Qajars (tribe)
The Qajars, (Self-Designation: Qaçarlar, also spelled Kadjars, Kajars, Kadzhars, Cadzhars, Cadjars, Ghajars, etc.) are an Oghuz Turkic clan of Bayat tribe.[1] who lived variously, with other tribes, in the area that is now Armenia, Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran.
With the end of the Safavid era, they had split into several fractions. These included the Ziyādoghlu (Ziādlu), associated with the area of Ganja and Yerevan, as well as the Qoyunlu (Qāvānlu), and Davālu (Devehlu) the latter two associated with the northern areas of contemporary Iran.[2]
Background
[change | change source]The Qajars were one of the original Turkoman Qizilbash tribes that emerged and spread in Asia Minor around tenth and eleventh centuries. They later supplied power to the Safavids since this dynasty's earliest days. Numerous members of the Qajar tribe held prominent ranks in the Safavid state. In 1794, a Qajar chieftain, Agha Mohammed, member of the Qoyunlu branch of the Qajars, founded the Qajar dynasty which replaced the Zand dynasty in Iran. He launched his campaign from his power base south of the Caspian Sea, capturing its capital Isfahan in 1785. A year later, Tehran accepted Mohammed's authority.[3]
Sources
[change | change source]- ↑ Olson, James Stuart; Pappas, Lee Brigance and Pappas, Nicholas Charles. (1994) An Ethnohistorical dictionary of the Russian and Soviet empires page 333
- ↑ Atkin, Muriel (1980). Russia and Iran, 1780–1828. U of Minnesota Press.
- ↑ Fukasawa, Katsumi; Kaplan, Benjamin J.; Beaurepaire, Pierre-Yves (2017). Religious Interactions in Europe and the Mediterranean World: Coexistence and Dialogue from the 12th to the 20th Centuries. Oxon: Taylor & Francis. p. 280.