map

IRAN

Tracing the origins of Middle Eastern civilization, can be extensive for human migration took different paths during the era around the second millennia B.C. Locations among several prominent capitals at the time held important centers of civilization providing a home base for several of the ruling empires. Settled groups from the time of the Stone Age around 100,000 B.C. are said to have established primitive society in the area of present day Iran, hundreds of miles east of what later prospered as early Mesopotamia. Around the same prehistoric age, arrival of waves of people from as far east as present day Russia are likely to have assimilated in the sparse mountainous and desert landscapes of Iranian territory as well as north India and Asia. The territory along the Zagros Mountains of western Iran developed flourishing early agricultural communities speaking a unique language who likely arrived via migration from the east. These people though were small in numbers relative to preexisting groups of people who predominated Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Assyria and surrounding territories of the Middle East from a prehistoric period.

Ancient Iran contd...+
Thus the genetic immersion of those who were considered the ancestors of Iran was not an overwhelming trend due to their relative smallness in numbers. But over time adaptation of the group’s culture and language proved a meaningful paradigm that spread through land annexation.

Around the year 2900BC along the large Zagros Mountains area wielded a powerful Elam empire who seemed mostly influenced from the Sumerian cultures of the nearby fertile Tigris/Euphrates basin. The Elamite’s rule led to an exchange of influences within the populations throughout the geographical domain. A rather defining characteristic of the Iranian people of this era includes two categorical types of people: settled peasant farmers who were fixated on their individual land and the nomadic herdsmen who traveled bartering with settlers but enacted force on occasion. Advantages to one way of life over the other existed yet the latter group held an upper hand due to their seeming coercion and mobility to flee should a more threatening enemy arise. Nomadic tribesman typically represented the Iranian people more so than the pastoral farmer people although no simple characteristic divide can easily be upheld.

Within the geography inhabited by Iranians existed various tribes predominately the Medes on the upper regions of the country’s present day location and including some of the Azerbaijan and Kurdistan. Whereas farther to the south in the province known as Fars along the northern Arabian Sea was inhabited by Persians. Around 1000B.C. and centuries later, the Assyrians Northwest near present day Syria were successful soldiers who led battle campaigns against the Median people.

By 700 BC formidable defenses had taken effect that allowed the Medes with help from the nearby Scythian tribes to found an independent state, later considered the first Iranian Empire. By 612BC they destroyed the Assyrian capital near current day Mosul and stretched their reign over a broad region toward Hindu Kush and south into the territory held by the Persian king Archimedes. The southern Persian territory became temporarily subordinate to the Medes stronger military force at the time. In 549 BC a descendant of the Achemenes revolted against the previously dominant Median capital at Ecbatana where he dominated their King Astyages that resulted in Cyrus’s Persian faction to effectively control power over the Iranian plateau.

Cyrus campaigned decisively expanding westward into Babylonian where he was able to subdue their people to cede power not by force but rather passively before marching farther into the northwestern Assyrian territory. Conquests of military force continued east to the Caspian extending expansive control. Cyrus maintained a tolerance of disparate identity among the regions he acquired as he is said not to have pursued brutal persecution rather allowing religions freedom to the Jews for example who were permitted to return from Assyrian exile and rebuild a Jerusalem temple. Any resentment over such a policy would have likely emanated from the ruling Iranian elite and Magi clerics whose fervent religious beliefs were based on the Zoroastrian teachings of the deity Mazda. It is plausible that Cyrus was raised with an intelligent Mazdaen religious teacher during his youth though his interests laid primarily in territorial conquest that led to the largest empire known to civilization up to that time.

His death occurred around 530BC after an eastward defeat by horseback warriors of the Massagetae tribes near the Caspian and he was succeeded by his son Cambyses. Cambyses’ rule was short lived albeit formidable in gaining a reputation of harsh battling that extended the territorial control into Egypt. Soon after though word broke of a revolt from the southern Persian land at the hands of the powerful Magian priests, leading him to take his own life that then helped spawn a brief religious revolution by that lasted just long enough to indicate this elite priest’s intolerance of non Mazdaen belief.
Darius claimed to be a distant descendant of Achaemened lineage and seized control over the instigating orthodoxy by assassinating the movement’s leader Guamata. The outcome of Darius’ ascension helped preserve the empire rather than allow it to fall victim to religious dissent. His commissioning of monuments and naming a new capital at Persepolis were significant and religious inscriptions became common under Darius such as “May Agura Mazda protect this land from hostile enemies, from famine and from the Lie.”

Religious tolerance as protected under Cyrus remained acceptable and establishment of a structured government through the Empire emerged. Rather than force the conquered regions to accept a singular Persian cultural identity, the variety of people were allowed to preserve their respective traditions. The order was maintained via the regional provinces that held administrative duties to tax, protect and conduct non obligatory Mazdaen religious. To iterate the common belief of Persian culture, an emphasis on hunting by bow, machismo yet truthfulness was implicitly held. Subtler ways of life such as writing though held little place in accepted Persian society thus little written record remains in the Persian language but rather derived writings of the time have been in other languages like Aramaic from the Syrians, Palestinians and other local people.

Along the upper stretches of the Mediterranean far from the Persian capital but close in proximity to the empire’s western land boundaries were the powerful armies of the Greeks. Greek maintained a forceful, structured society in Balkan lands along adjacent territories to Cambyses conquests. The nearby lands provoked tenuous disputes for domination which the Darius’s son Xeres was successfully y able to defend against a fierce Greeks army around 480BC. Then traveling in enormous numbers allowed him defeats on Athens, burning the Acropolis and maintaining wins on the other regional contentious force, the Spartans. Greek stronghold at the time was maintained by fleets of maritime vessels that operated from the domiciles along the Mediterranean in the city states. The army’s advancement would be set in place with huge numbers of soldiers aided with the advantageous weaponry of the long, pronged spear. Xeres’ men were able to accomplish defeat of Athens around the time of the destructive Peloponnesian Wars of the independent Greek city-states against the aggressor island territory of Sparta. Being weakened by the Persian encroachment despite the assumptive Persian control ending in a peace agreement in 449BC, had a lasting impact on enhancing the Spartan armies against their Greek foe during the wars.

The strengthening power of the Macedonians, who were seen as very similar to the Greeks was all enhanced by the rise of Phillip the Great who after becoming king in 359BC expanded a determined infantry corps to wage enormous defeat to the declining Greek territory. The newly emerged Phillip though fell short of asserting a proactive campaign against the Persian stronghold on the Asian continent. Phillip’s successor son Alexander, who is speculated to have devised a murderous plot of his father was however afforded the time and forward momentum to wage successful attacks on the Persian strongholds.

Around 334BC Alexander moved into the eastern Mediterranean land of Syria, Turkey and advancing toward Babylon or present day Iraq. One of the most notorious of Alexander’s land claims was in Egypt where he established Alexandria as an elaborate tributary of the successful lineage of Macedonian conquerors at the time. By 330BC Alexander’s armies were an insurmountable force that traveled deep into Persian land, extolling revenge for the century before destruction of Athens by Xeres. Destruction was laid to the capital Persepolis and the mighty warrior claimed himself successor of the Archemened Empire effectively bringing the original ruler ship of Cyrus to an end.

Testament to the grandiosity of Persia at the time of Alexander’s defeats, his armies implemented a Persianizing policy by which his millions of men married and adopted local. His death came of natural causes in 323BC in Babylonian territory. Power ceded to many of the more influential Greek soldiers through the Persian territory. The efforts as had been originally intended to spread Greek influence into the stronghold of Persian lands showed some success as the people succumbed to the foreign rule but an effective cultural tradition remained including Mazden religion which exerted great animosity between the invaders and Persian natives.

In rediscovered Zoroastrian writings of the Magian priest’s accounts of aggressive killing of the religious class are documented. In turn references were given to Alexander as “guzastag” meaning accursed used normally only in the most despicable context of the evilness admonished by the Mazdaen beliefs.

Julius Caesar to Prophet Muhammad:

Beginning several centuries BCE, the Middle East, Arabian Peninsula and Asia Minor accounted for disparate populations of people from different origins. Waves of tribal communities with allegiances to dynastic power and conquerors of various nationality existed including Greeks, Romans, and various sects of Persians. Around 559 BC, a formative figure came to power in the northeastern territory above the present day Persian Gulf. He was Cyrus of the Archaemenes dynasty and immediately combined control of his inherited region along with the nearby Median Empire. His techniques in conquest were harsh and authoritative yet he expressed tolerance for other ethnicities including the area’s Jews. During the period of his life, he expanded the Persian rule westward across Mesopotamia, Babylon (current day Iraq, Saudi Arabia) to the Mediterranean coast where the establishment of many Greek city-states were located. In the east, the Archaemenid rule stretched through present day Iran into Asia Minor where their also they existed minor Greek settlements. A brief succession was had by his son Cambyses who came to take control of Egypt and that then came to represent the largest settlement under any single power that had ever been created. Shortly after, tensions arose from an attempt at succession by an alleged brother of Cambyses who had tried to impart among the people strict religious beliefs that were based largely upon the existing faiths at the time, Mazdaism and Zoroastrianism. Both were monotheistic religions with influential concepts of good and evil, that served as influential later to Christianity and Judaic beliefs at the time.

The first of an Iranian revolution is said to have occurred under these religious contexts. Darius however, the subsequent ruler of the Archaemnid empire diffused the hostilities, proclaimed the capital as Persepolis, supported religious tolerance, pursued further conquests of adjacent land in the Mediterranean but was defeated by the Greeks in 490 BC. This battle that took place at the city of Marathon led to a series of Persian Wars that reshaped territorial control for the Greeks. Previoulsy, Greek influence existed largely in Europe and the Mediterranean, comprised mostly of independently controlled states of geographic domain and not necessarily the unified force of indigenous people as was characteristic of Persian society. The Peloponnesian Wars raged between the Greeks and Spartans for which Persians showed support to the Spartans mostly due to the record of battles that had occurred with them and the Greeks, most notably the devastating blow to the city of Athens by Darius’s successor in 480 BC.

Military tactics experienced change over time as greater importance developed for infantry on horseback that helped lead to comforts for a more advanced civilization during the rule of subsequent successors in the following centuries. Revenge was soon had by Alexander the Great of Greece in 330 bc for the previous destruction of Athens which led to an ambitious military campaign for Persian controlled areas. The Greek encroachment within the vast territory introduced a Western influence that expanded trading colonies, established Greek military bases and assimilated some new culture. This persisted up to the time of the Roman entrance into the area first under Julius Cesear and then under ruler Mark Antony in 40 BC.

Prior to the arrival of the Romans, a great resilience sustained the indigenous society that came to be based on a diversity of complex culture and providing respect for individual identities. Due in large part to the composure of the military's strength among the established areas that experienced attack from Roman troops, prevalent authority was nonetheless able to be preserved despite the crusading Christian indoctrination of Constantine and the Empire.

Some of what the culture of Iran is known for is lyrical talent, poetry and artful academic scholastics that was born out of the several hundred years from about 250-seventh century ad. Significant cultural institutions were established that cultivated greater thought with translations of Greek texts into Farsi, helped to revitalize teachings for some of the religious ideals that were known to circulate the region from centuries before. To this point, the adoption of Islam hadn't occurred. However the birth of Prophet Mohammad in 570 ad.would have profound effects to all facets of life soon after.

Much farther to the west in the Palestenian town of Mecca had at the time developed into a prosperous trading city where many merchants negotiated fine goods. The surronding oases provided farm land that wasn't always suitable for proper cultivation. Those that occupied these surronding lands were the nomad tribesman, and the most prolific at the time were of the bedoin tribe. Their belief system was mainly seperate from the farther eastern, and propertied population of Persians. Rather than adopting the emergence of Christian doctrine or keeping with the preexisting relgions of Zoroastrian and Mazadism accepted at the time, the tribal people bedoins worshiped many gods. These clans also gave servitude to many of the elite landowners of the those who had conquered the territory in previous Persian and Greek occupations. Upon the rise of prophet Mohammad though things were to change. Mohammad was born of a merchant in Mecca and became married to a wealthy widow and goods trader. The swifteness that the people of the Arabian peninsula took to adopt his Muslim teachings was remarkable. It wasn't long before immense popularity spread to farther areas having a profound impact on the socio-political systems.

Regaining it's Unique Cultural Era:

Due in large part to the composure of the military's strength within the established areas that experienced attack from Roman troops, prevalent authority was nonetheless able to be sustained despite the crusades of Christian indoctrination of Constantine and the Holy Empire. Some of what the culture of Iran is known for like lyrical talent, poetry and artful academic scholastics was born out of the several hundred years from about the tenth to thirteenth century. Significant cultural institutions were established that cultivated greater thought with translations of Greek texts into Farsi, revitalized teachings of some of the religious ideals that circulated in wide acceptance then as they had to some extent prior to the periods of conquest. The adoption of Islam hadn't occurred before the birth of Prophet Mohammad in 570 ad. Mecca at the time had developed into a prosperous trading city of which many merchants negotiated fine goods.

The surronding oases provided farm land that wasn't always suitable for proper cultivation. Those that occupied these surronding lands were the nomad tribesman, and the most prolific at the time were of the bedoin tribe. Their belief system was mainly seperate from the farther eastern, and propertied population of Persians. Rather than adopting the emergence of Christian doctrine or keeping with the preexisting relgions of Zoroastrian and Mazadism, most tribal people shared polytheistic views. These clans gave servitude to many of the elite landowners of those who had conquered the territory in previous Persian and Greek occupations. Upon the rise of prophet Mohammad though who was born of a merchant in Mecca and married a wealthy widow, the swifteness that the people of the Arabian peninsula took to adopt his Muslim teachings was remarkable. It wasn't long before this immense popularity spread farther east and preserving the Persian culture became more a challenge of the dynastys that had exterted a strong control over this land for the millienia before. It's considered that much of the formerly controlled sections in Central Asia didn't adopt the same religious rigor as the areas to the West of the Arabian Peninsula.

In Persia, a court system with beurocrats, philosphers,and astronomers had a place in the ruling people at the time. Following the.... a sequence of dynasties challenged the central authority of the land during 821-1003. They included the Taherids of Khorasan, Samanids of Bokhara and the Salfarids of Sistan. This era spawned the poetry that has such meaning to the future of Persian tradition. As a new Persian language was expected to be explored due to Arabization and a break from the traditional form of language, the poetic movement resisted such a modification and mainly kept it's pure form. Important writings produced during the time, Ferdowsi's Shahnamed describe accounts of Persian Kings, exchanges between Iranians and Arabs following previous Arab conquest and reflections of love. The first of the great poets of the time was Rudaki from the Samanid court. Abolqasem Ferdowsi began under Samanid rule but ultimately didn't finish his large collection until the Ghaznavid dynasty who were of Turkic origin began exerting control in the early eleventh century. The Shahnameh's rhetoric depicts before the coming of Islam and the Persian defeat at Qadesiyya, making use of an old language and avoiding borrowed Arab words that were becomoing more common at the time. Avoiding much if any Islamic context, themes involved early Mazdaen, monothiestic religion that at the time contradicted the evolving influence in Turkic rule which touted a much stronger Arabic feel. The future importance of the Shanameh is a text that even to current day is taught in Iranian schools and was a factor in preserving the old language at the time. The poet Ferdowsi was killed apparently by locals in 1020 shortly after the book's completion.

The Ghaznavids didn't supress the original scholarly work of these people but an emphasis was lost. This rise of power was a coallition from many of the Turks who had been used as mercenaries and workers, establishing a presence that was successful in taking control of the Khorasan territory just west of the current day borders with India. Another strong Turkic settlement had even greater success by conqeuring their western territory, spreading a rule all the way west to several hundred kilometers shy of the Red Sea. This conquest by the Seljuk Turks achieved incredible artifacts of the time and academic innovations that had lasting influence on modern thinking. The second Seljuk shiek sought great influence from the Persian Hasan Tusi Nizam ol-Muld who returned back to the strengths of the Abbasid model of governance from a century before. The model was documented in Siyasat-Nameh, a text that exerted a hand for future forms of rule including Machaveli's, the Prince. znizam ol-Mulk was a compatriot too of the gifted Omar Kayyam, whose work in geometry, binomial, quadratics, astronomy led the time in uncoverning important academic theories.

Sufism was a brand of philosophical and religious thought that altered the hardline religions sentiment prevalent within the Arab community by it's distaste for the importance conjuered by the local ulema religious elite. Traveling the rural regions of the country and spreading beliefs, the wandering Sufis, known as dervishes, their romantic and rational mysticsm was able to compel many to refrain from an orthodox acceptance of Islam. The emphasis for secular things like academics, music, wine and virtues of a meaningful life were taught. At the time the territorry of these people where prevalence of Persian remained along with the Turkic infusion and Muslimism, it was called Khorasan. This resistance to tremedous change despite the centuries of shifts in occupation enabled a strong preservation of the cultural identity that was made only stronger in part by the sufis and a Turkic policy of Persianizing their soldiers to adopt the customs of the inhabited territory. This way of thought and life for Iranians that had since the mid eleventh century been under moderate control of the Seljuk Sultans in the east and Abassid Muslim influence in the west would face a vicerol enemy in 1220. The mongols under the leadership of Ghangis Khan was on the front to launch his campaign into the Khosaran area.

Nader Shah:

The Iranian state is said to have been established in the early sixteenth century during the Safavid Dynasty. Their reign held strong for centuries until disruptive revolutionary action occurred in Kandahar, Afghanistan in the early 18th century. The extent of territory held during this time was a progression of invasions from centuries before and ultimately shaped a political map that resembles what is known as the Middle East today.

In the early 18th century, a series of struggle occurred that limited the stronghold of Persian power under Safavid dynasty that existed across an expansive territory of central Asia. One area in particular was held by a Safavid governor but a local Ghilzi tribesman held popular support over the people in Kandahar. To protect Safavid control, the appointed governor over Kandahar sent this popular tribal leader, Mir Veis, to the Persian capital of Isfahan primarily to prevent a power struggle. To the determent of Safavid control over the area, Mir Veis, a Sunni, gained respect from the Shah in Isfahan by exhibiting piety and making the Haj pilgrimage. He was able to gather support in Isfahan and lead a rebellion over the Shiite, Safavid governor in Kandahar that quickly spread to revolts among other Afghan tribesman in an impactful claim for power. This uprising in Kandahar instigated resistance by armies that were sent from the Persian Capital to reclaim control. Large populations under Safavid control in Baluchistan, Korasan and Bahrain heeded this example set by Mir Veis and local rebellions culminated in a rapid hold on power by local Sunni, Afghans. Mir Veis’s son further amassed the disparate support from these areas and was able to lead a large attack against the Shah’s authority in Isfahan which succeeded in quarantining the army for six months in 1722 that eventually capitulated Safavid control to Mahmud Ghilzai. The Ottoman’s feared the change as they had been supportive of the Shah and Safavid rule. The weakening also preempted Peter the Great of Russia to expand slightly greater influence in the area yet Ottoman leadership prevailed with little opposition at the time.

But in 1726 a resurgent figure of the old dynasty named Nader Qoli(1700-1747) allied himself with the son of a former Safavid Shah named Tahmasp, who had managed to elude the Ottoman and Afghan forces in Northern Persia during the Ghilizi power hold. Qoli and Tahmasp launched a commanding force to reconquer small areas and strengthen the military under Nader’s tactful ambition that led to reclaiming what was lost to the Ghilizi Afghan tribesman.

Sustaining a cunning dominance as a military leader, General Nader would succeed in many major conquests during his lifetime that would ultimately empower him as Shah. He had been somewhat of an outsider from Turkish descent but raised in the Afshar tribe in the northeastern Khorasan region. Quickly he ascended to show strength as a soldier who claimed many victories over the diminishing Safavid region of control from it's western territory towards land farther east near India.

By 1729 Isfahan was back under control of the younger Shah Tahmasp and the proven General Nader secured tax collecting authority over parts of his conquest. Unbeknownst to Nader though, Shah Tahmasp had waged battles with Ottomans, leading to a mild Ottoman victory that merely reinvigorated the attentive General Nader to begin a campaign against the Ottomans in Iraq, Turkey and Persian lands. These resulted in successful feats along with others over the years that had impressed many of the nobles and consequentally enabled Nader to asserted his leadership by nominating himself to be Shah. The people agreed and the style of rule that he would practice during fifteen years of reign would focus militarily on preserving the army's territorial gains.

The majority of Nader Shah’s soldiers were Sunni Muslim and thereby he sought to maintain the loyalty of his most valueable assets by advocating tolerance for their faith and denouncing Shi’a as the official Islamic doctrine. His rise to political power effectively brought an end to the centuries of rule by the Safavid Dynasty which had been growing weaker towards the early 18th century.

Securing firm control over the western borders of the Iranian Plateau had always been paramount to ensuring the important base of power for the Persian Dynasties. Along the Zargos Mountains is where the boundaries often had existed with the Ottomans. As mentioned though military defeats were able to extend the territorial claims for Persia into Arabian Peninsula. Control of the land above the Gulf towards the Caspian Sea and eastward was achieved. The determined military commander’s next move was further east into Herat, Kandahar, and Kabul of present day Afghanistan. Then further east Nader Shah led his massive army into the fierce Moghul territory near Delhi and despite inferior numbers was able to conquer the eastern border of present day Pakistan. The treasures held by the Moghul dynasty in that area were vast. Rather than annexing this territory in the east, he instead secured the treasure to help fund his expansion westward futher into the Ottoman Arab territory.

In a position to have exerted a larger occupying stake in the Moghul area toward India may have brought to realization a strategy that he envisioned for an expansive empire facilitating trade from Baghdad to India with a convertible currency to the Indian rupee. This plan diminished however as General Nader learned of an ordered execution by his son upon the Shah Tahmasp and a successor Abbas. Nader suspected a threat to his own rule. Nader’s concentration thus focused westward and upon the return from Delhi, he stripped his son of military command and called for a campaign of 375,000 soldiers including Kurds against Ottoman Iraq.

Encroachment into the Ottoman land was victorious in acquiring large parts of rural land and the town of Kirkuk but Basra, Baghdad and Mosul upheld their defense and a territorial agreement was signed in 1745. Soon afterwards an somewhat aging Nader was sent back to the urban centers near Isfahan and Shiraz where he was forced to quell skirmishes with locals who had grown disgrunteld over the costs of war. In later years, he often reacted with little compassion that only acerbated local retaliation prior to his death in 1747 when he was assassinated by several members of the military.

Incursion of Conflict and Entering Modern Age:

The after effects of Nader Shah rule ushered in a demise of political unification that had loosely been in place for the fifty years leading up to his immense territorial gains. For the next century, approaches to government, social order and religious allegiances would take an important evolutionary turn based upon who held power at the time.

The eastern territory of Baluchistan accepted control by Ahmad Khan Abdali, a former commander of the Afghans who led a march back home attacking the murderers of Nader Shah and capturing jewels once claimed by the former army. He was elected as the first shah of the Durrani dynasty overseeing Kandahar, Herat and Kabul that was to become present day Afghanistan.

Another of Nader’s powerful generals of Georgian descent, Erekle, returned home after the commander’s death in order to foment his governance over his home country where it was established as an independent kingdom.

Several of the respected leaders under Nader Shah returned home to the Khorasan where many were from including Karim Khan of the Zand tribe. He would soon prove to be an important force for the other appointed powers to reckon with as he soon set his interest on the western Persian territory where he gained leadership under the remaining dynastic Safavid family.

The authority that remained in place in Mashhad, the Khroasan capital, was preserved by Nader’s surviving grandson Shahrokh. His ascension lasting from 1750-1796 was aided by larger support given by Ahmad Shah of Durrani towards the southeast in Afghanistan.

Disbanding of the large central army resulted in much of this expansive territory exercising slight observance to any major head of state and the nomadic peasantry were made to coexist among the many unemployed soldiers now residing in the rural areas. Their had been significant population loss from around nine million to six million from a combination of the wars, disease and immigration in the eighteenth century. Also the taxing authority during Nader’s campaign had been so high that much of the land was no better off than before and the riches acquired from the east had been used to pay for the price of war in the west.

The more centralized western Iranian towns near Isfahan, Tehran and Qom though showed to be of greater influence for which Karim Khan sought to demonstrate his governing ability.

Although lacking in some respects compared to Nader, Karim Khan was capable of exerting strength in the western territory and prevented the encroachment of threats from former military leaders like Azhad Khan of Azerbaijan and Mohammad Hazan Khan Qajar from the northern Mazandean region. Kamir Khan fostered a relative calm to his territory and showed some feats by securing the western borders and once defeating the Ottomans at Basra. The capital of Persia was relocated to Shiraz and a reprisal of architecture, civic improvement with mosques, gardens, and palaces left him admired as a symbol of strong governance. Importantly he also reasserted the Shiite Muslim practice after the Sunni experimentation under Nader Shah.

But upon Karim Khan's death an unfolding civil war ravaged parts of Iran involving the Zand princes and the Qajar dynastic power in northern Mazandean just below the Caspian Sea. Agha Mohammad, formerly a captured prisoner since a young age had grown resentful of his years of captivity and after Karim Khan’s death, Agha managed an escape to northern Qajar territory. Agha Mhoammad's upbringing nonetheless had been described as studious and intellect was imperative in his rise to power. In the north, he overcame some resistance of the tribal powers by developing a sense of belonging as a result of familial lines tying him to the area's Qajari rulers. He quickly gained greater power in the north and removed the concentration of Zand forces there. This helped him to begin solidifying an alliance south of the Qajari territory with help from some Yomut Turkmen who once were supporters of his family.

When moving south toward Tehran, the people upheld their loyalty to the Zand rulership that existed there but expressed the notion of relenting to Qajari rule if Afgha Mohammad was able to overtake the southern capital in Isfahan. Isfahan at the time was still under the previous influence of Karim Zhan from his era of rule in 1754-1779. Defiantly Agha Mohammad marched to Isfahan in 1785 overtaking the town. An impressive campaign a year later to the west exerted greater control that demonstrated his purpose of taking over the entire country and naming Tehran, near the Qajari homeland, as the capital.

The intended supreme rule of Agha Mohammad however encountered resistance time and time again in the southern Isfahan territory where Zand family members attempted to reclaim control. Disputes among Zand power figures occurred with several vying for leadership to prevent an exclusive rule of Agha Mohammad from the upper Mazdaneran, Tehran territory all the way south.

A charismatic young family descendant of Karim Khan named Lotf Ali Khan emerged in Shiraz, once the capital before Nader Shah had relocated it to Mashhad around 1735. Lotf Ali Khan attempted to wield broad support from other Zand members by gathering an aggressive march to Isfahan after having prevented a secondary assault by Agha Mohammad. But many of the local Shiraz people betrayed him and put faith in Agha Mohammad during a fateful battle that ensued near Shiraz. It began as a decisive military advantage for Lotf Ali Khan until a recomposed Mohammad force overcame lost ground and forced Lotf Ali Khan's army to flee eastward. In an effort of eluding the proven power of Agha Mohammad, Ali Khan arrived to the town of Bam where he was further betrayed by locals and carried away in chains to the Qajari leaders to be tortured.

This pattern of feared loyalty by many of the area’s people emanated the consensus that Afgha Mohammad had proven for his capacity to rule over all of the Iranian Plateau. The pursuit of conquest moved northwest to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi where despite a commendable defense was ultimately overtaken. Years before though the king of Georgia placed the country under Russian protection which caused difficult relations between the proven Qajari strength and the Russian powers a few decades later.

In 1796 Afgha Mohammad confronted Sharaokh in Khorasan who was tortured in efforts to keep from relinquishing the region’s valuable jewels. Shortly after the incident Sharaokh died, permitting a territorial rule for Agha Mohammad across the whole Persian region of what once was Safavid, Sassanid, Zand and now nearly exclusive Qajari control.

However his own death befell him soon after in 1797 when two of his servants who previously were ordered put to death managed to avert their fate and stabbed Agha Mohammad. Rather than slipping into national turmoil, Agha Mohammad’s nephew Fath Ali Shah, a well groomed successor, had been appointed. An important part to the lasting effects from Afgha Mohammad’s 34 years of rule was that Ali Shah promoted open border commerce for European tourists and members of state to travel to Persian cities. This in effect aided the redevelopment of the empire from some of the destruction that had occurred in much of the area during the regional feuds of the previous century.

Importantly the country managed to remain dependent despite fighting a long waged twenty year Russian/Persian War in the caucus territory which fell ultimately to Russian control. Several cultural enhancements were established during Fath Ali Shah’s rule such as moderate patronage of arts and the religious shift to a Usuli Shiite denomination of worship. This fomented the restoration of influence for the Ulema Islamic priests contrary to the Akhbari tolerance during the time of Nader Shah’s Sunnism.

Many of the religious elites were able to exert a strong political power in nineteenth century Iran. Religious ceremony became popular where still today yearly demonstrations commemorate the martyrdom of the Shiite Emam Hoseina. Also given that the religious power bases were moslty located outside of Persian borders in the Ottoman territory of Najaf and Karbala provided an even greater influence for the local Persian ulema among the eighteenth and nineteenth century societies.

At the same time however a momentous religious trend had developed farther west in Arabia known as Wahhabism. Their fundamentalist Muslim stricture was entirely Sunni and resented any non traditional forms of Islam. During the eighteenth and late nineteenth century it was successful in winning broad acceptance in Arabia a result of support from the Al Saud family. This form of the earliest practices of Muslim tradition dating back to Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century opposed Shia doctrine although it persevered for a time as the Ottomans managed to defeat Al Saud in 1818 and regain Arabian control. This brand of Wahabi Muslim orthodoxy however would reemerge with a lasting importance in the twentieth century.

The Western influence that began to exert more impact under Fath Ali Shah started primarily from the successful Russian efforts in the caucus as well as Britain extending some influence with the help of it’s presence in East Asia. At the time, India had been a British colony for decades and English ambassadors cordially arranged for a Persian visit. Intentions were made to consider a diplomatic treaty that would provide some influence in Persia by the English East India Company. Great Britain had seen the manner in which it’s rival France under Napoleon had marched into Egypt unchallenged to occupy the North African country. A concern that such a situation could occur in Persia with French inroads into India prompted Britain to orchestrate a light ally in Iran and buffer against any opposing European struggles.

The negotiations were persuasive given the lavish gifts of Indo-British agents who impacted an agreement of aid that could assure a hegemony of Western influence in Eastern Asia Minor. Despite an agreement with Britain though, Persian was in position to be influenced by Russia and at a time when all major European powers were staging means to increase their global influence. Persia would become a target of these superpower ambitions.

SIGN IN
or sign up for a username!
YOODLEDOO NEWS FORUM
Gathering Recent Stories from Aroung the World
WELCOME:
UPLOAD PHOTOS from Foreign Places!
EASY & FUN to share YOUR TRAVELS!
           CLICK HERE to BEGIN!
Displaying 1 of 1
This is a rug  
   

 

To View Videos Please install Adobe Flash Player version 8 or higher.