Abduallāh Suwaidi and his Salafi report of Nādir Shāh's Ecumenical Congress in Najaf

As his last unifying effort, Nādir Shāh Afshār’s ecumenical congress in Najaf 1156A.H./1743A.D. was held to make a change in the socio-religious system of Iran and Ottoman relationship. Although several studies have been carried out regarding this congress in Persian academic literature, this paper accomplishes a careful study, based on analytic method, on a counter-narrative of Najaf Congress which based on the observations of an eminent member and representative of Baghdād’s governor, known as Shaykh Abdullāh Suwaidi. On this basis, we will describe various aspects of socio-religious policies of Nadir and Iraq in the middle of eighteenth century, which maintains the emerging of Salafi thought among scholars and Muslim thinkers of the time.