Reign of Fath-Ali Shah and War with Russia

Agha Mohammad Khan was killed in 1797. When the news of his murder reached the capital, the riot broke out. First his brother Mehdi-Gholi Khan claimed the throne and then Nader Mirza, son of Shahrokh Shah Afshar, the blind old king of Khorasan re-claimed his ancestors throne. Before his death however Agha Mohammad Khan has named Baba Khan, his nephew and son of Hossein-Gholi Khan, as his heir. Baba Khan was one of his best commanders and the only one who knew how to keep the rest of Qajar tribe happy and calm. Baba Khan first persuaded his uncle Mehdi-Gholi Khan to reconsider his claim as the king, and the Khan happily agreed. Then Baba Khan coronated himself as Fath-Ali Shah (his original name was Fath-Ali, Baba Khan just a title). Next he moved toward Harat, where Nader Mirza concentrated his armies. In long battle, commanded by Baba Khan himself, Nader Mirza was captured and killed. This was when Fath-Ali Shah said his famous line: “Nader killed Fath-Ali, and Fath-Ali killed Nader”(first Nader is Nader Shah, first Fath-Ali is Baba Khan’s great-grandfather who was killed by Nader Shah. Second Fath-Ali is Baba Khan himself, and second Nader is of course Nader Mirza, got it?).

After clearing the way to the throne, Fath-Ali Shah returned to the capital and started his long reign. His reign is THE WORST in the history of Iran. Baba Khan, first a brave and smart commander, changed his life style when he became king. He married over 500 wives, and spent most of his days in the Harem. He became fearful of his possible opponents. He was very stingy, and never tried to defend the country in front of the foreign enemies.

Fath-Ali Shah re-elected his uncles prime minister, Ebrahim Khan Kalantar Shirazi (the same person who betrayed Lotf-Ali Khan). During his reign, Czarist Russian started pursuing Peter the Great’s will of reaching the warm waters of the south. Paskovich. Russian general, attacked Azerbaijan. Iran’s forces, commanded by Fath-Ali Shah’s brave and wise son, Abbas Mirza, faced them north of Nakhjavan. Iran’s forces were weak and they lacked the technological advancement of Russians. The other problem was Fath-Ali Shah’s stinginess. He denied the requests of money for better equipment that Abbas Mirza sent him. Finally, Abbas Mirza had to back up from Azerbaijan down to Tabriz. In there, Russians forced Iranians to sign an agreement that gave them the ownership of Armenia and Georgia, called Torkaman-Chaay. After this, there was no war for almost five years when again the Russians attacked and this time they captured Tabriz. Once again Abbas Mirza faced them and pushed them as far back as Darband. Instead of sending him more support, Fath-Ali Shah sent a message telling him to give up! Abbas Mirza did not give up, but when Russians got a new reinforcement, Abbas Mirza could not stand in front of them. Paskovich came south and invaded the whole Azerbijan down to Ardebil. Abbas Mirza had no other chance than to make another humiliating treaty. This time it was called Golestan and it gave the right to 17 of Azerbaijan cities beyond the river Aras to the Russians (present day Republic of Azerbaijan). This was the most humiliating treaty in Iran’s history. It also Iranians responsible to pay 20,000 gold pieces to the Russia!!! Fath-Ali Shah agreed to give the 17 cities, but money, NO! Abbas Mirza had to sell the jewelry of his own and his soldiers wives to pay the Russians. All of these wars really wore him out and he died from TB six months after the end of the war (1833).

Fath-Ali Shah, now the least popular and most hated king of Iran, lived one more year to sea Abbas Mirza’s son. Mohammad, becoming the new heir (although Fath-Ali Shah had 59 more sons alive, out of 150!). Mohammad Mirza was chosen as the king despite all of the oppositions from his uncles, most notably, Ali Khan and Mohmmad Ali Mirza.

Fath-Ali Shah died in 1834. His legacy was the tales of his unbelievable mating, loss of a large part of countries territory, start of an anarchy, and most importantly, opening the foot of foreign imperialist powers to the country. He will always be remembered as the worst, the most hated, and the weakest king of Iran.