Thamas, or Schah Nadir, was not the son of a shepherd, as the authors of the English Biographical Dictionary assert; his father being chief of a branch of the tribe of Affchars, and governor of a fortress erected by that people against the Turks. Upon his father's death, his uncle usurped his government, under the pretext of taking care of it during the minority of Kouli Khan, or, more properly, young Nadir. Disgust at this affront made him commence adventurer. He entered into the service of the beglerbeg or governor of Muscada, in Khorassan, who, discovering in him strong marks of a military genius, promoted him to the command of a regiment of cavalry. In 1720, the Usbec Tartars having made an irruption into Khorassan with 10,000 men, the beglerbeg, whose whole force consisted only of 4000 horse and 2000 infantry, called a council of war, in which it was declared imprudent to face the enemy with such an inferior force; but Kouli Khan proposed to march against the enemy, and engaged to conduct the expedition, and to be answerable for the success of it. He was accordingly made general, defeated the Tartars, and took their commander prisoner. Hossein Beglerbeg received him at his return with marks of distinction; but growing jealous of his rising fame, instead of obtaining him the rank of lieutenant-general of Khorassan, as he had promised, obtained it for another; which so exasperated Kouli Khan, that he publicly complained of the governor's ingratitude and perfidy, who thereupon broke him, and ordered him to be punished with the bastinado so severely, that the nails of his great toes fell off. This affront occasioned his flight, and his joining a banditti of robbers (not his stealing his father's or his neighbour's sheep). The rest of his adventures are too numerous to be inserted in this work. In 1729 he was made general of Persia by Schah Thamas, and permitted to take his name Thamas, and that of Khuli, which signifies slave. His title therefore was The Slave of Thamas, but he was ennobled by the addition of Khan. In 1730, he fomented a revolt against his master, for having made an ignominious peace with the Turks; and having the army at his command, he procured his deposition, and his own advancement to the throne. In 1739, he conquered the Mogul empire; and from this time growing as cruel as he was ambitious, he at length met with the usual fate of tyrants, being assassinated by one of his generals, in league with his nephew and successor, in 1747, aged sixty.