AFSHARID

Nader Shah or King Nader (1688-1747), the founder of Afsharid Dynasty, an enigmatic figure in Iranian history ruled from 1736 - 1747 A.D.
Nader Shah, or Nader Qoli Beg was born in Kobhan, Iran, on October 22, 1688, into one of the Turkish tribes loyal to the Safavid shahs of Iran. He was the son of a poor peasant, who lived in Khorasan and died while Nader was still a child. Nader and his mother were carried off as slaves by the Ozbegs, but after death of his mother in captivity Nader managed to escape and became a soldier. Soon he attracted the attention of a chieftain of the Afshar in whose service Nader rapidly advanced. Eventually, the ambitious Nader fell out of favour. He became a rebel and gathered a substantial army.
In 1719 the Afghans had invaded Persia. They deposed the reigning Shah of the Safavid dynasty in 1722. Their ruler, Mahmoud Ghilzai (±1699-1725), murdered a large number of Safavid Princes, hacking many of them to death by his own hand. After he had invited the leading citizens of Esfahan to a feast and massacred them there, his own supporters assassinated Mahmoud in 1725. His cousin, Ashraf (±1700-1730), took over and married a Safavid princess.
At first, Nader fought with the Afghans against the Ozbegs until they withheld him further payment. In 1727 Nader offered his services to Tamasp II (±1704-1740), heir to the Safavid dynasty. Nader started the reconquest of Persia and drove the Afghans out of Khorasan. The Afghans suffered heavy losses, but before they fled Ashraf massacred an additional 3000 citizens of Esfahan. Most of the fleeing Afghans were soon overtaken and killed by Nader's men, while others died in the desert. Ashraf himself was hunted down and murdered.
By 1729 Nader had freed Persia from the Afghans. Tamasp II was crowned Shah, although he was little more than a figurehead. While Nader was putting down a revolt in Khorasan, Tamasp moved against the Turks, losing Georgia and Armenia. Enraged, Nader deposed Tamasp in 1732 and installed Tamasp's infant son, Abbas III (1732-1740), on the throne, naming himself regent. Within two years Nader recaptured the lost territory and extended the Empire at the expense of the Turks and the Russians.
In 1736 Nader evidently felt that his own position had been established so firmly that he no longer needed to hide behind a nominal Safavid Shah and ascended the throne himself. In 1738 he invaded Kandahar, captured Kabul and marched on to India. He seized and sacked Delhi and, after some disturbances, he killed 30000 of its citizens. He plundered the Indian treasures of the Moghal Emperors, taking with him the famous jewel-encrusted Peacock Throne and the Koh-i Noor diamond. In 1740 Nader had Tamasp II and his two infant sons put to death. Then he invaded Transoxania. He resumed war with Turkey in 1743. In addition, he built a navy and conquered Oman.
Gradually Nader's greedy and intolerant nature became more pronounced. The financial burden of his standing armies was more than the Persians could bear and Nader imposed the death penalty on those who failed to pay his taxes. He stored most of his loot for his own use and showed little if any concern for the general welfare of the country. Nader concentrated all power in his own hands. He was a brilliant soldier and the founder of the Persian navy, but he was entirely lacking any interest in art and literature. Once, when Nader was told that there was no war in paradise, he was reported to have asked: "How can there be any delights there?". He moved the capital to Mashhad in Khorasan, close to his favourite mountain fortress. He tried to reconcile Sunnism with Shi'itism, because he needed people of both faiths in his army, but the reconciliation failed.
In his later years, revolts began to break out against his oppressive rule. Nader became increasingly harsh and exhibited signs of mental derangement following an assassination attempt. He suspected his own son, Reza Qoli Mirza (1719-1747), of plotting against him and had him blinded. Soon he started executing the nobles who had witnessed his son's blinding. Towards the end, even his own tribesmen felt that he was too dangerous a man to be near. In 1747 a group of Afshar and Qajar chiefs decided "to breakfast off him ere he should sup off them". His own commanders surprised him in his sleep, but Nader managed to kill two of them before the assassins finished him off.
Nader was Persia's most gifted military genius and is known as "The Second Alexander" and "The Napoleon of Persia". Although he restored national independence and effectively protected Iran's territorial integrity at a dark moment of the country's history, his obsessive suspicions and jealousies plunged Iran into political turmoil. Little is known about Nader's personal life. His grandiosity, his insatiable desire for more conquests and his egocentric behaviour suggest a narcissistic personality disorder and in his last years he seems to have developed some paranoid tendencies. Nader was married four times and had 5 sons and 15 grandsons.

Nadir Shah

From 1736 to 1747 CE

Adil

From 1747 to 1748 CE

Shah Rokh

From 1748 to 1749 CE

Ibrahim

From 1748 to 1749 CE

ZAND

Following the death of the Afshārid ruler Nāder Shāh (1747), Karīm Khān Zand became one of the major contenders for power. By 1750 he had sufficiently consolidated his power to proclaim himself as vakīl (regent) for the Ṣafavid Esmāʿīl III. Karīm Khān never claimed the title of shāhanshāh (“king of kings”); instead he maintained Esmāʿīl as a figurehead. Karīm Khān, with 30 years of benevolent rule, gave southern Iran a much needed respite from continual warfare. He encouraged agriculture and entered into trade relations with Great Britain. His death in 1779 was followed by internal dissensions and disputes over successions. Between 1779 and 1789 five Zand kings ruled briefly. In 1789 Loṭf ʿAlī Khān (ruled 1789–94) proclaimed himself as the new Zand king and took energetic action to put down a rebellion led by Āghā Moḥammad Khān Qājār that had begun at Karīm Khān’s death. Outnumbered by the superior Qājār forces, Loṭf ʿAlī Khān was finally defeated and captured at Kermān in 1794. His defeat marked the final eclipse of the Zand dynasty, which was supplanted by that of the Qājārs.

Mohammad Karim Khan Zand

From 1750 to 1779 CE

Abol Fath

1779 CE

Ali Murad

From 1779 d. 1785 CE

Sadiq

From 1779 to 1782 CE

Ali Murad

From 1782 to 1785 CE

QAJAR

In 1779, following the death of Moḥammad Karīm Khān Zand, the Zand dynasty ruler of southern Iran, Āghā Moḥammad Khān (reigned 1779–97), a leader of the Turkmen Qājār tribe, set out to reunify Iran. By 1794 he had eliminated all his rivals, including Loṭf ʿAlī Khān, the last of the Zand dynasty, and had reasserted Iranian sovereignty over the former Iranian territories in Georgia and the Caucasus. In 1796 he was formally crowned as shah, or emperor. Agha Moḥammad was assassinated in 1797 and was succeeded by his nephew, Fatḥ ʿAlī Shāh (reigned 1797–1834). Fath ʿAlī attempted to maintain Iran’s sovereignty over its new territories, but he was disastrously defeated by Russia in two wars (1804–13, 1826–28) and thus lost Georgia, Armenia, and northern Azerbaijan. Fatḥ ʿAlī’s reign saw increased diplomatic contacts with the West and the beginning of intense European diplomatic rivalries over Iran. He was succeeded in 1834 by his grandson Moḥammad, who fell under the influence of Russia and made two unsuccessful attempts to capture Herāt. When Moḥammad Shāh died in 1848 the succession passed to his son Nāṣer od-Dīn (reigned 1848–96), who proved to be the ablest and most successful of the Qājār sovereigns. During his reign Western science, technology, and educational methods were introduced into Iran and the country’s modernization was begun. Nāṣer od-Dīn Shāh exploited the mutual distrust between Great Britain and Russia to preserve Iran’s independence.

When Nāṣer was assassinated by a fanatic in 1896, the crown passed to his son Moẓaffar od-Dīn Shāh (reigned 1896–1907), a weak and incompetent ruler who was forced in 1906 to grant a constitution that called for some curtailment of monarchial power. His son Moḥammad ʿAlī Shāh (reigned 1907–09), with the aid of Russia, attempted to rescind the constitution and abolish parliamentary government. In so doing he aroused such opposition that he was deposed in 1909, the throne being taken by his son. Aḥmad Shāh (reigned 1909–25), who succeeded to the throne at age 11, proved to be pleasure-loving, effete, and incompetent and was unable to preserve the integrity of Iran or the fate of his dynasty. The occupation of Iran during World War I (1914–18) by Russian, British, and Ottoman troops was a blow from which Aḥmad Shāh never effectively recovered. With a coup d’état in February 1921, Reza Khan (ruled as Reza Shah Pahlavi, 1925–41) became the preeminent political personality in Iran; Aḥmad Shāh was formally deposed by the majlis (national consultative assembly) in October 1925 while he was absent in Europe, and that assembly declared the rule of the Qājār dynasty to be terminated.

Agha Mohammad Shah

From 1779 to 1797 CE

Baba Khan

1797 CE

Fath Ali Shah

From 1797 to 1834 CE

Mohammad Shah

From 1834 to 1848 CE

Nasir Ed-Din Shah

From 1848 to 1896 CE

Mozaffar Ed-Din Shah

From 1896 to 1907 CE

Mohammad Ali Shah

From 1907 to 1909 CE

Ahmed Shah

From 1909 to 1925 CE

PAHLAVI

The strong opposition to the idea by the majority of the people. In 1925 the Majles deposed the absentee monarch, and a constituent assembly elected Reza Khan as Shah, vesting sovereignty in the new Pahlavi dynasty

Reza

From 1925 to 1941 CE

Anglo-Soviet occupation

From 1941 to 1946 CE

Mohammad Reza

From 1941 to 1979 CE

Theocratic State

1979 CE

ISLAMIC REPUBLIC

Mehdi Bazargan

From 1979 to 1979 CE

Abol-hassan Banisadr

From 1980 to 1981 CE

Mohammad Ali Rajaei

From 1981 to 1981 CE

Ali Khamenei

From 1981 to 1989 CE

Ali Akbar Rafsanjani

From 1989 to 1997 CE

Mohammad Khatami

From 1997 to 2005 CE

Mahmoud AhmadiNejad

From 2005 to Present