Fateh Ali Shah succeeded to the throne in 1797, having been appointed Vali Ahd by his uncle, Agha Mohamed Shah, who had no family of his own.  He was the son of Hussein Kuli Khan (full brother of the Shah), Governor-General at Shiraz, and he was there with his father when called to the throne at Tehran.  On the death of Agha Mohamed Shah in camp with his army on the Northern frontier, General Sadik Khan, chief of the Shekaki tribe in Azerbaijan, seized the opportunity to gain possession of the Crown jewels and treasure, and quitted the camp with his men; but the rest of the troops marched at the command of the strong Prime Minister Haji Ibrahim, to the capital, which by his orders was held by the Kajar chief, Mirza Mohamed Khan, for the legitimate heir of the Shah.  Two competitors for the Crown appeared in the South, in the persons of Fateh Ali Shah’s own father, and a son of Zaki Khan Zend; but both, as well as the Shekaki chief who advanced similar claims in the North, and Nadir Mirza, grandson of the great Nadir Shah, who had entered Khorasan from Afghanistan, and raised the standard of revolt, were soon defeated and driven into submission.  The Shakaki chief was able from his possession of the Crown jewels and treasure to make terms for pardon and preferment; but he afterwards broke his oath of allegiance, and rebelled.  He was captured and confined in a dungeon, where his life soon ceased.

Fateh Ali Shah died in 1834, and was succeeded by his grandson, Mohamed Shah, son of the capable Abbas Mirza, who predeceased his father.  He was at Tabriz, holding the post of nominal Governor-General of Azerbaijan, which was the customary position assigned to the Vali Abd, when his grandfather died, and I have in a previous chapter told of the part taken by British officers in defeating the Pretenders, who attempted to dispute his right to the throne.  These Pretenders were his uncles Ali Mirza, the Zil-es-Sultan, and Hussein Ali Mirza, Governor-General at Shiraz, each of whom proclaimed himself King.  Fateh Ali Shah died at Isfahan while on his way to Shiraz to compel the obedience of his son Hussein Ali Mirza, who in expectation of his father’s death from age and infirmity had decided to withhold payment of revenue to the Crown.  The rebellious son advanced with an army, and took possession of the jewels and treasure which his father had brought with him; and his brother, the Zil-es-Sultan, seized what had been left at Tehran, but Mohamed Shah afterwards regained possession of the whole.

Nasr-ed-Din, son and heir-apparent of Mohamed Shah, was present at his post of Governor-General of Azerbaijan when his father died in Tehran, and there was an interval of disturbance for the six or seven weeks which passed between the death of the one King and the coronation of the other.  During this period revolution prevailed in the towns, and robbery and violence in the country.  The son of Ali Mirza, the Zil-es-Sultan, the Prince-Governor