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ʿABBĀS III

ʿABBĀS III

ʿABBĀS III, son of Shah Ṭahmāsp II, roi fainéant of the Safavid dynasty. After the deposition of his father by Nāder Khan Afšār in Rabīʿ I, 1145/August, 1732, the eight-month-old ʿAbbās was invested as ʿAbbās III on 17 Rabīʿ I 1145/ 7 September 1732 (or possibly earlier). Nāder Khan, who was the real ruler of the country, dropped his own now obviously inappropriate style of Ṭahmāsp-qolī Khan and assumed the titles of vakīl-al-dawla (deputy of the state) and nāʾeb-al-salṭana (viceroy). ʿAbbās III was deposed in his turn on 24 Šavvāl 1148/8 March 1736, when Nāder Khan had himself crowned as Nāder Shah and by this act officially terminated the Safavid dynasty. ʿAbbās and his father were murdered at Sabzavār in 1152/1740 by Moḥammad Ḥosayn Khan Qāǰār, on the orders of Nāder’s son Reżā-qolī Mīrzā, who was persuaded to take this action to forestall a possible pro-Safavid coup induced by rumors of Nāder’s death in India.

 

Bibliography

L. Lockhart, Nadir Shah, London, 1938, pp. 62-63, 100, 104, 177.

J. R. Perry, “The Last Safavids, 1722-1773,” Iran 9, 1971, pp. 63-64.

Cite this article

Savory, Roger M.. "ʿABBĀS III." Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published December 15, 1982. https://doi.org/10.1163/2330-4804_EIRO_COM_4251