ABSTRACT
Iran’s reunification in the late eighteenth century under the Qajar tribe came in the aftermath of nearly a century of warfare and territorial disunity. By all accounts, this period was also one of depopulation and economic contraction. It took Aqa Muhammad Khan Qajar 16 years of intense warfare to defeat his rivals and reunify Iran. By the time of his coronation in 1796, the new shah’s unification of Iran had restored the guarded domain of Iran (mamlek-e mahruseh Iran) to approximately the dominion of the fallen Safavid Empire in 1722. The unification of Iran under the Qajars and Iran’s entry into the nineteenth century had a number of distinct characteristics which may be summarized as follows: first, unification occurred at a time when Iran was just about to come out of a difficult century by restoring its territorial unity and central authority; second, it happened at a time when the Qajar dynasty was just about to redefine, legitimize, and transform itself from a tribal to a dynastic/royal identity; and third, Qajar unification occurred at a time when Iran was about to be engulfed in an aggressive colonial onslaught that included international intrigue and diplomacy.
