Empire · 1736–1979 · Middle East & South Asia

Iran from Nader Shah to the Pahlavis (Persia)

Also known as Persia, Iran

After the Safavids fell, the general Nader crowned himself shah in 1736 and briefly built a vast empire, sacking Delhi in 1739, but it fell apart after his murder in 1747, and Karim Khan Zand then ruled most of Iran from Shiraz. Agha Mohammad Khan, chief of the Turkic Qajar tribe, then defeated his rivals, made Tehran his capital in 1786 and was crowned shah in 1796.

His successors lost Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan to Russia by 1828, while Britain and Russia competed for influence and concessions. The Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1911 created Iran's first parliament. In 1925 the army officer Reza Khan founded the Pahlavi dynasty, modernising the country by force, and in 1935 Persia officially became Iran abroad. His son Mohammad Reza Shah, backed by the West and oil wealth, was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

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Years

1736–1979

Capital

Mashhad under Nader Shah; Shiraz under Karim Khan Zand; Tehran from 1786

Greatest extent

1740, about 3.00 million km²

Region

Middle East & South Asia

Rough estimate; Nader Shah's empire, from the Caucasus and Khiva to the Indus. No Taagepera figure; the later Qajar state was c. 1.3M km² (1873)