Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar

Infobox_Monarch | name =Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar
title = The King of Kings


caption = Nasser al-Din Shah sitting in front of the Peacock Throne in Golestan Palace, Tehran.
reign = September 17, 1848 – May 1, 1896
coronation = September 17, 1848
predecessor = Mohammad Shah Qajar
successor = Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar
royal house = Qajar
father = Mohammad Shah Qajar
mother =
date of birth = birth date|1831|7|16|df=y
place of birth = Tabriz
date of death = death date and age|1896|5|1|1831|7|16|df=y
place of death = Persia
place of burial = Persia|

Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar ["Nasser al-Din" is pronounced as "Nāser-ad'din", and less formally as "Nāser-ed'din".] (July 16, 1831 - May 1, 1896) (PerB|ناصرالدین شاه قاجار ArTranslit|Nāsiri’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 second longest reigning monarch king in Persian history after Shapur II of the Sassanid Dynasty. He had sovereign power for close to 50 years and was also the first Persian monarch to ever write and publish his diaries.

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. He tried to recover the part of eastern Persia (especially Herat) that had come into the British sphere of control but after the British attack on Bushehr (Anglo-Persian War), he had to retreat. Herat is today a part of Afghanistan. Nasser-al-Din Shah was forced to sign the Declaration of Paris granting Afghanistan supremacy over the former Persian territories.

Though Nasser 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 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, Nasser 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.

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 Mirza Reza 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..

Nasser 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.

Nasser 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. Shortly before his death he is reported to have said "I will rule you differently if I survive!" Nasser al-Din Shah's assassin was prosecuted by the defense Minster Nazm ol Doleh.

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.

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

Gallery

ee also

*Qajar dynasty
*Order of Aftab
*Qajar art
*Persian Tobacco Revolution
*Persian Cossack Brigade

s-ttl|title=Shah of Persia
years=1848-1896

Note

References

*cite book
last = Clay
first = Catrine
year = 2006
title = King, Kaiser, Tsar
publisher = John Murray
location = London
id = ISBN 13-978-0-7195-6536-7

External links

* [http://www.qajarpages.org/nassereddinshah.html Nasser-al-Din Shah's Portrait]
* [http://www.iranian.com/Pictory/qajar.html His visit to England(select from list)]
* [http://iranjoa.com/iranjoa14/golestan/english/pic12.htm 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, [http://www.kargah.com/history_of_iranian_photography/window_on_an_era/index.php?other=1 "Kargah"]
* Mohammad-Reza Tahmasbpoor, "History of Iranian Photography: Early Photography in Iran", Iranian Artists' site, [http://www.kargah.com/history_of_iranian_photography/early/index.php?other=1 "Kargah"]
* "History of Iranian Photography. Postcards in Qajar Period", photographs provided by Bahman Jalali, Iranian Artists' site, [http://www.kargah.com/history_of_iranian_photography/postcards/index.php?other=1 "Kargah"] .
* "History of Iranian Photography. Women as Photography Model: Qajar Period", photographs provided by Bahman Jalali, Iranian Artists' site, [http://www.kargah.com/history_of_iranian_photography/qajarwomen/index.php?other=1 "Kargah"] .

__NOTOC__