ʿABBĀS III, son of Shah Ṭahmāsp II, roi fainéant of the Safavid dynasty. After the deposition of his father by Nāder Khan Afšār in Rabīʿ I, 1145/August, 1732, the eight-month-old ʿAbbās was invested as ʿAbbās III on 17 Rabīʿ I 1145/ 7 September 1732 (or possibly earlier). Nāder Khan, who was the real ruler of the country, dropped his own now obviously inappropriate style of Ṭahmāsp-qolī Khan and assumed the titles of vakīl-al-dawla (deputy of the state) and nāʾeb-al-salṭana (viceroy). ʿAbbās III was deposed in his turn on 24 Šavvāl 1148/8 March 1736, when Nāder Khan had himself crowned as Nāder Shah and by this act officially terminated the Safavid dynasty. ʿAbbās and his father were murdered at Sabzavār in 1152/1740 by Moḥammad Ḥosayn Khan Qāǰār, on the orders of Nāder’s son Reżā-qolī Mīrzā, who was persuaded to take this action to forestall a possible pro-Safavid coup induced by rumors of Nāder’s death in India.
Bibliography:
L. Lockhart, Nadir Shah, London, 1938, pp. 62-63, 100, 104, 177.
J. R. Perry, “The Last Safavids, 1722-1773,” Iran 9, 1971, pp. 63-64.
(R. M. Savory)
Originally Published: December 15, 1982
Last Updated: July 13, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 1, p. 76
R. M. Savory, “'Abbas III,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/1, p. 76, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abbas-iii (accessed on 10 January 2014).
