Fath-Ali Shah Qajar

Fath-Ali Shah Qajar (Persian: فتحعلى‌شاه قاجار, romanized: Fatḥ-ʻAli Šâh Qâjâr; 5 August 1772 – 24 October 1834) was the second Shah of Qajar Iran. He reigned from 17 June 1797 until his death on 24 October 1834. His reign saw the irrevocable ceding of Iran's northern territories in the Caucasus, comprising what is nowadays Georgia, Dagestan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, to the Russian Empire following the Russo-Persian Wars of 1804–1813 and 1826–1828 and the resulting treaties of Gulistan and Turkmenchay. These two treaties are closely tied to Fath-Ali Shah's legacy amongst Iranians, who often view him as a weak ruler.

Fath-Ali Shah successfully restructured a mostly Turkic tribal khanship into a centralized and stable monarchy based on the old imperial design. This brought to Iran a relatively calm and prosperous period, secured a mutually beneficial relationship between state and religion, established foundational principles of state administration, and supported cultural and artistic revival, which remained a distinctive feature of the Qajar dynasty. At the end of his reign, his mounting economic problems and declining military power took Iran to the verge of ruin. The situation was further complicated by the subsequent struggle for the throne that ensued after his death. Fath-Ali Shah had many portraits of himself and his court created, with the intention to aggrandize his rule. These included most notably the rock reliefs which were created next to those left by the pre-Islamic Sasanian Empire (224–651) in Ray, Fars and Kermanshah. This was done in an effort to portray himself as heir to the ancient Persian empire, not just to his fellow countrymen but to all of posterity. An inscription is located in Cheshmeh-Ali in Rey, near Tehran.