Ashrafi - Mahmud Hotaki Type B, Esfāhān mint

Mahmud Hotaki seized Isfahan in 1722 after his Afghan forces besieged the Safavid capital for seven months, forcing Shah Sultan Husayn to abdicate in October of that year. The Hotak occupation of Isfahan was administratively chaotic and militarily brutal — Mahmud himself descended into paranoia and ordered mass killings of Safavid princes before his own commanders removed him from power in 1725. Gold coinage from this occupation window is consequently scarce; the mint was functioning under a regime that controlled the city for barely three years before Nader Shah's campaigns dismantled Hotaki authority entirely.