Qajar Dynasty
 |
|
Agha Mohammad Khan |
The Qajars were a
Turkmen tribe that held ancestral lands in present-day
Azerbaijan, which then was part of Iran. In 1779,
following the death of Mohammad Karim Khan Zand, the
Zand Dynasty ruler of southern Iran,
Agha Mohammad Khan, a leader of the Qajar tribe, set out
to reunify Iran. 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 Ray (now Shahr-e Rey). In 1796 he was
formally crowned as shah. Agha Mohammad was assassinated
in 1797 and was succeeded by his nephew, Fath Ali Shah.
Fath Ali Shah, 1797 - 1834
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. Iran suffered major military defeats during
the war. Under the terms of the Treaty of Golestan 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 Turkmanchai acknowledging Russian
sovereignty over the entire area north of the Aras River
(territory comprising present-day Armenia and Republic
of Azerbaijan).
Fath Ali'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 Naser-e-Din, who proved to
be the ablest and most successful of the Qajar
sovereigns.
 |
|
Naser o-Din Shah |
Naser o-Din Shah, 1848 - 1896
During Naser o-Din Shah's reign Western science,
technology, and educational methods were introduced into
Iran and the country's modernization was begun. Naser
o-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.
Mirza Taghi Khan Amir Kabir, was the
young prince Nasser o-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 o-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 privy and public purses. The
instruments of central administration were overhauled,
and the 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 achievments of Amir Kabir was the
building of Dar-ol-Fonoon, the first modern university
in Iran. 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, Georgraphy, History, Economics, and
Engeneering. Unfortunatelly, 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.
 |
|
Mozaffar o-Din Shah |
The Constitutional Revolution
When Naser o-Din Shah was assassinated by Mirza Reza
Kermani in 1896, the crown passed to his son Mozaffar
o-Din. Mozaffar o-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
Majles, 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. 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 o-Din's son Mohammad Ali Shah (reigned
1907-09), 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,
Esfahan, Rasht, and elsewhere. In July 1909,
constitutional forces marched from Rasht and Esfahan to
Tehran, deposed the shah, and re-established the
constitution. The ex-shah went into exile in Russia.
 |
|
Ahmad Shah |
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 Majles
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. There followed a
period of government by Bakhtiari chiefs and other
powerful notables.
Ahmad Shah, was born 21 January 1898 in Tabriz, who
succeeded to the throne at age 11, proved to be pleasure
loving, effete, and incompetent and was unable to
preserve the integrity of Iran or the fate of his
dynasty. 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 was
formally deposed by the Majles (national consultative
assembly) in October 1925 while he was absent in Europe,
and that assembly declared the rule of the Qajar dynasty
to be terminated. Ahamd Shah died later on 21 February
1930 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.
Qajar Kings:
|
Agha Mohammad Khan
Fath'Ali Shah
Mohammad Shah
Naser o-Din Shah
Mozaffar o-Din Shah
Mohammed Ali Shah
Ahmed Shah
|
1794 - 1797
1797 - 1834
1834 - 1848
1848 - 1896
1896 - 1907
1907 - 1909
1909 - 1925
|
 |
|
|
