The Qajar Historical Background
The Qajar dynasty ruled Iran from 1789 until 1925. Its founder, Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, established control over a fragmented post-Safavid landscape and consolidated the state after decades of instability. The dynasty’s early rulers, including Fath Ali Shah, governed during a period of geopolitical vulnerability, marked by wars with Imperial Russia and growing European influence. Later monarchs, including Naser al-Din Shah and Mozaffar al-Din Shah, presided over a country grappling with modernization, foreign concessions, fiscal crises, and constitutional reform.
The dynasty formally ended in 1925 when Reza Khan, later known as Reza Shah Pahlavi, deposed Ahmad Shah Qajar and established the Pahlavi dynasty. After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the Iranian monarchy itself was abolished, and Iran became an Islamic Republic. Since then, no royal institution has had legal or political standing within Iran’s constitutional order.
In this context, any contemporary claim to the Iranian throne—whether Qajar or Pahlavi—exists outside the framework of the current state. Such claims function symbolically rather than constitutionally, rooted in genealogy, identity, or political aspiration rather than recognized authority.
