Sack of Shamakhi
[1][2] The initially successful counter-campaign was abandoned by the central government at a critical moment and with the threat then left unchecked, Shamakhi was taken by 15,000 Lezgin tribesmen, its Shia population massacred, and the city ransacked.
[3] The king, Soltan Hoseyn, was a weak ruler, and although personally inclined to be more humane, flexible, and relaxed than his chief mullah, he went along with the recommendations of his advisers regarding important state decisions.
[3] Majlesi, who had already gained considerable political power during the reign of Soltan Hoseyn's predecessor Suleiman I (r. 1666–1694), instigated the persecutions directed towards Safavid Iran's Sunni and Sufi inhabitants, as well as its non-Muslim religious minorities, namely Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians.
[5] According to historian Roger Savory, even though Soltan Hoseyn did not show personal hostility towards Christians, he was persuaded by the clergy (Majlisi in particular), who had great influence over him, to issue "unjust and intolerant decrees".
[7] The marauding raids, incursions, and pillages nevertheless carried on; in April of the same year, the Lezgins took the village of Ak Tashi (located near Nizovoi[a]), but not before abducting a number of its inhabitants and plundering a caravan of 40 people on the road to Shamakhi.
[7] The order, which came after the fall of grand vizier Fath-Ali Khan Daghestani, was made at the instigation of the eunuch faction within the royal court, who had persuaded the shah that a successful end of the campaign would do the Safavid realm more harm than good.
[7] Around the same time, in August 1721, Soltan Hoseyn ordered Daud Beg (probably Hadji-Dawud), a rebel mountaineer chieftain of the Lezgins and a Sunni cleric, to be released from prison in the Safavid city of Derbent.
[12] The rebel "coalition" consisting of some 15,000 tribesmen, headed by Daud Beg and assisted by Surkhay Khan of the Ghazikumukh, moved towards Shamakhi[c] which was subsequently put under siege.
