Naser al-Din or Naseroddin Shah Qajar (, ; 17 July 1831 – 1 May 1896) was the fourth Shah of Qajar Iran from 5 September 1848 to 1 May 1896 when he was assassinated. Initially seeking to modernise Iran, his style of governance became more dictatorial over the course of his reign. His reign saw the Second Herat War (1856), the subsequent Anglo-Persian War (1857) and internal unrest, Tobacco Protest (1890-1891).
He allowed the establishment of newspapers in the country and made use of modern forms of technology such as telegraph, photography and also planned concessions for railways and irrigation works. Despite his modernising reforms on education, his tax reforms were abused by people in power, and the government was viewed as corrupt and unable to protect commoners from abuse by the upper classes which led to increasing anti-governmental sentiments. He was assassinated at Shah Abdol-Azim Shrine in Rey near Tehran. He was the first modern Iranian monarch who formally visited Europe and wrote of his travels in his memoirs. He was the son of Mohammad Shah Qajar and Malek Jahan Khanom and the third longest reigning monarch in Iranian history after Shapur II of the Sasanian dynasty and Tahmasp I of the Safavid dynasty. Naser al-Din Shah had sovereign power for close to 48 years.
Early life
Naser al-Din Mirza was born on 17 July 1831 in Kahnamu, a village near Tabriz, as the eldest son of Mohammad Mirza (later Shah) and his wife, Malek Jahan Khanom, the Qajar princess by both birth and marriage. Crown prince Abbas Mirza was died in Mashhad on 25 October 1833. Fath-Ali Shah died the following year, being succeeded by Mohammad Mirza, who assumed the regnal name of Mohammad Shah Qajar. In 1835, Naser al-Din Mirza, then four years old, was appointed Crown prince and given the governorship of Azerbaijan. Governorship of Azerbaijan Mohammad Shah given own brother Qahraman Mirza as regent to Naser al-Din Mirza during his governorship in Azerbaijan, but Qahraman Mirza died in 1839, and Mohammad Shah appointed his last-surviving full-brother, Bahman Mirza as Naser al-Din's regent in 1842. Mohammad Shah's dire health prompted the foreign powers to declare their support for Naser al-Din Mirza in February 1842. Bahman Mirza began mobilising forces at Tabriz, in hopes of becoming Naser al-Din's regent once again after Mohammad Shah's death. To counteract the Russians, in 1845, Aqasi arranged a marriage for Naser al-Din Mirza with the daughter of Ahmad Ali Mirza, a son of Fath-Ali Shah. This wedding brought the young prince into the political spectrum. Mohammad Shah's health slightly improved, and the realm and its succession seemed stable and secure. In 1848 on 4 September, mohammad shah died and buried at the Fatima Masumeh Shrine located in Qom.
Reign Effectiveness of his early rule The state under Naser was the recognized government of Iran, but its authority was undermined by local tribal leaders due to the lack of a standing army. The army was weakened by wars with Russia in the Treaty of Gulistan (1813) and Turkmenchay (1828) The religious and tribal chieftains held quite a bit of autonomy over their communities. Naser was not effective in implementing his sovereignty over his people. Local groups had their own militias and oftentimes did not obey laws passed by the monarchy, since it did not have the power to enforce them. The people followed the ulama's fatwas instead of state-issued laws. When Naser took power, his army barely had 3,000 men which was significantly smaller than the armies under various tribal leaders. When the state needed a proper army, he would hire the local militias. Prior to his reforms, Naser's government had very little power over their subjects and even during the reforms, they faced more scrutiny over their ability to implement those reforms successfully.
Diplomacy and wars
Naser al-Din Mirza was in Tabriz when he heard of his father's death in 1848, and he ascended to the Sun Throne with the help of Amir Kabir. After his arrival now as Naser al-Din Shah, his mother Malek Jahan Khanom became known as Mahd-e Olya, became most powerful figure at court. She immediately asked Farhad Mirza to arrest and blind Naser al-Din Shah's younger half-brother, Abbas Mirza Molk-Ara, whom she considered a potential source of trouble. Farhad Mirza found out about the plan. On August 1852 in Shemiran, followers of the Báb attempted to assassinate Naser al-Din Shah, thousands of Bábis were killed, this was in reaction to an assassination attempt. This treatment continued under his prime minister Amir Kabir, who even ordered the execution of the Báb. In same time Farhad Mirza's enemies implicated him in the Bábi attempt on Naser al-Din Shah's life. As punishment, Farhad Mirza was ordered into house arrest at Taleqan.
In 1856, Naser ad-Din Shah launched the Second Herat War to reassert Qajar suzerainty over Herat, a strategically vital city state in western Afghanistan that Iran had long claimed as part of its historic sphere. Persian forces under Naser's uncle, Hesam o-Saltaneh captured Herat in October 1856 after a nine-month siege, deposing the local ruler and installing a pro-Iranian governor. This success alarmed Britain, which considered Herat the “gate of India” and feared Persian (and potentially Russian) expansion toward its Indian empire. Britain declared war on Iran in November 1856 (the Anglo-Persian War), but the Persian occupation of Herat itself represented a clear military and political victory for Naser ad-Din Shah, temporarily restoring Iranian control over a region lost since the mid-1700s.
On 2 November 1856, at four in the afternoon, the Shah was sitting in the Mirror Hall of the outer court of the Golestan Palace, next to the Crystal Fountain. His servant in waiting, Yadullah Khan, brought news of the successful conquest in Herat, for which he was gifted with a thousand tomans. In the margin of a Persian translation of Louis de Bourrienne's Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Shah wrote:Thanks to Murtaza 'Ali's blessings, peace be upon him, this was a praiseworthy victory and the eyes of the enemy, particularly the British, turned blind [with jealousy]. Hundred and ten gun salutes were fired in honor of his holiness 'Ali.— Naser al-Din Shah
The Qajar court announced a public levee in honor of the occasion, during which the court chronicler recited the official records of the conquest as ascribed to Hesam o-Saltaneh. The document lists the administrative decisions taken in the aftermath of Herat's capture. In a symbolic move, the Shah's name was mentioned in the Friday sermon and the Shia adhan became the call to prayer. Similarly, the mint struck coins in Naser ad-Din Shah's name. A public holiday was soon declared and a national booklet outlining the conquest was disseminated.Naser al-Din was the first modern Iranian 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. During his visit to the United Kingdom in 1873, Naser ad-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 Iranian monarch to be honoured as such. His travel diary of his 1873 trip has been published in several languages, including Persian, German, French, and Dutch.
In 1890, Naser met British major Gerald F. Talbot and signed a contract with him giving him the ownership of the Iranian tobacco industry, but he later was forced to cancel the contract after Ayatollah Mirza al-Shirazi issued a fatwa that made farming, trading, and consuming tobacco haram (forbidden). Consuming tobacco from the newly monopolized 'Talbet' company represented foreign exploitation and, therefore, was deemed immoral. It even affected the Shah's personal life as his wives did not allow him to smoke.
This was not the end of Naser's attempts to give concessions to Europeans; he later gave the ownership of Iranian customs incomes to Paul Julius Reuter.
Reforms He defeated various rebels in the Iranian provinces, most notably in Khorasan, balanced the budget by introducing reforms to the tax system, curbed the power of the clergy in the judiciary, built several military factories, improved relations with other powers to curb British and Russian influence, opened the first newspaper called Vaqaye-e Ettefaqiyeh, embellished and modernized cities (for example by building the Tehran Bazaar) and most importantly opened the first Iranian school for upper education called the Dar al-Fonun where many Iranian intellectuals received their education.
The Shah gradually lost interest in reform. However, he took some important measures such as introducing telegraphy and postal services and building roads.
He also increased the size of the state's military and created a new group called the Persian Cossack Brigade which was trained and armed by the Russians. He was the first Iranian to be photographed and was a patron of photography who had himself photographed hundreds of times. His final prime minister was Ali Asghar Khan, who after the shah's assassination aided in securing the transfer of the throne to Mozaffar al-Din. Although he was successful in introducing those western-based reforms, he was not successful in gaining complete sovereignty over his people or getting them to accept these reforms.
The school he opened, Dar al-Funun, had very small enrollment numbers. The restrictions defined by Shia Islam on the shah's collection of the zakat led to those funds going straight into the coffers of the ulama. Therefore, the financial autonomy given to the ulama enabled them to remain structurally independent, keeping madrasahs open and supporting the students therein. The ulama also maintained their authority to challenge state law.
To fund these new institutions and building projects, Naser al-Din repeatedly used tax farming to increase state revenue. Tax collectors routinely abused their power and the government was viewed as corrupt and unable to protect them from abuse by the upper class. This anti-government sentiment increased the ulama's power over the people because they were able to provide them security. Keddie states in her book, Roots of Revolution: An Interpretive History of Modern Iran, that at the time "it was still considered a sign of greater status to be admitted to the ranks of the ulama than it was to become a member of the civil service." In 1852, Naser al-Din dismissed and executed Amir Kabir, the famous Iranian reformer. With him, many believe, died the prospect of an independent Iran led by meritocracy rather than nepotism.
In the later years of his rule, however, Naser al-Din steadfastly refused to deal with the growing pressures for reforms. He also granted a series of concessionary rights to foreigners in return for large payments. In 1872, popular pressure forced him to withdraw one concession involving permission to construct such complexes as railways and irrigation works throughout Iran. He visited Europe in 1873, 1878 and 1889. In 1890, he granted a 50-year concession on the purchase, sale, and processing of all tobacco in the country, which led to a national boycott of tobacco and the withdrawal of the concession. This last incident is considered by many authorities to be the origin of modern Iranian nationalism.
Assassination
Naser al-Din Shah was assassinated by Mirza Reza Kermani, a follower of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, when he was visiting and praying in the Shah Abdol-Azim Shrine on 1 May 1896. 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. Shortly before his death, he is reported to have said "I will rule you differently if I survive!" The assassin was prosecuted by the defence minister, Nazm ol-Dowleh.