Hammer and Anvil: Battle of Kars, 1745 - Master of Iran

[00:00:00]Summer, 1745. In the shadow of Mount  Ararat, the Persian Empire teetered on the brink of collapse. Nader Shah, the most  feared military mind on earth, was dying.

[00:00:15]Plagued by crippling illness and  consumed by a violent, deranged paranoia, Nader was no longer the unstoppable  force of nature that had forged a strong Persian Empire and conquered Mughal India. Sensing blood in the water, his bitter rivals, the Ottoman Empire, launched a massive,  coordinated strike to finish him for good.

[00:00:41]Two colossal armies advanced  on the Persian frontiers.

[00:00:46]The southern army marched towards Mosul,  from where they would advance into Persia.

[00:00:51]The northern army would tie down  and destroy Nader Shah’s army, currently stationed just north of Yerevan. The giant pincer was designed to break the Persian Empire. The Ottomans knew Nader's  empire was highly centralized around his sheer force of personality. By attacking the  southern underbelly of his empire while he was distracted in the north, they intended  to spark massive anti-Nader rebellions among the Persian populace and place their  own puppet Safavid ruler on the throne.

[00:01:28]Seemingly willing his broken body back from the  edge of death, Nader made a desperate gamble.

[00:01:36]He split his remaining forces, sending his  gifted son Nasrollah south to intercept the Ottomans at Mosul, while Nader rode west  to face the vast Ottoman host at Kars.

[00:01:50]Rumors swirled from Delhi to Constantinople that  the "Sword of Persia" had finally lost his edge.

[00:01:57]The Ottoman juggernaut had  turned the tide of the war.

[00:02:01]But a dying lion is most dangerous when cornered… Following his miraculous conquest of Mughal India, Nader Shah’s aura of invincibility shattered  in the freezing mountains of Dagestan. Seeking to avenge his brother’s death, Nader marched  into the Caucasus but was sucked into a brutal, unwinnable guerrilla war. The harsh climate and  relentless ambushes broke his army and ruined his already fragile health. Worse, an assassination  attempt in Mazanderan drove the Shah into severe paranoia, culminating in the horrific decision  to blind his own son and heir, Reza Qoli.

[00:02:52]This physical and mental decline crippled his  military judgment. In 1743, Nader declared war on the Ottoman Empire, but his massive invasion  force failed to break the stubborn defenses of the strategic city of Mosul after a grueling siege. The following year, in August 1744, he laid siege to the northern fortress of Kars.  Unlike his earlier legendary campaigns, where he stubbornly blockaded Kandahar for  a year, Nader abandoned the Kars siege by October at the first sign of winter. For more than a decade, the Ottoman high command lived in dread of Nader Shah. He was the  bogeyman of the East, an unstoppable force they simply dared not attack in the open field. But  Nader’s humiliating twin failures at Mosul and Kars shattered that aura of invincibility. To the generals in Constantinople, this was a turning point. Economically, Nader’s empire was collapsing. The vast plunder from his  Indian conquests had dried up, forcing him to squeeze his own populace with ruinous taxes  that ignited widespread internal rebellions.

[00:04:15]While Nader’s realm fractured and his  own health declined, the Ottoman economy remained stable enough to fund a massive war  effort. Ottoman commanders Mehmed Yegen Pasha and Abdullah Pasha would spearhead the campaign. Abdullah led the southern thrust that would drive through Ottoman Iraq and into Persia, while  Mehmed took charge of the main army and moved against Nader to land the killing blow. The northern army numbered between 50 and 80,000 combat troops (and around 80,000  camp followers). It received the bulk of the elite Janissaries and Sipahi cavalry,  the best artillery, and most funding.

[00:05:02]The southern force numbered between 20 and  30,000 combatants (with around 30,000 camp followers). It was made up of a smaller core of  elite Ottoman regulars (Janissaries and Sipahis), and was heavily supplemented  by regional provincial troops, local Kurdish cavalry, and Arab tribal levies. Logistically, the survival of Mosul and Kars was the linchpin of this grand strategy. Had  Nader captured these cities, the Ottomans would have been forced to supply their armies from deep  within Syria or Anatolia. Because they held firm, the Ottomans possessed impregnable forward-staging  bases right on the Persian border.

[00:05:51]The Sublime Porte’s war aim was to crush  Nader and install a weak Safavid puppet on the Persian throne, the dynasty that Nader  himself overthrew about a decade earlier.

[00:06:04]If successful, the campaign would neutralize a  most terrifying rival and with a docile regime in Isfahan, the volatile eastern frontier  of the empire would finally stabilize.

[00:06:19]In addition, a victory against Nader would  free up staggering amounts of manpower and matériel for other theatres. Tens of  thousands of battle-hardened janissaries, sipahi cavalry, and massive  artillery trains deployed across Mesopotamia and the Caucasus could  be redirected to Europe and Africa.

[00:06:41]In Europe, the Ottomans were enjoying a fragile  peace following their success in the 1739 Treaty of Belgrade. However, the Habsburg Monarchy  and the expanding Russian Empire loomed as existential threats. Funneling massive resources  from the Persian frontier into fortifying the Danubian frontier and the Crimean Peninsula  could significantly strengthen the Ottoman position against their European rivals. Furthermore, this military surplus would have allowed the Sultan to reinforce North  Africa, Egypt, and the Mediterranean, where local beys, Barbary corsairs, and Mamluk  factions were growing increasingly autonomous.

[00:08:10]Meanwhile, Nader Shah, recuperating at Yerevan,  commanded an elite army of roughly 55 to 70,000 men. When intelligence arrived of the  colossal, two-pronged Ottoman invasion, Nader made a desperate but calculated  gamble. He dispatched his son Nasrollah south to intercept Abdullah at Mosul with around  15 to 20,000 veterans. Nader took charge of the remaining 40 to 50,000 troops and prepared to  confront the main Ottoman army under Mehmed.

[00:08:48]Though vastly outnumbered on both fronts, Nader’s  men were the deadliest military machine on earth.

[00:08:55]Hardened by campaigns in India and Dagestan, his  mobile artillery, drilled Khorasani cavalry and elite jazayerchi musketeers possessed a tactical  fluidity that the Ottomans could not match.

[00:09:12]Logistically, Nader was operating on a knife-edge.  His empire was financially strained. To feed his standing army he had overtaxed the Persian  peasantry, relying on heavily guarded supply trains moving from centralized depots. He  could not afford a long war of attrition; he needed a swift, decisive field victory. Stopping the Ottoman counter-offensive could force Constantinople to officially recognize his  upstart Afsharid dynasty, neutralizing the Safavid pretenders. Economically, crushing the Ottomans  would secure the western border provinces and perhaps expand Persia into wealthy Mesopotamia. Victory in 1745 wouldn't just win a war; it would legitimize his reign, fill the imperial treasury  and secure Persia’s borders for a generation.

[00:10:13]Nader and his army left Yerevan just after  the first week of August, but he was informed that the Ottomans had already departed Kars  some time before and they were already at an advanced stage marching in his direction. Before a single shot was fired, Nader dealt the first psychological strike. He brought his  army to a halt at Baghavard, about 11 miles north of Yerevan, and set up a fortified camp. He  deliberately chose these plains, for this was the exact location where he had utterly annihilated an  Ottoman army ten years earlier in 1735. By forcing the Ottomans to deploy and fight on the bones  of their predecessors, Nader ensured a creeping sense of dread permeated the enemy ranks. By the 8th of August, word reached him that the Ottomans under Mehmet Yegen Pasha  were only 7 to 8 miles off. Nader's scouts watched as the Ottomans began constructing  their own camp with well-dug-in defenses.

[00:11:24]The Ottoman army that confronted Nader was in a  process of transformation, much of it the result of its recruitment of European officers, notably  Claude Alexandre, Count of Bonneval (known to the Ottomans as Humbaracı Ahmed Pasha), as well as its  endless conflicts with the Russian and Austrian empires. Bonneval had specifically reformed  the Ottoman artillery and bombardier corps.

[00:11:53]Thus, the infantry Mehmed deployed in the  center was divided into notably smaller and more manageable units than previous encounters,  and the units were organized in two or three lines. Roughly 15,000 Janissaries (Kapikulu),  the elite musket-armed shock troops formed the unbreakable center, accompanied by up to  8,000 provincial infantry in the front.

[00:12:20]Interspersed in the front infantry line  were roughly 80-120 heavy field guns.

[00:12:28]Veterans of Nader's previous campaigns against  the Ottomans would have noticed that the Ottoman artillery, was not placed in front of the  infantry, but between its more compact units. This brilliant dispersal created deadly, interlocking  fields of fire that made Nader's traditional frontal cavalry charges highly dangerous. This force was significant enough, but Nader's officers and men would have then watched as the  Ottoman cavalry took up position on the wings, arriving in seemingly endless numbers. On both  flanks, there were a total of up to 40,000 Sipahis and up to 17,000 Akinjis and Tatar auxiliaries. Meanwhile, Nader fielded up to 12,000 Jazayerchi infantry, the highly disciplined  elite heavily armored musketeers.

[00:13:24]Complementing these were line infantry: up  to 13,000 standard musketeers and spearmen.

[00:13:32]Cavalry was a mix of 6,000 elite Afsharid  and Qizilbash guards (heavily armored and capable of devastating shock charges) and up  to 13,000 light cavalry comprised of Afghan, Turkmen, and Kurdish horsemen more  suited for flanking and skirmishing.

[00:13:51]For artillery, Nader heavily relied on  Zamburaks (camel-mounted swivel guns).

[00:13:58]He likely had up to 2,000 of these highly mobile  pieces, and up to 50 traditional field cannons.

[00:14:07]Nader, still in poor health, commanded the  battle from the Persian camp, making use of messengers to relay orders. The Persian infantry was to advance on the enemy. Cavalry stayed in place.

[00:14:24]Knowing that the Ottomans had had time  to perfect their drill, and knowing that Bonneval's repositioned artillery would shred a  static formation, he could not afford to engage in a battle of attrition. This forced Nader  into a bizarre but necessary tactical gamble.

[00:14:43]Instead of standing to get shot by their more  numerous foe, the Persian infantry came within range of the Ottoman line and fired a single  volley. The Ottomans returned fire and began to carry out their well-practiced operation of  reloading, but then they looked up in anxious surprise. After firing, the Persian musketeers had  discarded their weapons, drawn sabers, and were sprinting toward the Ottomans in a mass attack. The two sides crashed together, and the Persians brought their swords down across the flailing  Ottomans who were struggling to alter their strategy and put up a defense. A violent,  hand-to-hand brawl ensued, with each side mounting a stolid and vicious defense and attack. The cavalry sections of both armies watched from the sides, unwilling to commit lest the  other launch a flanking attack in turn.

[00:15:45]When the Persian infantry withdrew slightly during  a break, the Ottoman foot would attack in turn, and then the cycle would repeat with  the Persians going forth once more.

[00:15:56]The Persians were better trained at this kind of  fighting than their Ottoman counterparts, but it was Mehmed who could feed more reinforcements  into the fray. And so, with the cavalry of both armies remaining aloof, the fighting  devolved into a bloody and savage stalemate.

[00:16:15]Elements of each side would attack, fight for  a few moments and then withdraw out of range.

[00:16:21]The various commanders and officers  would then extoll their men to charge, and they would launch themselves forward once  more, back and forth, men falling each time, but the battle no closer to a resolution. Word reached Nader in his tent of this state of affairs, and he rose from his throne.  Recognizing the monarch's intent, his captain, courtiers, and bodyguards rushed in all  directions. Nader's mount was brought forward and he put on his helm, giving the order  that the cavalry guard was to ride with him.

[00:17:00]The camp sentries and attendants watched in awe as  Nader rode out with the remaining 6,000 Afsharid and Qizilbash guards, his most elite cavalry  that he kept in reserve and out of sight. Lances, swords, and flags raised aloft, a kaleidoscopic  cavalcade of color and glinting, deadly weaponry galloped down the field with Nader at their head. He wheeled the cavalry in a wide arc on the left, the men in the infantry lines in the  center seeing his arrival along with his intent and cheering him and the elite  Riders of the Army of Khorasan forward.

[00:17:44]In a maneuver reminiscent of Alexander the  Great, Nader struck into the gap between the Ottoman infantry and cavalry on the right.  Ottoman infantrymen fell in their hundreds, run over by the rampaging Persian cavalry.  Simultaneously Nader bulldozed his way through the static Ottoman horse companies. But despite the fury of the Persians, the Ottomans put up an equally tenacious defense, and Nader's  horse was shot out from underneath him. Seeing his banner fall, his men held their breath, but as  he rose on a second mount the attack roared on!

[00:18:28]Twice more Nader was thrown from his horse  in the fierce fighting. On his third mount, Nader pointed his saber forward now that they  had punched clear through the Ottoman cavalry, many of whom were fleeing the field. Still turning inward, they began to threaten the rear of the Ottoman center. Mehmed’s  infantry broke and fled, seeing they were about to be caught between the hammer of Nader’s cavalry  and the anvil of his stalwart foot soldiers.

[00:19:01]Men uniformly began to flee, and  Nader launched a concerted sortie to chase as many of them down as possible. The rout was total, and the Ottomans that could escape did not stop until they were within  the shaky and fragile confines of their camp.

[00:19:21]The next morning, the 10th of August, more than  20,000 Ottomans lay dead on the battlefield.

[00:19:29]Persian forces closed in on their camp. Nader sent an order of surrender to Mehmed.

[00:19:36]When no surrender came, skirmishes broke out. Nader turned the Persian artillery and the abandoned Ottoman cannons and began bombarding  the Ottoman camp. Mehmed deployed what little artillery he had left in a vain attempt  to stave off Nader’s besieging forces.

[00:19:58]But the ultimate psychological breaking point was  yet to come. Nader received a momentous letter from his son, Nasrollah. The message detailed  the absolute slaughter of the southern Ottoman army at the Battle of Mosul, including the  death of their commander, Abdullah Pasha.

[00:20:19]Knowing the devastating impact this news  would carry, Nader forwarded Nasrollah's letter into Mehmed’s camp. The sheer shock that  the Ottoman southern army had been completely erased shattered what little discipline  remained among the Ottoman survivors.

[00:20:37]Panic swept through the tents, triggering  full-blown rioting and a desperate, chaotic night retreat westward toward  the fortress of Kars. During the retreat, Mehmed was either killed by the mutinous  troops or died by his own hand.

[00:20:56]When dawn broke over the abandoned camp  and the corpse-strewn plains of Baghavard, Nader Shah surveyed the devastation. Though  history remembers his later years for extreme paranoia and unyielding brutality, the Shah  permitted a rare display of chivalry to close out his final great victory. Rather than executing the  remaining captives, he ordered that the surviving, wounded Ottoman prisoners be released and provided  them an escort back to the fortress of Kars so they could be treated by their own doctors. Satisfied with his work, his final great victory, the son of the shepherd sent an ambassador  to the Sublime Porte in Constantinople.

[00:21:44]He demanded "Baghdad, Basra, Najaf,  Karbala, Ottoman Kurdistan and Van."

[00:21:53]It seemed that he would have his wish,  but before the peace terms were signed, Nader had returned to his own territory where he  initiated a reign of terror on his own people, demanding yet more money in taxes. Such was the fear and unease in his circles then, he was assassinated before he  could sign the peace terms with the Ottomans.

[00:22:17]The blazing star of military genius was burned  out and all that remained was the legend.