Fath-Ali Shah Qajar

Biography

Fath-Ali, known in youth as Baba Khan, was born in Damghan in 1772, the son of Hossein Qoli Khan Qajar. As a boy he was held as a hostage at the Zand court in Shiraz, and after his father's murder in 1777 he came under the protection of his uncle Agha Mohammad Khan, who married his mother and made him heir after taking the throne in 1786. He fought in his uncle's campaigns against the Zands and was governor of Fars when Agha Mohammad Khan was assassinated in 1797.

He took the throne in 1797 and reigned for 37 years as the second Qajar shah. He turned a loose tribal khanate into a more centralised monarchy, kept peace between the state and the Shia clergy, and fostered a revival of court arts, commissioning portraits and rock reliefs that presented him as heir to ancient Persian kings.

His reign is remembered for two lost wars with Russia. After defeat in the war of 1804-1813 he accepted the Treaty of Gulistan, giving up Georgia and much of the eastern Caucasus; a renewed war in 1826-1828, led by crown prince Abbas Mirza, ended with the Treaty of Turkmenchay and the loss of Erivan and Nakhchivan. He also sought allies abroad, concluding an alliance with Napoleon's France in 1807. He died in Isfahan in 1834 and was succeeded by his grandson Mohammad Shah.