Ardalan

Ardalan was a hereditary Kurdish emirate in western Iran, around Sanandaj and the Sharazor plain. In 1337 it was a tribal vassal of the Jalayirids; its rulers claimed descent from Saladin.

The Ardalans shifted allegiance between the Ottomans and Safavids until Ahmad Khan submitted to the latter in 1617 as a semi-independent frontier governor. Nader Shah's Ottoman wars swept the emirate, and Karim Khan Zand sacked Sanandaj in 1749. The dynasty continued under Qajar overlordship.