A Forgotten Money Heist: The 1746 Mission of Nadir Shah’s Chief Merchant in Russia Revisited

ABSTRACT This present article examines aspects of Iran’s trade and diplomatic relations with Imperial Russia during the reign of the Afsharid Nadir Shah (r. 1735–1747) focusing on a previously unpublished letter from the Zand Karim Khan (r. 1751–1779) to Empress Catherine II (r. 1762–1796). The letter sheds light on a little-known trade dispute between Iran and Imperial Russia that broke out shortly after Nadir Shah’s assassination, which took place in his native Khurasan late in the spring of 1747. First, an English translation of the letter’s full text, which is in Persian, will be provided. A review of the rivalries between Nadir Shah and Imperial Russia in the 1740s and additional contextualising comments will then follow, placing the letter in dialogue with primary sources and studies of the Russo-Iranian trade relationship during the early part of the eighteenth century.