The
Qajars (also spelled
Kadjars,
Kajars,
Kadzhars,
Cadzhars,
Cadjars and so on) are a
Turkic Oghuz tribe who lived variously, with other tribes, in the area that is now
Armenia,
Azerbaijan and northwestern
Iran. They are considered as a branch of the
Azerbaijanis. In the 17th and 18th centuries the Kajars resisted the
Safavids and settled the
Karabakh Khanate. In 1794, a Kajar chieftain,
Agha Mohammed, founded the
Qajar dynasty which replaced the
Zand dynasty in Iran. In the 1980s the Kajar population exceeded 15,000 people, most of whom lived in Iran.