One could assume from the misleading title of this work that it is a new analytical history ofthe fall of the Safavid empire and the nine-year Afghan usurpation of the Safavid throne. Morethan forty years after Laurence Lockhart published his monumental work, The Fall of theSafavi Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia, a new study based on subsequentresearch would be a major contribution to the field. But Willem Floor has made a different, yetextremely significant, contribution. He has performed a yeoman's service by annotating,translating, and compiling primary source materials from the archives of the VereenigdeOostindische Compagnie (VOC), or the Dutch East Indies Company, that someday will assistsuch an effort.