NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF IRAN

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 

-Iran is located in the Middle East:

- before the 20th century, the area which forms modern Iran was the centre of the Persian Empire

- the ruler of the Persian Empire was called the Shah and, from the 17th century, his throne was called the Peacock Throne:

- the Peacock Throne is one of the best looking thrones of them all:

- the Persian Empire became Shi’a during the rule of the Safavid dynasty, which ruled Iran 1501-1722

- since that time, Iran has always been the most important Shi’a country

- in the 18th century, the Persian Empire was much bigger than present-day Iran - here’s what it looked like under the reign of the Afsharid Dynasty, which ruled 1722-1781:

- note how in addition to modern day Iran, it also included: about half of Iraq, a bit of Turkey, all of present Armenia, about half of modern Georgia, all of modern Azerbaijan, some territory north of Azerbaijan which today is part of Russia, about half of modern Turkmenistan, 3/4 of modern Afghanistan, and about a third of modern Pakistan

- 1722: end of Safavid Dynasty - comes about because of 2 big events: (1) Peter the Great and the Ottoman Empire invade lands in the north; (2) the Safavids attempt to convert the Afghans, who are Sunni, to Shi’a Islam, and the Afghans take advantage of the Russian-Turkish invasion to revolt

- Nader Shah founds the Afsharid Dynasty in 1722, and succeeds in beating back the Russians, and confining the troublemaking Afghans to Afghanistan

- 1747: Nader Shah is assassinated, and the Afghans revolt, ultimately leading to the foundation of the Durrani Empire, which was headed by Ahmed Shah Durrani, and which included parts of modern Afghanistan, Pakistan, a little bit of western India, and the Khorasan region of modern Iran (the north east part) - Persia never recaptures these areas (except Khorasan), and the Durrani Empire lays the foundation for the modern state of Afghanistan

- Nader Shah’s successors are weak, leading to the rise of the Zand Dynasty, tribal chieftans who become de facto shahs, although they never formally depose the Afsharids

- the founder of the Zand Dynasty, Karim Khan, moved the capital to Shiraz - here’s a picture of his house: