From the 1790s, Ardalan rulers ("wali"s) were an important part of the political support for the Qajar dynasty. The Qajar dynasty started to come to power in Iran in the 1790s. The Qajar rulers took hostages from the tribes to keep the Kurdish rulers' loyalty. The Qajar Empire continued to lose lands to the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Both of these empires wanted to control Kurdistan and Azerbaijan. The Qajar Empire lost most of the land to the north of the Aras () river before 1800. 