Ashraf Hotaki

Ashraf Khan († 1729 ) was a ruler of the Hotaki dynasty. The Hotakis had rebelled against the Safavids their overlord and then ousted in 1722. Ashraf Khan was a Pashtun from the Ghilzai tribal federation of, who ascended the throne in 1725 after the death of Mir Mahmud Hotaki. He was a nephew of Mir Wais Hotak and during his reign the kingdom of the Hotaki fell rapidly under the pressure of the Ottomans, the Russian Empire and the Persian resistance.

But Ashraf resisted the attacks of the Russians and the Ottomans. The Ottomans were defeated in a battle near Kermanshah, although they were already only a few kilometers away from the capital of Isfahan. The defeat led to negotiations with the Sublime Porte, which were only briefly interrupted because the representative Aschrafs insisted that he should be the Caliph of the East and the Ottoman Sultan Caliph of the West. This angered the Ottoman Although a lot, but a contract was to end up in Hamadan in September 1727 but still pending.

At the end defeated Nadir Qoli Beg - later better known as Nadir Shah - Ashraf Khan end of September 1729 at the Battle of Damghan and drove him from Persia in the east. During the retreat Ashraf Khan was murdered by a Baloch tribesmen. This was probably on the orders of his cousin, who then reigned over Kandahar.

His death marked the end of the Hotaki dynasty, but this was only a brief episode before the independent Pashtun kingdom was founded. This Durranireich was the forerunner of the State of Afghanistan.