Tahmasp II's claim to the throne was precarious from the moment he declared himself shah in 1722, following the Afghan Ghilzai capture of Isfahan and the effective collapse of central Safavid authority. This coin was struck at Tabriz while he was attempting to consolidate power in the northwest — the one region where his writ still carried any real force. Russian forces under Peter the Great were simultaneously pressing into the Caucasus under the Treaty of Saint Petersburg, and Tahmasp was in no position to resist either front.
Tabriz remained one of the few functional mints available to him during this period, which makes its output historically significant even when individual pieces are not scarce.
Tahmasp II's claim to the throne was precarious from the moment he declared himself shah in 1722, following the Afghan Ghilzai capture of Isfahan and the effective collapse of central Safavid authority. This coin was struck at Tabriz while he was attempting to consolidate power in the northwest — the one region where his writ still carried any real force. Russian forces under Peter the Great were simultaneously pressing into the Caucasus under the Treaty of Saint Petersburg, and Tahmasp was in no position to resist either front.
Tabriz remained one of the few functional mints available to him during this period, which makes its output historically significant even when individual pieces are not scarce.