Showing posts with label Safavid Persia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Safavid Persia. Show all posts

Monday, April 20, 2026

Nadir Shah - the last great Persian conqueror in equestrian paintings

 Salvete Omnes,



tomorrow the ceasefire between Us-Israel vs Iran will expire. Perhaps there will be more war in the West Asia or perhaps they will come to an agreement (and eventual peace in the Persian Gulf region) or perhaps POTUS Trump would simply walk away from the conflict (having more pressing issues like the mid-terms in Novemebr 2026) . God willing there will be no more war.  

ad rem,

Nadir shah and his bay argamak 

Since the Persians (Elamite, Median and Persian proper)  came into annals of history in the 2nd & 1st millennium BC their armies had been led by vast variety of successful generals but also by less lucky or even hapless commanders and warlords - including the most lucky Cyrus the Great & Darius III of the Achaemenid Dynasty, Alexander the Great (the last king of kings of the Achaemenid Persia),  Seleucus I and Antiochus the Great of the Seleucids, Mithradates II & prince Rustam Surena & Artabanus IV  of the Parthian Arsakid Empire, Ardashir I, Shapur & Yazdegerd III & Peroz III of the Sassanians, Abbas the Great of Safavids  etc.



The last truly great commander in Persian millennia long history Nadir Qoli Beg/Tahmasp-Qoli Han, came from Afsharid Turkoman tribe and as Nadir/Nader Shah became the shah of Persia in 1736 until his death. 

During his life he had become a famous military commander and reformer, and due to his fame and achievement often portrayed on horseback or with horses at war. Among many things he created one of the largest and strongest armies of the period in Asia - some 375,000 strong, 

Shah and his grey argamak



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Shamshirs or sabres  of Nadir Shah 

Nadir Shah astride his grey argamak


Shamshir



Pdf - the army of Nadir Shah.




He was assassinated, almost Julius Gaius Caesar style, by the members of his comitatus in 1747.





Aga Mohammad Khan of the Qajars, the restorer of Persia unity since the  M. Karim Khan Zand rule etc, had the remains of Nadir Shah transferred to his new capital of Tehran, along the remains of Karim Khan.
But then he also had Shahrokh/Sahrok, the grandson of Nadir Shah, tortured in order to extract any treasures that had belonged to Nadir Shah, causing the hapless grandson to die. The current mausoleum is located in Mashhad, Islamic Republic of Iran.

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enjoy

Valete

Friday, March 13, 2026

Iranczycy nie Persowie plus chronologia Iranu - Iranians not Persian and short history of Iran

 Salvete Omnes,



[my post contains links to a video material in Polish only]



The air war between Iran & their allies and US (all the best to our boys & girls) & Zionist Israel rages in the Middle East and, obviously,  in the social media -but I daresay Twitter X is the best forum for the info (perhaps Telegram too?) .




Polish professor Gosciwit Malinowski prepared two presentation on Iran and their history etc on Ytube, but they are in Polish only. Amazing skill and knowledge and talent to tackle the topics.



Zapraszam do przesluchania - 

Krótka historia Iranu: 100 tysięcy lat w 100 minut

Dlaczego Iran a nie Persja: tożsamość narodowa Irańczyków

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I hope POTUS D. Trump will end this war, let us pray, this weekend, declaring his  satisfaction with the   accomplishments of the military campaign and the political aims realized. 

Valete

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Stefano Della Bella, Disegni e pensieri originali (schizzi a penna) - Polish horse & horsemen

Salvete Omnes,


a quick but full of wonderful sketches in pen and ink by an Italian maestro of the XVII century.

Polish costume - zupan, delia and kolpak


 Stefano Della Bella, Disegni e pensieri originali (schizzi a penna) from Florence, available on Archive .  Sketches were drawn  in Rome during the 1630s, and can be associated with the so called Ossolinski entry into Rome. 

I corralled for you the Polish horse and horsemen, ad a few Ottoman & Safavid Persian portraits drawn by maestro Stefano:

  




outfitted horse with a jarczak saddle and splendid bridle 


tying of the sash, Polish style, also shaved head with a hair lock, sabretache 




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enjoy 

Valete

Saturday, May 4, 2024

Camels from Timurid and early Safavid Iran & Central Asia

 Salvete Omnes 


 

 today a quick trip - astride a camel -:) - to Herat & Tabriz during the Timurid period and early Safavid Iran.


 

Both camels - Bactrian and dromedary - were  bred, milked, eaten, traded and used for riding, transport and as beast of burden in caravans within these realms.

Journey of the Prophet




Kamal-ud-din Bihzad was a courtly painter from Herat under the Tiumrid and early Safavid period -

Camels fighting

camel drummer
camel drummer

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Kasim/Qasim Ali - another paintre from Herat

from Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp - MET.




and two pages from Shahnama painted in Safavid Persian in mid XVI century - Christies.



Valete