Fath-Ali Shah Qajar was the second Shah of Qajar Iran. He reigned from 17 June 1797 until his death. His reign saw the irrevocable ceding of Iran's northern territories in the Caucasus, comprising what is nowadays Georgia, Dagestan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, to the Russian Empire following the Russo-Persian Wars of 1804–1813 and 1826–1828 and the resulting treaties of Gulistan and Turkmenchay. Historian Joseph M. Upton says that he "is famous among Iranians for three things: his exceptionally long beard, his wasp-like waist, and his progeny."
At the end of his reign, his difficult economic problems and military and technological liabilities took Iran to the verge of governmental disintegration, which was quickened by a consequent struggle for the throne after his death.
Under Fath-Ali Shah, many visual portrayals of himself and his court were created in an effort to commend the crown. These notable include rock reliefs next to the ones erected under the pre-Islamic Sasanian Empire in Ray, Fars and Kermanshah. This was done so that he could represent himself as heir to the ancient Persian Empire to his countryfolk and the generations that followed.