Fath-Ali Shah Qajar

Fath-Ali Shah Qajar (5 August 1772 – 24 October 1834) was the second shah of Qajar Iran, reigning from 17 June 1797 until his death ^{1 2}. He restructured a mostly Turkic tribal khanship into a centralized and stable monarchy, secured a mutually beneficial relationship between state and religion, and presided over a cultural and artistic revival — but his reign also saw Iran's Caucasian territories irrevocably ceded to Russia ¹.

He was born Baba Khan on 5 August 1772 in Damghan, eldest son of Hossein Qoli Khan Qajar, brother of Agha Mohammad Khan ^{1 3}. Suspected of plotting against the Zands, his father saw the five-year-old Baba Khan sent as a hostage to Karim Khan Zand's court at Shiraz, where his uncle Agha Mohammad Khan was also a hostage ¹. After his father's murder in 1777 and Karim Khan's death in 1779 he attached himself to his uncle, who married his mother, became in effect his stepfather and guardian, and on taking the throne at Tehran in 1786 designated him heir and vice-regent ¹.

Baba Khan was governor of Fars when his uncle was assassinated in 1797; he ascended the throne at Shiraz on 28 July 1797, took the name Fath-Ali Shah, and was crowned in Tehran on 19 March 1798 ¹. His court culture was of a rigidity and elaboration previously unknown, his patronage raised Persian portraiture and large-scale oil painting to their height, and he commissioned regalia including the Sun Throne and the Kiani Crown and rock reliefs set beside those of the Sasanians ¹. He wrote poetry under the name Khaqan ³. Given a complete third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica in 1797 and reading it through, he extended his royal title to include Most Formidable Lord and Master of the Encyclopaedia Britannica ¹.

Russia's annexation of Georgia and Dagestan brought war in 1804, declared — the article records — under pressure from the Shia clergy urging a war against Russia ¹. The war ended with the Treaty of Gulistan of 24 October 1813, ceding Georgia, the Caucasian khanates and part of Talysh; the second war of 1826–1828, in which his crown prince Abbas Mirza commanded, ended with the Treaty of Turkmenchay of February 1828, ceding the Erivan and Nakhchivan khanates and the remaining Talysh ¹. In 1829, after the Russian envoy Griboyedov was killed in the Tehran embassy massacre, the shah sent his grandson Khosrow Mirza to St Petersburg with a formal apology and the Shah Diamond ¹.

When his favourite son and crown prince Abbas Mirza died on 25 October 1833, Fath-Ali named his grandson Mohammad Mirza crown prince in his place ¹. He died at Isfahan on 19 Jumada al-Akhirah 1250, 24 October 1834, and was buried in a tomb in the Fatima Masumeh Shrine at Qom, beside Fatima, daughter of the Imam Musa al-Kazim ^{3 1}. He is instantly recognizable in his portraits by his immense black beard, which reached beneath his narrow waist ¹.

No text read names a legal school for the man himself. The tradition he ruled is stated in full: he was shah of Twelver Shia Iran, his monarchy rested on a mutually beneficial relationship between state and religion, the Shia clergy pressed him into the 1804 war, his coinage broke with striking coins in a Shia Imam's name, and he lies buried in the Fatima Masumeh Shrine at Qom ^{1 3}. Wikidata's religion value is the single structured value Shia Islam ⁴. A state tradition, clerical pressure, coinage practice and a shrine burial are dynastic context and practice, and structured data never settles faith, so his faith is recorded as unknown.

The English article's lead gives his death as 24 October 1834 while its later-life text gives 23 October 1834; the Arabic article's 19 Jumada al-Akhirah 1250 fixes the date at 24 October, and Wikidata's first value gives 23 October, so the day is recorded as debated ^{1 3 4}. The Arabic article's Hijri birth pairings, 1183 AH and, it is said, 1185 AH, do not fit 5 August 1772, which falls in 1186 AH, so his record omits a birth Hijri year ³.