The study of the history of Safavid Iran has been rather neglected,
although this situation is rapidly changing. This book deals with an
important and very traumatic experience in the history of Iran, the fall
of the Safavid dynasty, brought about by rebellious Afghans from
Kandahar. The Safavids had governed Iran for 220 years by the fall of
Isfahan in 1722, and such was their charisma that their legitimacy
outlasted their reign. Subsequent rulers both established an
administration modeled after that of the Safavids as well tried to
bolster the legitimacy of their own regime by linking their dynasty to
that of the Safavids. This book is entirely based upon the unpublished
materials in the archives of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC), and,
in addition to the unabridged translation of the Diary of the Siege of
Isfahan, it is a summary of all available information in those archives
on the political and military situation in Iran between 1715 and 1730.
Because of the nature of the materials offered here (mostly eye-witness
accounts) as well as the geographical spread of the points of
observation (Isfahan, Kerman, Bandar 'Abbas, Shiraz) much of the
information offered here is of a unique nature. There are no other
contemporary sources available, either published or unpublished, Persian
or foreign, that have the same level of detail and the spread of
geographical vantage points over the same period. An earlier version of
this book was published in 1987 in Persian under the title Bar Oftadan-e
Safaviyan va Bar Amadan-e Mahmud Afghan, though lacking most of the
explanatory notes that embellish this publication in English.
