In 1504, Babur, a descendant of Timur, arrived from what is now Uzbekistan and moved to the city of Kabul. He began exploring new territories in the region, with Kabul serving as his military headquarters. Instead of looking towards Persia, Babur was more focused on the Indian subcontinent, which included the region known as Kabulistan. In 1526, he left with his army to capture the seat of the Delhi Sultanate, which at that point was possessed by the Afghan Lodi dynasty of India. After defeating Ibrahim Lodiand his army, Babur turned Delhi into the capital of his newly established Mughal Empire.
From the 16th century to the early 18th century CE, Afghanistan was divided into three major areas. The north was ruled by the Khanate of Bukhara, the west was under the rule of the Shi’a Safavids, and the east belonged to the Sunni Mughals of India. The Kandahar region in the south served as a buffer zone between the powerful Mughals and Safavids, and the native Afghans often switched support from one side to the other. Babur explored most cities of Afghanistan before his campaign into India. In the city of Kandahar his personal epigraphy can be found in the Chilzina rock mountain.
n 1704, the Safavid Shah Husayn appointed George XI (Gurgīn Khān), a ruthless Georgian, to govern the Greater Kandahar region of Afghanistan. Gurgīn began imprisoning and executing many of the native Afghans, especially those suspected of organizing a rebellion. One of those arrested and imprisoned was Mirwais Hotak who belonged to an influential family in Kandahar. Mirwais was sent as a prisoner to the Persian court inIsfahan but the charges against him were dismissed by the king, so he was sent back to his native land as a free man.[51]
In April 1709, Mirwais along with his tribal army revolted against Gurgīn and the Safavids in Kandahar City. The uprising began when Gurgīn and his escort were killed after a picnic and a banquet that were prepared by Mirwais at his farmhouse outside the city. “[52] Around four days later, an army of well-trained Georgian troops arrived in the town after hearing of Gurgīn’s death but Mirwais and his Afghan forces successfully held off the town. From 1710 to 1713, the Afghan forces defeated several large and powerful Persian armies that were dispatched from Isfahan (capital of the Safavids), which included Qizilbash and Georgian troops.[53]
Several half-hearted attempts to subdue the rebellious city having failed, the Persian Government despatched Khusraw Khán, nephew of the late Gurgín Khán, with an army of 30,000 men to effect its subjugation, but in spite of an initial success, which led the Afgháns to offer to surrender on terms, his uncompromising attitude impelled them to make a fresh desperate effort, resulting in the complete defeat of the Persian army (of whom only some 700 escaped) and the death of their general. Two years later, in 1713, another Persian army commanded by Rustam Khán was also defeated by the rebels, who thus secured possession of the whole province of Qandahár.[54]
he Persian armies were completely defeated and southern Afghanistan was made into an independent local Pashtun kingdom.[17] Refusing the title of a king, Mirwais was called “Prince of Qandahár and General of the national troops” by his Afghan countrymen. He died of a natural cause in November 1715 and was succeeded by his brother Abdul Aziz Hotak. Aziz was killed about two years later by Mirwais’ son Mahmud Hotaki, allegedly for planning to give Kandahar’s sovereignty back to Persia.[55] Mahmud led an Afghan army into Persia in 1722 and defeated the Persian army at the Battle of Gulnabad. The Afghans captured Isfahan (Safavid capital) and Mahmud became the new Persian Shah, known after that as Shah Mahmud.
Seven months elapsed after the battle of Gonabad before the final pitiful surrender, with every circumstance of humiliation, of the unhappy Husayn. In that battle the Persians are said to have lost all their artillery, baggage and treasure, as well as some 15,000 out of a total of 50,000 men. On March 19 Mír Maḥmúd occupied the Sháh’s beloved palace and pleasure-grounds of Faraḥábád, situated only three miles from Iṣfahán, which henceforth served as his headquarters. Two days later the Afgháns, having occupied the Persian suburb of Julfá, where they levied a tribute of money and young girls, attempted to take Iṣfahán by storm, but, having twice failed (on March 19 and 21), sat down to blockade the city. Three months later Prince Ṭahmásp Mírzá, who had been nominated to succeed his father, effected his escape from the beleaguered city to Qazwín, where he attempted, with but small success, to raise an army for the relief of the capital.[56]
—Edward G. Browne, 1924
Mahmud began a reign of terror against his Persian subjects and was eventually murdered in 1725 by his cousin, Ashraf Hotaki. Some sources say he died of madness. Ashraf became the new Afghan Shah of Persia soon after Mahmud’s death, while the home region of Afghanistan was ruled by Mahmud’s younger brother Shah Hussain Hotaki. Ashraf was able to secure peace with the Ottoman Empire in 1727, but the Russian Empire took advantage of the political unrest in Persia to seize land for themselves, limiting the amount of territory under Shah Mahmud’s control.
The Hotaki dynasty was a troubled and violent one as internecine conflict made it difficult to establish permanent control. The dynasty lived under great turmoil due to bloody succession feuds that made their hold on power tenuous, and after the massacre of thousands of civilians in Isfahan; including more than three thousand religious scholars, nobles, and members of the Safavid family.[57] The majority Persians rejected the Afghan regime as usurping. Hotaki’s rule continued in the region of Afghanistan until 1738 when Shah Hussain was defeated by Nader Shah of Persia.[58]
The Ghilzai Hotakis were eventually removed from power in what is now Iran by 1729. They were defeated by Nader Shah, head of the Afsharids, in the October 1729 Battle of Damghan and pushed from what is now Iran to the southern Afghan region. The last ruler of the Hotaki dynasty, Shah Hussain, ruled southern Afghanistan until 1738 when the Afsharids and the Abdali Pashtuns defeated him at Kandahar
History of Afghanistan 