The Khanates of Azarbaijan after Nader Shah

Nader Shah's empire disintegrated under the conflicts of his successors: for two years his surviving close relatives strove against each other for control, before succumbing to the efforts of leaders of various other tribes. Azarbaijan was for some years occupied by one of Nader's Afghan generals, Azad Khan Ghilji, who contended with 'Ali Mardan Bakhtiari at Esfahan, Karim Khan Zand at Shiraz, and Mohammad Hasan Khan Qajar in Gorgan.

While Karim Khan Zand won over the Bakhtiari tribes and defeated the Afghans in southern Iran, Mohammad Hasan Khan, chief of the Qoyunlu branch of the Qajars, gained control of Gorgan, beat off the Afghans in the northeast, and in 1756 headed for Azarbaijan against Azad Khan. The Qajar now had with him the Safavid scion Esma'il III, and with good reason hoped for support from the chiefs of eastern Azarbaijan, such as Panah Khan Javanshir of Qara-Bagh, Kazem Khan of Qara-Dagh, Hosein ʿAli Khan of Qobbeh, and the Shahsevan tribes. But he was made to feel less than welcome in Azarbaijan. As he passed through Talesh on the way to Moghan in early 1757, he was attacked by Qara Khan of Lankaran and suffered heavy losses. In Moghan he waited more than a month but, of the expected allies, only Kazem of Qara-Dagh appeared.