Treaty of Kerden (Turkish:Kerden Antlaşması,Persian:عهدنامه گردان) was signed betweenOttoman Empire andAfsharid Iran on 4 September 1746. It concluded theOttoman–Persian War (1743–1746).

During the last years of theSafavid dynasty in Iran, Ottomans were able to annex most ofCaucasus and west Iran, due to hereditary strife, civil unrest and total chaos. Meanwhile,Afghans were able to annex a part ofKhorasan. Theshah had to appointNadir, an IranianAfsharTurkoman^[1] warlord, as his commander in chief. Under Nadir's brilliant commandship, Iran was able to regain most of its losses. After the victories, it was an easy matter for Nadir to seize the throne. In 1736, Nadir Shah founded theAfsharid dynasty,^[2] which lasted until 1796. Nadir Shah was planning to found another great Persian empire, stretching from the Indus to the Bosphorus, like in ancient times. After reconquering former territories of Iran, he further tried to annex the eastern territories of the Ottoman Empire (easternAnatolia and Iraq). He also proposed to reconcile the two majorsects of Islam. (The Ottoman dynasty was ofSunni faith and most Iranians were ofTwelver Shia faith.) He planned to force the Ottoman Empire, the most powerful Sunni state, to accept Twelver Shia Islam as a fifth legalschool of jurisprudence of Sunni Islam.^[3]

The treaty was signed inKerden (a location^[4] nearQazwin, Iran). The representatives were Hasan Ali Haji (Afsharid side) and Mustafa Nazif (Ottoman side).^[5]

1. The boundary line between the two countries was the same boundary line drawn roughly a century earlier according to theTreaty of Zuhab of 1639 (i.e., which included roughly the demarcation of the modern Turkey-Iran and Iraq-Iran border lines).
2. The Ottomans agreed to stop opposing the Afsharid dynasty as the rulers of Iran.^[6]
3. The Ottomans also agreed to allow the Iranianhajis (pilgrims) to Mecca (then under Ottoman control).
4. Exchange of consulates (Turkish:şehbender) were permitted in both countries.
5. Iran abandoned to force the Ottomans to convert to Shia Islam.
6. Both sides agreed to liberate the prisoners of war.

• Fisher; et al. (1991).The Cambridge History of Iran: From Nadir Shah to the Islamic Republic. Vol. 7. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 309.ISBN 978-0521200950.Both sides now saw that neither could win a decisive victory, and that continuation of the war would only drain their strength. Nadir Shah hoped to use his victory at Baghavard to secure a favourable settlement, finally abandoning his claims on behalf of the Ja'fari sect, and instead concentrating on the demand that all of Iraq, including Baghdad, Basra and the Shi'i holy places of Najaf and Karbala, be turned over to him along with the Kurdish area of Van. A series of letters and exchanges of ambassadors followed, and eventually an agreement was hammered out on 4 September 1746, by which the Qasr-i-Shirin treaty boundaries were restored without change, with provisions made for the exchange of prisoners, as well as the exchange of ambassadors once every three years. Nadir Shah thereby abandoned all his former demands and the Ottomans accepted peace in accordance with the earlier agreements.

• 1746 in Asia
• 1746 treaties
• Ottoman–Persian Wars
• Treaties of Afsharid Iran
• Iran–Ottoman Empire treaties
• 1746 in the Ottoman Empire
• 1740s in Iran

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