From Horsemen to Kings: A History of the Qajars
From Horsemen to Kings: The Troubled History of the Qajar Dynasty
(PART ONE - Blood of the Khans)
“Know that to be a great shah, you must remain both barbarian and refined. Sit in the halls of power, acquaint yourself with statecraft, poetry, art, religion, but do not cease to ready for the ride…my beloved kinsman, never let the open skies leave your soul. ”
--- 'Aqa Muhammad Khan to his nephew Fath Ali Khan, OTL
"The history of Islam follows a strange path; a path in which gangsters and ruffians from the Arab, Persian, Turk, Tartar and Mongol dynasties all enjoyed the right to the leadership of the Moslem community and to the caliphate of the Prophet of Islam, to the exclusion of the family of the Prophet and the rightful Imams of Islam."
--- Dr. Ali Shariati, OTL
Excerpt: "The Steppe's Wayward Children: How Nomads Made Modern Iran"(PART ONE - Blood of the Khans)
“Know that to be a great shah, you must remain both barbarian and refined. Sit in the halls of power, acquaint yourself with statecraft, poetry, art, religion, but do not cease to ready for the ride…my beloved kinsman, never let the open skies leave your soul. ”
--- 'Aqa Muhammad Khan to his nephew Fath Ali Khan, OTL
"The history of Islam follows a strange path; a path in which gangsters and ruffians from the Arab, Persian, Turk, Tartar and Mongol dynasties all enjoyed the right to the leadership of the Moslem community and to the caliphate of the Prophet of Islam, to the exclusion of the family of the Prophet and the rightful Imams of Islam."
--- Dr. Ali Shariati, OTL
From the start of the eleventh century and onset of the nomadic Turkic incursions initiated by the Seljuks, tribal politics found fresh ground in Iranian affairs. With the tribes’ increasing influence, the power of subsequent central governments weakened. Although the Safavids ruled Iran with various degrees of strength and different modi operandi after the Seljuq and Mongol eras, tribal politics continued to have an impact on the state. From “total independence to internal autonomy,” tribal leadership managed to provide various central governments with a militia force. When Aqa Muhammad Khan anticipated he would establish the Qajars as the future Iranian monarchical dynasty in 1779, almost half of the population in Iran lived within tribal social structures that were made up of semi-nomadic coalitions under the leadership of a predominant clan. The Afshar dynasty’s wars against India and its internecine rivalries had turned Iran into a politically turbulent and disordered nation after the death of the great Nader Shah. Political instability made the Persian domain chaotic and the lack of central authority provided an opportunity for tribal resurgence.
The Great Campaigner Nader Shah with Afsharid Cavalrymen
The tribal leaders were semi-autonomous rulers in their regions, and when they contacted the settled peoples of the cities and townships it was due to their need for certain food items, new weapons, and other material goods that they could not readily produce themselves. The fall of the Safavid dynasty in 1722 and the ensuing political instability that it brought also resulted in the weakening of Iran’s economy. As a result, Iranian trade fell to one-fifth of what it had been during the previous two centuries. Inadequate means of communication in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, coupled with the absence of a viable bureaucratic system, meant that all shahs needed to establish a cooperative relationship with many groups, including tribes, ethnic groups, and provincial figures. Local governors were either chosen from the members of the Qajar family or were locals that the shah trusted and who in turn acted on his behalf and maintained order. Hence, each governor maintained his own militia to protect his domain. For example, the governor of Isfahan made use of military assistance that the Bakhtiari tribal leaders provided. Tribal chiefs consequently played a major part in the provincial politics and security of Iran because they provided the majority of men who comprised the governors’ militias. Powerful tribal fighters were asked to participate in the shahs’ wars and thus became noncommissioned warriors or mercenaries. This practice politically benefitted tribal chiefs and allowed them to become a force to be reckoned with. The centralization of power became a major challenge for all rulers who sought to reconstruct the Iranian political system, because they needed to control most, if not all, national affairs from Tehran. This proved to be a daunting task, as the tribes acted for the most part independently and considered themselves answerable to no one.
Quyunlu Qajar Noblewoman in Traditional Nomadic Dress
The Qajar’s successful bid to establish a monarchical dynasty—Iran’s final before the Republican Revolution—traces its origins to their becoming a militia force in the service of the weakened Safavid dynasty (1501–1722). During their last years in power, the Safavid rulers secured the assistance of several Qajar chiefs in military campaigns, and consequently certain clans of the Qajars enjoyed increased prominence in Iranian political affairs. Although Qajars claim that they had settled in the central regions of the Iranian plateau as part of the Turkish Oghuz confederacy in the eleventh century, evidence to validate such a claim is scarce.We first learn of the Qajars when the Safavid ruler Shah Tahmasp II hired one of their clansmen (from the Quyunlu branch of the tribe) to assist him during a 1721 military campaign in Khurasan. After that campaign’s successful completion, the shah hired the tribal militia leader again when Afghan forces seized Isfahan in 1721–1722. The Qajars’ triumphant contribution to the brief rule of the Safavids in their most desperate hour guaranteed them a place in that dynasty’s court. As a sign of appreciation, the Safavid ruler granted them partial control of Astarabad, the Qajar’s ancestral region in northern Iran. This allowed the Qajars to infiltrate the power structure of the Safavids but it also coincided with the period in which the latter fell prey to Afsharid tribal forces.
What followed was decades of chaos and mayhem, until the Zand tribe took partial control of Iran, which lasted until the fourth quarter of the eighteenth century. Another Qajar family, the Develu (Davallu), assisted the Afshars in obtaining control over Iran’s vast landscape as its new monarchy. The Develu took advantage of the opportunity that presented itself when the Afsharid ruler Nadir Shah went on his major campaign against India, leaving tribal forces in charge of Iran. As a consequence, the Develu moved to bring the northern Iranian regions—where the Quyunlu (Qavanlu) had previously ruled during the Safavid dynasty—within their sphere of control. A fight ensued between the two rival clans of Quyunlu and Develu. As a result, the Quyunlu chief’s young son Muhammad was captured and eventually castrated. However, after the death of Nadir Shah Afshar in 1748 Muhammad joined his father, who had made his militia available to the Zands, the new monarchy that had taken over parts of Iran, to wrest control of the whole country. Years of chaos and disorder followed, perpetuating the fragmentation of the Iranian realm in the hands of different tribes. Iran became a mosaic of rivals: Abdali Afghans competed for control of Khurasan, the Bakhtiaris ruled over Isfahan, the Qashqai tribe administered Fars, and the Lurs governed Luristan. Finally, an Afghan ruler commanded Azerbaijan, and a Qajar held sovereignty over Astarabad, Mazandaran, and parts of Gilan. This was the political milieu that the Qajars inherited at the time of their struggle for power.
'Aqa Muhammad Khan Qajari, general in the service of the Zands, leader of the Qajar tribe, and First Qajar Shah
As the Zands expanded their control from southern Iran, their fighters went on a mission to pacify the northern regions that the Qajars controlled. Muhammad, of the Quyunlu clan of the Qajar tribe (by now referred to as Aqa Muhammad Khan), once again fell captive to his enemy. This time, however, he spent the next twenty years of his life in captivity not in a cell but in the Zands’ court. His good fortune was in gaining the trust of the Zands ruler Karim Khan. Aqa Muhammad Khan eventually became one of his closest advisers. By the time of Karim Khan’s death (March 1, 1779), Muhammad Khan had become not only savvy in political maneuvering in the royal court but also an expert in the manipulation of tribal affairs and politics, since this was the nature of the service he had rendered to Karim Khan during his captivity in Shiraz. He escaped captivity with the assistance of one of Karim Khan’s favorite wives. From that point on, he made it his goal to bring all of Iran under his control in the name of the Qajars; first, however, he faced the daunting challenge of gaining support for his plans from the rest of the clans.
NOTE: I wanted to do a little subsection on the history of the Qajars before getting into the politics of Iran during the life of 'Ali Muhammad, since it'll be somewhat hard to follow without some background. I also intend to do a narrative post soon, but I'm not sure if you guys would prefer narrative posts breaking up this background history section or not. I made a poll to gauge the feeling on this and I'll follow through with what you all decide on. Thanks for reading!