The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly known as Zand Iran, was the Iranian state under the rule of the Zand dynasty. It initially ruled southern and central Iran in the 18th century, later expanding to include much of the rest of contemporary Iran (except for the province of Sistan and Baluchestan and the region of Khorasan excluding Sabzevar) as well as parts of Iraq. The lands of present-day Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia were controlled by khanates which were de jure part of the Zand realm, but the region was de facto autonomous. The island of Bahrain was also held for the Zands by the autonomous Al-Mazkur sheikhdom of Bushehr.
The reign of its founder and most important ruler, Karim Khan Zand (), was marked by peace and prosperity. With its capital at Shiraz, arts and architecture flourished under Karim Khan's reign, with some themes in architecture being revived from nearby sites of pre-Islamic Achaemenid (550–330 BC) and Sasanian (224–651 AD) eras. The tombs of the medieval Persian poets Hafez and Saadi Shirazi were also renovated by Karim Khan. Distinctive Zand art which was produced at the behest of the Zand rulers became the foundation of later Qajar arts and crafts. Following Karim Khan's death, Zand Iran went into decline due to internal disputes amongst members of the Zand dynasty. Its final ruler, Lotf Ali Khan Zand (), was eventually executed by Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar () in 1794.
As noted by The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, "Karim Khan Zand holds an enduring reputation as the most humane Iranian ruler of the Islamic era". When, following the Islamic Revolution of 1979, names of Iran's past rulers became taboo, citizens of Shiraz refused to rename the Karim Khan Zand and Lotf Ali Khan Zand streets, the two main streets of Shiraz.
Name
Since the Safavid era, (Guarded Domains of Iran) was the common and official name of Iran. The idea of the Guarded Domains illustrated a feeling of territorial and political uniformity in a society where the Persian language, culture, monarchy, and Shia Islam became integral elements of the developing national identity. The concept presumably had started to form under the Mongol Ilkhanate in the late 13th-century, a period in which regional actions, trade, written culture, and partly Shia Islam, contributed to the establishment of the early modern Persianate world.
History
Karim Khan Zand
thumb|250px|left|Contemporary portrait of [[Karim Khan Zand, the founder of the Zand dynasty (1751).]]
The dynasty was founded by Karim Khan Zand, chief of the Zand tribe, which is a tribe of Laks, a branch of Lurs who may have been originally Kurdish. After Adel Shah was made king Karim Khan and his soldiers defected from the army and along with Ali Morad Khan Bakhtiari and Abolfath Khan Haft Lang, two other local chiefs, became a major contender but was challenged by several adversaries. Abolfath Khan was the Vizier, Karim Khan became the army chief commander and Ali Morad Khan became the regent.
The biggest enemies of the Zands, the Qajar chiefs, led by the former hostage, Agha Mohammad Khan, were advancing fast against the declining kingdom. Finally, in 1789, Lotf Ali Khan, a grand-nephew of Karim Khan, declared himself the new shah. His reign (until 1794) was spent mostly in war with the Qajar khan. He was finally captured and brutally killed in the fortress of Bam, putting an effective end to the Zand dynasty.
Politically, it is also important that the Zands, especially Karim Khan, chose to call themselves Vakil ol-Ro'aya (Advocate of the People) instead of shahs. Other than the obvious propaganda value of the title, it can be a reflection of the popular demands of the time, expecting rulers with popular leanings instead of absolute monarchs who were totally detached from the population, like the earlier Safavids.
Foreign policy
In foreign policy, Karim Khan attempted to revive Safavid era trade by allowing the British to establish a trading post in the port of Bushehr. This opened the hands of the British East India Company in Iran and increased their influence in the country. The taxation system was reorganised in a way that taxes were levied fairly. The judicial system was fair and generally humane. Capital punishment was rarely implemented.
Art
thumb|A Reclining Beauty by Mohammad Baqer, circa 1759/60
The Zand era was a time of relative peace and economic growth for the country. Many territories that were captured by the Ottomans in the late Safavid era were retaken, and Iran was once again a coherent and prosperous country. From 1765 onwards Karim Khan promoted art and architecture at his capital Shiraz.
After Iranian painting reached its height at the end of the 17th century, a special school of painting took shape during the Zand era in the 17th and 18th centuries. Painting thrived under Karim Khan, and notable paintings from this era include Muhammad Karim Khan Zand and the Ottoman Ambassador which was created .
thumb|[[Firman|Farman by Ali-Morad Khan Zand ensures freedom of residence and religious practice for Christians, 1781]]
Both Karim Khan in 1764 and Ali-Morad Khan in 1781 issued farmans (royal edicts) that ensured freedom of residence, worship, and trade to Christian missionary groups in Iran, including the Carmelites, Benedictines, Jesuits, Capuchins, Augustinians, and others. The only requirement was that they behaved in a manner that did not anger the Shia and its supporters.
Population
Roughly between the 1730s and the 1780s, hundreds of literate and renowned Iranians escaped to India due to the devastating circumstances. Many of them, including Abol-Hasan Golestaneh, expressed regret. The latter was a hostage in Karim Khan's entourage during the struggle for supremacy in western Iran, but in 1756 he managed to escape to the Shia shrine city of Najaf and subsequently to India, where he reunited with his family. Three of his uncles had served Nader Shah, but two of them fell out of favor and fled to India. His Mojmel al-tavarikh, a comprehensive history of the early Zand era, was written there in Murshidabad in 1782. Native Jews, Armenians, and other Christians, who were frequent targets of extortion and persecution, also migrated in very large numbers. Between 1742 and 1758, refugees settled in Mughal India, Bengal, Ottoman Iraq and Yemen, giving rise to a new generation of Iranians and Armenians. Baghdad and the adjacent shrine towns were home to an estimated 100,000 Iranian refugees, and Basra was claimed to be two-thirds occupied by refugees.
While European and Iranian emigrants eagerly scanned the horizon for signs that "Persia would soon be reunited under one chief, which would undoubtedly lead to the reestablishment of trade, so long interrupted," rumors of Karim Khan's victories and of his fair rule started to spread in the mid-1750s, which convinced many refugees to return. By 1760, every day refugees were returning to Iran. Thousands of them from all social classes arrived along the now-secure caravan routes.
The population of Isfahan had decreased to perhaps 20,000 by 1750 from what may have been between 250,000 and 500,000 during the Safavid era. It increased to an estimated 40,000–50,000 by 1772. Even though Shiraz appeared to be "demolished and destroyed... altogether depopulated and empty of Christians" in 1756, refugees from Isfahan, especially Armenians from the suburb of New Julfa, were already making their way there every day. According to John R. Perry; "There are no contemporary estimates of the population of Shiraz under the Vakil, but it seems reasonable to assume that between 1759 and 1779 it grew at a much faster rate than Isfahan, reaching roughly the same population as the latter, though within a much more compact urban area."
Shiraz lost around half of its population following its sack by Agha Mohammad Khan, numbering 20,000. Other cities in central Iran, like Qom, reportedly experienced a revival under Karim Khan's rule after suffering under the Afghans, Afsharids and the Zand-Qajar conflicts.
Armenians and Jews
Many of the Armenians of New Julfa and Peria who had fled Iran, returned to the country by settling in Shiraz, which welcomed their return. The Armenian population in Shiraz, whose quarter was located in the western corner by the Kazerun Gate, was primarily engaged in viticulture and wine trade. They also had their own mayor, and the government promoted their settlement by granting them villages around the capital. Mkrtic Vardapet, the Armenian prelate, divided his time between New Julfa and Shiraz every year for six months. Shiraz became the largest Jewish hub in Iran as a result of the return of many Jews, whose population may have decreased by about 20,000 between 1747 and 1779. They paid a special tax in exchange for being given their own section of land west of the bazaar. Although they seemed to be struggling financially in 1765, they were not the target of any persecution until after Karim Khan's death in 1779.
Coinage
thumb|Gold coin of Karim Khan, minted in Shiraz
Various anonymous or semi-anonymous currencies were struck by Karim Khan and his successors, but the abbasi of 4.6 gram and the rupee of 11.5 gram seemed to be the most common. Isfahan, Kashan, Yazd, Shiraz, Tabriz, Qazvin, Rasht, Mazandaran, and the court mint were the main coin mints under Karim Khan. There was no monetary unity in Iran even though Karim Khan was acknowledged as the overlord of the majority of the country after 1763, as many regions remained independent or semi-autonomous. This was especially true for the semi-autonomous local khans that controlled the Caspian and Caucasian regions, as well as Khorasan, which was ruled by the Durranids and Afsharids.
A number of these khanates, including Ganja, Shirvan, Shaki, Derbent, and Karabakh, produced their own coins, first in the name of Nader Shah and then in the name of Karim Khan. A large portion of their coinage was completely nameless by the end of the 18th-century. While a few uncommon issues of Derbent contain a vague reference to one of their khans, none of the khans ever put their names on their coins, due to lacking the legitimacy of a sovereign monarch and any claims to independence. These northern Iranian coins were made entirely of silver and copper.
Legacy
thumb|left|120px|Vakeel mosque, [[Shiraz, Iran|Shiraz.]]
As noted by The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, "Karim Khan Zand holds an enduring reputation as the most humane Iranian ruler of the Islamic era".