The Cossack Brigade in Iran was at once a reflection and a consequence of the internal weakness of the Qājār rulers (1797-1925) who were dominated by Russia and Great Britain. In the first half of the nineteenth century, two devastating wars lost to Russia (1804-13 and 1826-8) clearly exposed the ineptitude of the Iranian military. Attempts to modernise the army on European models produced no tangible results. Naṣir al-Dīn Shāh (r. 1848-96), who had been seeking a way to reorganise the Iranian army, was greatly