The Fall of Herat: Safavid Persia's Afghan Crisis

The Safavid Empire: Persia's Return to Greatness — Fexingo History · May 3, 2026 · 5m

In 1717, the Safavid Empire was already fraying at the edges. But the revolt of the Ghilzai Afghans in Kandahar, and the subsequent siege of the great Silk Road city of Herat, would set in motion a chain of events that culminated in the fall of Isfahan just five years later. This episode traces the origins of the Afghan uprising under Mir Wais Hotak, the Safavid court's disastrous mismanagement under Shah Sultan Husayn, and the brutal fighting around Herat that exposed the empire's military decline. We talk about the role of the Qizilbash tribal leaders, the failed campaigns of the shah's…