The Qajar dynasty ( Qajar (help·info)) (Persian: سلسله قاجاریه‎ - or دودمان قاجار, also anglicized as Ghajar or Kadjar) is an Iranian royal family of Turkic origin, who ruled Persia (Iran) from 1785 to 1925. The Qajar family took full control of Iran in 1794, deposing Lotf 'Ali Khan, the last of the Zand dynasty, and re-asserted Persian sovereignty over parts of the Caucasus. In 1796 Mohammad Khan Qajar was formally crowned as shah.

The Qajar (or Ghajar) rulers were members of the Karagoz of the Qajars, originally the members of the Qaraqalpaqs of the larger Turkmen peoples. Qajars first settled during the Mongol period in the vicinity of Armenia and were among the seven Qizilbash tribes that supported the Safavids. The Safavids "left Arran (present-day Republic of Azerbaijan) to local Turkic speaking khans", and, "in 1554 Ganja was governed by Shahverdi Soltan Ziyadoglu Qajar, whose family came to govern Karabakh in southern Arran".

Qajars filled a number of diplomatic missions and governorships in the 16-17th centuries for the Safavids. The Qajars were resettled by Shah Abbas I throughout Persia. The great number of them also settled in Astarabad (present-day Gorgan, Iran) near the south-eastern corner of the Caspian Sea, and it would be this branch of Qajars that would rise to power. The immediate ancestor of Qajars, Shah Qoli Khan Qajar Quvanlu of the Quvanlus of Ganja, married into the Quvanlu Qajars of Astarabad. His son, Fath Ali Khan Qajar, born c. 1685-1693, was a renowned military commander during the rule of the Safavid shahs Husayn and Tahmasp II. He was killed on the orders of Tahmasp Qoli Khan Afshar (Nader Shah) in 1726. Fath Ali Khan's son Mohammad Hassan Khan Qajar (1722-1758) was killed at the behest of Karim Khan Zand, and was the father of Agha Mohammad Khan and Hossein Qoli Khan (Jahansouz Shah) Qajar (father of "Baba Khan," the future Fath Ali Shah Qajar).