Persia Revisited

by Sir Thomas Edward Gordon

While his prominent brothers have benefited pecuniarily to a considerable extent by the positions which they hold, the Vali Ahd was content to maintain a miniature Court on a modest scale, keeping up his dignity in a fitting manner, and showing no desire to amass money. The people were aware of this, and respected him for not taking advantage of his opportunities to enrich himself as others might have done. More than once lately mention has been made in the papers of the large fortune which the Zil-es-Sultan is said to have acquired at Isfahan, and invested in foreign securities.

Mention may here be made of the first two sons of Mozuffer-ed-Din Shah. The elder is Mohamed Ali Mirza, twenty-four years of age, whose mother is a daughter of Mirza Taki Khan, Amir-el-Kebir and his wife, who was the favourite sister of the late Shah. The second is Malik Mansur, about fifteen years of age, whose mother is a daughter of Ismail Mirza, a Prince of the reigning Kajar family. The latter is spoken of as an engaging and bright-looking youth, and is generally believed to be the favourite son. The other sons are not much known nor mentioned as yet, but it may be said that the succession in the direct line appears to be well assured.

Naturally the health of the Heir-apparent was a matter of great consequence to himself, in the first place in view of his future, and secondly to those who desired to see the nomination to the succession undisturbed, for change would have produced great uncertainty and unrest throughout the country. When I visited Tabriz in the end of 1892, there were three physicians attached to the Vali Ahd's Court. One was the Hakim Bashi, Mirza Mahmud Khan, a Persian of superior education and professional training, who was in constant attendance on the Prince, and with him were associated the English Dr. Adcock (who had then been four years in Tabriz, and is still with Mozuffer-ed-Din Shah), and an Italian doctor, S. Castaldi, brother of the wife of the Russian Consul-General, regarding whom I have no late information.

The succession of Mozuffer-ed-Din Shah so far has been peaceful, notwithstanding the fears of many that opposition would appear in the South. This is the first time with the present dynasty that on the death of the Shah the Vali Ahd has found no rival in his path. Curzon stated very decidedly in his important work on Persia that a contest for the throne was most improbable, and his forecast has proved correct. Mozuffer-ed-Din Shah is the fifth Sovereign of the Kajar dynasty, which was founded by Agha Mohamed Shah, and I may here remark that the reign of the late Shah was just within one year of completing a century of royal rule shared by only three successive sovereigns of this line, a notable fact in an Oriental kingdom.

Fateh Ali Shah succeeded to the throne in 1797, having been appointed Vali Ahd by his uncle, Agha Mohamed Shah, who had no family of his own. He was the son of Hussein Kuli Khan (full brother of the Shah), Governor-General at Shiraz, and he was there with his father when called to the throne at Tehran. On the death of Agha Mohamed Shah in camp with his army on the Northern frontier, General Sadik Khan, chief of the Shekaki tribe in Azerbaijan, seized the opportunity to gain possession of the Crown jewels and treasure, and quitted the camp with his men; but the rest of the troops marched at the command of the strong Prime Minister Haji Ibrahim, to the capital, which by his orders was held by the Kajar chief, Mirza Mohamed Khan, for the legitimate heir of the Shah. Two competitors for the Crown appeared in the South, in the persons of Fateh Ali Shah's own father, and a son of Zaki Khan Zend; but both, as well as the Shekaki chief who advanced similar claims in the North, and Nadir Mirza, grandson of the great Nadir Shah, who had entered Khorasan from Afghanistan, and raised the standard of revolt, were soon defeated and driven into submission. The Shakaki chief was able from his possession of the Crown jewels and treasure to make terms for pardon and preferment; but he afterwards broke his oath of allegiance, and rebelled. He was captured and confined in a dungeon, where his life soon ceased.

Fateh Ali Shah died in 1834, and was succeeded by his grandson, Mohamed Shah, son of the capable Abbas Mirza, who predeceased his father. He was at Tabriz, holding the post of nominal Governor-General of Azerbaijan, which was the customary position assigned to the Vali Abd, when his grandfather died, and I have in a previous chapter told of the part taken by British officers in defeating the Pretenders, who attempted to dispute his right to the throne. These Pretenders were his uncles Ali Mirza, the Zil-es-Sultan, and Hussein Ali Mirza, Governor-General at Shiraz, each of whom proclaimed himself King. Fateh Ali Shah died at Isfahan while on his way to Shiraz to compel the obedience of his son Hussein Ali Mirza, who in expectation of his father's death from age and infirmity had decided to withhold payment of revenue to the Crown. The rebellious son advanced with an army, and took possession of the jewels and treasure which his father had brought with him; and his brother, the Zil-es-Sultan, seized what had been left at Tehran, but Mohamed Shah afterwards regained possession of the whole.

Nasr-ed-Din, son and heir-apparent of Mohamed Shah, was present at his post of Governor-General of Azerbaijan when his father died in Tehran, and there was an interval of disturbance for the six or seven weeks which passed between the death of the one King and the coronation of the other. During this period revolution prevailed in the towns, and robbery and violence in the country. The son of Ali Mirza, the Zil-es-Sultan, the Prince-Governor of Tehran, who had disputed the succession of Mohamed Shah, issued forth from his retirement in Kasvin to contest the Crown with his cousin; but the attempt came to an inglorious end. A revolt at Meshed with a similar object also failed, and then Mirza Taki Khan, Amir-i-Nizam, proceeded successfully to consolidate the power of Nasr-ed-Din Shah, whose long reign, and on the whole good rule, have so accustomed the people to peace that the old ways of revolution and revolt on the death of a Shah have been forgotten and changed.

The regalia and Crown jewels of Persia mentioned in these changes of royal rule have, by inexplicable good fortune, been preserved from plunder while in the hands of rebels. The Crown jewels are in great part a portion of the splendid spoil which Nadir Shah obtained in the sack of Delhi, when it was the capital of the richest empire in the East. On his assassination near Meshed, the treasury was seized by the troops, and while a considerable share, including the famous Koh-i-Nur diamond, which now adorns the English crown, fell to the Afghans with Nadir's army, the greater part, with the Koh-i-Nur companion diamond, known as the Darya-i-Nur (Sea of Light), was secured by Persian soldiers, who hid it all away in Khorasan and the adjoining districts.

When Agha Mohamed Shah found leisure from his wars and work of firmly establishing his authority, he turned his attention to the recovery of Nadirs jewels, and proceeded to Meshed, where, by means of cunning and cruelty, he succeeded in wresting from the plunderers of Nadir's camp, and others, the rare collection of gems and ornaments now in the royal treasury at Tehran. The value of the collection is believed to be very great.

The singular preservation of the regalia and Crown jewels of Persia from plunder while they were in the hands of rebels after the death of Agha Mohamed Shah, and again on the death of Fatch Ali Shah, is most remarkable. A superstitious feeling of fear and respect appears to have kept them from being lost from the Crown, or it may be that, on the principle of 'safety in numbers,' every one, with a prospective share of the plunder in view, was a check on his neighbour against theft of that which they thought belonged to all.