Guarded Domains of Iran | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1789–1925 | |||||||||||||
| Anthem: (1873–1909) Salâm-e Shâh (Royal salute) (1909–1925) Salamati-ye Dowlat-e 'Aliyye-ye Iran (Salute of the Sublime State of Iran) | |||||||||||||
 Map of Iran under the Qajar dynasty in the 19th century | |||||||||||||
| Capital | Tehran | ||||||||||||
| Common languages | |||||||||||||
| Religion | Shia Islam (official) minority religions:Sunni Islam,Sufism,Judaism,Zoroastrianism,Christianity,Baháʼí Faith,Mandaeism | ||||||||||||
| Government |
| ||||||||||||
| Shah | |||||||||||||
• 1789–1797 (first) | Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar | ||||||||||||
• 1909–1925 (last) | Ahmad Shah Qajar | ||||||||||||
• 1795–1801 (first) | Hajji Ebrahim Shirazi | ||||||||||||
• 1923–1925 (last) | Reza Pahlavi | ||||||||||||
| Legislature | None (until 1906; 1907–1909) National Consultative Assembly (1906–1907; from 1909) | ||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||
• Establishment | 1789 | ||||||||||||
| 24 October 1813 | |||||||||||||
| 10 February 1828 | |||||||||||||
| 4 March 1857 | |||||||||||||
| 21 September 1881 | |||||||||||||
| 5 August 1906 | |||||||||||||
| 27 December 1915 | |||||||||||||
• Deposed by Constituent Assembly | 31 October 1925 | ||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||
| 1873[6] | 1,300,000 km2 (500,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Currency | Toman (1789–1825) Qiran (1825–1925)[7] | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
TheGuarded Domains of Iran,[a] alternatively theSublime State of Iran[b] and commonly calledQajar Iran,Qajar Persia or theQajar Empire, was the Iranian state[8] under the rule of theQajar dynasty, which was ofTurkic origin,[9][10][11] specifically from theQajar tribe, from 1789 to 1925.[8][12] The Qajar family played a pivotal role in theUnification of Iran (1779–1796), deposingLotf 'Ali Khan, the lastShah of theZand dynasty, and re-asserted Iranian sovereignty over large parts of theCaucasus. In 1796,Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar seizedMashhad with ease,[13] putting an end to theAfsharid dynasty. He was formally crowned as Shah after hispunitive campaign against Iran's Georgian subjects.[14]
In the Caucasus, the Qajar dynasty permanently lost much territory[15] to theRussian Empire over the course of the 19th century, comprising modern-day easternGeorgia,Dagestan,Azerbaijan, andArmenia.[16] Despite its territorial losses, Qajar Iran reinvented the Iranian notion of kingship[17] and maintained relative political independence, but faced major challenges to its sovereignty, predominantly from the Russian andBritish empires. Foreign advisers became powerbrokers in the court and military. They eventually partitioned Qajar Iran in the 1907Anglo-Russian Convention, carving out Russian and British influence zones and a neutral zone.[18][19][20]
In the early 20th century, thePersian Constitutional Revolution created an elected parliament orMajles, and sought the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, deposingMohammad Ali Shah Qajar forAhmad Shah Qajar, but many of the constitutional reforms were reversed by anintervention led by the Russian Empire.[18][21] Qajar Iran's territorial integrity was further weakened during thePersian campaign of World War I and the invasion by theOttoman Empire. Four years after the1921 Persian coup d'état, the military officerReza Shah took power in 1925, thus establishing thePahlavi dynasty, the last Iranian royal dynasty.
Since theSafavid era,Mamâlek-e Mahruse-ye Irân (Guarded Domains of Iran) was the common and official name of Iran.[22][23] The idea of the Guarded Domains illustrated a feeling of territorial and political uniformity in a society where the Persian language, culture, monarchy, andShia Islam became integral elements of the developing national identity.[24] The concept presumably had started to form under theMongolIlkhanate in the late 13th century, a period in which regional actions, trade, written culture, and partly Shia Islam, contributed to the establishment of the early modernPersianate world.[25] Its shortened variant wasmamalik-i Iran ("Domains of Iran"), most commonly used in the writings from Qajar Iran.[26]
A late legend holds that the Qajars first came to Iran in the 11th-century along with otherOghuz Turkic clans. However, the Qajars neither appear in the Oghuz tribal lists ofMahmud al-Kashgari norRashid al-Din Hamadani. It has been speculated that the Qajars were originally part of a larger tribal group, with theBayats 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 aMongol named Sartuq Noyan, who reportedly served asatabeg to the Ilkhanate rulerArghun (r. 1284–1291). This legend also claims that theTurco-Mongol rulerTimur (r. 1370–1405) was descended from Qajar Noyan.[27] 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 towardsAnatolia orSyria following the collapse of the Ilkhanate in 1335. Then, during the late 15th century, the Qajars resettled in the historical region ofAzerbaijan, becoming affiliated with the neighbouringErivan,Ganja andKarabakh.[28] Like the other Oghuz tribes in Azerbaijan and eastern Anatolia during the rule of theAq Qoyunlu, the Qajars likely also converted toShia Islam and adopted the teachings of theSafavid order.[29]
TheQajar tribe first started to gain prominence during the establishment of the Safavids.[29] When Ismail led the 7,000 tribal soldiers on his successful expedition fromErzincan toShirvan in 1500/1501, a contingent of Qajars was among them. After this, they emerged as a prominent group within theQizilbash confederacy,[30] who were made up ofTurkoman warriors and served as the main force of theSafavid military.[31] Despite being smaller than other tribes, the Qajars continued to play a major role in important events during the 16th century.[32]
The Safavids "leftArran (present-dayRepublic of Azerbaijan) to local Turkic khans",[33] and, "in 1554Ganja was governed byShahverdi Soltan Ziyadoglu Qajar, whose family came to governKarabakh in southernArran".[34] Qajars filled a number of diplomatic missions and governorships in the 16–17th centuries for the Safavids. The Qajars were resettled byShah Abbas I throughout Iran. The great number of them also settled in Astarabad (present-dayGorgan,Iran) near the south-eastern corner of theCaspian Sea,[9] 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 (bornc. 1685–1693) was a renowned military commander during the rule of the Safavid shahsSultan Husayn andTahmasp II. He was killed in 1726. Fath Ali Khan's sonMohammad Hasan Khan Qajar (1722–1758) was the father ofMohammad Khan Qajar andHossein Qoli Khan Qajar (Jahansouz Shah), father of "Baba Khan," the futureFath-Ali Shah Qajar. Mohammad Hasan Khan was killed on the orders ofKarim Khan of theZand dynasty.
Within 126 years between the demise of the Safavid state and the rise ofNaser al-Din Shah Qajar, the Qajars had evolved from a shepherd-warrior tribe with strongholds in northern Persia into a Persian dynasty with all the trappings of a Perso-Islamic monarchy.[8]
"Like virtually every dynasty that ruled Persia since the 11th century, the Qajars came to power with the backing ofTurkic tribal forces, while using educatedPersians in their bureaucracy".[35] Among these Turkic tribes, however,Turkmens of Iran played the most prominent role in bringing Qajars to power.[36] In 1779, following the death ofKarim Khan of theZand dynasty,Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, the leader of the Qajars, set out to reunifyIran. Agha Mohammad Khan was known as one of the cruelest kings, even by the standards of 18th-century Iran.[9] In his quest for power, he razed cities, massacred entire populations, and blinded some 20,000 men in the city ofKerman because the local populace had chosen to defend the city against hissiege.[9]
The Qajar armies at that time were mostly composed ofTurkoman warriors andGeorgian slaves.[37] By 1794, Agha Mohammad Khan had eliminated all his rivals, includingLotf Ali Khan, the last of the Zand dynasty. He reestablished Iranian control over the territories in the entireCaucasus. Agha Mohammad established his capital atTehran, a town near the ruins of the ancient city ofRayy. In 1796, he was formally crowned asshah. In 1797, Agha Mohammad Khan was assassinated inShusha, the capital ofKarabakh Khanate, and was succeeded by his nephew,Fath-Ali Shah Qajar.
In 1744,Nader Shah had granted the kingship of theKartli andKakheti toTeimuraz II and his sonErekle II (Heraclius II) respectively, as a reward for their loyalty.[38] When Nader Shah died in 1747, they capitalized on the chaos that had erupted in mainland Iran, and declaredde facto independence. After Teimuraz II died in 1762, Erekle II assumed control over Kartli, and united the two kingdoms in a personal union as theKingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, becoming the first Georgian ruler to preside over a politically unified eastern Georgia in three centuries.[39] At about the same time,Karim Khan Zand had ascended the Iranian throne; Erekle II quickly tendered hisde jure submission to the new Iranian ruler, however,de facto, he remained autonomous.[40][41] In 1783, Erekle II placed his kingdom under theprotection of the Russian Empire in theTreaty of Georgievsk. In the last few decades of the 18th century, Georgia had become a more important element inRusso-Iranian relations than some provinces in northern mainland Iran, such asMazandaran or evenGilan.[42] UnlikePeter 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,[43] both immediate bordering geopolitical rivals of Russia. On top of that, having another port on the Georgian coast of theBlack Sea would be ideal.[42] A limited Russian contingent of two infantry battalions with four artillery pieces arrived inTbilisi in 1784,[40] but was withdrawn in 1787, despite the frantic protests of the Georgians, asa new war against Ottoman Turkey had started on a different front.[40]
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,[44] resolved to bring theCaucasus 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 broughtShiraz,Isfahan, andTabriz under his rule.[40] 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 wayKhorasan was.[40] AsThe 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 ofFars or Gilan.[40] 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 thevali of Georgia.[40]
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,[44] 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.[45] Erekle appealed then to his theoretical protector, Empress Catherine II of Russia, asking for at least 3,000 Russian troops,[45] but he was ignored, leaving Georgia to fend off the Iranian threat alone.[46] Nevertheless, Erekle II still rejected Agha Mohammad Khan'sultimatum.[47]
In August 1795, Agha Mohammad Khan crossed theAras River, and after a turn of events by which he gathered more support from his subordinate khans ofErivan andGanja, and having re-secured the territories up to including parts ofDagestan in the north and up to the westernmost border of modern-dayArmenia in the west, he sent Erekle the last ultimatum, which he also declined, but, sent couriers to St.Petersburg.Gudovich, who sat inGeorgiyevsk at the time, instructed Erekle to avoid "expense and fuss",[45] while Erekle, together withSolomon II and some Imeretians headed southwards of Tbilisi to fend off the Iranians.[45]
With half of the troop's Agha Mohammad Khan crossed the Aras river with, he now marched directly upon Tbilisi, where it commenced into a huge battle between the Iranian and Georgian armies. Erekle had managed to mobilize some 5,000 troops, including some 2,000 from neighboringImereti under its King Solomon II. The Georgians, hopelessly outnumbered, were eventually defeated despite stiff resistance. In a few hours, the Iranian king Agha Mohammad Khan was in full control of the Georgian capital. The Iranian army marched back laden with spoil and carrying off many thousands of captives.[46][48][49]
By this, after the conquest of Tbilisi and being in effective control of easternGeorgia,[14][50] Agha Mohammad was formally crownedShah in 1796 in theMughan plain.[14] AsThe Cambridge History of Iran notes; "Russia's client, Georgia, had been punished, and Russia's prestige, damaged." Erekle II returned to Tbilisi to rebuild the city, but the destruction of his capital was a death blow to his hopes and projects. Upon learning of the fall of Tbilisi General Gudovich put the blame on theGeorgians themselves.[51] To restore Russian prestige, Catherine IIdeclared war on Iran, upon the proposal of Gudovich,[51] and sent an army underValerian Zubov to the Qajar possessions on April of that year, but the newTsarPaul I, who succeeded Catherine in November, shortly recalled it.
Agha Mohammad Shah was later assassinated while preparing a second expedition against Georgia in 1797 inShusha.[51] Reassessment of Iranian hegemony over Georgia did not last long; in 1799 the Russians marched into Tbilisi, two years after Agha Mohammad Khan's death.[52] 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 easilyabsorbed by Russia in 1801.[46][47] As Iran could not permit or allow the cession ofTranscaucasia andDagestan, which had formed part of the concept of Iran for centuries,[15] it would also directly lead up to the wars of even several years later, namely theRusso-Persian War (1804–1813) andRusso-Persian War (1826–1828), which would eventually prove for the irrevocable forced cession of aforementioned regions to Imperial Russia per the treaties ofGulistan (1813) andTurkmenchay (1828), as the ancient ties could only be severed by a superior force from outside.[15] It was therefore also inevitable that Agha Mohammad Khan's successor,Fath Ali Shah (under whom Iran would lead the two above-mentioned wars) would follow the same policy of restoring Iranian central authority north of theAras andKura rivers.[15]
On 12 September 1801, four years after Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar's death, theRussians capitalized on the moment, and annexedKartli-Kakheti (eastern Georgia).[53][54] In 1804, the Russiansinvaded and sacked the Iranian town of Ganja, massacring and expelling thousands of its inhabitants,[55] thereby beginning theRusso-Persian War of 1804–1813.[56] UnderFath 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.[57] 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 theTreaty of Gulistan in 1813, Iran was forced to cede most of its Caucasian territories comprising modern-dayGeorgia,Dagestan, and most ofAzerbaijan.[16]
About a decade later, in violation of the Gulistan Treaty, the Russians invaded Iran'sErivan Khanate.[58][59] This sparked the final bout of hostilities between the two; theRusso-Persian War of 1826–1828. It ended even more disastrously for Qajar Iran with temporary occupation ofTabriz and the signing of theTreaty of Turkmenchay in 1828, acknowledging Russian sovereignty over the entireSouth Caucasus and Dagestan, as well as therefore the ceding of what is nowadaysArmenia and the remaining part ofRepublic of Azerbaijan;[16] the new border between neighboring Russia and Iran were set at theAras River. Iran had by these two treaties, in the course of the 19th century, irrevocably lost the territories which had formed part of the concept of Iran for centuries.[15] The territories lying to the north of the Aras River—including the lands of present-day Azerbaijan, eastern Georgia, Dagestan, and Armenia—remained part of Iran until their occupation by Russia in the course of the 19th century.[16][60][61][62][63][64][65]
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 thedissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, namely Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and three generally unrecognized republicsAbkhazia,Artsakh andSouth Ossetia claimed by Georgia. Lastly and equally important, as a result of Russia's imposing of the two treaties, It also decisively parted theAzerbaijanis andTalysh[66] ever since between two nations.
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-calledCaucasian Muhajirs, set off to migrate to mainland Iran. Some of these groups included theAyrums,Qarapapaqs,Circassians, ShiaLezgins, and otherTranscaucasian Muslims.[67]
Through theBattle of Ganja of 1804 during theRusso-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 the1826–1828 war, the absolute bulk of the Ayrums and Qarapapaqs that were still remaining in newly conquered Russian territories were settled in and migrated toSolduz (in modern-day Iran'sWest Azerbaijan province).[68] AsThe Cambridge History of Iran states; "The steady encroachment of Russian troops along the frontier in the Caucasus, GeneralYermolov's brutal punitive expeditions and misgovernment, drove large numbers of Muslims, and even someGeorgian Christians, into exile in Iran."[69]
In 1864 until the early 20th century,another mass expulsion took place of Caucasian Muslims as a result of the Russian victory in theCaucasian War. Others simply voluntarily refused to live underChristian Russian rule, and thus disembarked for Turkey or Iran. These migrations once again, towards Iran, included masses of CaucasianAzerbaijanis, other Transcaucasian Muslims, as well as many North Caucasian Muslims, such as Circassians, Shia Lezgins andLaks.[67][70]Many of these migrants would prove to play a pivotal role in further Iranian history, as they formed most of the ranks of thePersian Cossack Brigade, which was also to be established in the late 19th century.[71] The initial ranks of the brigade would be entirely composed ofCircassians and other Caucasian Muhajirs.[71] This brigade would prove decisive in the following decades to come in Qajar history.
Furthermore, the 1828Treaty of Turkmenchay included the official rights for the Russian Empire to encourage settling ofArmenians from Iran in the newly conquered Russian territories.[72][73] Until the mid-fourteenth century, Armenians had constituted a majority inEastern Armenia.[74] At the close of the fourteenth century, afterTimur's campaigns, Islam had become the dominant faith, and Armenians became a minority in Eastern Armenia.[74] After centuries of constant warfare on the Armenian Plateau, many Armenians chose to emigrate and settle elsewhere. FollowingShah Abbas I's massive relocation of Armenians and Muslims in 1604–05,[75] their numbers dwindled even further.
At the time of the Russian invasion of Iran, some 80% of the population ofErivan Khanate inIranian Armenia were Muslims (Persians,Turkics, andKurds) whereas ChristianArmenians constituted a minority of about 20%.[76] As a result of theTreaty of Gulistan (1813) and the Treaty of Turkmenchay (1828), Iran was forced to cede Iranian Armenia (which also constituted the present-dayArmenia), to the Russians.[77][78] 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.[79]
Fath Ali Shah's reign saw increased diplomatic contacts with the West and the beginning of intense European diplomatic rivalries over Iran. His grandsonMohammad Shah, who fell under the Russian influence and made two unsuccessful attempts to captureHerat, succeeded him in 1834. When Mohammad Shah died in 1848 the succession passed to his sonNaser al-Din, who proved to be the ablest and most successful of the Qajar sovereigns. He founded the first modern hospital in Iran.[80]
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 preventBritain and Russia from encroaching into regions of traditional Iranian influence.
In 1856, during theAnglo-Persian War, Britain prevented Iran from reasserting control overHerat. The city had been part of Iran in Safavid times, but Herat had been underDurrani rule since the mid–18th century. Britain also extended its control to other areas of thePersian Gulf during the 19th century. Meanwhile, by 1881, Russia had completed its conquest of present-dayTurkmenistan andUzbekistan, bringing Russia's frontier to Persia's northeastern borders and severing historic Iranian ties to the cities ofBukhara,Merv andSamarqand. With the conclusion of theTreaty of Akhal on 21 September 1881, Iran ceased any claim to all parts ofTurkestan andTransoxiana, setting theAtrek River as the new boundary with Imperial Russia. HenceMerv,Sarakhs,Ashgabat, and the surrounding areas were transferred to Russian control under the command of General Alexander Komarov in 1884.[81] 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 Nasser ed-Din succeeded to the throne, Amir Nezam was awarded the position of the prime minister and the title ofAmir 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 wereBahai revolts anda revolt in Khorasan at the time but were crushed under Amir Kabir.[82] 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 ofDar ol Fonoon in 1851, 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. It marked the beginning of modern education in Iran.[83] 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.[83] 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 toKashan, where he was murdered on the shah's orders. Through his marriage to Ezzat od-Doleh, Amir Kabir had been the brother-in-law of the shah.
Qajar Iran would become a victim of theGreat Game between Russia and Britain for influence over central Asia. As the Qajar state's sovereignty was challenged this took the form of military conquests, diplomatic intrigues, and the competition of trade goods between two foreign empires.[19]: 20, 74 Ever since the 1828Treaty of Turkmanchay, Russia had received territorial domination in Iran. With theRomanovs shifting to a policy of 'informal support' for the weakenedQajar 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.[18][84] 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.[18]
In 1879, the establishment of theCossack Brigade by Russian officers gave the Russian Empire influence over the modernization of the Qajar army. This influence was especially pronounced because the Iranian monarchy's legitimacy was predicated on an image of military prowess, first Turkic and then European-influenced.[18][85] By the 1890s, Russian tutors, doctors and officers were prominent at the Shah's court, influencing policy personally.[18][86] Russia and Britain had competing investments in the industrialisation of Iran including roads and telegraph lines,[87] 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.[19]: 20 In 1907 the British and Russian Empires partitioned Iran into spheres of influence with theAnglo-Russian Convention.
WhenNasser al-Din Shah Qajar was assassinated byMirza Reza Kermani in 1896,[88] the crown passed to his sonMozaffar al-Din.[88] Mozaffar al-Din Shah was regarded as a moderate, but his reign was marked by ineffectiveness. Extravagant royal expenditures, coupled with the state’s limited capacity to generate revenue, intensified the financial difficulties of the Qajar dynasty. To address these problems, the shah secured two major loans from Russia, partly to finance his personal trips to Europe. Public discontent grew as the shah granted concessions—including road-building monopolies and the right to collect customs duties—to European interests in exchange for substantial payments to himself and his officials. These developments fueled popular demands to restrict arbitrary royal authority and to establish governance based on the rule of law, while also reflecting broader anxieties over the expansion of foreign influence.
The failure of the shah to adequately address the grievances of the religious establishment, the merchant class, and other social groups led, in January 1906, to the merchants and clerical leaders seeking sanctuary in mosques in Tehran and beyond the capital in order to avoid probable arrest. When the shah subsequently reneged on his earlier promise to authorize the establishment of ahouse of justice—a consultative assembly—approximately 10,000 individuals, led by the merchant community, took sanctuary in June within the compound of the British legation in Tehran. In August 1906, under mounting pressure, the shah issued a decree pledging the granting of a constitution. In October, an elected assembly convened and drew up a constitution that provided for strict limitations on royal power, an elected parliament, orMajles, 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 30 December 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 the security of life and property. The hopes for the constitutional rule were not realized, however.
Mozaffar al-Din Shah's sonMohammad Ali Shah (reigned 1907–1909), who, through his mother, was also the grandson of Prime-Minister Amir Kabir (see before), with the aid of Russia,attempted to rescind the constitution and abolish parliamentary government. After several disputes with the members of the Majles, in June 1908 he used his Russian-officeredPersian Cossack Brigade (almost solely composed ofCaucasian Muhajirs), tobomb the Majlis building, arrest many of the deputies (December 1907), and close down the assembly (June 1908).[89] Resistance to the shah, however, coalesced inTabriz,Isfahan,Rasht, and elsewhere. In July 1909, constitutional forces marched from Rasht to Tehran led byMohammad Vali Khan Khalatbari Tonekaboni, deposed the Shah, and re-established the constitution. The ex-shah went into exile in Russia. Shah died inSan Remo, Italy, in April 1925. Every future Shah of Iran would also die in exile.
On 16 July 1909, the Majles voted to place Mohammad Ali Shah's 11-year-old son,Ahmad Shah on the throne.[90] 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 theAnglo-Russian Entente 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 whenMorgan 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. In December 1911, the Majlis unanimously rejected a Russian ultimatum calling for the dismissal of Morgan Shuster, the American financial advisor to the government. Russian troops already stationed in Iran then advanced toward the capital. On 20 December, in order to avert a Russian occupation, Bakhtiari chiefs and their forces surrounded the Majlis building, compelled acceptance of the ultimatum, and dissolved the assembly, thereby suspending the constitution once again.[21][91]
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 overBaluch andBakhtiari autonomous tribal leaders in the southeastern zone.[92] Qajar Iran would become a battleground between Russian, Ottoman, and British forces in thePersian campaign of World War I.[92]
Though Qajar Iran had announced strict neutrality on the first day of November 1914 (which was reiterated by each successive government thereafter),[93] the neighboringOttoman Empire invaded it relatively shortly after, in the same year. At that time, large parts of Iran were under tight Russian influence and control, and since 1910 Russian forces were present inside the country, while many of its cities possessed Russian garrisons.[93] Due to the latter reason, as Prof. Dr.Touraj Atabaki states, declaring neutrality was useless, especially as Iran had no force to implement this policy.[93]
At the beginning of the war, the Ottomans invadedIranian Azerbaijan.[94] Numerous clashes would take place there between theRussians, who were further aided by theAssyrians underAgha Petros as well as Armenian volunteer units and battalions, and the Ottomans on the other side.[citation needed] However, with the advent of theRussian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent withdrawal of most of the Russian troops, the Ottomans gained the upper hand in Iran, occupying significant portions of the country until the end of the war. Between 1914 and 1918, theOttoman troops massacred many thousands of Iran's Assyrian and Armenian population, as part of theAssyrian andArmenian genocides, respectively.[95][96]
The front in Iran would last up to theArmistice of Mudros in 1918.
In late 1915, due to pro-CP actions by Iranian gendarmerie (encouraged by Ahmad Shah Qajar and the Majlis), Russian forces in northwest Iran marched toward Tehran. Russian occupation of Tehran would mean complete Russian control of Iran.[97]
Local irregular forces under Heydar Latifiyan blocked the Russian advance at Robat Karim.[98][97]
The Russian force won theBattle of Robat Karim on 27 December, and Heydar Latifiyan was killed, but the Russian advance was delayed, long enough for the Majlis to dissolve and the Shah and his court to escape to Qom. This preserved the independence of Iran.[97]
Ahmad Shah Qajar was born 21 January 1898 inTabriz, and succeeded to the throne at age 11. However, the occupation of Persia duringWorld War I byRussian, British, andOttoman troops was a blow from which Ahmad Shah never effectively recovered.
In February 1921,Reza Khan, commander of thePersian Cossack Brigade, staged acoup d'état, becoming the effective ruler of Iran. In 1923, Ahmad Shah went into exile in Europe. Reza Khan induced theMajles to depose Ahmad Shah in October 1925 and to exclude the Qajar dynasty permanently. Reza Khan was subsequently proclaimed monarch asReza Shah Pahlavi, reigning from 1925 to 1941.[99][100]
Ahmad Shah died on February 21, 1930, inNeuilly-sur-Seine, France.[101]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(September 2021) |
Iran was divided into five large provinces and a large number of smaller ones at the beginning of Fath Ali Shah's reign, about 20 provinces in 1847, 39 in 1886, but 18 in 1906.[102] In 1868, most province governors were Qajar princes.[103]
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Qajar dynasty granted extensive concessions to foreign powers, particularly theBritish Empire andRussian Empire, in exchange for loans, technical expertise, or diplomatic support. The dire economic conditions of the Qajar government forced it to give preferential treatment to foreign powers and allow them to access profitable industries, such as the Iranian oil and tobacco industries.[104]
The Reuters Concession was the first major concession between foreign powers and the Qajar state. The concession was established between the Qajar state and British entrepreneur Baron Julius de Reuter.[105]
The oil concession, established between Nasr el-Din Shah and Englishman William Knox D'arcy allowed Britain to explore for oil in the southern part of Iran.[106]
These agreements eroded Iran's sovereignty and became a focal point of nationalist resistance, most notably during theTobacco Protest (1891–1892) and thePersian Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911).[107]
| Concession | Year | Foreign entity | Terms | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reuter Concession | 1872 |  BaronJulius de Reuter (British) | 70-year monopoly over railways, mining, and banking. | Revoked in 1873 due to public backlash and Russian pressure; exposed Qajar financial desperation.[108] |
| Tobacco Concession | 1890 | British American Tobacco | Monopoly over production, sale, and export of Iranian tobacco. | Sparked nationwide protests (1891–1892), leading to its cancellation; galvanized anti-imperialist movements.[109] |
| D'Arcy Concession | 1901 | William Knox D'Arcy (British) | 60-year oil exploration rights in southwestern Iran. | Led to the discovery of oil inMasjed Soleyman (1908) and the founding of theAnglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC), a precursor toBP.[110] |
| Russian Fishing Concession | 1888–1921 |  Russian Empire | Control ofCaspian Sea fisheries. | Devastated local fishing communities; revoked after the 1921Persian coup d'état.[111] |
Foreign concessions intensified theGreat Game rivalry between Britain and Russia, culminating in the 1907Anglo-Russian Convention, which partitioned Iran into:
The concessions also fueled thePersian Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911), as intellectuals and merchants demanded an end to Qajar corruption and foreign domination. The 1906Constitution established theMajlis (parliament), which attempted to annul the D'Arcy oil concession in 1908 but was suppressed byMohammad Ali Shah.[113]
HistorianNikki Keddie argues:
The concessions symbolized Iran's subjugation to European imperialism. They left a legacy of distrust that shaped 20th-century Iranian nationalism, fromReza Shah's modernization campaigns toMohammad Mosaddegh's oil nationalization.
— Keddie, Nikki,[114]
The Qajar military was one of the dynasty's largest conventional sources of legitimacy, albeit was increasingly influenced by foreign powers over the course of the dynasty.[18][85]
Irregular forces, such as tribal cavalry, were a major element until the late nineteenth century, and irregular forces long remained a significant part of the Qajar army.[115]
At the time of Agha Mohammad Khan's death in 1797, his military was at its apex and counted 60,000 men, consisting of 50,000 tribal cavalry (savar) and 10,000 infantry (tofangchi) recruited from the sedentary population.[116] The army of his nephew and successor Fath-Ali Shah was much larger and from 1805 onwards incorporated European-trained units.[117] According to the French generalGardane, who was stationed in Iran, the army under Fath-Ali Shah numbered 180,000 men in 1808, thus far surpassing the army of Agha Mohammad Khan in size.[117] The modern historianMaziar Behrooz explains that there are other estimates which roughly match Gardane's estimate, however, Gardane was the first to complete a full outline of the Qajar army as he and his men were tasked with training the Qajar army.[117] According to Gardane's report of Fath-Ali Shah's contemporaneous army, some 144,000 were tribal cavalry, 40,000 were infantry (which included those trained on European lines), whilst 2,500 were part of the artillery units (which included the zamburakchis). Some half of the total amount of cavalrymen, that is 70,000–75,000, were so-calledrekabi.[117] This meant that they received their salaries from the shah's personal funds during periods of supposed mobilization.[117] All others were so-calledvelayati, that is, they were paid for and were under the command of provincial Iranian rulers and governors. They were mobilized to join the royal army when the call required to do so.[117] Also, as was custom, tribes were supposed to provide troops for the army depending on their size. Thus, larger tribes were supposed to provide larger numbers, whilst smaller tribes provided smaller numbers.[117] After receiving payment, the central government expected military men to (for the greater part) to pay for their own supplies.[117]
During the era of wars with Russia, with crown princeAbbas Mirza's command of the army of the Azerbaijan Province, his segment of the army was the main force that defended Iran against the Russian invaders. Hence, the quality and organization of his units were superior to that of the rest of the Iranian army. Soldiers of Abbas Mirza's units were furnished from the villages of Azerbaijan and according to quotas in line with the rent each village was responsible for. Abbas Mirza provided for the payment of his troops' outfits and armaments. James Justinian Morier estimated the force under Abbas Mirza's command at 40,000 men, consisting of 22,000 cavalry, 12,000 infantry which included an artillery force, as well as 6,000Nezam infantry.
Russia established thePersian Cossack Brigade in 1879, a force which was led by Russian officers and served as a vehicle for Russian influence in Iran.[19][118]
By the 1910s, the Qajar Iran was decentralised to the extent that foreign powers sought to bolster the central authority of the Qajars by providing military aid. It was viewed as a process of defensive modernisation; however, this also led tointernal colonisation.[119]
TheIranian Gendarmerie was founded in 1911 with the assistance of Sweden.[120][119] The involvement of a neutral country was seen to avoid "Great Game" rivalry between Russia and Britain, as well as avoid siding with any particular alliance (in the prelude to World War I). Iranian administrators thought the reforms could strengthen the country against foreign influences. The Swedish-influenced police had some success in building up Persian police in centralizing the country.[120] After 1915, Russia and Britain demanded the recall of the Swedish advisers. Some Swedish officers left, while others sided with the Germans and Ottomans in their intervention in Persia. The remainder of the Gendarmerie was namedamniya after a patrol unit that existed in the early Qajar dynasty.[120]
The number of Russian officers in the Cossack Brigade would increase over time. Britain also sentsepoys to reinforce the Brigade. After the start of theRussian Revolution, manytsarist supporters remained in Iran as members of the Cossack Brigade rather than fighting for or against theSoviet Union.[118]
The British formed theSouth Persia Rifles in 1916, which was initially separate from the Persian army until 1921.[121]
In 1921, the Russian-officeredPersian Cossack Brigade was merged with the gendarmerie and other forces, and would become supported by the British.[122]
At the end of the Qajar dynasty in 1925, Reza Shah's Pahlavi army would include members of the gendarmerie, Cossacks, and former members of the South Persia Rifles.[118]
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In the late 18th century, during the final period ofShahAgha Mohammad Khan's reign, Iran (including theKhanates of the Caucasus) numbered some five to six million inhabitants.[123]
In 1800, three years into Fath-Ali Shah's reign, Iran numbered an estimated six million people.[124] A few years later, in 1812, the population numbered an estimated nine million. At the time, the country numbered some 70,000Jews, 170,000Armenian Christians, and 20,000Zoroastrians.[124] The city ofShiraz in the south numbered circa 50,000, whileIsfahan was the largest city at the time, with a population of about 200,000 inhabitants.[124] More to the north,Tehran, which became the capital of Iran under the Qajars in 1786 under Agha Mohammad Khan, resembled more-so a garrison rather than a town prior to becoming the capital.[124] At the time, as a developing city, it held some 40,000 to 50,000 inhabitants, but only when the Iranian royal court was in residence.[124] During summer, the royal court moved to a cooler area ofpasture such as atSoltaniyeh, near Khamseh (i.e.Zanjan), or at Ujan nearTabriz in theAzerbaijan Province.[125] Other Tehrani residents moved toShemiran in Tehran's north during summer, which was located at a higher altitude and thus had a more cool climate. These seasonal movements used to reduce Tehran's population to a few thousand seasonally.[125]
In Iran's east, inMashhad, holding theImam Reza Shrine and being Iran's former capital during theAfsharid era, held a population of less than 20,000 by 1800.[125]Tabriz, the largest city of the Azerbaijan Province, as well as the seat of the Qajarvali ahd ("crown prince"), used to be a prosperous city, but the1780 earthquake had devastated the city and reversed its fortunes.[125] In 1809, the population of Tabriz was estimated at 50,000 including 200 Armenian families who lived in their own quarter.[125] The Azerbaijan province's total population, as per a 1806 estimate, was somewhere between 500,000 and 550,000 souls. The towns ofKhoy andMarand, which at the time were no more than an amalgam of villages, were estimated to hold 25,000 and 10,000 inhabitants respectively.[125]
In Iran's domains in theCaucasus, the town ofNakhchivan (Nakhjavan) held a total population of some 5,000 in the year 1807, whereas the total population of theErivan Khanate was some 100,000 in 1811.[125] However, the latter figure does not account for theKurdish tribes that had migrated into the province. A Russian estimate asserted that the Pambak region of the northern part of the Erivan Khanate, which had been occupied by the Russiansafter 1804, held a total population of 2,832, consisting of 1,529 Muslims and 1,303 Christian Armenians.[125] According to the Russian demographic survey of 1823 of theKarabakh Khanate, its largest city,Shusha, held 371 households, who were divided in four quarters or parishes (mahaleh). The province itself consisted of 21 districts, in which nine large domains were located that belonged to Muslims and Armenians, 21 Armenian villages, ninety Muslim villages (both settled and nomadic), with Armenians constituting an estimated minority.[125] In theGanja Khanate, the city ofGanja held 10,425 inhabitants in 1804 at the time ofthe Russian conquest and occupation.[125]
In 1868, Jews were the most significant minority in Tehran, numbering 1,578 people.[126] By 1884, this figure had risen to 5,571.[126]
In size it is about 500,000 square miles
For example, the Turkmen of Iran were instrumental in the establishment of Kajar dynasty in Iran in the late eighteenth century, and opponents of the Iranian constitution sought Turkmen support in the revolution of 1909.
(...) Agha Muhammad Khan remained nine days in the vicinity of Tiflis. His victory proclaimed the restoration of Iranian military power in the region formerly under Safavid domination.
January 1804. (...) Russo-Persian War. The Russian invasion of Persia. (...) In January 1804 Russian forces under General Paul Tsitsianov (Sisianoff) invade Persia and storm the citadel of Ganjeh, beginning the Russo-Persian War (1804–1813).
In May 1826, Russia, therefore, occupied Mirak, in the Erivan khanate, in violation of the Treaty of Gulistan.
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