page_title: Hedayat-Allah Khan
section_title: Reign
hierarchical_section_title: Hedayat-Allah Khan / Reign
caption_attribution_description: English: Artwork of Mohammad Khan Qajar, the founder of the Qajar dynasty of Iran (1785–1925).
context_page_description: Hedayat-Allah Khan was a Gilaki prince, who was the semi-independent ruler of Gilan from 1753 to 1782.
context_section_description: When the Zand ruler Karim Khan Zand (r. 1751–1779) was conquering Iran, he in 1760 had Hedayat-Allah replaced with a close associate of his. However, whilst Karim Khan was on an expedition in Azerbaijan, Hedayat-Allah returned to Gilan and re-established his rule in the province. Karim Khan then shortly had him apprehended and penalized him by demanding 12,000 tomans as payment. He then appointed his cousin Nazar Ali Khan as the governor of the province, but later altered his stratagem and in 1767 restored Hedayat-Allah as the ruler of Gilan under Zand suzerainty. Furthermore, he also arranged the marriage between Hedayat-Allah's sister and his son Abol-Fath Khan Zand.
  In 1782 Agha Mohammad Khan invaded Gilan, Hedayat-Allah had changed his allegiance to the Zand dynasty. Hedayat-Allah then sent two diplomats, Mirza Sadeq and Agha Sadeq Lahiji, to Agha Mohammad to make peace. As a precaution he went to Shirvan. The diplomats were unable to come to favorable terms with Agha Mohammad Khan, who raided Gilan's capital Rasht and seized its riches.
  Agha Mohammad Khan now had to focus on Gilan because Hedayat-Allah had returned to the province (allegedly with Russian help) since the Qajar invasion of the province in 1782. In Agha Mohammad Khan's eyes, the whole Caspian coast was under threat by Hedayat-Allah and the Russians. Agha Mohammad Khan and his men easily managed to enter Gilan. While he was marching towards Rasht, he was joined by a local ruler named Mehdi Beg Khalatbari and other people.
  Furthermore, the Russian consul in Gilan betrayed Hedayat-Allah by providing weapons to Agha Mohammad Khan. Hedayat-Allah once again tried to flee to Shirvan, but was captured by men sent by a local ruler named Agha Ali Shafti (or another local ruler according to some sources), who killed him to avenge the slaughter of his family a few years earlier. Gilan was now completely under Qajar rule. Besides the conquest of Gilan, the second most valuable thing for Agha Mohammad Khan was Hedayat-Allah's treasure.
caption: Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, 19th-century portrait.
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