ABUL HASAN ALI (1143-1206/1730-1792)
Abul Hasan Ali was also known as Sayed Shah Muhammad
Hasan Shah, Hasan Beg and Abul Hasan Ali Shah. He was
born in Shahr-i Babak in Kirman. The Iranian sources
named him, Abul Hasan Kaheki, a name mostly was popular
among the inhabitants of Kahek, whom he generously
helped for about two times. One of the ways he utalised
his wealth was to serve delicious dishes strewn with
ample varities of food to the hungry and needy while he
himself would seldom taste it.
Abul Hasan was the governor of Kirman during the
Afsharid and Zand periods. It seems almost appropriate
to mention that Abul Hasan Ali was the first Ismaili
Imam after the fall of Alamut in emerging slowly from
obscurity. He was highly learned and a friend of the
local Sufis. He had also patronized the local artists.
Few chambers of the Imam's residence are reported to
have been decorated with the rare collection of the
Iranian paintings.
He was a prominent land-owner (Sahib amlak wa raqabat)
in Kirman. According to "Athar-i Muhammadi" (p. 70),
"When the Afghans had launched terrible raids in Iran,
Imam Abul Hasan Ali had laid the foundation of a strong
edifice of the fort in Kiab on the shore of Hibala and
Depine, lying between Rugan and Jinjan, where he lodged
after its completion."
The rise of the Afsharids in Iran
Nadir, the last great Asiatic conqueror was born in
1102/1688 in Afshar tribe of Khorasan. The word afshar
(derived from Turkish awshar) means "one who promptly
finishes an affair." He was the son of a certain Imam
Quli, and was tending flocks after his father's death.
He and his mother were carried off by a raiding band of
Uzbek of Khiva in 1114/1702, where four years later, his
mother died in slavery. Nadir escaped and returned to
Khorasan, and became a leader of the plundering band. He
entered into the service of Baba Ali Beg, the chief of
Abivard, and married to his daughter. After the death of
Baba Ali Beg, Nadir became the chief of Abivard. In
1138/1726, the Safavid Shah Tahmasp II learnt his valour,
and acquired his help to repel the Gilzay Afghans from
Iran. Nadir readily responded the call and came with his
troop of 5000 Kurd and Afshar warriors. He was hailed
and honored, and was granted the title of Tahmasp Quli
Khan. Nadir took field against the Gilzay Afghans by
commanding the Safavid army, and inflicted them a
defeat. Shah Tahmasp II rejoiced on Nadir's role, and
appointed him a chief commander (qurchi-bashi). In
1144/1732, Nadir deposed Shah Tahmasp II and crowned the
latter's son Shah Abbas III. In 1148/1736, Nadir also
deposed Shah Abbas III, and assumed the power, and thus
he got the declination of the Safavid empire. He
established the Afsharid rule in Iran, and fought with
the Afghans and dominated Iran like Taymurlame. He also
fought with the Turks and captured Iraq and Azerbaijan.
Nadir was a brave and so was cruel and fierce like
Chinghiz Khan and Taymurlame. Sayyid Athar Abbas Rizvi
writes in "A Socio-Intellectual History of the Isna
Ashari" (Lucknow, 1986, 2nd vol., p. 51) that, "Nadir
Shah, as a fierce fighter and ruthless restorer of law
and order, can be compared with Jinghiz and Timur."
It appears that Abul Hasan Ali had also maintained
his best of ties with Nadir, and the seat of his
governorship in Kirman coming from the period of the
Safavids, remained intact during the Afsharid rule. When
Nadir had been in Kirman in 1160/1747, according to "Athar-i
Muhammadi" (p. 73), "Imam invited him at his residence
and presented many valuable gifts." After Nadir, his
successor Shah Rukh also retained his relation with
Imam. John R. Perry writes in "Karim Khan Zand"
(Chicago, 1979, pp. 135-6) that, "Abu'l-Hasan enjoyed
the respect of all the leading citizens and even the
provincial warlords and would seem the perfect choice
for beglerbegi (governor-general) now that Kirman was
relatively settled. On his appointment, therefore, Mirza
Hosayn, Mortaza Qoli Khan, and the other local rulers
meekly handed over their provinces to him. No details of
his administration are recorded; he probably
re-allocated the regions to several local khans and used
his moral rather than military authority to check
injustice. He remained on good terms with the leading
men of the bureaucratic class, consulting them readily
in matters of government." John R. Perry also adds,
"After
Nader's death, Sayyed Abu'l Hasan took a winter
residence in Kirman itself, retaining his house at Babak
for the summer. Shahrokh Khan accorded him great
respect, even marrying his son Lotf Ali Khan to the
Sayyed's (Imam's) daughter." (Ibid. p.
135)
Nadir, as previously stated, was a fierce ruler,
grinding the people in the millstone of cruelty, which
can be judged from his massacres in Kirman in 1160/1747.
L. Lockhart writes in "Nadir Shah" (London, 1938, p.
259) that, "On 10th Moharram, 1160/ January 23, 1747,
Nadir left Ispahan for Yazd and Kirman; wherever he
halted, he had many people tortured and put to death,
and had towers of their heads erected. He was
particularly severe in Kirman, because of the revolt
that had occurred there in the previous summer. Captain
Passiet, a member of Prince Mikhail Mikhailvich
Golitzin's mission to Persia, who had travelled on in
advance and was in Kirman at that time, saw two lofty
towers of heads there."
Source:
http://www.ismaili.net/histoire/history07/history749.html
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