The Zand campaigns in Western Iran were several military campaigns by the Zand dynasty which began when Karim Khan Zand led the first expansion by Zand Iran to expand his influence to the Kurdish and Luri tribes of the Zagros. It was sporadic and simultaneous with several other conflicts involving the Zands, including conflicts with the Qajars, Afghans, and Afshars.
History
Origins of the Zand tribe and background under Nader Shah
The Zand dynasty was Lak, from the Malayer region, specifically the villages of Deh Pari and Kamazan. The ethnic origin of Laks was disputed, as some of them identified as Kurds, others as Lurs, others as both Kurds and Lurs, and others as solely Laks. The dispute extended to the Zand tribe as well, with groups bearing the name Zand varyingly identifying as Kurds or Lurs. Malayer was part of the Pish-e-Kuh region. The Laks were divided into two main groups, the Laks of Pish-e-Kuh (lit. in front of the mountain, current Lorestan province) and Posht-e-Kuh (lit. behind the mountain, current Ilam province). The two groups were distinct from each other. By the 21st century, the Laks of Pish-e-Kuh identified strongly as Lurs, whereas the Laks of Posht-e-Kuh were generally fluid in their ethnic identity and alternatively identified as Kurds or Lurs. Some Laks in both regions identified as Lak only.
The Zand dynasty, as Laks, had always distinguished themselves from the Feyli Vali dynasty of Luristan and the Ardalan dynasty of Kurdistan, which were Luri and Kurdish autonomous entities that both emerged during the Safavid era. Under Nader Shah, Kurds and Lurs constituted important elements of the army. Nader Shah exiled many Kurdish and Luri tribes to Khorasan. He was assassinated in 1747 due to perceived favoritism towards his Afghan and Uzbek soldiers over the Iranian ones. After his death, his army split. Several tribes which he exiled to Khorasan began to return home, including the Zands, led by Karim Khan, who began as an unknown foot-soldier but had risen to a general under Nader Shah.
Rise of Karim Khan and power struggles (1747–1751)
In the late 1740s and early 1750s, in the area of Isfahan, a power struggle broke out between Ali Mardan Khan, a Chahar Lang Bakhtiari leader who was an important general for Nader Shah, as well as Abolfath Khan, a Haft Lang Bakhtiari leader who served as governor of Isfahan, and Karim Khan Zand. Abolfath Khan led 50,000 warriors, Ali Mardan Khan led 20,000 warriors, while Karim Khan initially led 8,000 warriors, later increasing to 12,000 with recruitment from Kamazan and Deh Pari and the absorption of defeated rival troops.
Karim Khan was also supported by Zakariya Khan, who ruled Kazzaz and Borojerd, as well as the support of 2,000 Qaraquzlu warriors from Hamadan. Karim Khan rejected an alliance from Mehr-Ali Khan Tekkelu of Hamadan and defeated him, causing Mehr-Ali Khan to call of Hasan Ali Khan, the Vali of Ardalan, for help, who fought the Zands for over a month until they were forced to retreat due to a crisis in Golpayegan in April–May 1750. Karim Khan and Zakariya Khan defeated the Bakhtiaris and captured Golpayegan, although they lost it to Ali Mardan Khan just as Karim Khan went west to fight Mehr-Ali Khan Tekkelu of Hamadan. From Golpayegan, Ali Mardan Khan attempted to capture Isfahan from Abolfath Khan in spring 1750 but was defeated in Murchekhor. Ali Mardan Khan entered an alliance with Karim Khan, and later captured Isfahan in May 1750.
The three khans came to an agreement to place Abu Torab, a 17 year old descendant of the Safavids, on the throne as Shah Ismail III by 29 June 1750, in a ceremony attended by a coalition of many Bakhtiari, Kurdish, and Luristani tribes which proclaimed the Safavid prince as shah. Abu Torab was symbolic, and the real power was held by the three khans. Ali Mardan Khan, who became viceroy, was able to keep his private Bakhtiari army, while Karim Khan as the commander of the Iranian army, and Abolfath Khan was the governor of Isfahan. Karim Khan then defeated Mehr-Ali Khan Tekkelu for a third time and occupied Hamadan. Negotiations at Kermanshah failed, leading to the Zands sacking Sanandaj, despite Hasan Ali not being prepared and having been diplomatically compliant.
The agreement between the three khans did not hold, with Karim Khan returning to Luristan and beginning the campaign to expand his influence in western Iran, especially in Luristan and Kurdistan, meanwhile Ali Mardan Khan killed Abolfath Khan in Isfahan, and conquered the province of Fars and the city of Shiraz with the help of Shah Ismail III. In February 1751 in Chaharmahal, Karim Khan completely defeated Ali Mardan Khan. Shah Ismail III joined Karim Khan. While some captured Bakhtiari leaders were blinded and executed, the ordinary Bakhtiari foot-soldiers of Ali Mardan Khan were treated well and incorporated into the Zand army. The incorporation of defeated troops was becoming a Zand policy. Ali Mardan Khan, as well as his ally Ismail Khan Faili, the Vali of Luristan, and his loyalists hastily retreated to Khuzistan. The Zands then focused on capturing the Kermanshah fortress.
Consolidation through conflict with Ali Mardan Khan (1751–1754)
After Ali Mardan Khan retreated to Khuzestan, he obtained troops from the vali of Khuzestan, Sheikh Saad of the Al-Kathir Arab tribe. Ali Mardan had also secured the support of Lurs led by Ismail Khan. Ali Mardan Khan and his new force marched towards Kermanshah in spring 1752 and joined its garrison. The Zands, led by Mohammad Khan, attempted to intercept them, but were repelled with heavy losses. Ali Mardan then deployed into Zand territories, although Karim Khan was waiting near Nahavand, and inflicted a serious defeat upon Ali Mardan Khan in spring or early summer 1752. Ali Mardan Khan fled westwards into Ottoman territory towards Baghdad.
As the Zands were about to resume their siege of Kermanshah, Karim Khan was soon challenged by the Qajars based in Astrabad led by Mohammad Hassan Khan, a son of Fath-Ali Khan. Karim Khan left the Kalhor and Zangana, the two most powerful Kurdish tribes of Kermanshah, fight against the aggressors. Mohammad Hassan Khan attempted to march to Kermanshah and join its garrison, but was defeated, with Karim Khan further sending 45,000 troops and beginning the siege of Astrabad and Mohammad Hassan Khan's 35,000 mainly Turkmen troops. Karim Khan retreated after 12,000 of his troops were killed and 15,000 were captured.
Karim Khan spent winter 1752 in Tehran, returning to Isfahan in early 1753 to fight Ali Mardan Khan. In spring 1753, Ali Mardan Khan, Mustafa Khan, and Ismail Khan, the vali of Luristan, had raised a new army in Luristan and attempted to expand in the Zagros as Azad Khan Afghan promised them help when he arrived. The Ottomans also promoted a Safavid pretender named Shah Sultan Hussein II, an ally of Ali Mardan Khan. As Ali Mardan Khan marched towards Kermanshah, Shah Sultan Hussein II disappointingly had a bad impact on Ali Mardan Khan's cause, and Karim Khan quickly marched towards Kermanshah which fell in 1753 after being besieged by the Zands for two years. The defenders of Kermanshah fortress, Muhammad Taqi and Abd al-Ali, were tired and surrendered to the Zands after the promised help from Ali Mardan Khan did not arrive. Ali Mardan Khan was quickly defeated as he was waiting for support from Azad Khan.
After losing to the Zands, Ali Mardan Khan blinded the Safavid pretender and sent him to Ottoman Iraq. In spring 1754, Muhammad Khan and Ali Khan Zand were at Chamchamal in Kermanshah, when Ali Mardan Khan took them to his camp at a nearby gorge and surprised them with hospitality. However, realizing that talks of an alliance were getting nowhere, and that the only viable solution was to kill Ali Mardan Khan, Ali Khan Zand gave a signal to Muhammad Khan, who physically overpowered Ali Mardan Khan and killed him with his own dagger. Karim Khan's most powerful Lur opponent had been killed. The Zand captives overpowered the Lurs of Ismail Khan, taking their weapons and rejoining Karim Khan. In spring 1754, Azad Khan dealt much damage to the Zands, causing them to spend winter in the hills of Bakhtiari and Luristan, supported at Khorramabad by the Feyli Lurs, although their last Lur allies had slipped away at Silakhur near Borujerd when they lost cohesion in the winter.
The Feyli Lurs of the Vali dynasty had long tensions with Karim Khan Zand. Ismail Khan, the Vali of Lorestan, ruled over a large Lak population and thus feared becoming subordinate to Karim Khan Zand. The Vali dynasty considered itself superior as it claimed descent from Abbas ibn Ali and was installed by the Safavids. Ismail Khan believed that only Alids should rule Iran and was worried by the rise of the Zands, local Laks of more humble origin. Regarding submission to Karim Khan Zand as dishonorable, Ismail Khan emphasized his Alid ancestry and united the Feyli Lurs in his support, creating much difficulties for the Zand dynasty. Although some tribes in Lorestan, which were related to the Zands or mistreated by Ismail Khan, had supported the Zands, they were few and were under severe pressure from the Vali dynasty and its allied tribes.
Wars with the Qajars and Azad Khan Afghan (1752–1759)
The Zands later faced several challenges, mainly Azad Khan Afghan and the Qajars. Karim Khan defeated both and consolidated control of northern and northwestern Iran, although he had no authority in western Iran, especially among Lurs, Khuzestan, and the Yazd and Kerman. Yazd and Kerman had been practically independent by the late 1750s due to Karim Khan being focused on Azad Khan and the Qajars immediately after. On 14 February 1759, a Kurdish renegade killed Muhammad Hasan Khan Qajar as he was fleeing battle, and Astarabad fell to the Zands.
In summer 1760, Azad Khan was fully defeated in Azerbaijan and had lost everything, and fled for Kurdistan where he failed to get support from either Kurds or Sulaiman Pasha. He fled to Azerbaijan, and two years later, the Zands captured Azerbaijan and kept him prisoner. In Qara Choman, Shahbaz Khan Dunbuli was captured and defected to the Zands while Fath Ali Khan Afshar fled to Urmia, the last fortress in Western Iran outside of Zand rule. Shahbaz Khan Dunbuli and Fath Ali Khan Afshar had been Qajar allies until 1758 when they defected after the Zands defeated the Qajars. In February 1763, the Zands captured Urmia after a seven month siege amid the resistance of the garrison, severe winter, and raids by local Kurds.
The Kurds of Ardalan, which had autonomy since the Safavid era, initially fought against the Zands in 1750 alongside Mehr-Ali Khan Tekkelu. In 1759, the Ardalan gave their allegiance to Karim Khan Zand and kept their autonomy. In 1774, war broke out between the Zands and the Ottomans, on two fronts, in Kurdistan and in Shatt al-Arab. The war in Kurdistan also involved the principality of Baban, centered around Sulaymaniyah, and principality of Ardalan. After the death of Sulaiman Pasha of Baghdad in 1762, the Baban, which were Ottoman allies, were increasingly falling under the influence of the Ardalan, who were Zand allies. Thus, Umar Pasha replaced the ruler of the Baban in 1774, sparking a campaign by the Zands and Ardalan to restore their influence in Baban. The Ardalan were the closest allies of the Zands and remained so throughout Zand rule. After the Qajars overthrew the Zands, the Ardalan gave allegiance to the Qajars and kept their autonomy.