Iran in World History

awghan
, which like the Greek 
barbar
—hence “barbar-
ian”—referred to people who speak gibberish: literally, “those [who 
talk by] saying ‘awwwgh’.”) The warlike Pushtuns, who speak an east 
Iranian dialect, may have descended at least in part from the ten “lost” 
tribes of Israel, who were dispersed into eastern Iran by the Assyrians 
in 722 bce. Pushtun cultural values are expressed through the code 
known as 
pushtunwali
, which is based on the principles of hospitality 
to visitors, the granting of asylum, and the taking of revenge.
Historically, “Afghanistan” simply designated the region inhab-
ited by Pushtuns; under Ahmad Shah, it became a country. The new 
state he established came to include not just the Pushtun lands but 
also the regions of Kabul, Herat, and Mazar-i Sharif (Balkh) which 
remain Persian-speaking to this day. With the Tajik areas of Bukhara, 
Samarkand, and Khojand farther north falling again under the control 
of the Uzbeks (who, like the Pushtuns, were Sunnis), the divide between 
the mostly Sunni eastern Persian-speakers and the mainly Shi‘ite west 
became permanent. Major exceptions include the Sunni Baluch, 
who inhabit southeastern Iran as well as adjacent parts of southern 
Afghanistan and southwestern Pakistan, and the Hazaras of central 
Afghanistan, who are ethnic Mongols but speak Persian and follow the 
Twelver Shi‘ite faith.
With the breakup of the Afsharid state following Nader Shah’s 
assassination in 1747, the Uzbek military reasserted its control in 
Central Asia, eventually establishing the Emirate of Bukhara in 1785 
in the name of a Mongol noble of the Manghit tribe, Shah Murad. 
Central Asia by this time was largely bilingual, with the Tajik 

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dialect of Persian continuing to dominate urban life and government 
administration.
The Bukharan state, along with the newly created Afghanistan to 
the south, found itself increasingly caught between the colonial aspi-
rations of the Russians to the northwest and the British in India. The 
nineteenth century would be characterized by the intrigues of these 
two European empires, a geopolitical power struggle that came to be 
known as the “Great Game.”
While Ahmad Shah was consolidating his new polity in the east, 
in the Caucasus the Christian state of Georgia declared independence 
from Iran as well. In the southwestern Fars region, yet another of 
Nader Shah’s former generals, Karim Khan Zand (who was of Lor or 
possibly Kurdish origin), established local control and set up his capital 
at Shiraz. Like his late ex-employer, Karim Khan initially installed a 
Safavid puppet ruler, whom he soon dispensed with in 1760. He did not 
take the title of shah, however, preferring instead to call himself “the 
People’s Advocate” (
vakil or-ra‘ya
).
Karim Khan’s reputation as one of the most enlightened rulers in 
Iranian history is summed up in the following observation by British 
Ambassador Sir John Malcolm in 1815: “The mode which Kareem 
Khan took to attain and preserve his power, was different from that 
pursued by any former monarch of Persia. He made no effort to gain 
strength by the aid of any superstitious or religious feelings. He neither 
tried to attach his army by gratifying their lust of plunder; nor courted 
the applause of a vain-glorious nation by the pursuit of ambitious pro-
jects or the gorgeous display of royal splendor. He was modest, even to 
his attire; and though his rule was always firm, his general manner to 
the meanest of his subjects was familiar and kind.”
3
Karim Khan’s rule saw the flourishing of Shiraz, which had been 
home to the medieval poets Sa‘di and Hafez. Many of the city’s most 
important surviving monuments, including the Vakil bazaar, the Vakil 
mosque, the Vakil bathhouse, and the Karim Khan citadel, date to 
this period, as does the main part of Sa‘di’s mausoleum. A distinctive 
school of art emerged under Zand patronage, in which the influence 
of European techniques such as foreshortening is increasingly evident. 
With the establishment of a British trading post at Bushehr on the 
coast of the Persian Gulf, Iran’s connection to the global sea trade was 
revived, to the benefit of the local economy.
Unfortunately, upon Karim Khan’s death in 1779, his successors 
were unable to maintain the stability of the Zand state against con-
stant attacks from its neighbors and internal struggles from within. 

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The Turkic Ghajar tribe, based in the city of Sari in northeastern Iran, 
were the most troublesome. Their chief, a mean-tempered eunuch by 
the name of Agha Mohammad Khan who had spent sixteen years in 
Shiraz as a Zand hostage, escaped in 1779 and fled north to take over 
leadership of the clan.
Agha Mohammad Khan moved the Ghajar capital from Sari in 
Mazandaran to Tehran, which at the time was merely a village between 
the Alborz foothills and the ancient city of Rayy. Over the following 
decade the Ghajars managed to steadily expand their rule over adjacent 
territories, and in 1794 they defeated and captured the last Zand ruler.
With much of Iran’s historical expanse now firmly under his control, 
Agha Mohammad Khan declared himself King of Kings (
Shahanshah
) 
in 1796. A cruel and ruthless leader, Agha Mohammad Khan had many 
enemies. In 1797 he was assassinated in his sleep by three of his ser-
vants, whom he had condemned to death but somehow neglected to 
imprison. He was succeeded by his nephew Baba Khan, crowned as 
Fath Ali Shah, who had been governor of the province of Fars.
Fath Ali Shah ruled Iran for the next thirty-seven years. His 
reign saw increasing exposure to Europe and European culture. Fath 
Ali Shah himself is said to have read the entire third edition of the 
Encyclopedia Britannica
, which so impressed him that he had him-
self formally referred to as “Most Formidable Lord and Master of the 
Encyclopedia Britannica
.” Persian painting under his rule became dis-
tinctly Europeanized in style, marked particularly by large-scale royal 
portraits done in oils. No less than twenty-five portraits of Fath Ali 
Shah have survived.
In the decades to come, Europeans would become similarly enam-
ored of Persian high culture. Translations of the classical Persian poets 
became quite popular in the West. The German poet Johann Wolfgang 
von Goethe modeled his 
West-Eastern Divan
on the odes of Hafez, and 
in England, Edward Fitzgerald’s loose translation of Omar Khayyam’s 
quatrains led to the appearance of Omar Khayyam Societies all over the 
country. Sa‘di’s highly quotable 
Rose Garden
was cited by such Western 
writers as George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Alexander Pushkin, and 
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The Iranian military still lagged behind European standards, how-
ever. The Russians took the formerly Iranian province of Georgia with-
out difficulty, and the Ghajar counterattack led to a war that lasted 
from 1804 to 1813. Recognizing the superiority of Russia’s compara-
tively modern army, the Ghajars sought support first from England and 
then from France, but their entreaties fell on deaf ears.

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