The first outstanding emir of this time was Najaf Qoli Khan. After Najaf Qoli Khan's father Shahbaz Khan I was killed in 1731 by his cousin Ayub Khan of Churs, he succeeded him as the governor of Churs and Salmas. In 1734, he entered the service of the later Nader Shah Afshar as chief musketeer. He followed the shah on his conquests to India and was made amir ol-'omara (lit. "commander of commanders) and later the governor of Khoy. In 1742, he became beglerbegi (lit. "governor of governors", i.e. governor-general) of Tabriz. In 1747, he became the ruling Khan of Tabriz and remained in this post also under Nader Shah's successor. In the war of succession between several pretenders to the Persian throne, Najaf Qoli Khan and his nephew Shahbaz Khan II joined in 1750 Fath Ali Khan Afshar-Arashlu of Urmia. The acting rule of Khoy and Salmas was commissioned to Shahbaz Khan II, Najaf Qoli Khan held Tabriz and Churs. After the death of Fath Ali Khan, the Donboli khans pledged their allegiances in 1757 to Mohammad Hassan Khan Qajar, who made his minor son Agha Mohammad Khan the ruler of Tabriz and Najaf Qoli Khan the young prince's guardian. In 1762, they allied with Karim Khan Zand, who sent Shahbaz Khan and Najaf Qoli Khan's son Abdol-Razzaq Beg as hostages to Shiraz in 1763. While Najaf Qoli Khan stayed as the pacified ruler in his khanate and Shahbaz Khan remained de facto governor of Khoy in Shiraz, the real power in the Donboli domains was Shahbaz' brother Amir Ahmad Khan, who reigned from 1763 until his death in 1786 as the strongest Donboli ruler and an opponent to Agha Mohammad Khan's claims as the overlord of all Persia. Finally, in 1786, Ahmad Khan and his eldest son were killed by Shahbaz' sons, maybe on behalf of the Qajar shah.
