Reign of Mohammad Shah

Reign of Mohammad Shah

When Fath-Ali Shah died, Mohammad Mirza, his grandson and son of late Abbas Mirza was chosen as the new king. This election caused numerous problems within the country, the most important one of them being the claim of throne by Ali Shah.

Ali Shah Zell ol Soltan, tenth son of Fath-Ali Shah was an ambitious man. When his older brother Abbas Mirza died, leaving Mohammad Mirza as the heir, Ali Shah started planning for a riot against the new king to be. When Mohammad Mirza became king, Ali Shah, with the help of his brothers Emam Gholi Mirza and Hossein Ali Mirza, declaired himself as king and sat on the throne in Tehran. At that time, Mohammad Mirza was in Azerbaijan, where he succeeded his father as the governor; he did not have the time to come to Tehran fast enough and depose Ali Shah. Mohammad Shah was furious, but he was also lucky.

Mirza Abolghassem Ghaem Magham, chancelor of Mohammad Mirza's court, was a wise and strong minister. He and his father Mirza Issa had served Abbas Mirza for over 20 years, and he was left as the counselor of the new heir (and now king) after the death of his grand-father and father. Mirza Abolghassem planned a way to depose Ali Shah and restore Mohammad Shah to his throne. He contacted Fath-Ali Shah's other sons who were also in Tehran, but did not cooperate with their brother, he also started gathering forces to attack the capital. All of these actions made Ali Shah scared, so he sent his trusted brothers Imam Verdi Mirza and Ebrahim Mirza to face the forces of Mohammad Shah. When Mirza Abolghassem made sure that he has scared the 'king' enough, he entered diplomacy. He bribed Ali Shah's brothers to stop supporting him and promised them land and positions. Then he sent a force headed by Mohammad Shah's brothers Fereydoon Mirza and Khosrow Mirza to attack the weak armies of Ali Shah. It was soon all over and Ali Shah was deposed, emptying the throne for Mohammad Shah.

Mohammad Shah entered his capital victorious. He rewarded Mirza Abolghassem by appointing him as his Prime Minister. Then he started punishing his rebellious uncles, against Mirza Abolghassem's advise. He blinded Hassan Ali Mirza and Ali Shah, the eldest of the rebellious princes. He also exiled a whole bunch of them to a small castle in Azerbaijan. Some of the princes escaped to Russia or Mesopotamia, and some of them even to England. Finally Mohammad Shah did the one of the cruelest acts of his reign by blinding Khsorow Mirza, his brother, just because he was Abbas Mirza's favourite son!

After establishing his throne, Mohammad Shah withdrew to his palace, but not for long. The new story was the occupation of Harat, a city in Eastern Iran by Amir of Afghanistan. Amir, feeling rather secure by British protection he received, had decided to expand his country! Mirza Bolghassem appointed Soltan Morad Mirza, Mohammad Shah's brother and his greatest commander, as the governor of Khorasan, the province Harat is in. Morad Mirza moved his army to Harat and captured the city with no major opposition. He sent the news of the conquest to Tehran and also declared that he is going to conquer Afghanistan so that the Amir can not repeat his act. Morad Mirza was right in making that decision, and he had enough forces to occupy all Afghanistan and even parts of the Tajikestan, one of the provinces lost to Russian by Fath-Ali Shah. What Morad Mirza was not aware of was politics. The British, feeling the danger and realizing that if Morad Mirza conquers Afghanistan, he might continue to India, thought a solution. Their desire was to keep the attention of Iran away from Afghanistan and ultimately India, because they knew history enough to realize that Iranian kings like Mahmoud and Nader have conquered India before, and it is possible that another king might think of the same thing. The British plan was smart and at the same time cruel. They sent their navy to occupy the southern islands of Iran in the Persian Golf. When Iranian government complained, the British presented a solution: un-occupy Harat and we will give the islands back!!! Mohammad Shah had no other way, thus he sent a message to his brother telling him to come back to Tehran. Morad Mirza, confused and angry, declined the orders. The British added the diplomatic pressure by moving furthure north and actually entering the mainland. Mohammad Shah, this time angry, sent his other brother, Heidar Mirza to bring the Morad Mirza back. Heidar Mirza was successful in pursuading Morad Mirza and brought him back to Tehran. The English dislodged the islands. The British, willing to remove any possibility of similar actions in the future, forced the Iranian court to accept Harat as part of the Afghanistan Kingdom. This was another loss for Iran, following the ones to Russia.

Many historians now think that if Mohammad Shah and Mirza Bolghassem didn't listen to the British, the turn out could be a lot different. They say that with Morad Mirza's army strength and the equal military knowledge of his other brothers Heidar Mirza and Anooshirvan Mirza, Iran could turn out to be the winner party. If Morad Mirza just stayed in Harat and did not go any further, another army in the south could stop the British. Many say that the weakness of some Iranian officials made them scared of the British without reason, and there also were some officials who were cooperating with the Ambassador of Britain to scare the king. In any case, this war caused the creation of Afghanistan as a separate country under British protectorate and also ended the desire of Iranian kings to expand their territory.

Another great incident of Mohammad Shah's reign includes Mirza Abolghassem. Mohammad Shah, feeling suspicious about his prime minister because of his successful ways to organize the country and even winning a war (well, Harat was lost to diplomacy not to military power), he was thinking of a way to get rid of him. Mohammad Shah did not have a very stable personality, many people had lots of influence on him, including his old teacher, Haji Mirza Aghassi.

Haji Abbas Iravani, known as Mirza Aghassi, was a Molla (monk) from Iravan (Yervan, present capital of Armania, then an Iranian city). He was chosen as the teacher for the young Mohammad Mirza when his father Abbas Mirza was fighting the Russians. Being not very intelligent, he taught his pupil a lot of superstition. When Mohammad Shah became king, Haji Mirza Aghassi kept his influence on him. Haji was a very greedy person and he loved money. He used every opportunity to add to his treasures, and when it was a matter of him not getting money any more, he was ready to act.

Mirza Abolghassem was not a very easy person to deal with. He did not like the some habit of courtiers like expecting money without actually doing anything! He limited the expenditure and cut many of useless and wasteful payments, one of them Haji Mirza Aghassi's. Encouraged by many courtiers in similar situation and with support of Mohammad Shah's wife, Mahdol Olia, Haji decided to push the judicious counselor out of the scene. It could easily be done because Haji had a great amount of influence and also knew his pupil's weak spots. He started accusing Mirza Abolghassem of gaining too much power. He told the king that Mirza Abolghassem is thinking of deposing Mohammad Shah and installing Morad Morza, his powerful brother instead of him. These words, among with Mohammad Shah's painful Arthritis helped the king to make a decision that made him unpopular in the eyes of the history forever.

Mohammad Shah ordered the imprisonment of Mirza Abolghassem. Mirza Lived in prison for a short while. He was forbidden to write, because Mohammad Shah was afraid of his pen. Mohammad Shah is famous to say that if Mirza Abolghassem writes something, I can not refuse and I may change my mind. Finally, the courtiers made the king sign the execution order of the great counselor. Mirza Abolghassem died by suffocation, because Mohammad Shah had promised him that he would never shed his blood!

Mirza Abolghassem Ghaem Magham Farahani was the pride of Iran in the first half of Qajar rule. He organized the government, created new trade routs, wrote laws, provided food and job, and established relations with other countries. He also institutionalized the taxation system, provided health services, and cut the expenditure and systematized the government payments. In addition to being a great statesman, Mirza Abolghassem is one of the major literary figures of the Qajar era and perhaps the creator of moderns prose writing. His writings are simple and beautiful, free from the superficial and decorated method that dominated Persian literature for over a thousand years.

Mohammad Shah did not survive his great Prime Minister for long. Last few years of his life was expended in his ugly palace in Bagh Ferdows, just north of Tehran. He died from a heart attack. Unlike his grandfather and father, Mohammad Shah did not marry a lot of women. He had two wives and 5 children, nothing in compare with Fath-Ali Shah's 250 and Abbas Mirza's 57 children!!! Although he was not the greatest ruler of his time, he can be considered as the most innocent of Qajar kings.