In 1779, following the death of Moḥammad Karīm Khān Zand, the Zand dynasty ruler of southern Iran, Āghā Moḥammad Khān (reigned 1779–97), a leader of the Turkmen Qājār tribe, set out to reunify Iran. By 1794 he had eliminated all his rivals, including Loṭf ʿAlī Khān, the last of the Zand dynasty, and had reasserted Iranian sovereignty over the former Iranian territories in Georgia and the Caucasus. In 1796 he was formally crowned as shah, or emperor.