Persian History · Chronicle IX of X
The Long Nineteenth Century
Nader Shah's conquests and the Qajar century of lost provinces and reform.
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Nader ShahMilitary
The soldier Nader Shah crowns himself and launches a decade of brilliant, brutal conquests across Asia.
Rising from a tribe of the Afshar, Nader was one of history's great military commanders. He expelled the Afghans and Ottomans, restored Iran's frontiers, and built an empire by the sword — but his rule grew ever more tyrannical and paranoid as his victories mounted.
Nader ShahMilitary
Nader invades India, crushes the Mughals at Karnal, and carries home the Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-Noor diamond.
The plunder of Delhi was so vast that Nader remitted taxes in Iran for three years. But the wealth did not bring stability. Increasingly cruel and half-blind with suspicion — he even blinded his own son — Nader was assassinated by his officers in 1747, and his empire fell apart at once.
Karim Khan ZandPolitical
Karim Khan Zand restores order to much of Iran and rules from Shiraz with rare moderation and care for his people.
Refusing the title of shah, calling himself only Vakil ('regent' or 'advocate' of the people), Karim Khan gave Iran a generation of relative peace and prosperity. He beautified Shiraz with gardens, bazaars, and mosques, and his reign was remembered fondly amid the turmoil that came before and after.
The Qajar DynastyPolitical
The ruthless Agha Mohammad Khan reunites Iran, is crowned shah, and makes Tehran his capital.
A eunuch since childhood and hardened by years as a hostage, Agha Mohammad crushed the Zands and reasserted Iranian control over the Caucasus with terrible severity. He established Tehran, then a modest town, as the capital it remains today. His assassination in 1797 passed the throne to his nephew Fath-Ali Shah.
The Qajar DynastyMilitary
After two disastrous wars, the Treaty of Turkmenchay cedes Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan to the Russian Empire.
The Russo-Persian wars exposed how far Iran had fallen behind militarily. Turkmenchay imposed a harsh indemnity, capitulations granting Russians extraterritorial rights, and the loss of the rich Caucasian provinces. It marked the start of a century in which Iran struggled to keep its independence between Russia and Britain.
Reform and ReactionReligious
The reforming minister Amir Kabir modernizes Iran and suppresses the new Babi faith, forerunner of the Baha'i religion.
Amir Kabir founded the Dar al-Funun, Iran's first modern polytechnic, and tried to curb corruption and foreign influence before court intrigue led to his execution. In the same years the Bab proclaimed a new religion that spread rapidly and was violently persecuted, giving rise to the worldwide Baha'i faith.
The Great GamePolitical
A nationwide boycott forces the shah to cancel a tobacco monopoly granted to a British company, the first mass political victory.
When Naser al-Din Shah sold the tobacco concession to foreigners, a fatwa by a leading cleric led Iranians — even the shah's own harem — to give up smoking until the deal was revoked. The protest showed the growing power of an alliance between the clergy, the bazaar merchants, and reformist intellectuals against royal concessions to foreign interests.
Constitutional RevolutionPolitical
Popular pressure forces the shah to grant a constitution and Iran's first parliament, the Majles.
A coalition of merchants, clerics, and reformers won a written constitution and an elected assembly, a landmark in the modern Middle East. But the new order was fragile: the shah bombarded parliament in 1908, Russia and Britain carved Iran into spheres of influence in 1907, and the constitution's promise remained largely unfulfilled.
End of the QajarsPolitical
The Cossack officer Reza Khan seizes power in a coup and rises to become the strongman of a shattered Iran.
After the First World War left Iran occupied and near collapse, Reza Khan marched on Tehran, took control of the army, and became prime minister. Within four years he would depose the last Qajar shah and found a new dynasty, ending 130 years of Qajar rule and opening the Pahlavi era.
1 more entry, to 1921
