Qajar Dynasty
A Turkic dynasty (1789–1925) that ruled Iran through an era of territorial losses to Russia and Britain, foreign intervention, and ultimately the Constitutional Revolution.
Read in context →At a glance
- Period
- 1789–1925 CE
- Founder
- Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar
- Capital
- Tehran
- Key event
- Loss of the Caucasus; Constitutional Revolution
Detail
The Qajar dynasty, from the Turkmen Qajar tribe, was founded in 1789 by Agha Mohammad Khan, who was crowned in 1796, reunified Iran after decades of turmoil, and chose Tehran as the capital—which it remains today. The Qajar era was defined by Iran's confrontation with the European colonial powers, especially Russia and Britain. Defeat in the Russo-Persian wars led to the loss of the Caucasus in the Treaties of Gulistan (1813) and Turkmenchay (1828), leaving a lasting wound on Iran's national memory. Reform efforts—notably those of the chief minister Amir Kabir (who founded the Dar al-Funun polytechnic)—were cut short by courtly resistance. The granting of economic concessions to foreigners and the state's fiscal weakness provoked popular discontent, expressed in the Tobacco Protest (1890) and then the Constitutional Revolution (1906). Enfeebled and discredited, the dynasty ended in 1925 with the rise of Reza Khan and the founding of the Pahlavi dynasty.
Related entities
Sources
- Encyclopædia Iranica, "Qajar Dynasty"
- Abbas Amanat, Pivot of the Universe: Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar
- The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 7