Agha Mohammad Khan

Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar آقا محمد خان قاجار
Shahanshah of Iran
Portrait of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar
Reign	1789 – 17 June 1797
Successor	Fath-Ali Shah Qajar
Born	1742 Astarabad, Iran
Died	17 June 1797 (aged 55) Shusha, Iran
Burial	Najaf
Dynasty	Qajar dynasty
Father	Mohammad Hasan Khan Qajar
Religion	Shia Islam
Tughra

Āghā Moḥammad Khān Qājār (Persian: آقا محمد خان قاجار‎‎; 1742–1797)‎ was the founder of the Qajar dynasty of Iran, ruling from 1789 to 1797 as king (shah). He was originally chieftain of the Qoyunlu branch of the Qajar tribe. In 1789, Agha Mohammad Khan was enthroned as the king of Iran, but was not officially crowned as its king until March 1796. On 17 June 1797 Agha Mohammad Khan was assassinated, and was succeeded by his nephew, Fath-Ali Shah Qajar.

Agha Mohammad Khan's reign is noted for the reemergence of a centrally led and united Iran. Following the death of Nader Shah (d. 1747), many of the Iranian territories in the Caucasus that had been ruled by the various subsequent Iranian dynasties since 1501, today comprising Georgia, Dagestan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia had broken apart into various Caucasian khanates or had declared de facto independence as in Georgia's case. After 48 years, they were all reconquered by Agha Mohammad Khan. Some of his reconquests were, even for their time, exceptionally cruel, such as his re-subjugation of Georgia, where he sacked the capital Tblisi, massacred many of its inhabitants, and moved some 15,000 Georgian captives back to mainland Iran.

Albeit Agha Mohammad Khan is noted for his heavily cruel and rapacious behaviour, his 18 years of determined conquest and consolidation resulted in Iran finally becoming unified once more, which thus made the country able to withstand large difficulties that occurred in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Agha Mohammad Khan is also noted for moving the capital to Tehran, where it still stands as of today.

Agha Mohammad Khan was born in around 1742 in Astarabad. He belonged to the Qoyunlu (also spelled Qawanlu) branch of the Qajar tribe. The tribe had several other branches, one of the most prominent ones being the Develu, which often fought against the Qoyunlu. Agha Mohammad Khan was the eldest son of the chieftain of the Qoyunlu clan, Mohammad Hasan Khan Qajar, and the grandson of Fath Ali Khan, a prominent aristocrat executed by the orders of shah Tahmasp II (possibly at the urging of Nader Qoli Beg, who would become known as Nader Shah after usurping the throne of Iran in 1736, marking the foundation of the Afsharid dynasty). Agha Mohammad Khan had several half-brothers and full-brothers: Hosayn Qoli Khan, Morteza Qoli Khan, Mostafa Qoli Khan, Reza Qoli Khan, Jafar Qoli Khan, Mahdi Qoli Khan, Abbas Qoli Khan and Ali Qoli Khan.