When news of the fall of Isfahan reached Soltan Hoseyn I's son Tahmasp II at Qazvin, Tahmasp proclaimed himself shah.[231] Pro-Safavid forces successfully defeated Ashraf Hotak in 1729 and forced Afghan forces out of Iran.[237] Tahmasp failed to assert his authority in the aftermath of the Hotak invasion and the effective ruler of Iran was instead the general Nader Khan. In 1732, Nader deposed Tahmasp and replaced him with the eight-month old Abbas III. Abbas was in turn deposed in 1736 and Nader Khan was proclaimed the new shah of Iran under the name Nader Shah, terminating the Safavid dynasty.[238] Safavid descendants continued to emerge for some time after 1736 as pretenders or as figurehead rulers put forward by warlords vying for power in Iran.[239]
The Afsharid dynasty was established by Nader Shah, a general under the Safavids who seized control of the empire in 1736 after the deposition of Abbas III.[238] Nader was a powerful conqueror but the Afsharid Empire quickly collapsed after his assassination in 1747. Large territories fell to the rival Zand dynasty as well as the Afghan Durrani Empire. The domain of Nader's heirs became largely confined to the Iranian parts of Khorasan. For most of its later history, the Afsharid state was dominated by military leaders or other court factions.[240] The Afsharids ruled with the style of šâhanšâh[243] and their capital was at Mashhad.[240]
In the aftermath of Nader Shah's assassination, the Zand dynasty grew to become the most powerful rivals of the Afsharids and seized control of much of Iran in the 1750s. Established by the tribal leader Karim Khan Zand, the Zand rulers never proclaimed themselves to be shahs. Instead, they presented themselves as regents of Iran, at first on behalf of the Safavid puppet Ismail III (1750–1773) and then on behalf of the Iranian people. Karim Khan Zand ruled with the title of khân, as well as the style of wakil (regent) or wakil-al-raʿāyāʾ (lit.'regent of the people'). His successors ruled simply as khân, though were often considered to be "kings" by European observers. The Zand dynasty ruled from Shiraz.[244]
The Qajar dynasty originated as a local Turkoman noble family in northern Iran, under the Safavids. The Qajars gradually increased in power as other families fought each other in Iran, culminating in Agha Mohammad Shah proclaiming himself ruler in 1789, in opposition to the Afsharids and Zands. Agha Mohammad defeated the Zand dynasty in 1794 and was officially crowned in 1796. Shortly thereafter, he captured and deposed the Afsharid Shahrokh Shah, reunifying Iran under a single ruler.[248]
Agha Mohammad Shah ruled with the title khân and later šâh, never assuming the more grandiose šâhanšâh. Agha Mohammad's successor, Fath-Ali Shah, assumed both šâhanšâh and the Mongol khagan,[249] titles frequently used by later Qajar rulers.[250] Many other honorifics of imperial and religious significance were also used by the Qajar rulers.[249] The Qajar dynasty ruled from Tehran, inaugurated as Iran's capital in the 1780s under Agha Mohammad Shah.[251]
During the late Qajar dynasty, Iran became increasingly embroiled in internal political turmoil over the extent of the monarch's power, among other events leading to the Persian Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911). In 1923, the brigade commander Reza Khan quickly rose through the ranks to become prime minister. In 1925, Reza succeeded in deposing Ahmad Shah and having himself proclaimed by Iran's National Assembly first as regent and then as the new monarch. As his family name, Reza took Pahlavi, after the Pahlavi language of the pre-Islamic Sasanian Empire.[260]
The Pahlavi rulers styled themselves as šâhanšâh-e Irân (lit.'King of Kings of Iran').[260][261]Tehran remained the capital of Iran under Pahlavi rule.[262]
↑With regard to the name of Iran: "Persia" was an exonym used by the ancient Greeks to refer to the Achaemenid Empire, derived from the Persians (the Iranian ethnic group to which the Achaemenid dynasty belonged). Consequently, "Persia" was the word commonly used in the Western world to refer to Iran and its people, regardless of their ethnicity. "Iran" (Persian: ایران) is the country's endonym, first attested under the Sasanian Empire, though earlier forms of the name (see Aryan and Arya) date back to the Proto-Indo-Iranian people[2][3][4] and had been used ever since. In 1935, the Iranian king Reza Shah requested that foreign delegates begin using "Iran" rather than "Persia" in formal correspondence, whereafter "Iran" has also become the common name used in the Western world and internationally.
↑There is no archaeological evidence of any Median imperial centers, no documentary archives from Median administrations, and no contemporary correspondence between foreign kings and Median rulers.[10]
↑Ctesias, another ancient Greek historian, also wrote a list of Median rulers though it differs entirely from that of Herodotus except for the name of the last king (Astyages).[10]
↑In Babylonia, the standard title up until the reign of Xerxes I was 'King of Babylon, King of the Lands'.[22] In more elaborate contexts, the royal style could be augmented with additional titles, such as "the Great King" and "King in Persia".[23] The Achaemenid king was referred to as "the Great King" by the Greeks and as the "Lord of Kings" by the Phoenicians.[22]
↑Enumerated as Philip III as king of Macedon (after Philip I and Philip II).
↑Enumerated as Alexander IV as king of Macedon (after Alexander I, Alexander II, and Alexander the Great).
↑Alexander IV's murder by his regent Cassander in 309 BC was not made public knowledge until 306/305 BC and he thus continued to be recognized as king posthumously for an additional 3–4 years.[52]
Yarshater 2004, pp.212–224: "The Arsacids (q.v.) came from a Saka tribe, the Aparni (see APARNA), who penetrated Parthia, adopted its language, and eventually challenged the Seleucids when the Arsacid eponymous king Arsaces (Aršak) challenged the Seleucids’ power in Parthia in 247 B.C.E."
Katouzian 2009, p.41: "In 247 BC two brothers of Iranian Scythian origin dislodged the Seleucids in the north-east of their empire shortly after the Bactrian Greeks had declared independence from them. Arsaces (Arshak; Ashk) was a chief of the Parni tribe, one of the great Scythian (Saka) Dahae nomads from the region between the Caspian and Aral Seas."
12The Parthian conquest of Babylonia, whereafter Mithridates I assumed the style 'Great King' and firmly established his empire.
↑Sometimes enumerated as Artabanus II since some historians consider the early Arsacid ruler Arsaces II to also be Artabanus I.[70]
↑Sometimes enumerated as Mithridates IV, after another supposed Parthian king named Mithridates (based on numismatics) dated by some historians to 87–80 BC.[72]
12Often enumerated as Tiridates II, after Tiridates I, a supposed Parthian king now believed to be unhistorical.[68]
↑Sometimes enumerated as Artabanus III, if Artabanus I is considered to be Artabanus II. He is also sometimes referred to as Artabanus IV if another supposed Parthian king named Artabanus (based on numismatics), dated by some historians to 126–122 BC, is accepted.[70]
12Sometimes enumerated as Pacorus II, after Pacorus I, a Parthian prince who never ruled in his own right.
↑Sometimes enumerated as Artabanus IV or Artabanus V (see note on Artabanus II).
↑Sometimes enumerated as Vologases III, after another supposed Parthian king named Vologases (based on numismatics) dated by some historians to 77–80.[78]
↑Sometimes enumerated as Mithridates V (see note on Mithridates III).
↑Sometimes enumerated as Vologases IV (see note on Vologases II).
↑Sometimes enumerated as Vologases V (see note on Vologases II).
↑Sometimes enumerated as Vologases VI (see note on Vologases II).
↑Sometimes enumerated as Artabanus V or Artabanus VI (see note on Artabanus II).
↑Khosrow's rule was brief and ephemeral and he is not counted in the numbering of later kings of this name.
↑The other three were Musa (2 BC–AD 4), Azarmidokht (630–631), and Sati Beg (1338/1339–1339/1340).
↑The other three were Musa (2 BC–AD 4), Boran (630), and Sati Beg (1338/1339–1339/1340).
↑Name in Chinese sources. His original name in Persian may have been Pušang.[112]
↑Name in Chinese sources.[112] The original Persian name is unknown.
↑Mardavij also fashioned a golden throne for himself, in imitation of the ancient throne of the Sasanian rulers.[158]
↑Rukn al-Dawla claimed Iranian imperial status by 962, when he minted a medal depicting him similar to a Sasanian ruler with the inscription "may the glory of the king of kings increase".[158] 'Adud al-Dawla also claimed the title šāhānšāh by 965. In 969, he minted a medal with the inscriptions "šāhānšāh, may his glory increase" and "May šāh Panāh Khusraw live long".[161] The caliphs opposed Buyid use of the old imperial title.[161] 'Adud al-Dawla's son Baha al-Dawla is recorded to have used the Arabic version of 'King of Kings' (malik al-mulūk) and the title is also recorded in both Arabic and Persian for Baha al-Dawla's grandson Abu Kalijar Marzuban.[162] The title was sometimes assumed by rival emirs not part of the 'main branch' listed below, such as Fakhr al-Dawla and Musharrif al-Dawla.
Amoretti & Matthee 2009: "Of Kurdish ancestry, the Ṣafavids started as a Sunnī mystical order (...)"
Matthee 2005, p.18: "The Safavids, as Iranians of Kurdish ancestry and of nontribal background, did not fit this pattern, although the stat they set up with the aid of Turkmen tribal forces of Eastern Anatolia closely resembled this division in its makeup. Yet, the Turk versus Tajik division was not impregnable."
Matthee 2008: "As Persians of Kurdish ancestry and of a non-tribal background, the Safavids did not fit this pattern, though the state they set up with the assistance of Turkmen tribal forces of eastern Anatolia closely resembled this division in its makeup."
Savory 2008, p.8: "This official version contains textual changes designed to obscure the Kurdish origins of the Safavid family and to vindicate their claim to descent from the Imams."
Hamid 2006, pp.456–474: "The Safavids originated as a hereditary lineage of Sufi shaikhs centered on Ardabil, Shafeʿite in school and probably Kurdish in origin."
Amanat 2017, p.40 "The Safavi house originally was among the landowning nobility of Kurdish origin, with affinity to the Ahl-e Haqq in Kurdistan (chart 1). In the twelfth century, the family settled in northeastern Azarbaijan, where Safi al-Din Ardabili (d. 1334), the patriarch of the Safavid house and Ismail's ancestor dating back six generations, was a revered Sufi leader."
Tapper 1997, p.39: "The Safavid Shahs who ruled Iran between 1501 and 1722 descended from Sheikh Safi ad-Din of Ardabil (1252–1334). Sheikh Safi and his immediate successors were renowned as holy ascetics Sufis. Their own origins were obscure; probably of Kurdish or Iranian extraction, they later claimed descent from the Prophet."
Manz 2021, p.169: "The Safavid dynasty was of Iranian – probably Kurdish – extraction and had its beginnings as a Sufi order located at Ardabil near the eastern border of Azerbaijan, in a region favorable for both agriculture and pastoralism."
Blow 2009, p.1: "The Safavids are thought to have been Kurdish in origin, but by Sheikh Safi's day they were a Persian-speaking family of small landowners, living near Ardabil, which was a commercial centre in mountainous country, about 40 miles inland from the Caspian Sea. There was also a large Turkoman tribal population in Azerbaijan, who spoke a language closely related to Turkish, known today as Azeri. In time the province would become almost entirely Azeri-speaking."
↑The coronation of Safi II was followed by epidemics and famine. Court astrologers thus declared that he had been crowned at an inauspicious time. This prompted the shah to have himself re-crowned under the name Suleiman I in 1668.[231]
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