Francesco Algarotti on Nader Shah Afshar

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    Francesco Algarotti

    Sopra l'ordine di battaglia di Koulicano (1)

    contro ad Afrasso capo degli Aguania Leilam contro a Topal Osmano

    (1) Thamas Kuli Khan poi Nadir Shah Afshar (1688/98-1747)

    Discorsi VI e VII dei XX Discorsi MilitariinOpere del Conte Algarotti, Cavaliere dellOrdine del Merito e Ciamberlano di S. M. il Re di

    Prussia, Tomo IIII, Livorno, MDCCLXIV, presso Marco Coltellini = Vol. V dell'Edizione 1779

    . A Western view of Nader in his later years from a book by Jonas Hanway (1753).

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    Nader Shah's dagger with a small portion of his jewelry. Now part of the Iranian Crown Jewels.

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    Nader Shah

    Nader Shah coin from 1151 AH (Islamic Calendar), 1738 ADFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Reign 17361747

    Born August 6, 1698

    Died June 19, 1747 (aged 48)

    Predecessor Abbas III

    Successor Adil Shah

    Nder Shh Afshr (Persian: ; also known as Nder Qoli Beg- orTahmsp Qoli Khn - )(November, 1688 [1] or August 6, 1698[2] June 19, 1747) ruled as Shah of Iran (173647) and was the founder of the Afsharid

    dynasty. Because of his military genius, some historians have described him as theNapoleon of Persia[3]

    or the SecondAlexander.

    [4]

    Nader Shah was a member of the TurkicAfshar tribe of northern Persia,[5] which had supplied military power to the Safavid statesince the time ofShah Ismail I.[6]Nader rose to power during a period of anarchy in Iran after a rebellion by the HotakiAfghans hadoverthrown the weak Persian Shah Soltan Hosein, and both the Ottomans and the Russians had seized Persian territory forthemselves. Nader reunited the Persian realm and removed the invaders. He became so powerful that he decided to depose the lastmembers of the Safavid dynasty, which had ruled Iran for over 200 years, and become shah himself in 1736. His campaigns created agreat empire that briefly encompassed what is now Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, parts of the Caucasus region, parts ofCentralAsia, and Oman but his military spending had a ruinous effect on the Persian economy. [1]Nader idolized Genghis Khan and Timur,the previous conquerors from Central Asia. He imitated their military prowess andespecially later in his reigntheir cruelty. Hisvictories briefly made him the Middle East's most powerful sovereign, but his empire quickly disintegrated after he was assassinatedin 1747. Nader Shah has been described as "the last great Asian military conqueror". [7] He is credited for restoring Iranian power asan eminence between the Ottomans and the Mughals. [8][9][10][11]Early lifeNader Shah was born in Dastgerd[12] into the Qereqlu clan of the Afshars, a semi-nomadic Qizilbash tribe in Khorasan, aprovince in the north-east of the Persian Empire[13] . His father Emamqoli, a poor shepherd [1] or Coat-maker (poostinduz in Persianlanguage )[14], died while Nader was still a child. According to legends, Nader and his mother were carried off as slaves by

    marauding Uzbekor Turkmen tribesmen, but Nader managed to escape. He joined a band of brigands while still a boy and eventuallybecame their leader. Under the patronage of Afsharchieftains, he rose through the ranks to become a powerful military figure. Nadermarried the two daughters of Baba Ali Beg, a local chief.[1]Fall of the Safavid dynastyNader grew up during the final years of the Safavid dynasty which had ruled Persia since 1502. At itspeak, under such figures as Abbas the Great, Safavid Persia had been a powerful empire, but by the early 18th century the state wasin serious decline and the reigning shah, Soltan Hosein, was a weak ruler. When Soltan Hussein attempted to quell a rebellion by theGhilzai Afghans in Kandahar, the governor he sent was killed. Under their leader Mahmud Hotaki, the rebellious Afghans movedwestwards against the shah himself and in 1722 they defeated a vastly superior force at the Battle of Gulnabad and then besieged thecapital, Isfahan.[15] After the shah failed to escape to rally a relief force elsewhere, the city was starved into submission and SoltanHussein abdicated, handing power to Mahmud. In Khorasan, Nader at first submitted to the local Afghan governor of Mashhad,Malek Mahmud, but then rebelled and built up his own small army. Soltan Hossein's son had declared himselfShah Tahmasp II, butfound little support and fled to the Qajar tribe, who offered to back him. Meanwhile, Persia's imperial rivals, the Ottomans and theRussians, took advantage of the chaos in the country to seize territory for themselves.[16]Fall of the Hotaki dynasty Tahmasp and the Qajar leader Fath Ali Khan (the ancestor of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar) contacted

    Nader and asked him to join their cause and drive the Ghilzai Afghans out of Khorasan. He agreed and thus became a figure ofnational importance. When Nader discovered that Fath Ali Khan was in treacherous correspondence with Malek Mahmud andrevealed this to the shah, Tahmasp executed him and made Nader the chief of his army instead. Nader subsequently took on the titleTahmasp Qoli (Servant of Tahmasp). In late 1726, Nader recaptured Mashhad.[17]Nader chose not to march directly on Isfahan. First,in May 1729, he defeated the Abdali Afghans nearHerat. Many of the Abdali Afghans subsequently joined his army. The new shahof the Ghilzai Afghans, Ashraf, decided to move against Nader but in September 1729, Nader defeated him at the Battle of Damghanand again, decisively, in November at Murchakhort. Ashraf fled and Nader finally entered Isfahan, handing it over to Tahmasp inDecember. The citizens' rejoicing was cut short when Nader plundered them to pay his army. Tahmasp made Nader governor overmany eastern provinces, including his native Khorasan, and married him to his sister. Nader pursued and defeated Ashraf, who wasmurdered by his own followers.[18] In 1738 Nader Shahbesieged and destroyed the last Hotaki seat of power at Kandahar. He built anew city near Kandahar, which he named "Naderabad".[1]Ottoman campaign In the spring of 1730, Nader attacked the Ottomans and regained most of the territory lost during the recentchaos. At the same time, the Abdali Afghans rebelled and besieged Mashhad, forcing Nader to suspend his campaign and save hisbrother, Ebrahim. It took Nader fourteen months to defeat the Abdali Afghans. Relations between Nader and the Shah had declinedas the latter grew jealous of his general's military successes. While Nader was absent in the east, Tahmasp tried to assert himself bylaunching a foolhardy campaign to recapture Yerevan. He ended up losing all of Nader's recent gains to the Ottomans, and signed atreaty ceding Georgia and Armenia in exchange forTabriz. Nader saw that the moment had come to ease Tahmasp from power. Hedenounced the treaty, seeking popular support for a war against the Ottomans. In Isfahan, Nader got Tahmasp drunk then showedhim to the courtiers asking if a man in such a state was fit to rule. In 1732 he forced Tahmasp to abdicate in favor of the Shah's baby

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    son, Abbas III, to whom Nader became regent. Nader decided he could win back the territory in Armenia and Georgia by seizingOttoman Baghdad and then offering it in exchange for the lost provinces, but his plan went badly amiss when his army was routed bythe Ottoman general Topal Osman Pasha near the city in 1733. Nader decided he needed to regain the initiative as soon as possible tosave his position because revolts were already breaking out in Persia. He faced Topal again with a larger force and defeated andkilled him. He then besieged Baghdad, as well as Ganja in the northern provinces, earning a Russian alliance against the Ottomans.Nader scored a great victory over a superior Ottoman force at Baghavard and by the summer of 1735, Persian Armenia and Georgiawere his again. In March 1735, he signed a treaty with the Russians in Ganja by which the latter agreed to withdraw all of their

    troops from Persian territory.[19][20]Nader becomes shah In January 1736, Nader held a qoroltai (a grand meeting in the tradition ofGenghis Khan and Timur) on theMoghan Plain in Azerbaijan. The leading figures in Persian political and religious life attended. Nader suggested he should beproclaimed the new shah in place of the young Abbas III. Everyone agreed, manyif not mostenthusiastically, the rest fearing Nader's anger if they showed support for the deposed Safavids. Nader was crowned Shah of Iran on March 8, 1736, a date hisastrologers had chosen as being especially propitious.[21]Religious policy The Safavids had introduced Shi'a Islam as the state religion of Iran. Nader was probably brought up as a Shi'a [22]but later espoused the Sunni[23] faith as he gained power and began to push into the Ottoman and Mughal Empires. He believed thatSafavid Shi'ism had intensified the conflict with the Sunni Ottoman Empire. His army was a mix of Shi'a and Sunni and included hisown Qizilbash as well as Uzbeks, Afghans and others. He wanted Persia to adopt a form of religion that would be more acceptable toSunnis and suggested Persia should adopt a form of Shi'ism he called "Ja'fari" in honour of the sixth Shi'a imamJa'far al-Sadiq. Hebanned certain Shi'a practices which were particularly offensive to Sunnis, such as the cursing of the first three caliphs. Personally,Nader is said to have been indifferent towards religion and the French Jesuit who served as his personal physician reported that it wasdifficult to know which religion he followed and that many who knew him best said that he had none [24]. Nader hoped that

    "Ja'farism" would be accepted as a fifth school (mazhab) of Sunni Islam and that the Ottomans would allow its adherents to go on thehajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca, which was within their territory. In the subsequent peace negotiations, the Ottomans refused toacknowledge Ja'farism as a fifth mazhab but they did allow Persian pilgrims to go on the hajj. Nader was interested in gaining rightsfor Persians to go on the hajj in part because of revenues from the pilgrimage trade.[1] Nader's other primary aim in his religiousreforms was to weaken the Safavids further since Shi'a Islam had always been a major element in support for the dynasty. He had thechiefmullah of Persia strangled after he was heard expressing support for the Safavids. Among his reforms was the introduction ofwhat came to be known as the kolah-e Naderi. This was a hat with four peaks which symbolised the first fourcaliphs.[1][21]Invasion of India In 1738, Nader Shah conquered Kandahar, the last outpost of the Hotaki dynasty. His thoughts now turned to theMughul Empire of India. This once powerful Muslim state was falling apart as the nobles became increasingly disobedient and theHindu Marathas made inroads on its territory from the south-west. Its ruler Muhammad Shah was powerless to reverse thisdisintegration. Nader used the pretext of his Afghan enemies taking refuge in India to cross the border and capture Ghazni, Kabul,Peshawar, Sindh and Lahore. He then advanced deeper into India crossing the river Indus before the end of year. He defeated theMughal army at the huge Battle of Karnal in February, 1739. After this victory, Nader captured Mohammad Shah and entered withhim into Delhi.[10] When a rumour broke out that Nader had been assassinated, some of the Indians attacked and killed Persian troops.Nader reacted by ordering his soldiers to plunder the city. During the course of one day (March 22) 20,000 to 30,000 Indians were

    killed by the Persian troops, forcing Mohammad Shah to beg for mercy.[25] In response, Nader Shah agreed to withdraw, butMohammad Shah paid the consequence in handing over the keys of his royal treasury, and losing even the Peacock Throne to thePersian emperor. The Peacock Throne thereafter served as a symbol of Persian imperial might. Among a trove of other fabulousjewels, Nader also gained the Koh-i-Noorand Darya-ye Noordiamonds (Koh-i-Noormeans "Mountain of Light" in Persian, Darya-ye Noormeans "Sea of Light"). The Persian troops left Delhi at the beginning of May 1739. Nader's soldiers also took with themthousands ofelephants, horses and camels, loaded with the booty they had collected. The plunder seized from India was so rich thatNader stopped taxation in Iran for a period of three years following his return. [26]After India The Indian campaign was the zenith of Nader's career. Afterwards he became increasingly despotic as his healthdeclined markedly. Nader had left his son Reza Qoli Mirza to rule Persia in his absence. Reza had behaved highhandedly andsomewhat cruelly but he had kept the peace in Persia. Having heard rumours that his father had died, he had made preparations forassuming the crown. These included the murder of the former shah Tahmasp and his family, including the nine-year old Abbas III.On hearing the news, Reza's wife, who was Tahmasp's sister, committed suicide. Nader was not impressed with his son'swaywardness and reprimanded him, but he took him on his expedition to conquer territory in Transoxiana. In 1740 he conqueredKhanate ofKhiva. After the Persians had forced the Uzbekkhanate ofBokhara to submit, Nader wanted Reza to marry the khan's

    elder daughter because she was a descendant of his hero Genghis Khan, but Reza flatly refused and Nader married the girl himself.Nader also conquered Khwarezm on this expedition into Central Asia. Nader now decided to punish Daghestan for the death of hisbrother Ebrahim Qoli on a campaign a few years earlier. In 1741, while Nader was passing through the forest of Mazanderan on hisway to fight the Daghestanis, an assassin took a shot at him but Nader was only lightly wounded. He began to suspect his son wasbehind the attempt and confined him to Tehran. Nader's increasing ill health made his temper ever worse. Perhaps it was his illnessthat made Nader lose the initiative in his war against the Lezgin tribes of Daghestan. Frustratingly for him, they resorted to guerrillawarfare and the Persians could make little headway against them. Nader accused his son of being behind the assassination attempt inMazanderan. Reza angrily protested his innocence, but Nader had him blinded as punishment, although he immediately regretted it.Soon afterwards, Nader started executing the nobles who had witnessed his son's blinding. In his last years, Nader becameincreasinglyparanoid, ordering the assassination of large numbers of suspected enemies. With the wealth he gained, Nader started to build a Persian navy. With lumber from Mazandaran, he built ships in Bushehr. He also purchased thirty ships in India.[1] Herecaptured the island ofBahrain from the Arabs. In 1743 he conquered Oman and its main capital the city ofMuscat. In 1743 Naderstarted another war against the Ottoman Empire. Despite having a huge army at his disposal, in this campaign Nader showed little ofhis former military brilliance. It ended in 1746 with the signing of a peace treaty, in which the Ottomans agreed to let Nader occupy

    Najaf.

    [27]

    Domestic policiesNader changed the Iranian coinage system. He minted silver coins, calledNaderi, that were equal to the Mughalrupee.[1] Nader discontinued the policy of paying soldiers based on land tenure.[1] Like the late Safavids he resettled tribes. NaderShah transformed the Shahsevan, a nomadic group living around Azerbaijan whose name literally means "shah lover", into a tribalconfederacy which defended Iran against the Ottomans and Russians.[28][29] In addition, he increased the number of soldiers under his

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    command and reduced the number of soldiers under tribal and provincial control.[1] His reforms may have strengthened the country,but they did little to improve Iran's suffering economy. [1]Death and legacyNader became crueller and crueller as a result of his illness and his desire to extort more and more tax money to pay for his military campaigns. More and more revolts broke out and Nader crushed them ruthlessly, building towers from hisvictims skulls in imitation of his hero Timur. In 1747, Nader set off for Khorasan where he intended to punish Kurdishrebels. Someof his officers feared he was about to execute them and plotted against him. Nader Shah was assassinated on 19 June 1747, atFathabad in Khorasan. He was surprised in his sleep by Salah Bey, captain of the guards, and stabbed with a sword. Nader was able

    to kill two of the assassins before he died.[31][32]After his death, he was succeeded by his nephew Ali Qoli, who renamed himselfAdilShah ("righteous king"). Adil Shah was probably involved in the assassination plot.[19] Adil Shah was deposed within a year. Duringthe struggle between Adil Shah, his brotherIbrahim Khan and Nader's grandson Shah Rukh almost all provincial governors declaredindependence, established their own states, and the entire Empire of Nader Shah fell into anarchy. Finally, Karim Khan founded theZand dynasty and became ruler of Iran by 1760, while Ahmad Shah Durrani had already proclaimed independence in the east,marking the foundation of modern Afghanistan. Nader Shah was well known to the European public of the time. In 1768, ChristianVII of Denmarkcommissioned Sir William Jones to translate a Persian language biography of Nader Shah written by his MinisterMirza Mehdi Khan Astarabadi into French.[33] It was published in 1770 as Histoire de Nadir Chah.[34] Nader's Indian campaignalerted the British East India Company to the extreme weakness of the Mughal Empire and the possibility of expanding to fill thepower vacuum. Without Nader, "eventual British [in India] would have come later and in a different form, perhaps never at all - withimportant global effects".[35]See also

    Safavid conversion of Iran from Sunnism to Shiism Treaty of Kerden Talpur

    References1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Ernest Tucker (March 29, 2006). "Nder Shh 1736-47". Encyclopdia Iranica.

    http://www.iranica.com/articles/nader-shah.2. ^ Nader's exact date of birth is unknown but August 6 is the "likeliest" according to Axworthy p.17 (and note) and The

    Cambridge History of Iran (Vol. 7 p.3); other biographers favour 1688.3. ^ Axworthy p.xvii4. ^Biography of Nadir Shah Afshar "The Persian Napoleon" (1688-1747)5. ^ Michael Axworthy's biography of Nader, The Sword of Persia (I.B. Tauris, 2006), p.17-19: "His father was of lowly but

    respectable status, a herdsman of the Afshartribe ... The Qereqlu Afshars to whom Nader's father belonged were a semi-nomadic Turcoman tribe settled in Khorasan in north-eastern Iran ... The tribes of Khorasan were for the most partethnically distinct from the Persian-speaking population, speaking Turkic or Kurdish languages. Nader's mother tonguewas a dialect of the language group spoken by the Turkic tribes of Iran and Central Asia, and he would have quicklylearned Persian, the language of high culture and the cities as he grew older. But the Turkic language was always his

    preferred everyday speech, unless he was dealing with someone who knew only Persian."6. ^ Stephen Erdely and Valentin A. Riasanovski. The Uralic and Altaic Series, Routledge, 1997, ISBN 0700703802, p. 1027. ^Cambridge History of Iran Vol.7, p.598. ^ Vali Nasr, "The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future" (New York 2006)9. ^ "Nadir Shah". Encyclopdia Britannica Online. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/401451/Nadir-Shah.

    Retrieved 2010-09-24.10. ^ a b "AN OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF PERSIA DURING THE LAST TWO CENTURIES (A.D. 1722-1922)".

    Edward G. Browne. London: Packard Humanities Institute. p. 33.http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=90001014&ct=33. Retrieved 2010-09-24.

    11. ^ Durand, Sir Henry Mortimer (1908). Nadir Shah. A. Constable and co. ltd. pp. 352.http://books.google.com.au/books?id=-qMsAAAAYAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s. Retrieved 2010-09-24.

    12. ^ Axworthy p.1813. ^ Axworthy p.3414. ^ Rustamottavarikh15. ^ "AN OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF PERSIA DURING THE LAST TWO CENTURIES (A.D. 1722-1922)" .

    Edward G. Browne. London: Packard Humanities Institute. p. 30.http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=90001014&ct=30. Retrieved 2010-09-24.

    16. ^ This section: Axworthy pp.17-5617. ^ Axworthy pp.57-7418. ^ Axworthy pp.75-11619. ^ ab Elton L. Daniel, "The History of Iran" (Greenwood Press 2000) p.9420. ^ Lawrence LockhartNadir Shah (London, 1938)21. ^ ab This section: Axworthy pp.137-17422. ^ Axworthy p.3423. ^ Mattair, Thomas R. (2008). Global security watch--Iran: a reference handbook. ABC-CLIO. p. 3. ISBN027599483X,

    9780275994839. http://books.google.com/books?id=Qtmp_2GjVA8C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false.Retrieved 2010-09-24.

    24. ^ Axworthy p.16825. ^ Axworthy p.826. ^ This section: Axworthy pp.1-16, 175-21027. ^ This section: Axworthy pp.175-27428. ^ Floor, Willem. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 119, No. 3. (Jul. - Sep., 1999), pp. 543. Book review of

    Richard Tapper'sFrontier Nomads of Iran: A Political and Social History of the Shahsevan.

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    29. ^ Daniel, Elton L. The History of Iran. Greenwood Publishing Group: 2000. p. 90.30. ^ Axworthy p,27331. ^History of Iran: Afsharid Dynasty (Nader Shah)32. ^ Axworthy pp.243-28633. ^Sir William Jones (174... - Online Information article about Sir William jones (17434. ^ Axworthy p.33035. ^ Axworthy p.xvi

    Sources Michael Axworthy, The Sword of Persia: Nader Shah, from Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant Hardcover 348 pages

    (26 July 2006) Publisher: I.B. Tauris Language: English ISBN 1-85043-706-8 The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 7 (Cambridge University Press, 1968)

    Additional reading

    Lawrence LockhartNadir Shah (London, 1938) Ernest Tucker,Nadir Shah's Quest for Legitimacy in Post-Safavid Iran Hardcover 150 pages (4 October 2006) Publisher:

    University Press of Florida Language: English ISBN 0-8130-2964-3 Michael Axworthy, Iran: Empire of the Mind: A History from Zoroaster to the Present Day (Paperback) ISBN

    014103629X Publisher Penguin 6 November 2008External links

    Wikimedia Commons has media related to:Nader Shah

    Nader Shah's portrait

    Nader Shah Mausoleum and MuseumPreceded byAbbas III

    King of Persia17361747

    Succeeded byAdel Shah Afshar

    A map of the extent of Nader Shah's empire

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    a Qizilbash.- Nader Shah's portrait from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum

    Nader Shah and two of his sons on the reverse side ofNader Shah's Sword

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    Painting of Nader Shah

    Afsharid forces negotiate with a MughalNawab.

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    Nader Shah's tomb was designed by Hooshang Seyhoon.

    Tomb of Nader Shah, a tourist attraction in Mashhad

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    Ad Anson e Nadir dedic tre dei suoi venti Discorsi militari il veneziano Francesco Algarotti(1712-65), il famoso poeta e saggista bisessuale, amante di Lord e Lady Hervey e poi di Federico II,geniale divulgatore di Newton, che Voltaire chiamava il caro cigno di Padova e al quale la rivista

    Babilonia dedic nel 1998 un saggio di storia gay. Dovrebbe per rivendicarlo, e con pariorgoglio, anche la maggior parte dei collaboratori di Risk, ed io per primo, a cagione della sua

    appassionata e coltissima dimostrazione della superiorit dei dilettanti sui professionisti dellartedella guerra: colui che non professando altrimenti la guerra, conosce quello, chella pu ricevere di pi perfetto, forza ne abbia penetrato la natura, e la essenza medesima. Nelluno, per quantoacconciamente ragioni, potrebbe la guerra esser solamente un mestiero; conviene nellaltro che siauna scienza ( Lettera XIX sopra la scienza militare di Machiavelli, 12 settembre 1759). Di Kuli(Khan!) Algarotti sinteress durante il suo soggiorno a Potsdam (1742-46), quando si divert aricostruire, insieme al feldmaresciallo James Francis Edward Keith (1696-1758), un mercenarioscozzese al servizio prussiano, la campagna del 1729 contro gli afgani. Questo studio divenne poi ilVI dei Discorsi: al quale Algarotti aggiunse una gustosa e onestissima nota finale, in cuiriconosceva, sulla base di un saggio del mercante inglese Jonas Hanway comparso nel 1762 (The

    Revolutions of Persia), di aver completamente cannato il luogo della battaglia finale (settembre

    1729), che io fo combattere verso il Golfo Persico, e non lungi da Schirass, mentre in realt si erasvolta dalla banda del Caspio vicino alla citt di Damgoon [Damghan] non molto lungi dallefrontiere del Korassan ed era stata seguita da unaltra, questa s decisiva, a Murchakor. IlDiscorsoVII analizza invece la battaglia di Leilami presso Bagdad (21-22 ottobre 1732), dove Nadirsconfisse il seraschiere turco Topal Osman Pasha attirandolo abilmente sotto il tiro di batterie

    predisposte in una valletta alle spalle del campo persiano; la descrizione di Algarotti suggerisce allettore il paragone scontato con la pugna Cannensis, ma con la sottile eleganza di non farne alcunesplicito accenno.

    E da notare che i Discorsi VIe VIIseguono quello sulla impresa disegnata da Giulio Cesarecontro a Parti; Algarotti scrive che Cesare lavrebbe sicuramente condotta con gli stessi sistemi

    usati ai suoi tempi dai generali russi Munich e Lascy contro i Tartari, ad esempio con marce difanteria in formazione quadrata, a guisa di ben munita fortezza, catene di fortini e altri sistemi perneutralizzare una mobile armata a cavallo nemica. Pura chiacchiera da terme (o, modernamente, dacaff) gli sembrava invece il disegno, attribuito a Cesare da Plutarco, di proseguire le conquistedopo la sconfitta dei Parti, tornando a Roma per il Daghestan, il Caucaso, il Volga, la Sarmazia e di palude in palude la Germania e la Gallia.

    Tutti e tre questi discorsi (come pure il IX, su Carlo XII di Svezia), sono indirizzati a donGiuseppe Pecis, consigliere del governo lombardo, soprintendente alle acque, strade e confini eincaricato di unispezione amministrativa nel Ducato di Parma; egli pure storico militare e saggista,ma anche poeta, e col nome di A.P.A. (Andrea Pastor Arcade). Il che, volendo, potrebberiportarci al gatto Kuli Khan che dal suo orcio caprino traguarda la scritta ET IN ARCADIA EGO!sullo Shepherds Monument, e la criptica iscrizione O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V su cui si sono invanoscervellati gli ultimi due superstiti di Bletchley Park, ormai ottuagenari (in realt significa

    banalmente ORATOR UT OMNIA SUNT VANITAS AIT VANITAS VANITATUM: dal che sideduce incidentalmente che per rendere indecrittabili le comunicazioni cifrate non occorre tradurlein Navajo, basta il latino). In attesa del Codice Algarotti (il prossimo best seller di Dan Brown, inlibreria a settembre), segnalo al lettore anche il Discorso XII, sopra lAmmiraglio Anson, e lXI,sopra la potenza militare in Asia delle compagnie mercantili di Europa, indirizzato al signorProspero Jackson (il mercante bibliofilo e colto che portava il nome dellillustre padrino, lalloracardinale Prospero Lambertini, v. Anna Vittoria Migliorini, Diplomazia e cultura nel Settecento:echi della guerra dei sette anni, 1984, p. 57). Chiedendosi come mai che una piccola mano di

    milizie Europee al soldo di quelle compagnie possa far fronte aglinteri eserciti dei re Indiani,Algarotti risponde con lajuto di un loro libretto Inglese che mi novellamente capitato alle mani,e da cui trae varie spiegazioni tecniche: la mancanza di una fanteria disciplinata e agguerrita, i

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    problemi logistici moltiplicati dal codazzo delle famiglie e dei mercanti aggregati allesercito, lavulnerabilit degli elefanti alle artiglierie Europee, meglio maneggiate assai, e pi maneggevolidelle Asiatiche; ma, soprattutto, una mentalit refrattaria allinnovazione, abituata, fin dallepocadegli Eunuchi di Ciro, a piegare il collo sotto al pi duro dispotismo senza mai aver tentato direspirare la dolce aura della libert.

    Questo giudizio sotteso di disprezzo spiega perch gli Europei, e in particolare la Compagniadelle Indie, monopolista sin dal 1619 del commercio della seta in Persia e succeduta nel 1622 ai

    portoghesi nel controllo dellIsola di Hormuz, non si preoccupassero della fulminea ascesa di NadirShah. Capivano, senza nemmeno doverci ragionare troppo, che quella restaurazione del terzoimpero islamico avrebbe avuto il solo effetto di sgretolare gli altri due, lOttomano e il Moghul,favorendo la penetrazione europea in Medio Oriente e in India. Ora cammelliere, ora capo di ladri,ammazzatore di un primo suo padrone che present voler fare a lui la medesima festa, ora rivestitodegli onori del trionfo, ed ora fieramente bastonato sotto alle piante dei piedi, uccisore di un suo zio,della cui opera si era servito; cos lo definiva Algarotti negli ozi militar-misogini di Potsdam (D.VI). Un ritratto che a noi evoca la teoria contemporanea dellourson of a bitch, e la figura diSaddam Hussein, resa tragica dalla sconfitta e dalla fine ignominiosa.

    Simile fu la politica religiosa di Nadir, tesa a distruggere il potere dei mullah e ad attenuare larigorosa ortodossia sciita imposta dalla dinastia Safavide, puntando alla riconciliazione coi sunnitiottomani anche per rifinanziare lesercito con le tasse sul pellegrinaggio dei suoi sudditi alla Mecca.Simili furono pure la crescente ferocia e gli assassinii di familiari, culminati, il 19 giugno 1747, conluccisione dello stesso Nadir in un complotto ordito dal nipote e successore. Travolto dalle faide dicorte, il regime non sopravvisse che pochi mesi e limpero si sfald in una serie di satrapie

    provinciali, parzialmente riunificate non prima del 1760. Bagdad, che nel 1732 aveva resistito alblocco postole da Nadir, ospit a partire dal 1758 un residente inglese, con una piccola guarnigionedi sepoys. Nel 1759 mor Mirza Mehdi Khan Astarabadi, il Tareq Aziz di Nadir, la cui guida

    persiana alla lingua turca fu pubblicata lo stesso anno con prefazione di Sir Gerard Clauson.

    Astarabadi, che sotto il regime aveva avuto un rango superiore a quello di primo ministro (Vazir-e-Darbar), lasci pure una storia delle guerre di Nadir (Tarikh-e-Jahangoshay-e-Naderi ). Nel 1768,durante una visita in Inghilterra, re Cristiano VII di Danimarca ne prese una copia e necommission una traduzione francese a Sir William Jones (1746-1794), orientalista e specialista distoria antica indiana, pubblicata nel 1770 (Histoire de Nader Chah) e tradotta in inglese nel 1773(The History of the Life of Nader Shah) con prefazione di Jones. Nel 1996 il libro fu oggetto di unseminario dellAccademia navale americana di Annapolis, diretto da Ernest Tucker, docente distoria del Medio Oriente presso lAccademia e recensore del Journal of International Society for

    Iranian Studies. Il pi recente biografo di Nadir (Michael Axworthy, The Sword of Persia: NaderShah, from Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant, 2006) lha definito il Napoleone della Persia.Ma nelle Ultime Lettere di Jacopo Ortis Ugo Foscolo scrisse che era Napoleone ad atteggiarsi aKuli Khan.

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    Description: The Cat's Monument, c.1750, is situated on the island. It was probably designed by Thomas Wright of Derby, whoalso worked on the Ruin. There are two theories behind the purpose of the monument; one is that it commemorates a cat whichtravelled around the world with Admiral Anson on the 'Centurion'. The second is that it was built as a memorial to Kouli-Khan, aPersian cat kept by Thomas Anson. Anson also kept a herd of Corsican goats, which feature around the base of the monument. Themonument was possibly built against another structure, as the rear of the monument is of rough stonework. The tablet on the frontwas added c.1770 and is of Codestone.