Azar was born in Isfahan, the Safavid royal capital, during a time of chaos and instability. In 1722 (the year of his birth), the Safavid state had entered the final stages of collapse and the rebellious Afghans had reached Isfahan. Azar and his family were forced to move to Qom, where they owned property and where he lived for fourteen years. Around 1735 or 1736, his father Agha Khan Bigdeli Shamlu was appointed governor of Lar and the coastal areas of Fars Province by Nader Shah and Azar and his family moved to Shiraz (the provincial capital of Fars). In 1737 or 1738, after the death of his father, Azar made pilgrimages to Mecca and the Shi'ite shrines in Iran and Iraq. He then moved to Mashhad, where his arrival coincided with Nader Shah's return from his successful Indian campaign. Azar subsequently enlisted in Nader's army and accompanied his troops to Mazandaran, Azerbaijan and Persian Iraq. After Nader's death in 1747, Azar served his nephews and successors Adel Shah (1747–1748) and Ebrahim Shah (1748) and the Safavid pretenders Ismail III and Suleiman II before retiring to his modest manor in Qom.