page_title: Karim Khan Zand
section_title: Characteristics and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Karim Khan Zand / Characteristics and legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Exhibit in the Aga Khan Museum - Toronto, Canada. This work is old enough so that it is in the public domain. Photography was permitted in the museum without restriction.
context_page_description: Mohammad Karim Khan Zand was the founder of the Zand Dynasty, ruling from 1751 to 1779. He ruled all of Iran except for Khorasan. He also ruled over some Caucasian lands and occupied Basra for some years.
  While Karim was ruler, Iran recovered from the devastation of 40 years of war, providing the war ravaged country with a renewed sense of tranquility, security, peace, and prosperity. The years from 1765 to Karim Khan's death in 1779 marked the zenith of Zand rule. 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.
  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 executed by Qajar ruler Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, who became the sole ruler of Iran.
context_section_description: Karim Khan is often praised for his generosity, modesty and fairness more than other Iranian rulers—he surpasses Khosrow I Anushirvan and Shah Abbas I the Great in terms of being a benevolent monarch with a sincere interest in his subjects, whereas these and other monarchs outperform him in terms of military fame and global reputation. A wealth of tales and anecdotes portray Karim Khan as a compassionate ruler, genuinely concerned with the welfare of his subjects.
  Indeed, even in present-day Iran he is remembered by his compatriots as a respectable man who rose to become a ruler and continued his virtuous behaviour. He was not embarrassed of his modest descent, and never desired to attempt to pursue a more distinguished lineage than that of the leader of a formerly little-known tribe that roamed in the Zagros ranges of western Iran.
  Karim Khan had modest preferences in clothes and furniture, having the tall yellow cashmere Zand turban on the top of his head, whilst sitting on an inexpensive carpet rather than a throne. He had presents of jewels crushed into pieces and sold to keep the state treasury stable. He washed himself and changed clothes once a month, a wastefulness which even astonished his kinsmen.
  During his reign, Karim Khan achieved in reviving an unexpected rate of considerable good fortune and harmony to a country that had suffered from impair and turmoil by his predecessors. Although his integrity is considerably enlarged due to the cruelty and authoritarianism of Nader Shah and Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, his unusual mixture of vitality and ambition with rationality and goodwill created, for a short extent of time in a notably fierce and anarchic century, a balanced and virtuous state.
  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."
caption: Karim Khan Zand amidst his close circle, sometimes attributed to Mohammad Sadeq, probably 19th century, oil on canvas.
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