Abdol Majid Mirza

Soltan Abdol Majid Mirza Eyn-al-Dowleh, 1904

Soltan Abdol Majid Mirza Eyn-al-Dowleh (* 1845 , † 1927 ) was a Qajar prince . He was the eldest son of Prince Soltan Ahmad Mirza Azad-al-Dowleh and great-grandson of Fath Ali Shah . Eyn-al-Dowleh was Prime Minister of Iran several times. Abdol Madschid Mirza was married to the daughter of Mozaffar ad-Din Shah , the princess Fakhr-os-Saltaneh.

Political career

Eyn-al-Dowleh became Prime Minister in 1903 under the reign of Mozaffar al-Din Shah . In order to collect import duties to repay a loan that Mozaffar-ad-Din had received from the Russian state bank , he proceeded with proverbial cruelty against the merchants of the bazaar. Their demonstrations against the ruthless policies of Eyn-al-Dowleh sparked a political earthquake. There were calls for a “House of Justice”, a constitution and parliamentary representation. In July 1906 Eyn-al-Dowleh had to resign and on August 5, 1906 Mozaffar al-Din Shah signed a decree introducing a parliamentary system in Iran. The end of the absolutist monarchy in Iran had come and the Constitutional Revolution had begun.

In June 1908, Mohammed Ali Shah dissolved parliament and repealed the constitution. With an attack on Tabriz led by Eyn-al-Dowleh, the last defenders of the constitutional movement were to be captured. But the fight for Tabriz ended for Mohammad Ali Shah in defeat and his flight into Russian exile. Eyn-al-Dowleh's political career also came to an end when Mohammad Ali Shah fled.

Only in the course of the First World War was he to become prime minister again during the British-Russian occupation of Iran from July to August 1915 and later from June 1917 to May 1918. It was then that Iran was one of the first countries in the world to recognize the new Soviet government on December 14, 1917. Eyn-al-Dowleh seized the moment and declared all contracts concluded with the tsarist government null and void and offered the new Soviet government negotiations to reorganize mutual relations.