THE ZAND EMPIRE (1750 AD - 1779)  
Author: Cyrus Shahmiri, 2002

Karim Khan, founder of the Zand Empire

After death of the Afsharid ruler Nader Shah (1747), Iran was dominated by three rules. Muhammad Hussain Qajar possessed northern region. The southern area was under the control of Karim Khan Zand, and Khorasan on eastern area was ruled by the Afsharids. Muhammad Hussain Qajar had been killed, and Karim Khan Zand took over the power of whole Iran, including Khorasan; and founded the rule of Zand dynasty in Iran in 1750.

Karim Khan was one of the greatest generals of Nader Shah. In the chaotic aftermath of Nader Shah's assassination in 1747, Karim Khan became a major contender for power but was challenged by several adversaries. In order to add legitimacy to his claim, Karim Khan in 1757 placed on the throne the infant Shah Ismail III, the grandson of the last official Safavid king. Ismail was a figurehead king, real power being vested in Karim Khan, who never claimed the title of shahanshah ("king of kings") but used that of vakil ("regent"). By 1760 Karim Khan had defeated all his rivals and controlled all of Iran except Khorasan, in the northeast, which was ruled by Shah Rokh, the blind grandson of Nader Shah. During Karim Khan's rule Iran recovered from the devastation of 40 years of war. He made Shiraz his capital, constructing many fine buildings. Moreover, he reorganized the fiscal system of the kingdom, removing some of the heavy burdens of taxation from the agricultural classes. An active patron of the arts, he attracted many scholars and poets to his capital.

Karim Khan also opened Iran to foreign influence by allowing the English East India Company to establish a trading post in Bushire, the Persian Gulf port (1763). In advancing his policy of developing trade, in 1775-76 he attacked and captured Basra, the Ottoman port at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, which had diverted much of the trade with India away from Iranian ports.

The civil war that followed Karim Khan's death ended only with the final establishment of the Qajar dynasty in 1796.


Karim Khan

Karim Khan Zand ended the anarchy after Nadir Shah's assassination and from 1765 ruled over most of Iran from Shiraz. Like the Mamluk rulers of Iraq, he was interested in the economic returns derived from fostering European trade in the Persian Gulf. His brother, Sadiq Khan, took Basra in 1776 after a protracted and stubborn resistance directed by its Mamluk governor, Süleyman Aga, and held it until Karim Khan's death in 1779. Süleyman then returned from Shiraz, where he had been held captive, and in 1780 was given the governorship of Baghdad, Basra, and Shahrizor by Sultan Abdülhamid I. Known as Büyük (The Great) Süleyman Pasa, his rule (1780-1802) is generally acknowledged to represent the apogee of Mamluk power in Iraq. He imported large numbers of Mamluks to strengthen his own household, curbed the factionalism among rival households, eliminated the Janissaries as an independent local force, and fostered trade and agriculture. His attempts to control the Arab Bedouin were less successful, and Wahhabi incursions from Arabia into Al-Hasa and along the fringes of the desert, climaxing in the sack of the Shi'ite shrine Karbala' in 1801, added to his difficulties.



Loft Ali Khan Zand

Loft Ali Khan Zand was the second and last ruler of the Zand dynasty of Iran, who was defeated in the civil war of 1779-94. With the death of Lotf Ali Khan's grandfather, Karim Khan Zand, a 15-year civil war ensued between his descendants and Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar. Although the Zand forces were weakened by internal dissensions and rivalries, Lotf Ali Khan's father, Ja'far Khan, proclaimed himself sovereign in the Zand capital of Shiraz in 1785. Given charge of the Zand armies in the provinces of Larestan and Kerman by his father, Lotf Ali Khan was forced to abandon these provinces on Ja'far's death (1789) and return to Shiraz, where a rival had proclaimed himself king. Executing his rival, he had himself proclaimed king; and during the next four years he undertook several campaigns against Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, who possessed superior troops. After the governor of Shiraz treacherously abandoned the city to Qajar forces in 1791, Lotf Ali Khan was never able to secure a new base of operations and was constantly on the move. His inability to control significant territory and the consequent loss of revenues doomed the Zand cause to failure. An able and gallant soldier, he won several tactical victories over his opponent after the loss of Shiraz; but the balance of power favoured the Qajars, who could afford to lose minor battles. The final act of the civil war came in 1794, when Qajar forces broke a four-month resistance to take the city of Kerman. Lotf Ali Khan managed to flee, but he was captured and delivered to Agha Mohammad Khan, who had him tortured to death.

Rulers of Zand
Karim Khan (1747 1779)
Lotf Ali Khan (1779 - 1794)