Mirwais Khan Hotak (1673 – November 1715) was an Afghan ruler from the Hotak sub-tribe of the Ghilji tribe of Pashtuns of Kandahar, Afghanistan, and the short-lived founder of the Hotak dynasty.
In 1709, after overthrowing and assassinating George XI of Kartil, the Safavid Persian governor, Hotak declared independence of the Loy Kandahar region, now southern Afghanistan. Hotak is widely known as Mirwais Nikə (ميرويس نيکه) or Mirwais Baba (ميرويس بابا)—"Mirwais the Grandfather" in Pashto.
Kandahar is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on Arghandab River, at an elevation of 1,010 m (3,310 ft). It is Afghanistan's second largest city, after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118 in 2015. It is the capital of Kandahar Province and the centre of the larger cultural region called Loy Kandahar.
The region around Kandahar is one of the oldest known areas of human settlement. A major fortified city existed at the site of Kandahar, probably as early as c. 1000–750 BC, and it became an important outpost of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC. Alexander the Great laid the foundation of what is now Old Kandahar (in the southern section of the city) in the 4th century BC and named it Alexandria Arachosia. Many empires have long fought over the city due to its strategic location along the trade routes of southern, central and western Asia. In 1709, Mirwais Hotak made the region an independent kingdom and made Kandahar the capital of the Hotak dynasty. In 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani, founder of the Durrani dynasty, made Kandahar the capital of the Afghan Empire.
The Hotak dynasty (Pashto: د هوتکيانو ټولواکمني; Persian: امپراتوری هوتکیان) was an Afghan dynasty founded by Ghilji Pashtuns that briefly ruled parts of Iran and Afghanistan during the 1720s. It was established in 1709 by Mirwais Hotak, who led a successful rebellion against the declining Persian Safavid empire in the region of Loy Kandahar ("Greater Kandahar") in what is now southern Afghanistan.
In 1715, Mirwais died of natural causes and his brother Abdul Aziz succeeded him. He did not reign long as he was killed by his nephew Mahmud, who overthrew the Safavid Shah and established his own rule over Iran. Mahmud in turn was succeeded by his cousin Ashraf following a palace coup in 1725. Ashraf also did not retain his throne for long, as the Iranian conqueror Nader-Qoli Beg (later Shah), under the resurgent Safavid banner, defeated him at the Battle of Damghan in 1729. Ashraf Hotak was banished to what is now southern Afghanistan, limiting Hotak rule to just a small corner of their once large empire. Hotak rule came to an end in 1738, when Nader Shah defeated Ashraf's successor Hussain Hotak after the lengthy siege of Kandahar. Subsequently, Nader Shah began re-establishing Iranian suzerainty over regions lost to Iran's archrivals, the Ottoman and Russian Empires, decades earlier.
Loy Kandahar (Pashto: لوی کندهار, pronounced [loɪ 'kand̪(ah)ɑr]; lit. 'Greater Kandahar') is a historical and cultural region of Afghanistan, comprising the modern Afghan provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Farah, Uruzgan, as well as parts of Nimruz and Zabul, and the Pashtun majority northern part of Balochistan including cities like Quetta, Chaman and many other areas (the latter known as "South Pashtunkhwa"). In 1709, Mirwais Hotak made the region an independent kingdom and turned Kandahar city into the capital of the Hotak dynasty. In 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani, founder of the Durrani dynasty, made Kandahar the capital of the Afghan Empire.
Loy Kandahar is vaguely defined by a common culture and history that is connected to the local indigenous tribes that reside in the region. Some people may refer to these areas as being under the "Kandahari cultural sphere of influence".Particular styles of clothing, articles of clothing, turban styles, turban cloth colors, dialects of Pashto language, etc. may sometimes be associated with specific tribes indigenous to Loy Kandahar and thus integrate themselves into regional culture. For instance, a Pashtun tribesman from Loy Kandahar may quickly recognize a Pashtun from Loya Paktia based upon his turban style and color. Likewise, a Pashtun from Loya Paktia may recognize someone from Loy Kandahar based upon his unique style of collarless kameez (shirt) with specific embroidered patterns on the front. There are many subtle and intricate cultural indicators of this type that are not recorded in any known written history but simply known and observed by the tribesmen of the various Pashtun regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.