Nadir Shah

About The Book : In the course of the eighteenth century, a Turkoman soldier of fortune, Nadir Kuli, better known to the world as Nadir Shah, raised Persia to the first place among Oriental powers; and notwithstanding the insane hatred which during the latter part of his life he showed towards his sensitive and quick-witted people, who had fought well for him, he is regarded by Persians of the present day as one of the greatest of their national heroes. This book is an attempt to make his character and times more familiar than they are to English readers. After some doubt, I have written it in the form of a romance. I have done this partly with the hope of giving it more life and colour, partly because the existing accounts of Nadir Shah, whether Persian or European, are hardly the material from which exact history could now be written. Many controversies have arisen even about the career of Napoleon. Considering that Nadir Shah spent his life fighting in Asia, and died before Napoleon was born, it is natural that in his case the facts should sometimes have become hopelessly obscured, For example, the blinding of his favourite son, Reza Kuli Khan, is generally regarded as the turning-point of Nadir's career.