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 reconstituted his realm from a mostly Turkic tribal khanship into a centralized and stable monarchy based on the old imperial design. At the end of his reign, his difficult economic problems and military and technological liabilities took Iran to the verge of governmental disintegration, which was quickened by a consequent struggle for the throne after his death.

Under Fath-Ali Shah, many visual portrayals of himself and his court were created in an effort to commend the crown. The notable ones include rock reliefs next to the ones erected under the pre-Islamic Sasanian Empire (224–651) in Ray, Fars and Kermanshah. This was done so that he could represent himself as heir to the ancient Persian empire to his countryfolk and the generations that followed.

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