Qajar dynasty

The Qajars (Qajar^ⓘ) (Azerbaijani:Qacarlar, Template:PerB - or دودمان قاجار - Qâjâr) were the ruling Turkmen dynasty of Iran from 1781 to 1925.

Origins of the Qovanlu Qajars

The Qajar were a Turkmen tribe who first settled during the Mongol period in the vicinity of Armenia and were among the seven Qizilbash tribes that supported the Safavids ^[1]. The Safavids "left Arran (present Republic of Azerbaijan) to local Turkish khans" ^[2], and, in 1554 Ganja was governed by Shahverdi Soltan Ziyadoglu Qajar, whose family also governed Karabakh ^[3]. Qajars also filled a number of diplomatic missions and governorships in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for the Safavids.

The immediate ancestor of the Qajars is Shah Qoli Khan Qajar Qovanlu of the Qovanlus of Ganja, who, when the Qajars of Ganja moved east to Gorgan, married into the Qovanlu Qajars of Astarabad. His son was Fath Ali Khan Qajar, born ca. 1685-6 or 1692-3. Fath Ali Khan's base was Astarabad and he was a renowned military commander in his time. He served as military commander under two Safavid shahs, Shah Soltan Hossein and Shah Tahmasp II. He was killed on the orders of Tahmasb Qoli Khan Afshar in 1726. His son was Mohammad Hassan Khan Qajar (b. ca. 1722), killed in 1758/59 at the behest of Karim Khan Zand. He was the father of Agha Mohammad Khan and Hossein Qoli Khan (Djahansouz Shah) Qajar (father of "Baba Khan," the future Fath Ali Shah Qajar).

In 1779, following the death of Mohammad Karim Khan Zand, the Zand dynasty ruler of southern Persia, Agha Mohammad Khan, the leader of the Qajar tribe, set out to reunify Persia. Agha Mohammad Khan defeated numerous rivals and brought all of Iran under his rule, establishing the Qajar dynasty. By 1794 he had eliminated all his rivals, including Lotf 'Ali Khan, the last of the Zand dynasty, and had reasserted Iranian sovereignty over the former Iranian territories in Georgia and the Caucasus. Agha Mohammad established his capital at Tehran, a village near the ruins of the ancient city of Rayy. In 1796 he was formally crowned as shah. Agha Mohammad was assassinated in 1797 in Shusha (located in Karabakh) and was succeeded by his nephew, Fath Ali Shah Qajar.

Under Fath Ali Shah, Iran went to war against Russia, which was expanding from the north into the Caucasus Mountains, an area of historic Iranian interest and influence. This period marked the first major economic and military encroachments on Iranian interests during the colonial era. Iran suffered major military defeats during the war. Under the terms of the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813, Iran recognized Russia's annexation of Georgia and ceded to Russia most of the north Caucasus region. A second war with Russia in the 1820s ended even more disastrously for Iran, which in 1828 was forced to sign the Treaty of Turkmenchay acknowledging Russian sovereignty over the entire South Caucasus, the area north of the Aras River.

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 influence of Russia and made two unsuccessful attempts to capture Herat, succeeded him in 1834. When Mohammad Shah died in 1848 the succession passed to his son Nasser-e-Din, who proved to be the ablest and most successful of the Qajar sovereigns.

During Nasser-e-Din Shah's reign Western science, technology, and educational methods were introduced into Iran and the country's modernization was begun. Nasser-e-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 contracted huge foreign loans to finance expensive personal trips to Europe. He was not able to prevent Britain and Russia from encroaching into regions of traditional Iranian influence. In 1856 Britain prevented Iran from reasserting control over Herat, which had been part of Iran in Safavid times but had been under non-Iranian rule since the mid-18th century. Britain supported the city's incorporation into Afghanistan; a country Britain helped create in order to extend eastward the buffer between its Indian territories and Russia's expanding empire. 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 Iran's northeastern borders and severing historic Iranian ties to the cities of Bukhara and Samarqand. 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.

Mullahs in the royal presence. The painting style is markedly Qajari.

Mirza Taghi Khan Amir Kabir, was the young prince Nasser-e-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 Nasser-e-Din succeeded to the throne, Amir Nezam was awarded the position of prime minister and the title of Amir Kabir, the Great Ruler.

Iran was virtually bankrupt, its central government was weak, and its provinces were almost autonomous. 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. 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.

One of the greatest achievements of Amir Kabir was the building of Dar ol Fonoon, the first modern university in Iran and the Middle East. Dar-ol-Fonoon was established for training a new cadre of administrators and acquainting them with Western techniques. Amir Kabir ordered the school to be built on the edge of the city so it can 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. Unfortunately, Amir Kabir did not live long enough to see his greatest monument completed, but it still stands in Tehran as a sign of a great man's ideas for the future of his country.

These reforms antagonized various notables who had been excluded from the government. They regarded the Amir Kabir as a social upstart and a threat to their interests, and they formed a coalition against him, in which the queen mother was active. She convinced the young shah that Amir Kabir wanted to usurp the throne. In October 1851 the shah dismissed him and exiled him to Kashan, where he was murdered on the shah's orders.

The Constitutional Revolution

When Nasser-e-Din Shah was assassinated by Mirza Reza Kermani in 1896, the crown passed to his son Mozaffar-e-din. Mozaffar-e-din Shah was a weak and ineffectual ruler. Royal extravagance and the absence of incoming revenues exacerbated financial problems. The shah quickly spent two large loans from Russia, partly on trips to Europe. Public anger fed on the shah's propensity for granting concessions to Europeans in return for generous payments to him and his officials. People began to demand a curb on royal authority and the establishment of the rule of law as their concern over foreign, and especially Russian, influence grew.

The shah's failure to respond to protests by the religious establishment, the merchants, and other classes led the merchants and clerical leaders in January 1906 to take sanctuary from probable arrest in mosques in Tehran and outside the capital. When the shah reneged on a promise to permit the establishment of a "house of justice", or consultative assembly, 10,000 people, led by the merchants, took sanctuary in June in the compound of the British legation in Tehran. In August the shah was forced to issue a decree promising a constitution. In October an elected assembly convened and drew up a constitution that provided for strict limitations on royal power, an elected parliament, or Majlis, with wide powers to represent the people, and a government with a cabinet subject to confirmation by the Majles. The shah signed the constitution on December 30, 1906, but refusing to forfeit all of his power to the Majles, attached a caveat that made his signature on all laws required for their enactment. He died five days later. The Supplementary Fundamental Laws approved in 1907 provided, within limits, for freedom of press, speech, and association, and for security of life and property. The Constitutional Revolution marked the end of the medieval period in Iran. The hopes for constitutional rule were not realized, however.

Mozaffar-e-din Shah's son Mohammad Ali Shah (reigned 1907-09), and, with the aid of Russia, attempted to rescind the constitution and abolish parliamentary government. After several disputes with the members of the Majlis, in June 1908 he used his Russian-officered Persian Cossacks Brigade to bomb the Majlis building, arrest many of the deputies, and close down the assembly. Resistance to the shah, however, coalesced in Tabriz, Isfahan, Rasht, and elsewhere. In July 1909, constitutional forces marched from Rasht and Isfahan to Tehran, deposed the shah, and re-established the constitution. The ex-shah went into exile in Russia.

Although the constitutional forces had triumphed, they faced serious difficulties. The upheavals of the Constitutional Revolution and civil war had undermined stability and trade. In addition, the ex-shah, with Russian support, attempted to regain his throne, landing troops in July 1910. Most serious of all, the hope that the Constitutional Revolution would inaugurate a new era of independence from the great powers ended when, under the Anglo-Russian Agreement of 1907, Britain and Russia agreed to divide Iran into spheres of influence. The Russians were to enjoy exclusive right to pursue their interests in the northern sphere, the British in the south and east; both powers would be free to compete for economic and political advantage in a neutral sphere in the center. Matters came to a head when Morgan Shuster, a United States administrator hired as treasurer general by the Persian government to reform its finances, sought to collect taxes from powerful officials who were Russian protégés and to send members of the treasury gendarmerie, a tax department police force, into the Russian zone. When in December 1911 the Majlis unanimously refused a Russian ultimatum demanding Shuster's dismissal, Russian troops, already in the country, moved to occupy the capital. To prevent this, on December 20 Bakhtiari chiefs and their troops surrounded the Majles building, forced acceptance of the Russian ultimatum, and shut down the assembly, once again suspending the constitution.

Soltan Ahmad Shah, was born 21 January 1898 in Tabriz, and succeeded to the throne at age 11. However, the occupation of Iran during World War I (1914-18) by Russian, British, and Ottoman troops was a blow from which Ahmad Shah never effectively recovered. With a coup d'état in February 1921, Reza Khan (ruled as Reza Shah Pahlavi, 1925-41) became the preeminent political personality in Iran; Ahmad Shah left Iran in 1923 for Europe never to return. He was formally deposed by the Majlis (national consultative assembly) in October 1925 while in Europe, and that assembly declared the rule of the Qajar dynasty to be terminated. Sultan Ahmad Shah died later on 21 February 1930 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.

The Qajar Imperial Family in exile is currently headed by the eldest descendant of Mohammad Ali Shah, Soltan Ali Mirza Qajar, while the Heir Presumptive to the Qajar throne is Mohammad Hassan Mirza II, the grandson of Mohammad Hassan Mirza, Soltan Ahmad Shah's brother and heir. Mohammad Hassan Mirza died in England in 1943, having proclaimed himself shah in exile in 1930 after the death of his brother in France.

Today, the descendants of the Qajars often identify themselves as such and hold reunions to stay socially acquainted through the Kadjar Family Association[1].

Shahs of Persia, 1794-1925

Heads and Heirs Presumptive of the Qajar dynasty since 1925

Heads of the Qajar Imperial Family

The headship of the Imperial Family is inherited by the eldest male descendant of Mohammad Ali Shah.

Heirs Presumptive of the Qajar dynasty

Notable members of Qajar family

Political

Mohammed Mossadegh, Iranian prime minister and nationalist. Nationalised Iran's oil industry.
Abdol Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma, Iranian prime minister and major political figure.
Mass'oud Mirza Zell-e Soltan, Governor of Isfahan province.
Abbas Mirza, Fath Ali Shah's crown Prince and military leader
Firouz Mirza Nosrat-ed-Dowleh Farman Farmaian III, Renowned politician and diplomat

Religious

Aga Khan III, Ismaili spiritual leader, mother was a Qajar princess
Aga Khan IV, Current Agha Khan, Qajar through his grandfather Agha Khan III.

Popular Culture

Marjane Satrapi, Iranian cartoonist.
Sarah Shahi, American actress and cheerleader; father is Iranian Qajar.

References

^ Encyclopedia Iranica. The Qajar Dynasty. Online Edition
^ K. M. Röhrborn, Provinzen und Zentralgewalt Persiens im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert, Berlin, 1966, p. 4
^ Encyclopedia Iranica. Ganja. Online Edition

External links

The Qajar (Kadjar) Pages
Qajars Dynasty Turkoman dynasty of the Shahs of Persia
Qajar Family Website

[iranicaqajar-1] Encyclopedia Iranica. The Qajar Dynasty. Online Edition

[rohborn-2] K. M. Röhrborn, Provinzen und Zentralgewalt Persiens im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert, Berlin, 1966, p. 4

[iranicaganja-3] Encyclopedia Iranica. Ganja. Online Edition

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