Battle of Karnal in the context of "Afsharid dynasty"

The sack of Delhi occurred from 28 January to 22 February 1757, carried out by the Durrani Empire under the Afghan king Ahmad Shah Durrani. Delhi, the capital of the Mughal Empire, experienced multiple invasions by the Afghans during the 18th century.

The decline of the Mughal Empire began with the death of Emperor Aurangzeb on 3 March 1707. The Mughals faced numerous invasions from the Maratha Confederacy and internal conflicts over succession. The Mughals continued declining under Muhammad Shah, allowing adventurers such as Nader Shah to invade Mughal territories and sack Delhi. Following Nader Shah's death, his eastern domains were taken over by Ahmad Shah Durrani, who formed the Durrani Empire and centered his power base in Kandahar, Afghanistan. After three invasions by the Afghans, the Mughals lost numerous territories including Kashmir, Punjab, and Sindh.

Nader Shah Afshar (born Nader Qoli; Persian: نادرشاه افشار; 6 August 1698 or 22 October 1688 – 20 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian history, ruling as the emperor of Iran (Persia) from 1736 to 1747, when he was assassinated during a rebellion. He fought numerous campaigns throughout the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and South Asia, emerging victorious from the battles of Herat, Mihmandust, Murche-Khort, Kirkuk, Yeghevārd, Khyber Pass, Karnal, and Kars. Nader belonged to the Turkoman Afshars, one of the seven Qizilbash tribes that helped the Safavid dynasty establish their power in Iran.

Nader rose to power during a period of chaos in Iran after a rebellion by the Hotaki Afghans had overthrown the weak emperor Soltan Hoseyn (r. 1694–1722), while the arch-enemy of the Safavids, the Ottoman Empire, as well as the Russian Empire, had seized Iranian territory for themselves. Nader reunited the Iranian realm and removed the invaders. He became so powerful that he decided to depose the last members of the Safavid dynasty, which had ruled Iran for over 200 years, and declared himself Shah in 1736. His numerous campaigns created a great empire that, at its maximum extent, briefly encompassed all or part of modern-day Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Georgia, India, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Oman, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, the North Caucasus, and the Persian Gulf, but his military spending had a ruinous effect on the Iranian economy.

In May 1738, Nader Shah, the ruler of Iran (1736–1747) and the founder of the Afsharid dynasty, invaded Northern India, eventually sacking Delhi in March 1739. His army easily defeated the Mughals at the Battle of Karnal and then occupied the Mughal capital.

Nader Shah's victory against the weak and crumbling Mughal Empire in the far east meant that he could afford to turn back and resume war against Persia's archrival, the neighbouring Ottoman Empire, as well as launch further campaigns in the North Caucasus and Central Asia.

The Battle of Yeghevārd, also known as the Battle of Baghavard or Morad Tapeh or Arpachai or Echmiadzin, was the final major engagement of the Ottoman–Persian War of (1730–1735) where the principal Ottoman army in the Caucasus theatre under Koprulu Pasha's command was utterly destroyed by only the advance guard of Nader's army before the main Persian army could enter into the fray. The complete rout of Koprulu Pasha's forces led to a number of besieged Ottoman strongholds in the theatre surrendering as any hope of relief proved ephemeral in light of the crushing defeat at Yeghevārd. One of Nader's most impressive battlefield victories, in which he decimated a force four or five times the size of his own, it helped establish his reputation as a military genius and stands alongside many of his other great triumphs such as at Karnal, Mihmandoost or Kirkuk.