"Sultan Husain became shah of Persia in 1694. After Baluchis attacked Qandahar, Gurgin Khan was sent there from Kirman. When the Ghalzai revolted against the Georgians, Gurgin Khan sent their leader Mir Vais as a prisoner to Isfahan; but Mir Vais won over the Shah and made him suspect Gurgin. Mir Vais was released to visit Mecca, where he was given a fatwa by the Sunnis to overthrow the Shi‘i Safavids. In 1708 Persia made a treaty with France granting them trade privileges and protection of Christian religious orders.
In 1709 while Georgian troops were away from Qandahar, Mir Vais lured Gurgin Khan into a garden by promising him his daughter in marriage and then had him murdered. A Persian army of 25,000 led by Georgia's Governor Khusru Khan besieged Qandahar and insisted on unconditional surrender; the Afghans would have submitted if pardoned but decided to fight. After the battle less than a thousand Persians escaped. Mir Vais governed Afghanistan until he died in 1715. The Persian army had become so weak that it could not quell the rebellion. Maryam Begum persuaded Sultan Husain to move his court to Qazvin. While Abd al-‘Aziz, brother and successor of Mir Vais, was negotiating with Sultan Husain, Mir Mahmud, the 18-year-old son of Mir Vais, with forty supporters murdered his uncle and took power in 1717. Abdali chief Asad-Allah led a Sunni revolt in Herat and plundered Khurasan with Uzbeks. A Persian army of 30,000 defeated 12,000 Uzbeks, but they lost a third of their men fighting the Abdali Afghans. When Mahmud sent the Shah the head of Asad-Allah, he was appointed governor-general.
After Mahmud invaded Kirman with 11,000 Ghalzai, Grand Vizier Fath ‘Ali Khan persuaded Sultan Husain to mobilize his army; but they stopped in Tehran. The Grand Vizier was a Lezgian, and his religious opponents at court persuaded the Shah to have him blinded and imprisoned. The court returned to Isfahan in 1721. Irate Lezgians besieged and took over Shamakhi, the capital of Shirvan, going over to the Ottomans. Meanwhile Mahmud was marching toward Isfahan with about 18,000 troops. The Persian army had 42,000 including 12,000 cavalry; but in March 1722 in the battle of Gulnabad conflicts between Persian commanders led to their losing 5,000 men, ten times as many as the Afghans. Mahmud took over the Farahabad castle and offered to negotiate. Sultan Husain declined his demands for independence, a princess to marry, and money, but he did not evacuate the civilians. Mahmud destroyed the crops in the area, causing the people in Isfahan to starve and die of disease while thousands were killed trying to escape. In October 1722 the Shah Husain abdicated and capitulated to Mahmud. The next year Persians revolted and drove the Afghans out of Qazvin, and Abd al-‘Aziz's son Ashraf returned to Qandahar. Not getting reinforcements from there, Mahmud massacred 3,000 Persian guards at Isfahan and later 39 Safavid princes…"
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