Tahmasp II

Tahmasp II (; 1704 – 11 February 1740) was the penultimate Safavid shah (king) of Iran, ruling from 1722 to 1732.

Name Tahmasp is a New Persian name, ultimately derived from Old Iranian *, meaning "having valiant horses." The name is one of the few instances of a name from the Shahnameh being used by an Islamic-era dynasty based in Iran. In the Shahnameh, Tahmasp is the father of Zaav, the penultimate shah of the Pishdadian dynasty.

Biography Tahmasp was the son of Soltan Hoseyn, the shah of Iran at the time. When Soltan Hoseyn was forced to abdicate by the Afghans in 1722, Prince Tahmasp wished to claim the throne. From the besieged Safavid capital, Isfahan, he fled to Qazvin, where on 10 November 1722 he declared himself shah and assumed the regnal name of Tahmasp II. He gained the support of the Sunni Muslims of the Caucasus (even that of the previously rebellious Lezgins), as well as several Qizilbash tribes (including the Afshars, under the control of Iran's future ruler, Nader Shah).

Russo-Persian War

In June 1722, Peter the Great, the then tsar of the neighbouring Russian Empire, declared war on Safavid Iran in an attempt to expand Russian influence in the Caspian and Caucasus regions and to prevent its rival, the Ottoman Empire, from making territorial gains in the region at the expense of the declining Safavid state.

The Russian victory led to Safavid Iran's cession of its territories in the Caucasus and contemporary mainland northern Iran, comprising the cities of Derbent (southern Dagestan) and Baku and the surrounding lands, as well as the provinces of Gilan, Shirvan, Mazandaran, and Astarabad to Russia per the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1723).

Tahmasp also eventually gained the recognition of both the Ottoman Empire and Russia, as each worried about the other gaining too much influence in Iran.

By 1729, Tahmasp had control of most of the country. Soon after his foolhardy Ottoman campaign of 1731, he was deposed by the future Nader Shah in 1732 in favor of his son, Abbas III; both were murdered at Sabzevar in 1740 by Nader Shah's eldest son Reza Qoli Mirza.