Karim Khan

Family and early life

Karim Khan belonged to the Zand tribe, an Iranian tribe of Lak or Lur origin. Karim Khan was born in ca. 1705 somewhere in western Iran. In 1732, Nader Shah, who was the de facto ruler of the Safavid Empire, moved thousands of Bakhtiaris and several Zand families to Khorasan, Karim Khan and his family being one of them. Later in 1736, Nader Shah deposed the Safavid ruler Abbas III and assumed the throne for himself, thus starting the Afsharid dynasty. However, Nader Shah was later murdered in 1747 at the hands of his own men, which gave the Bakhtiaris under the leadership of Ali-Mardan Khan and the Zands under Karim Khan the opportunity to return to their former lands in western Iran.

Reign

Some time later, Karim Khan, Ali Mardan Khan and another Bakhtiari chieftain named Abulfath Khan Bakhtiari reached an agreement to divide the country among themselves and give the throne to the Safavid prince Ismail III. However, the cooperation ended after Ali Mardan Khan invaded Isfahan and killed Abulfath Khan. Subsequently, Karim Khan killed Ali Mardan Khan and gained control over all of Iran except Khorasan, which was ruled by Shahrukh, the grandson of Nader Shah. Nevertheless, Karim Khan did not adopt the title of Shah for himself, preferring the title, Vakil e-Ra'aayaa (Representative of the People).

While Karim was ruler, Persia recovered from the devastation of 40 years of war, providing the war ravaged country with a renewed sense of tranquility, security, peace, and prosperity. During his reign, relations with Britain were restored, and he allowed the East India Company to have a trading post in southern Iran. He made Shiraz his capital and ordered the construction of several architectural projects there. Karim Khan later died in 1 March 1779, having been ill for six months, most likely due to tuberculosis. He was buried three days later in the "Nazar Garden", now known as the Pars Museum.

Following Karim Khan's death, civil war broke out once more, and none of his descendants were able to rule the country as effectively as he had. The last of these descendants, Lotf Ali Khan, was killed by Qajar ruler Agha Mohammad Khan, who became the sole ruler of Iran.

Legacy

To this day, he has a reputation as one of the most just and able rulers in Iranian history. A wealth of tales and anecdotes portray Karim Khan as a compassionate ruler, genuinely concerned with the welfare of his subjects. In the words of John Malcolm, "The happy reign of this excellent prince, as contrasted with those who preceded and followed him, affords the historian of Persia that kind of mixed pleasure and repose, which a traveler enjoys on arriving in a beautiful and fertile valley during an arduous journey over barren and rugged wastes. It is pleasing to recount the actions of a chief who, though born of an inferior rank, obtained power without crime, and who exercised it with a moderation that, for the times in which he lived, was as singular as his humanity and justice." He is buried at Pars Museum of Shiraz.

In art

Karim Khan is the main character of a melodrama composed by the Italian musician Nicolo Gabrielli di Quercita. The work, entitled L'assedio di Sciraz (The siege of Shiraz) was first performed at La Scala theatre in Milan during Carnival 1840.