Qajar Persia
Late Modern Era / 19th Century · ~1800 – 1914
Qajar Persia was the Iranian state ruled by the Qajar dynasty, a Turkmen tribal family, from 1789 to 1925. Its first great ruler, Agha Mohammad Khan, took power after the fall of the Zand dynasty and was crowned in 1796. His successors ruled from Tehran over a large, diverse land of farmers, nomads and merchants, with a weak treasury and an army that was often outmatched.
In the nineteenth century Persia lost wars to Russia and gave up the Caucasus. It was also pulled between Russian and British interests, and it granted foreign powers trade and legal privileges. Reformers, clerics and merchants pressed for change. Protest against a tobacco monopoly in 1891 to 1892 was followed by the Constitutional Revolution of 1905 to 1911, which produced Iran's first parliament and constitution. The dynasty lasted until 1925, but the foreign pressure and the call for law and representation shaped modern Iran.
Things happened, and the rest is history
Agha Mohammad Khan founds the dynasty
EventWhat happened
After the Zand ruler Lotf Ali Khan is defeated in 1794, Agha Mohammad Khan of the Qajar tribe takes control of Iran's heartland and makes Tehran his capital. In 1795 he invades Georgia and sacks Tbilisi. He is crowned shah in 1796 and is assassinated by his servants in 1797 during a campaign in the Caucasus.
The rest is history
His nephew Fath-Ali Shah succeeded him without a lasting struggle, and the dynasty held the throne for well over a century. Agha Mohammad Khan had reunited most of the country by force. His claim to the Caucasus, however, set Persia on a collision course with Russia, which had its own ambitions there.
Sources
- BookAmanat, Abbas. Iran: A Modern History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017.
- BookThe Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 7: From Nadir Shah to the Islamic Republic. Edited by Peter Avery, Gavin Hambly and Charles Melville. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
The Russo-Persian wars and the Treaty of Gulistan
EventWhat happened
Russia annexes Georgia in 1801, and war with Persia begins in 1804. Persia is beaten, and in the Treaty of Gulistan of 1813 it cedes Dagestan and most of the northern Caucasus lands it had claimed, including Karabakh, Shirvan and Georgia. Fighting resumes in 1826.
The rest is history
The second war ended with Persian defeat and the Treaty of Turkmanchai in 1828. The treaty gave Russia Erivan and Nakhichevan, imposed a large indemnity, and granted Russian subjects extraterritorial legal rights. It set the northern border of Iran along the Aras river. The losses showed the need for military reform and weakened the shah's prestige.
Sources
- PrimaryTreaty of Gulistan. Treaty between Russia and Persia, 1813.
- PrimaryTreaty of Turkmanchai. Treaty between Russia and Persia, 1828.
- BookAmanat, Abbas. Pivot of the Universe: Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831-1896. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
Abbas Mirza and the first military reforms
EventWhat happened
Crown Prince Abbas Mirza, governor of Azerbaijan in Tabriz, sets up a European-style army, the Nizam-i Jadid, in the early 1800s, using British and French officers. He also sends Persian students to Europe, first in 1811, and brings a printing press to Tabriz.
The rest is history
The new army fought Russia with mixed results and could not prevent defeat in 1828. Abbas Mirza died in 1833, before he could succeed his father. His efforts began the practice of sending students abroad and of adopting Western methods. Lack of money and resistance from conservative circles limited how far reform went.
Sources
- BookCronin, Stephanie, ed. Iranian-Russian Encounters: Empires and Revolutions since 1800. London: Routledge, 2013.
- BookAmanat, Abbas. Iran: A Modern History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017.
The Herat siege and the Treaty of Paris
EventWhat happened
In 1837 Mohammad Shah Qajar besieges Herat, which Persia claimed. Russia supports him. Britain, anxious about India, sends a naval force to the Persian Gulf and occupies Kharg Island in 1838. The siege is lifted. A second Persian move on Herat in 1856 leads to a brief Anglo-Persian war, ending with the Treaty of Paris in 1857, in which Persia renounces its claims to Herat.
The rest is history
The episodes show Persia as a buffer in the rivalry between Britain and Russia, sometimes called the Great Game. Persia lost Herat and its eastern claims. Britain gained influence in the south and the Gulf, while Russia was strongest in the north. Persian rulers often tried to play one power against the other.
Sources
- PrimaryTreaty of Paris between Britain and Persia, 4 March 1857.
- BookHopkirk, Peter. The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
The Babi movement and its suppression
EventWhat happened
In 1844 Sayyid Ali Muhammad of Shiraz declares himself the Bab, 'the Gate', and gathers many followers. Clerics and the state oppose the movement, and Babi uprisings occur in several places in 1848 to 1850. The Bab is executed in Tabriz in 1850, and after an attempt on Nasir al-Din Shah's life in 1852 many Babis are killed.
The rest is history
The movement was crushed as an organised force. Its survivors included Baha'u'llah, who was exiled and later founded the Baha'i faith. The episode showed how much religious dissent worried the state and the clergy. It also left a lasting mark on Iranian religious and intellectual life.
Sources
- BookAmanat, Abbas. Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844-1850. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989.
Amir Kabir's reforms
EventWhat happened
Mirza Taqi Khan, called Amir Kabir, becomes chief minister to the young Nasir al-Din Shah in 1848. He cuts court spending, reorganises the army and the finances, and founds the Dar al-Funun, a polytechnic school, in Tehran. He is dismissed in 1851 and killed on royal orders in 1852.
The rest is history
The Dar al-Funun opened in 1851 and trained officers, doctors and translators for decades. Amir Kabir's fall showed how court rivalries could end reform. Later ministers tried similar changes with limited success. He is still remembered as a model of reforming administration.
Sources
- BookAmanat, Abbas. Pivot of the Universe: Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831-1896. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
The tobacco protest
EventWhat happened
In 1890 Nasir al-Din Shah grants a British subject, Major G. F. Talbot, a fifty-year monopoly over the sale and export of Iranian tobacco. Merchants, clerics and townspeople protest, and in December 1891 a senior cleric issues a ruling against using tobacco. The ban is widely obeyed, and in January 1892 the shah cancels the concession.
The rest is history
The cancellation left Persia owing compensation, which it paid with its first foreign loan, from a British bank. The protest showed that merchants and clergy could act together against the crown and foreign interests. Many historians see it as a forerunner of the Constitutional Revolution.
Sources
- BookKeddie, Nikki R. Religion and Rebellion in Iran: The Tobacco Protest of 1891-1892. London: Frank Cass, 1966.
The Constitutional Revolution
EventWhat happened
In 1905 to 1906 protests over prices and official abuses grow, and merchants and clergy take refuge in sanctuaries in Tehran and Qom. In August 1906 Mozaffar al-Din Shah agrees to a National Consultative Assembly, the Majles, and signs a constitution in December. His son Mohammad Ali Shah bombards the Majles in June 1908, and constitutionalists retake Tehran in July 1909.
The rest is history
The Majles reopened in 1909 and the shah was deposed. The 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention divided Iran into spheres of influence, and in 1911 Russian pressure helped close the Majles, ending the first constitutional period. The constitution remained in law, and the revolution left a lasting idea of representative government.
Sources
- BookAfary, Janet. The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906-1911. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.
- BookBrowne, Edward G. The Persian Revolution of 1905-1909. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910.
The blinding of Lotf Ali Khan's followers
Folk taleThe legend
It is told that when Agha Mohammad Khan took the city of Kerman in 1794, he demanded thousands of pairs of eyes from its people as punishment for sheltering Lotf Ali Khan. The pile of eyes, the story says, was counted out before him.
The rest is history
The story comes from later accounts, including European travel writing. The capture of Kerman was real and savage, and Agha Mohammad Khan was known for cruelty. Many men were blinded or enslaved and the city was ruined. Exact numbers are uncertain, and the heaped-eyes scene may be exaggeration. Lotf Ali Khan was captured in 1794 and executed in Tehran.
Sources
- BookPerry, John R. Karim Khan Zand: A History of Iran, 1747-1779. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979.
- BookAmanat, Abbas. Iran: A Modern History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017.
The Persian shah and the Peacock Throne
Popular beliefThe legend
It is often said that the Peacock Throne of the Persian shahs was the jewelled throne of the Mughal emperors, carried off by Nadir Shah in 1739 and used by the Qajars ever after.
The rest is history
Nadir Shah did loot Delhi in 1739 and took the Mughal Peacock Throne with its treasure. The throne was probably broken up after his death in 1747. The throne in Tehran's Golestan Palace, called the Peacock or Sun Throne, was a Qajar work, made in the time of Fath-Ali Shah in the early 1800s. It was named for the earlier one and holds Qajar-era decoration. Pahlavi rulers later used the same name for their own regime.
Sources
- BookAxworthy, Michael. Iran: Empire of the Mind. London: Penguin, 2007.
- BookAxworthy, Michael. The Sword of Persia: Nader Shah, from Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant. London: I. B. Tauris, 2006.