Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar
Nasser al-Din Shah sitting in front of the Peacock Throne in Golestan Palace, Tehran.
Reign	17 September 1848 – 1 May 1896
Coronation	17 September 1848
Born	16 July 1831(1831-07-16)
Birthplace	Tabriz
Died	1 May 1896 (aged 64)
Place of death	Persia
Buried	Persia
Predecessor	Mohammad Shah Qajar
Successor	Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar
Royal House	Qajar
Father	Mohammad Shah Qajar

Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar ^[1] (July 16, 1831 – May 1, 1896) (Persian: ناصرالدین شاه قاجار Nāṣira’d-Dīn Shāh Qājār) was the King and Shah of Persia from September 17, 1848 to May 1, 1896 when he was assassinated. He was the son of Mohammad Shah Qajar and the third longest reigning monarch king in Persian history after Shapur II of the Sassanid Dynasty and Tahmasp I of the Safavid Dynasty. He had sovereign power for close to 50 years and was also the first Persian monarch to ever write and publish his diaries.

[edit] Biography

He was in Tabriz when he heard of his father's death in 1848, and he ascended to the Peacock Throne with the help of Amir Kabir.

Though Naser al-Din had early reformist tendencies, he was dictatorial in his style of government. He persecuted Bábís and Bahá'ís, and this increased when a deranged Bábí, seeking revenge for his martyred friend, attempted to assassinate him in 1852. He was the first modern Persian monarch to visit Europe in 1873 and then again in 1878 (when he saw a Royal Navy Fleet Review), and finally in 1889 and was reportedly amazed with the technology he saw there. During his visit to the United Kingdom in 1873, Naser al-Din Shah was appointed by Queen Victoria a Knight of the Order of the Garter, the highest English order of chivalry. He was the first Persian monarch to be so honoured. His travel diary of his 1873 trip has been published in Persian, German and Dutch.

During his visit, Naser al-Din met with British Jewish leaders, including Sir Moses Montefiore. At that time, the Persian king suggested that the Jews buy land and establish a state for the Jewish people.^[2]

In 1890 he met British Gerald Talbot and signed a contract with him giving him the ownership of Iranian Tobacco Industry, but he later was forced to cancel the contract after Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi issued a Fatwa that made farming, trading and consuming tobacco as Haram (forbidden). It even affected the Shah's personal life as his wives did not allow him to smoke.

This was not the end of his attempts to give advantages to Europe because he later gave the ownership of Iranian Customs Incomes to Paul Julius Reuter.

Naser al-Din Shah is received by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle in July of 1873.

The Shah, on his European tour, in The Royal Albert Hall, London. Seated between the Princess of Wales and her sister the Tsesarevna of Russia

Naser al-Din introduced a number of western innovations to Persia, including a modern postal system, train transport, a banking system and newspaper publishing. He was the first Iranian to be photographed and was a patron of Photography who had himself photographed hundreds of times.

Naser al-Din was assassinated by Mirza Reza Kermani, a follower of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, when he was visiting and praying in the shrine of Shah-Abdol-Azim. It is said that the revolver used to assassinate him was old and rusty, and had he worn a thicker overcoat, or been shot from a longer range, he would have survived the attempt on his life.^[3] Shortly before his death he is reported to have said "I will rule you differently if I survive!" Naser al-Din Shah's assassin was prosecuted by the defense Minister Nazm ol Doleh.

Mohammad Hassan Khan Etemad al-Saltaneh, Pen and Ink drawing by Naser al-Din Shah, 10 November 1873, Niavaran, Tehran

He was buried in the Shah-Abdol-Azim Cemetery, in Rayy near Tehran, where he was assassinated. His one-piece marble tombstone, bearing his full effigy, is now kept in the Golestan Palace Museum in Tehran and is renowned as a master piece of Qajar era sculpture.

[edit] Art and Interests

Naser al-Din Shah was very interested in painting and photography. He was talented in painting and even though had not been educated, was an expert in Pen and Ink drawing. There are several Pen and Ink drawings which are remained from him. He was one of the first Persians who Photographed and was a patron of Photography. Also he founded a Photograph Studio in Golestan Palace.^[4]

He was a Poet too. 200 couplets of his verses were recorded in the Preface of the book Majma'ul Fusahā, a book by Reza Quli Khan Hedayat about Poets of Qajar Period . Naser al-Din Shah was interested in History and Geography and there were many books on these topics in his library. He also knew French and English but he couldn’t speak them fluently.^[5]

Many attributed the book Hekāyāt Pir Va Javān (The tale of the old and the young) to him which is one of the first Persian stories written in modern European style.^[6]

Portrait of the Shah of Persia Naser al-Din by Leslie Ward, 1873

[edit] Honours

• Knight of the Order of the White Eagle of Russia-1838
• Grand Cross of the Legion d'Honneur of France-1855
• Grand Cross of the Order of St Stephen of Hungary-1859
• Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus of Italy-1862
• Knight of the Order of the Most Holy Annunciation of Italy-1862
• Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion-1868
• Knight of the Order of St. Andrew of Russia-1873
• Knight of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky of Russia-1873
• Knight of the Order of Saint Stanislaus, 1st Class of Russia-1873
• Knight of the Order of St. Anna, 1st Class of Russia-1873
• Knight of the Order of the Garter (KG)-1873
• Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle of Prussia-1873
• Grand Cross of the Order of the Red Eagle of Prussia-1873
• Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold of Belgium-1873
• Exalted Order of Honour of Turkey-1880

[edit] Children

Sons:

• Prince Soltan Mahmoud Mirza (1847 – 1849) Vali Ahad of Persia, 1849
• Prince Soltan Moin al-Din Mirza (1849 – November 1856) Vali Ahad of Persia, 1849-56
• Prince Soltan Mass'oud Mirza Zell-e Soltan (5 January 1850 – 2 July 1918)
• Prince Mohammad Qassem Mirza (1850 – Jun 1858) Vali Ahad of Persia, 1856-8
• Prince Soltan Hossein Mirza Jalal ed-Dowleh (1852 – 1868) ^[7]
• Prince Mozaffar al-Din Shah (25 March 1853 – 7 January 1907)
• Prince Kamran Mirza Nayeb es-Saltaneh (22 July 1856 – 1927)
• Prince Nosrat al-Din Mirza Salar es-Saltaneh (2 May 1882 – 1954)
• Prince Mohammad Reza Mirza Rokn es-Saltaneh (30 January 1884 – 8 July 1951)
• Prince Hussein Ali Mirza Yamin ed-Dowleh (1890 – 1952)
• Prince Ahmad Mirza Azd es-Saltaneh (1891 – 1939)

Daughters:

• Princess Afsar ed-Dowleh
• Princess Fakhr-ol-Moluk
• Princess Fatemeh Khanoum Esmat ed-Dowleh (1855 – 1906)
• Princess Touman Khanom Fakhr ed-Dowleh (1859 – 1891)
• Princess Touran Khanom Forugh ed-Dowleh (1862 – 1916)
• Princess Zahra Khanom Eftekhar es-Saltaneh (1880 – 1941)
• Princess Zahra Khanom Tadj es-Saltaneh (1883 – 1935)
• Princess Khadijeh Khanom Ezz es-Saltaneh (1888 – 1982)^[8]

[edit] Gallery

Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, by Nadar, Paris 1873.	Naser al-Din Shah on his last trip to Europe, by Herbert Rose Barraud, 1889.	Posing in a garden of the Golestan Palace, 1 April 1893. From Album No.347 of Golestan Palace.	Standing next to the Jewelled Globe in the Hall of Mirrors of the Golestan Palace, 1895. From Album No.122 of Golestan Palace.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Amanat, Abbas (2004). Pivot of the universe. Tehran: Karnameh. ISBN 964-431-049-7. 
• Clay, Catrine (2006). King, Kaiser, Tsar. London: John Murray. ISBN 13-978-0-7195-6536-7. 
• Mo'ayeri, Dustali (1982). Some notes from private life of Nasser al-Din Shah. Tehran: Nashr-e Tarikh-e Iran. 

[edit] See also

• Qajar dynasty
• Order of Aftab
• Qajar art
• Persian Tobacco Revolution
• Persian Cossack Brigade
• Samad Khan Momtaz os-Saltaneh
• Marjane Satrapi

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nasser-ed-Din Shah

• Nasser-al-Din Shah's Portrait
• His visit to England(select from list)
• Side view of Nasser-al-Din Shah's marble tombstone
• Window on an Era: A Qajar Royal Album. Selected photographs from a private album of Nasser al-Din Shah, with an introduction by Kaveh Golestan, Kargah
• Mohammad-Reza Tahmasbpoor, History of Iranian Photography: Early Photography in Iran, Iranian Artists' site, Kargah
• History of Iranian Photography. Postcards in Qajar Period, photographs provided by Bahman Jalali, Iranian Artists' site, Kargah.
• History of Iranian Photography. Women as Photography Model: Qajar Period, photographs provided by Bahman Jalali, Iranian Artists' site, Kargah.
• Sir James William Redhouse, The Diary of H.M. the Shah of Persia during His Tour through Europe in A.D. 1873, A Verbatim Translation (John Murray, London, 1874), Internet Archive (Digitized by Robarts at University of Toronto).
• Sir Albert Houtum Schidler and Baron Louis de Norman, A Diary Kept by His Majesty the Shah of Persia during His Journey to Europe in 1878, in English (Richard Bentley & Son, London, 1879), Internet Archive (Digitized by Google).
• Photos of qajar kings