Hamadan in September of 1727.^[2]

Ultimately though it was a little known rebel, Nader Qoli Beg (better known as Nader Shah), who defeated the Afghans at the Battle of Damghan in late September of 1729 and drove them from Persia back to what is now Afghanistan. During the retreat, Ashraf was murdered by Baloch tribesmen. This was probably on the orders from his cousin, who was holding Kandahar at the time.

His death marked the end of the Hotaki dynasty, but was only a short pause before the establishment of a permanent independent Pashtun kingdom ("Afghanistan").

[edit] See also

• Hotaki
• History of Afghanistan

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Encyclopaedia Iranica - Ashraf Ghilzai
• Hotak Rule

Preceded by Mir Mahmud Hotaki

King of Afghanistan 1725–1729

Succeeded by Ahmad Shah Durrani