Nasir al-Din Shah succeeds to the Qajar throne

Russia’s push to secure control over eastern Caucasian khanates brought Qajar Iran into war. Iranica dates the war’s opening to June 1804, when Russian commander Pavel Tsitsianov appeared before...

Napoleonic France and Qajar Iran signed the Treaty of Finkenstein. France recognized Persian claims to Georgia and promised military assistance against Russia. The agreement shows how Qajar...

The treaty, reached with British mediation, ended the war and recognized Russian possession of territories it had occupied in the Caucasus. Its border settlement displaced Qajar authority across...

After years of border disputes and Russian expansion, fighting resumed between Qajar Iran and Russia. Iranica dates the conflict to 1826–28; this month marker uses July 1826 as the conventional...

The treaty ending the second Russo-Iranian war transferred the khanates of Erevan and Nakhchivan to Russia, imposed an indemnity, and expanded Russian commercial privileges. It formalized a sharp...

The Báb, founder of the Bábí movement, was executed by firing squad in Tabriz on the order of Qajar authorities. Encyclopaedia Iranica notes disagreement between 8 and 9 July in contemporary accounts....

A group of Bábís attempted to assassinate the Shah near Niyavaran. The attempt failed; state reprisals followed against Bábís and others, including the killing of Táhirih and the torture and execution...

After Qajar forces took Herat, Britain declared war and framed its intervention through the defense of Afghanistan and British India. The episode reflects the imperial strategic logic of the “Great...

British forces landed at Bushehr on the Persian Gulf during the Anglo-Persian War. The coastal campaign brought the war to Iranian territory and put pressure on the Qajar government to withdraw from...

Under the treaty, Iran agreed to evacuate Herat and renounce claims over the city and Afghanistan; Britain agreed to withdraw its forces. The settlement privileged British strategic objectives and...