The
Qajar dynasty (; ; also romanised as
Ghajar,
Kadjar,
Qachar etc.; ) was an
Iranian royal dynasty of
Turkic origin, which ruled
Persia (
Iran) from 1785 to 1925. The state ruled by the dynasty was officially known as the
Sublime State of Persia ( ). The
Qajar family took full control of Iran in 1794, deposing
Lotf 'Ali Khan, the last of the
Zand dynasty, and re-asserted Iranian sovereignty over large parts of the
Caucasus and
Central Asia. In 1796,
Mohammad Khan Qajar seized
Mashhad with ease, putting an end to the Afsharid dynasty, and Mohammad Khan was formally crowned as
shah after his
punitive campaign against Iran's Georgian subjects. In the
Caucasus, the Qajar dynasty permanently lost many of Iran's integral areas to the
Russians over the course of the 19th century, comprising modern-day
Georgia,
Dagestan,
Azerbaijan, and
Armenia.