Vasilios Vatatzes was an eighteenth-century ethnic Greek scholar, merchant, traveller, and diplomat. In 1748, he wrote a biography of the Iranian ruler Nader Shah, in whose court he likely spent extensive time during his multiple trips across Iran. In this new annotated English translation, this important source for the late Safavid, Afghan and Afsharid periods of Iranian history is made available to English-speaking scholars. Vatatzes was an eyewitness to some of the events of his narrative, offering unique information about the history of Iran and Western Asia that is not attested in other contemporary sources. The text provides information about the revival and re-unification of the fragmented Iran under Nader Shah, the Iranian expansion in the Indian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf. Vatatzes's perspective also makes the text unique: his political worldview as an Ottoman-born Greek Christians means he viewed Nader Shah as a role model for the 'emancipation' of his coreligionists.

Evangelos Venetis is the director of the Society for Hellenic-Iranian Studies in Athens and the coordinator of the Middle East Research Project of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy. His previous works include The Persian Alexander: The First Complete English Translation of the Iskandarnama (I.B. Tauris, 2017). He holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, UK.