Zaki Khan

Zaki Khan Zand (died June 6, 1779) was an Iranian military commander and contender for the throne. A member of the Zand Dynasty of Iran, Zaki Khan, though he never became the shah of Iran, managed to exert power over the country during the three months between the death of his half-brother Karim Khan, on March 2, 1779, and his own brutal death.

Zaki Khan was born into the Zand tribe, who had been uprooted by Nader Shah from their ancestral lands near Hamadan, in the central Iranian region of Lorestan, and settled in Northern Khorasan. At Nader's death in 1747, the Zand returned to Lorestan, and their leader Karim Khan managed to gain vast political power, taking control of Isfahan in 1750, where they installed a puppet underage shah, Ismail III. After ten more years, Karim Khan was proclaimed shah, and his power extended over most Central and Western Iran. Zaki Khan was doubly related to Karim Khan: he was his first cousin through their fathers, and his half-brother on the mother's side. The fortunes of Zaki Khan followed those of his half-brother and protector the shah, and he was considered of his main generals.

However, Iranian sources note that Zaki Khan was by then already infamous for his cruelty and opportunism. In 1763, returning from the last campaign against Azad Khan Afghan in Azerbaijan, seemingly disappointed by a lack of recognition from the shah, Zaki Khan seized the former Safavid capital of Isfahan for himself, and exploited mercilessly its population. When Karim Khan learned of these exactions, he personally marched on Isfahan. Zaki Khan fled from him to Dezful, in Khuzestan, recruiting Bakhtiari warriors on the way, and then allying himself with the rebellious governor of Dezful. After a year of unsuccessful fighting and negotiations, Zaki Khan eventually begged for the mercy of his brother the shah, and received it.

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