« Blinded by Power: The Rise and Fall of Fath ‘Ali Khan Daghestani, Grand Vizier under Shah Soltan Hoseyn Safavi (1127/1715-1133/1720) ». Studia Iranica, 33/2 (2004), pp. 179-220.

Scholars of Safavid history, and specifically those interested in the reign of Šāh Sulṭān Ḥusayn, are all intimate with Laurence Lockhart’s The Fall of the Safavi Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia. However, as Rudi Matthee points out rightly in the preamble of this article, the historiographical terrain for this period has changed considerably in terms of source material and theoretical approaches with regards to state decline and devolution since Lockhart first published his work s..