{ "id": "ep2zw18nay", "slug": "zand-dynasty", "title": "Zand dynasty", "updated": "2026-10-25", "topic_path": [ { "id": "society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society" }, { "id": "society.history", "label": "History and archaeology", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history" }, { "id": "society.history.other", "label": "Other history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.other" }, { "id": "society.history.other.middle-east", "label": "Middle East and North Africa", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.other.middle-east" }, { "id": "society.history.other.middle-east.afsharid-zand-qajar", "label": "Afsharid, Zand, and Qajar Iran (1736 to 1925)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.other.middle-east.afsharid-zand-qajar" }, { "id": "society.history.other.middle-east.afsharid-zand-qajar.afsharid-and-zand-period", "label": "Afsharid and Zand period", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.other.middle-east.afsharid-zand-qajar.afsharid-and-zand-period" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.mena.t1000.society.history.other.middle-east.afsharid-zand-qajar", "label": "Middle East and North Africa · 1000 to 1799: Afsharid, Zand, and Qajar Iran (1736 to 1925)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t1000.society.history.other.middle-east.afsharid-zand-qajar", "path": [ { "id": "geo.mena", "label": "Middle East and North Africa", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena" }, { "id": "geo.mena.t1000", "label": "Middle East and North Africa · 1000 to 1799", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t1000" }, { "id": "geo.mena.t1000.society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t1000.society" }, { "id": "geo.mena.t1000.society.history", "label": "History and archaeology", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t1000.society.history" }, { "id": "geo.mena.t1000.society.history.other", "label": "Other history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t1000.society.history.other" }, { "id": "geo.mena.t1000.society.history.other.middle-east", "label": "Middle East and North Africa", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t1000.society.history.other.middle-east" }, { "id": "geo.mena.t1000.society.history.other.middle-east.afsharid-zand-qajar", "label": "Afsharid, Zand, and Qajar Iran (1736 to 1925)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.mena.t1000.society.history.other.middle-east.afsharid-zand-qajar" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Zand dynasty (Zand-e Zandiya, 1751-1794) ruled Persia except Khorasan from Shiraz between the Afsharids and the Qajars; its founder Karim Khan Zand ruled as wakil, never shah.", "snippet": "The Zand dynasty (Zand-e Zandiya, 1751-1794) ruled Persia except Khorasan from Shiraz between the Afsharids and the Qajars; its founder Karim Khan Zand ruled as wakil, never shah.", "node": "society.history.other.middle-east.afsharid-zand-qajar.afsharid-and-zand-period", "markdown": "# Zand dynasty\n\nThe **Zand dynasty** (1164-1209 AH / 1751-94 CE) was an Iranian dynasty that ruled Persia, excluding Khorasan, from its capital at Shiraz, in the interval between the failure of [Nader Shah](https://www.edgepedia.org/nader-shah)'s Afsharid successors to hold western Persia and the founding of the [Qajar dynasty](https://www.edgepedia.org/qajar-dynasty) by [Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar](https://www.edgepedia.org/agha-mohammad-khan-qajar) (r. 1779-97).[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Dates | 1164-1209 AH / 1751-94 CE; capital Shiraz[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) |\n| Extent | Western and central Persia from the Caspian littoral and Azarbaijan to Kerman and Lar; Khorasan was never recovered[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) |\n| Founder | Mohammad Karim Khan Zand (ca. 1705 - 1 March 1779) of the Bagala branch of the Zand, a pastoral tribe of the Lak branch of the Lors[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) • [2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karim-khan-zand/) |\n| Title | Karim Khan never took the title shah; he ruled as wakil, which he reinterpreted as wakil-al-ra'aya, 'deputy of the subjects'[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) |\n| Puppet Safavid | Shah Esmail III (r. 1750-65, d. 1773) was installed at Isfahan in 1750; the fiction of a Safavid revival was dropped after his death[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) |\n| Foreign policy | Commercial agreements with the British East India Company at Bushehr; Basra in Ottoman Iraq besieged and occupied in 1775-79[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) • [3](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/basra/) |\n| End | Shiraz fell to Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar on 21 July 1792; the last Zand ruler, Lotf-Ali Khan, was executed in November 1794[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) |\n| Legacy | Reputation rests on Karim Khan, whose economic policies and notable humanity are recorded in popular anecdotes; his successors' internecine warfare forfeited the dynasty's position to the Qajars[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) |\n\n## Origins of the dynasty\n\nA pastoral people belonging to the Lak division of the northern Lors, the Zand moved seasonally across the territory lying between the inner Zagros and the plains of Hamadan, wintering near Malayer and grazing their flocks in summer on the Zagros slopes north of Kermanshah; their roots may ultimately lie among the Kurds.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) In 1732 Nader Shah deported thousands of Bakhtiari and a number of Zand families to Khorasan, where Karim Khan and many of his tribe served in his army.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) • [2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karim-khan-zand/) After Nader Shah's assassination in 1160/1747, Karim Khan led his people home to the west.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/)\n\nWhen the Afsharids failed to reassert authority over western Persia, Karim Khan allied with the Bakhtiari chief Ali-Mardan Khan and with Abu'l-Fath Khan Bakhtiari, who nominally governed Isfahan for the Afsharids, and the three occupied the former Safavid capital in 1750 in the name of a Safavid princeling, Abu Torab Mirza, whom they styled Shah Esmail III.[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karim-khan-zand/) Ali-Mardan Khan soon staged a coup, killing Abu'l-Fath Khan and plundering Shiraz, but he was ambushed in the Kotal-e Pir Zan mountain pass and driven into the mountains; in 1751 Karim Khan defeated him, recovered Shah Esmail III, and assumed his rival's title of wakil al-dowla, 'deputy of the state,' or regent.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) • [2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karim-khan-zand/) Ali-Mardan was killed by a band of Zands in 1754.[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karim-khan-zand/)\n\n## The struggle for supremacy, 1751-63\n\nThree other contenders for supremacy remained: Mohammad-Hasan Khan of the Qovanlu clan of the Qajars of Astarabad, Azad Khan Afghan Ghelzay, who had commanded an Afsharid contingent of 15,000 Afghans in Azarbaijan, and Fath-Ali Khan Afshar of Urmia.[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karim-khan-zand/) The Qajar chief challenged the Zands in 1752 and at one point captured Shah Esmail III and struck coins in his name; Azad Khan and Fath-Ali Khan together took Isfahan and forced Karim Khan to retreat into the Kuhgiluya hills.[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karim-khan-zand/)\n\n**The tide turned at Shiraz.** Karim Khan defeated Fath-Ali Khan at Kamarej, pursued him to Shiraz, which Azad Khan had to evacuate, and on 13 Safar 1168/29 November 1754 first entered his future capital.[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karim-khan-zand/) In 1757 Azad Khan was defeated near Urmia, and on 15 Jomada II 1172/14 February 1759 Mohammad-Hasan Khan Qajar was defeated by an army under Shaykh-Ali Khan Zand and slain.[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karim-khan-zand/) In 1763 Karim Khan took Tabriz and Urmia; Azad Khan surrendered and lived in honorable retirement at Shiraz, while Fath-Ali Khan Afshar, who had also surrendered, was executed at Isfahan the following year.[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karim-khan-zand/) On 2 Safar 1179/21 July 1765 the Wakil re-entered Shiraz and remained there for the rest of his life.[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karim-khan-zand/)\n\n## Karim Khan's rule from Shiraz\n\nKarim Khan defied the expectations of Iranians, French, and Russians alike by declining to assume the title of shah.[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karim-khan-zand/) He was content with wakil throughout his reign and reinterpreted it as wakil al-ra'aya, 'deputy of the subjects,' a term normally designating a local official appointed by the shah to investigate crimes and complaints of administrative abuse.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) • [2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karim-khan-zand/)\n\nHis foreign and economic policy followed the same modest register. He devoted his efforts to reviving trade and agriculture in Fars and western Persia, rebuilt Shiraz, and concluded commercial agreements with the British East India Company at Bushehr.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) He besieged and occupied [Basra](https://www.edgepedia.org/basra) in Ottoman Iraq between 1775 and 1779; the city was blockaded, surrendered in 1190/1776, and a Persian garrison under his brother Sadeq Khan was installed, which withdrew after Karim Khan's death in 1779.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) • [3](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/basra/) He did not attempt to recover Khorasan, which had become a tributary of the Afghan monarch Ahmad Shah Dorrani (r. 1747-73), and he acknowledged that his power could not realistically challenge Georgian hegemony over Armenia and Azarbaijan north of the Aras River.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) • [2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karim-khan-zand/)\n\nThe Qajars of Astarabad never fully submitted. Karim Khan kept Agha Mohammad Khan and several other Qajar notables at his court as hostages, and never retaliated against them for the insubordination of their relatives in office.[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karim-khan-zand/) The dynasty's reputation rests on its founder, who welded together an army from the different Iranian pastoral tribes of the Zagros and built lasting alliances with the bureaucrats and magnates of Isfahan, Shiraz, Tabriz, and Kerman; his shrewd economic policies and notable humanity survive in many popular anecdotes.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/)\n\n## Successors and civil war, 1779-89\n\nKarim Khan died at Shiraz on 13 Safar 1193/1 March 1779.[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karim-khan-zand/) On his death Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, his hostage for sixteen years, escaped from Shiraz and began to consolidate Qajar power in the north.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) None of Karim Khan's five successors formally adopted the title wakil, nor that of shah; the first three ruled nominally for one of Karim Khan's sons.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/)\n\nThe succession collapsed into fratricide. Sadeq Khan, administering Basra, did not return in time to forestall his rivals; Karim Khan's half-brother Zaki Khan and Ali-Morad Khan killed rival Zand leaders and their supporters, and Sadeq Khan's army deserted him under threats to their families in Shiraz.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) Zaki Khan's atrocities at the village of Izadkhvast provoked his own men to murder him; Sadeq Khan returned and occupied Shiraz, but after an eight-month blockade the city fell by treachery in February 1781 to Ali-Morad Khan, who then had Akbar Khan kill Karim Khan's two surviving sons and Sadeq Khan with all his sons except Ja'far Khan.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) Akbar Khan was in turn put to death in 1782 at Ja'far Khan's instigation.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/)\n\nAli-Morad Khan (r. 1781-85) established his capital at Isfahan and campaigned in Mazandaran against the resurgent Qajars; in his reign the Zands relinquished their claims to Persia north of Isfahan, the watershed between Zand and Qajar history.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) Ja'far Khan (r. 1785-89), with his energetic son Lotf-Ali Khan, subdued Lar and Kerman and reoccupied Isfahan, but was driven out twice by Agha Mohammad Khan and killed in a mutiny led by Seyd-Morad Khan.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/)\n\n## Lotf-Ali Khan and the fall of the dynasty\n\nLotf-Ali Khan (b. 1182/1769) was the only one of Karim Khan's successors to win admiration for his courage and integrity.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) He recovered Shiraz from the mutineers and held it against a determined Qajar assault, but his downfall was precipitated by mutual distrust with the city's mayor, Haji Ebrahim.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) On his way to attack Isfahan in 1791 he was deserted by most of his army at the instigation of Haji Ebrahim's brother, and Shiraz was placed in Haji Ebrahim's hands and offered to the Qajars.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) Agha Mohammad Khan entered Shiraz on 1 Dhu'l-Hejja 1206/21 July 1792; Haji Ebrahim later became the first grand vizier (sadr-e a'zam) of the early Qajar period.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/)\n\nLotf-Ali Khan surprised Kerman in 1794 and held it for four months before the Qajars were admitted by treachery.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) He fled to Bam, whose governor seized him and handed him over; Agha Mohammad Khan had his last Zand enemy blinded and cruelly tortured before executing him at [Tehran](https://www.edgepedia.org/tehran) in Rabi' II 1209/November 1794.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/) This marked the end of Zand rule, although Agha Mohammad Khan was not formally crowned until 1796, and as late as 1797 Zaki Khan's son Mohammad Khan Zand attempted and failed to seize power from the Qajars with a Bajalan tribal army.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/)\n\n## Shiraz under the Zands\n\nZand architecture in later 18th-century Shiraz was fundamentally eclectic. The city plan imitated Safavid Isfahan; the citadel (arg) had bastions with Saljuq-type decorative brickwork; tiles and bas-reliefs revived Sasanian iconography; turrets on ayvans reflected Indian models; and floral compositions on tilework showed a realism perhaps borrowed from Europe.[4](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/architecture-vi/) The Vakil Mosque, the primary architectural monument of the dynasty, appears small and unmonumental beside the constructions of the Safavids and Timurids.[5](https://persianarcharchives.org/2024/06/22/persian-architecture-and-the-shirazi-school/) Tile paintings in Zand Shiraz illustrated romances, stories from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, and pre-Islamic Persian themes.[6](https://brill.com/view/journals/mcmw/5/1-2/article-p92_5.pdf)\n\nEuropean travelers supply much of the surviving picture of everyday life. William Francklin visited Shiraz in 1786-1787, and his travelogue records the social structure, traditions, and identity of Iranian society in the late Zand period; travelers such as Niebuhr, Scott Waring, and Drouville remain essential sources for the social atmosphere of the time, since Persian sources say little about daily life.[7](https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/gttad/article/1715797)\n\n## Historiographical position\n\nPersian historical writing in the 18th century reflected the upheavals that followed the Afghan conquest of Isfahan in 1722; the Afsharid and Zand dynasties were the most important of the many contenders that arose in the following decades.[8](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/historiography-vii/) Qajar chroniclers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries built on the Zand and Afsharid accounts of conquest, and the Ruz-nama of Mirza Mohammad, kalantar of Fars, was among the works later historians used to fill the gaps left by the lack of continuity in dynastic histories.[9](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/historiography-viii/) A contemporary view of the Zand court comes from Abd-al-Razzaq Beg Donboli, Karim Khan's hostage-guest from Tabriz who later joined the [Qajar court](https://www.edgepedia.org/qajar-court) and wrote a history of his new patrons; he memorializes the Zand court of Shiraz as a happy haze of wine, women, and verse.[2](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karim-khan-zand/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [John R. Perry, \"Zand Dynasty,\" Encyclopaedia Iranica](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zand-dynasty/)\n2. [John R. Perry, \"Karim Khan Zand,\" Encyclopaedia Iranica](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karim-khan-zand/)\n3. [Fred M. Donner, \"Basra,\" Encyclopaedia Iranica](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/basra/)\n4. [\"Architecture vi. Safavid to Qajar Periods,\" Encyclopaedia Iranica](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/architecture-vi/)\n5. [\"Persian Architecture and the Shirazi School,\" Persian Architecture Archives](https://persianarcharchives.org/2024/06/22/persian-architecture-and-the-shirazi-school/)\n6. [\"Journal of Material Cultures in the Muslim World 5 (2024), 92-133,\" Brill](https://brill.com/view/journals/mcmw/5/1-2/article-p92_5.pdf)\n7. [Ali Dogan Demir and Alpaslan Demir, \"Socio-cultural Life in Shiraz during the Zand Period: Observations of William Francklin (1786-1787),\" Journal of General Turkish History Research](https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/gttad/article/1715797)\n8. [\"Historiography vii. Afsharid and Zand Periods,\" Encyclopaedia Iranica](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/historiography-vii/)\n9. [\"Historiography viii. Qajar Period,\" Encyclopaedia Iranica](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/historiography-viii/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Other history › Middle East and North Africa › Afsharid, Zand, and Qajar Iran (1736 to 1925) › Afsharid and Zand period*\n\n*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/zand-dynasty", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/zand-dynasty.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Zand dynasty\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/zand-dynasty. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Zand dynasty](https://www.edgepedia.org/zand-dynasty)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/zand-dynasty](https://www.edgepedia.org/zand-dynasty). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Zand dynasty\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/zand-dynasty. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Zand dynasty ruled Persia except Khorasan from Shiraz between the Afsharids and the Qajars; its founder Karim Khan Zand ruled as wakil, never shah." }