The military forces of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran had their origins in the relatively obscure yet bloody inter-factional violence in Khorasan during the collapse of the Safavid state.

The small band of warriors under local warlord Nader Qoli of the Turkoman Afshar tribe in north-east Iran were no more than a few hundred men.

Although there were numerous Afsharid pretenders to the throne, (amongst many other), who attempted to regain control of the entire country, Persia remained a fractured political entity in turmoil until the campaigns of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar in towards the very end of the eighteenth century reunified the nation.

While the Safavids had established a core of musketeers and artillerymen in the 16th century, up to the mid-18th these men were outnumbered by hosts of mounted warriors armed with lances, swords, and bows supplied from the nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes of the regions.

[5] It was under Nader Shah that the majority of troops in the army were equipped with firearms for the first time, necessitating a greater emphasis on drill and training, characteristic of developments that had taken place in Europe in the previous century.

The light cavalry wore four-cornered hats (kulah-e Naderi) eighteen inches high, with a goat skin or sheepskin wound round it; a woolen cloak on their shoulders; an open shirt red, yellow, or green in color; short breeches; and leather boots.

The entire infantry corps had a standardised uniform of blue tunics and red trousers with a tall hat referred to as kolāh-e Nāderi, (کلاهِ نادری).

The development of this system of having strong firearm infantry to provide a stable pivot around which to position artillery and manoeuvre cavalry allowed Nader to defeat the Abdali horsemen.

The jezail (jazāyel (جزائل), a flintlock musket, used by these infantrymen was of a much heavier calibre than their European counterparts and consequently had a greater range as well as improved accuracy (the average European musket weighed around 5 kilograms and fired a shot only 18 millimetres in diameter, whereas the jazail weighed almost 18 kilograms and fired a shot 24 millimetres in diameter).

[11][12] An eyewitness account of one of the training sessions gives the following description: [T]he infantry—I mean those that carried muskets—would get together in their own units and they would shoot their guns at a target and exercise continuously.

They were used to achieve the hardest and most crucial tactical tasks due to their high quality as elite fighting troops, proving their worth in many battles including Mihmandust, Murche-Khort, Kirkuk, Yeghevārd, Karnal and Kars.

Nader introduced far reaching reforms in this arm of the military including the State's financial responsibility for the cavalrymen's mounts.

The cavalry corps were fundamentally divided into two groups by their origin (whether they were recruited by the central government or pressed into service from subject lands and from tributary clans).

The Afsharid, Jalayerid, Qajarid clans were used as the main pools of recruitment as well as the Shahsevan of Azerbaijan, and Iranian tribes of Western Iran.

The Gholāmān-e Shāh (غلامان شاه, literally meaning "Servants of the Shah") was a unit of 3,000 chosen cavalrymen which functioned as Nader's personal guard.

The Savaran-e Sepah-e Khorasan played a decisive role in the final phase of the battle of Kars in which they participated in a huge flank attack, (40,000 strong), which Nader led personally.

They were rather inaccurate and short in range compared to regular field-artillery but had the clear advantage in mobility and when massed could deliver a devastating volley (as seen in the battles of Yeghevard and Karnal).