Origins A late legend holds that the Qajars first came to Iran in the 11th-century along with other
Oghuz Turkic clans. However, the Qajars neither appear in the Oghuz tribal lists of
Mahmud al-Kashgari nor
Rashid al-Din Hamadani. It has been speculated that the Qajars were originally part of a larger tribal group, with the
Bayats often considered the most likely tribe from which they later separated. According to the same late legend, the Qajar tribe's namesake ancestor was Qajar Noyan, said to be the son of a
Mongol named Sartuq Noyan, who reportedly served as
atabeg to the Ilkhanate ruler
Arghun (). This legend also claims that the
Turco-Mongol ruler
Timur () was descended from Qajar Noyan. Based on the claims of the legend,
Iranologist Gavin R. G. Hambly reconstructed the early history of the Qajars in a hypothetical manner, suggesting that they immigrated towards
Anatolia or
Syria following the collapse of the Ilkhanate in 1335. Then, during the late 15th century, the Qajars resettled in the historical region of
Azerbaijan, becoming affiliated with the neighbouring
Erivan,
Ganja and
Karabakh. Like the other Oghuz tribes in Azerbaijan and eastern Anatolia during the rule of the
Aq Qoyunlu, the Qajars likely also converted to
Shia Islam and adopted the teachings of the
Safavid order. The
Qajar tribe first started to gain prominence during the establishment of the Safavids. When Ismail led the 7,000 tribal soldiers on his successful expedition from
Erzincan to
Shirvan in 1500/1501, a contingent of Qajars was among them. After this, they emerged as a prominent group within the
Qizilbash confederacy, who were made up of
Turkoman warriors and served as the main force of the
Safavid military. Despite being smaller than other tribes, the Qajars continued to play a major role in important events during the 16th century. The Safavids "left
Arran (present-day
Republic of Azerbaijan) to local Turkic khans", and, "in 1554
Ganja was governed by
Shahverdi Soltan Ziyadoglu Qajar, whose family came to govern
Karabakh in southern
Arran". Qajars filled a number of diplomatic missions and governorships in the 16–17th centuries for the Safavids. The Qajars were resettled by
Shah Abbas I throughout Iran. The great number of them also settled in Astarabad (present-day
Gorgan,
Iran) near the south-eastern corner of the
Caspian Sea, and it would be this branch of Qajars that would rise to power. The immediate ancestor of the Qajar dynasty, Shah Qoli Khan of the Quvanlu of Ganja, married into the Quvanlu Qajars of Astarabad. His son,
Fath Ali Khan (born –1693) was a renowned military commander during the rule of the Safavid shahs
Soltan Hoseyn and
Tahmasp II. He was killed in 1726. Fath Ali Khan's son
Mohammad Hasan Khan Qajar (1722–1758) was the father of
Mohammad Khan Qajar and
Hossein Qoli Khan Qajar (Jahansouz Shah), father of "Baba Khan," the future
Fath-Ali Shah Qajar. Mohammad Hasan Khan was killed on the orders of
Karim Khan of the
Zand dynasty. Within 126 years between the demise of the Safavid state and the rise of
Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, the Qajars had evolved from a shepherd-warrior tribe with strongholds in northern Iran into an Iranian dynasty with all the trappings of a Perso-Islamic monarchy.
Rise to power "Like virtually every dynasty that ruled Persia since the 11th century, the Qajars came to power with the backing of
Turkic tribal forces, while using educated
Persians in their bureaucracy". Among these Turkic tribes, however,
Turkomans of Iran played the most prominent role in bringing Qajars to power. In 1779, following the death of
Karim Khan of the
Zand dynasty,
Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, the leader of the Qajars, set out to reunify
Iran. Agha Mohammad Khan was known as one of the cruelest kings, even by the standards of 18th-century Iran. By 1794, Agha Mohammad Khan had eliminated all his rivals, including
Lotf Ali Khan, the last of the Zands. He reestablished Iranian control over the territories in the entire
Caucasus. Agha Mohammad established his capital at
Tehran, a town near the ruins of the ancient city of
Ray. In 1796, he was formally crowned as
shah. In 1797, Agha Mohammad Khan was assassinated in
Shusha, the capital of
Karabakh Khanate, and was succeeded by his nephew,
Fath-Ali Shah Qajar.
Reconquest of Georgia and the rest of the Caucasus In 1744,
Nader Shah had granted the kingship of the
Kartli and
Kakheti to
Teimuraz II and his son
Erekle II (Heraclius II) respectively, as a reward for their loyalty. When Nader Shah died in 1747, they capitalized on the chaos that had erupted in mainland Iran, and declared
de facto independence. After Teimuraz II died in 1762, Erekle II assumed control over Kartli, and united the two kingdoms in a personal union as the
Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, becoming the first Georgian ruler to preside over a politically unified eastern Georgia in three centuries. At about the same time,
Karim Khan Zand had ascended the Iranian throne; Erekle II quickly tendered his
de jure submission to the new Iranian ruler, however,
de facto, he remained autonomous. In 1783, Erekle II placed his kingdom under the
protection of the Russian Empire in the
Treaty of Georgievsk. In the last few decades of the 18th century, Georgia had become a more important element in
Russo-Iranian relations than some provinces in northern mainland Iran, such as
Mazandaran or even
Gilan. Unlike
Peter the Great,
Catherine the Great, the then-ruling monarch of Russia, viewed Georgia as a pivot for her Caucasian policy, as Russia's new aspirations were to use it as a base of operations against both Iran and the Ottoman Empire, both immediate bordering geopolitical rivals of Russia. On top of that, having another port on the Georgian coast of the
Black Sea would be ideal. A limited Russian contingent of two infantry battalions with four artillery pieces arrived in
Tbilisi in 1784, but was withdrawn in 1787, despite the frantic protests of the Georgians, as
a new war against Ottoman Turkey had started on a different front. by Agha Muhammad Khan. A Qajar-era Persian miniature from the
British Library. The consequences of these events came a few years later when a strong new Iranian dynasty under the Qajars emerged victorious in the protracted power struggle in Iran. Their head,
Agha Mohammad Khan, as his first objective, resolved to bring the
Caucasus again fully under the Persian orbit. For Agha Mohammad Khan, the resubjugation and reintegration of Georgia into the Iranian empire was part of the same process that had brought
Shiraz,
Isfahan, and
Tabriz under his rule. He viewed, like the Safavids and Nader Shah before him, the territories no different from the territories in mainland Iran. Georgia was a province of Iran the same way
Khorasan was. As
The Cambridge History of Iran states, its permanent secession was inconceivable and had to be resisted in the same way as one would resist an attempt at the separation of
Fars or Gilan. It was therefore natural for Agha Mohammad Khan to perform whatever necessary means in the Caucasus in order to subdue and reincorporate the recently lost regions following Nader Shah's death and the demise of the Zands, including putting down what in Iranian eyes was seen as treason on the part of the
vali of Georgia. Having secured northern, western, and central Iran and having found a temporary respite from their internal quarrels, the Iranians demanded that Erekle II renounce his treaty with Russia and once again acknowledge Iranian suzerainty, in return for peace and the security of his kingdom. The Ottomans, Iran's neighboring rival, recognized the latter's rights over Kartli and Kakheti for the first time in four centuries. Erekle appealed then to his theoretical protector, Empress Catherine II of Russia, asking for at least 3,000 Russian troops, Nevertheless, Erekle II still rejected Agha Mohammad Khan's
ultimatum. In August 1795, Agha Mohammad Khan crossed the
Aras River, and after a turn of events by which he gathered more support from his subordinate khans of
Erivan and
Ganja, and having re-secured the territories up to including parts of
Dagestan in the north and up to the westernmost border of modern-day
Armenia in the west, he sent Erekle the last ultimatum, which he also declined, but, sent couriers to St.Petersburg.
Gudovich, who sat in
Georgiyevsk at the time, instructed Erekle to avoid "expense and fuss", By this, after the conquest of Tbilisi and being in effective control of eastern
Georgia, Agha Mohammad was formally crowned
Shah in 1796 in the
Mughan plain. The next two years were a time of muddle and confusion, and the weakened and devastated Georgian kingdom, with its capital half in ruins, was easily
absorbed by Russia in 1801. In 1804, the Russians
invaded and sacked the Iranian town of Ganja, massacring and expelling thousands of its inhabitants, thereby beginning the
Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813. Under
Fath Ali Shah (r. 1797–1834), the Qajars set out to fight against the invading Russian Empire, who were keen to take the Iranian territories in the region. This period marked the beginning of significant economic and military encroachments upon Iranian interests during the colonial era. The Qajar army suffered a major military defeat in the war, and under the terms of the
Treaty of Gulistan in 1813, Iran was forced to cede most of its Caucasian territories comprising modern-day
Georgia,
Dagestan, and most of
Azerbaijan. This sparked the final bout of hostilities between the two; the
Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828. It ended even more disastrously for Qajar Iran with temporary occupation of
Tabriz and the signing of the
Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828, acknowledging Russian sovereignty over the entire
South Caucasus and Dagestan, as well as therefore the ceding of what is nowadays
Armenia and the remaining part of
Republic of Azerbaijan; As a further direct result and consequence of the Gulistan and Turkmenchay treaties of 1813 and 1828 respectively, the formerly Iranian territories became part of Russia for around the next 180 years, except Dagestan, which has remained a Russian possession ever since. Out of the greater part of the territory, six separate nations would be formed through the
dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, namely Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and three generally unrecognized republics
Abkhazia,
Artsakh and
South Ossetia claimed by Georgia. Lastly and equally important, as a result of Russia's imposing of the two treaties, It also decisively parted the
Azerbaijanis and
Talysh ever since between two nations. File:Battle Between Persians and Russians - State Hermitage Museum.jpg|
Battle of Sultanabad, 13 February 1812.
State Hermitage Museum. File:Russian troops storming Lankaran fortress, January 13th, 1813..jpg|
Storming of Lankaran, 13 January 1813.
Franz Roubaud. File:%D0%A1%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B6%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5_%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%B4_%D0%95%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BC.jpeg|
Battle of Ganja, 1826. Franz Roubaud. Part of the collection of the Museum for History,
Baku.
Migration of Caucasian Muslims Following the official losing of the aforementioned vast territories in the Caucasus, major demographic shifts were bound to take place. Solidly Persian-speaking territories of Iran were lost, with all its inhabitants in it. Following the 1804–1814 War, but also per the 1826–1828 war which ceded the last territories, large migrations, so-called
Caucasian Muhajirs, set off to migrate to mainland Iran. Some of these groups included the
Ayrums,
Qarapapaqs,
Circassians, Shia
Lezgins, and other
Transcaucasian Muslims. "
Battle of Ganja" during the Russo-Persian War (1804–1813) Through the
Battle of Ganja of 1804 during the
Russo-Persian War (1804–1813), many thousands of Ayrums and Qarapapaqs were settled in Tabriz. During the remaining part of the 1804–1813 war, as well as through the
1826–1828 war, the absolute bulk of the Ayrums and Qarapapaqs that were still remaining in newly conquered Russian territories were settled in and migrated to
Solduz (in modern-day Iran's
West Azerbaijan province). As
The Cambridge History of Iran states; "The steady encroachment of Russian troops along the frontier in the Caucasus, General
Yermolov's brutal punitive expeditions and misgovernment, drove large numbers of Muslims, and even some
Georgian Christians, into exile in Iran." In 1864 until the early 20th century,
another mass expulsion took place of Caucasian Muslims as a result of the Russian victory in the
Caucasian War. Others simply voluntarily refused to live under
Christian Russian rule, and thus disembarked for Turkey or Iran. These migrations once again, towards Iran, included masses of Caucasian
Azerbaijanis, other Transcaucasian Muslims, as well as many North Caucasian Muslims, such as Circassians, Shia Lezgins and
Laks. Many of these migrants would prove to play a pivotal role in further Iranian history, as they formed most of the ranks of the
Persian Cossack Brigade, which was also to be established in the late 19th century. The initial ranks of the brigade would be entirely composed of
Circassians and other Caucasian Muhajirs. Until the mid-fourteenth century, Armenians had constituted a majority in
Eastern Armenia. At the close of the fourteenth century, after
Timur's campaigns, Islam had become the dominant faith, and Armenians became a minority in Eastern Armenia. After centuries of constant warfare on the Armenian Plateau, many Armenians chose to emigrate and settle elsewhere. Following
Abbas the Great's massive relocation of Armenians and Muslims in 1604–05, their numbers dwindled even further. At the time of the Russian invasion of Iran, some 80% of the population of
Erivan Khanate in
Iranian Armenia were Muslims (
Persians,
Turkics, and
Kurds) whereas Christian
Armenians constituted a minority of about 20%. As a result of the
Treaty of Gulistan (1813) and the Treaty of Turkmenchay (1828), Iran was forced to cede Iranian Armenia (which also constituted the present-day
Armenia), to the Russians. After the Russian administration took hold of Iranian Armenia, the ethnic make-up shifted, and thus for the first time in more than four centuries, ethnic Armenians started to form a majority once again in one part of historic Armenia.
Development and decline Fath Ali Shah's reign saw increased diplomatic contacts with the West and the beginning of intense European diplomatic rivalries over Iran. His grandson
Mohammad Shah, who fell under the Russian influence and made two unsuccessful attempts to capture
Herat, succeeded him in 1834. When Mohammad Shah died in 1848 the succession passed to his son
Naser al-Din, who proved to be the ablest and most successful of the Qajar sovereigns. He founded the first modern hospital in Iran. During Naser al-Din Shah's reign, Western science, technology, and educational methods were introduced into Iran and the country's modernization was begun. Naser al-Din Shah tried to exploit the mutual distrust between Great Britain and Russia to preserve Iran's independence, but foreign interference and territorial encroachment increased under his rule. He was not able to prevent
Britain and Russia from encroaching into regions of traditional Iranian influence. receiving the title of
Generalissimo after commanding the Persian forces to siege
Ghorian during the
Second Herat War. In 1856, Naser al-Din Shah launched the
Second Herat War to reassert Qajar suzerainty over
Herat, a strategically vital city state in western Afghanistan that Iran had long claimed as part of its historic sphere. Persian forces under
Morad Mirza Hesam o-Saltaneh captured Herat in October 1856 after a nine-month siege, deposing the local ruler and installing a pro-Iranian governor. This success alarmed Britain, which considered Herat the “gate of India” and feared Persian (and potentially Russian) expansion toward its Indian empire. Britain declared war on Iran in November 1856 (the Anglo-Persian War), but the Persian occupation of Herat itself represented a clear military and political victory for Naser al-Din Shah, temporarily restoring Iranian control over a region lost since the mid-1700s. (7 February 1857), the ultimate battle of the
Anglo-Persian War. In 1856, during the
Anglo-Persian War, Britain prevented Iran from reasserting control over
Herat. The city had been part of Iran in Safavid times, but Herat had been under
Durrani rule since the mid–18th century. Britain also extended its control to other areas of the
Persian Gulf during the 19th century. Meanwhile, by 1881, Russia had completed its conquest of present-day
Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan, bringing Russia's frontier to Persia's northeastern borders and severing historic Iranian ties to the cities of
Bukhara,
Merv and
Samarqand. With the conclusion of the
Treaty of Akhal on 21 September 1881, Iran ceased any claim to all parts of
Turkestan and
Transoxiana, setting the
Atrek River as the new boundary with Imperial Russia. Hence
Merv,
Sarakhs,
Ashgabat, and the surrounding areas were transferred to Russian control under the command of General Alexander Komarov in 1884. Several trade concessions by the Iranian government put economic affairs largely under British control. By the late 19th century, many Iranians believed that their rulers were beholden to foreign interests.
Mirza Taghi Khan Amir Kabir, was the young prince Naser al-Din's advisor and constable. With the death of Mohammad Shah in 1848, Mirza Taqi was largely responsible for ensuring the crown prince's succession to the throne. When Naser ed-Din succeeded to the throne, Amir Nezam was awarded the position of the prime minister and the title of
Amir Kabir, the Great Ruler. At that time, Iran was nearly bankrupt. During the next two and a half years Amir Kabir initiated important reforms in virtually all sectors of society. Government expenditure was slashed, and a distinction was made between the private and public purses. The instruments of central administration were overhauled, and Amir Kabir assumed responsibility for all areas of the bureaucracy. There were
Bahai revolts and
a revolt in Khorasan at the time but were crushed under Amir Kabir. Foreign interference in Iran's domestic affairs was curtailed, and foreign trade was encouraged. Public works such as the bazaar in Tehran were undertaken. Amir Kabir issued an edict banning ornate and excessively formal writing in government documents; the beginning of a modern Persian prose style dates from this time. , an
Austrian-
Jewish physician who taught medicine at
Dar al-Fonun from 1851 to 1860. One of the greatest achievements of Amir Kabir was the building of
Dar al-Fonun in 1851, the first modern university in Iran and the Middle East. Dar ol-Fonun was established for training a new cadre of administrators and acquainting them with Western techniques. It marked the beginning of modern education in Iran. Amir Kabir ordered the school to be built on the edge of the city so it could be expanded as needed. He hired French and Russian instructors as well as Iranians to teach subjects as different as Language, Medicine, Law, Geography, History, Economics, and Engineering, amongst numerous others. Ever since the 1828
Treaty of Turkmanchay, Russia had received territorial domination in Iran. With the
Romanovs shifting to a policy of 'informal support' for the weakened
Qajar dynasty — continuing to place pressure with advances in the largely nomadic Turkestan, a crucial frontier territory of the Qajars — this Russian domination of Iran continued for nearly a century. The Iranian monarchy became more of a symbolic concept in which Russian diplomats were themselves powerbrokers in Iran and the monarchy was dependent on British and Russian loans for funds. By the 1890s, Russian tutors, doctors and officers were prominent at the Shah's court, influencing policy personally. Russia and Britain had competing investments in the industrialisation of Iran including roads and telegraph lines, as a way to profit and extend their influence. However, until 1907 the Great Game rivalry was so pronounced that mutual British and Russian demands to the Shah to exclude the other, blocked all railroad construction in Iran at the end of the 19th century. British and Russian officials coordinated as the Russian army, still present in Iran, invaded the capital again and suspended the parliament. The Tsar ordered the troops in Tabriz "to act harshly and quickly", while purges were ordered, leading to many executions of prominent revolutionaries. The British Ambassador,
George Head Barclay reported disapproval of this "reign of terror", though would soon pressure Persian ministers to officialize the Anglo-Russian partition of Iran. By June 1914, Russia established near-total control over its northern zone, while Britain had established influence over
Baluch and
Bakhtiari autonomous tribal leaders in the southeastern zone. Qajar Iran would become a battleground between Russian, Ottoman, and British forces in the
Persian campaign of World War I. Local irregular forces under Heydar Latifiyan blocked the Russian advance at Robat Karim. Ahmad Shah died on 21 February 1930, in
Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. == Government and administration ==