Aga Mohammad Shah

Aga Mohammad Khan (1742 - June 17th 1797), wire of Mohammad Hasan Khan, the chief of one of the important tribes turcomanes of Iran, the Qajars, becomes the Shah of Iran in 1794 and founds the Qajar dynasty.

Born in 1742, it is castrated at the 7 years age probably by Adel Shah Afshar, vassal of the reigning family Zand.

In 1762, it is captured and sent as prisoner to Shiraz, the capital of Zand. It spends 16 years in captivity before fleeing in 1779.

The same year, Iran knows one period of instability and chaos following death of Karim Khan Zand. In the ten years space, five Zand family members follow one another on the Trône of pâons.

Aga Mohammad Khan benefits from the occasion to carry out a rebellion by gathering the Qajar tribes. The rebellion will end in the capture of Lotf Ali Khan Zand, the last king of the dynasty.

Aga Mohammad Khan is the first to establish the capital with Teheran in 1786, then a small village in the north of the ancient city of Rey (Ragès).

In 1796, it attacks the Georgia, kingdom Christian in the north of Iran and vassal of Catherine II, the empress of the Russia and restores Iranian sovereignty on the territory. The Russia then will go up a punitive forwarding against Persia.

The same year it is made crown in its new capital.

In a few years, it reconquers the majority of the Iranian dependences of the the Caucasus and reunifies the empire devastated since the Safavides.

He is regarded as a cruel sovereign, mainly because of the punishment inflicted to the inhabitants of the town of Kerman where he asks his soldiers to return blind man several thousands of people.

One year after its crowning, he is assassinated on June 17th 1797 in his camp of Coucha (current Shousha in Georgia), by two of his servants condemned to died for an argument and left in freedom for the night.

Its nephew Bâbâ Khan, governor of Fars, succeeds to him by taking the name of Fath Ali Shah Qajar.

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