Ahmad Shah Qajar
Ahmad Shah Qajar or Ahmad Shah Qajar ( Persian احمد شاه قاجار; * January 31, 1897 ; † February 21, 1930 ) was Shah of Persia from July 16, 1909 to October 31, 1925. He was the seventh and last ruler of the Qajar dynasty of Turkmen origin. Ahmad Shah was married to five women who gave birth to four sons and four daughters.
Accession to the throne
After his father, Mohammed Ali Shah , was deposed by the Iranian parliament on July 16, 1909 , Ahmad, at the age of 12, appointed him Shah and thus Iran's first constitutional king that same day. The little stocky boy was brought from Odessa, where his family lived in exile, to Tehran, where the boy, dissatisfied with the situation, tried twice to flee and once threatened to commit suicide. Ali Reza Khan Azod al Molk , the 87-year-old head of the family, was installed as regent. He was to represent the Shah until he came of age. However, Azod al Molk died in 1910. He was succeeded by Abolqasem Naser al Molk . After two hundred years of absolutist rule by the Qajars and a recent attempt by Mohammed Ali Shah to reverse the constitutional reforms, building a modern administration turned out to be more than difficult. Although the parliament now had the right to budget, the lack of a modern tax system meant that the state apparatus that was being set up did not have any significant income. In this emergency situation, the Iranian ambassador to the United States, Mirza Ali Qoli Khan , asked the US government for help. In order to avoid diplomatic entanglements with Great Britain and Russia, Morgan Shuster , proposed by William Taft , then governor of the Philippines and later President of the USA, was sent to Iran as a "private person". Shuster began his work in the spring of 1911.
Coup attempt by Mohammad Ali Shah
In June 1911, Mohammed Ali Shah , who had been deposed two years earlier , landed in Anzali across the Caspian Sea with troops recruited with Russian support . His brother Abolfath Mirza Salar al Dowleh brought in more troops from what is now Iraq. Morgan Shuster , an American tax officer who worked for the government as Chancellor of the Exchequer and financial advisor, had built a reasonably functioning tax administration in the few months of his activity, so that the soldiers of the constitutional government received regular pay , which should have a lasting effect on morale. In September 1911, Mohammed Ali Shah was defeated. He retreated into exile in Russia one more time.
coronation
At the end of June 1914, unsettling news had reached Tehran. The assassination of the Austrian heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo (then Austro-Hungarian territory) on June 28, 1914 by the Bosnian - Serbian Gavrilo Princip ( assassination of Sarajevo ) triggered a chain reaction that led to World War I after one month should lead. Meanwhile, Tehran was preparing for the upcoming coronation of Ahmad Shah.
On July 21, 1914, Ahmad Shah was officially crowned Shah of Persia when he reached the age of 18 (“Islamic”). The ceremony, as the New York Times reported, was short and simple. First, Ahmad Shah drove a carriage through the decorated streets of Tehran to the parliament. There he took the oath of office required by the constitution. He then went to a nearby mosque to pray. In the late afternoon, the coronation took place in the Golestan Palace. Ahmad Shah took off his headgear and, according to the tradition of the Persian coronation ceremony, put the Qajar crown on his head. The crown was so large that he had to hold it over his head with both hands for a few minutes while a clergyman said a prayer. The ceremony was followed by a reception by the diplomatic corps.
After the coronation, a tour of the European capitals was planned, on which the newly crowned Shah wanted to visit the most important heads of state. After Austria had declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914 and general mobilization had begun in Europe, the tour was canceled for the time being. It was assumed that the upcoming war would be over in a few months due to the superiority of the German army, and that the tour could then be made up later.
The First World War
After the First World War broke out, the Iranian government declared its neutrality in the conflict and asked the belligerent powers to withdraw their troops stationed in Iran immediately. Russian troops were stationed in the provinces of Azerbaijan , Gilan, Asterabad and Khorasan , British troops in some ports in the Persian Gulf, in Khusistan and Shiraz, and Turkish troops in some border towns of Azerbaijan. Thus Iran found itself in the field of tension between the Entente powers Great Britain and Russia and the Ottoman Empire fighting on the side of the Central Powers . The declaration of neutrality was noted by the ambassadors of the respective countries, but otherwise did not lead to any concrete measures, since the conflicting parties assumed that Iran was militarily incapable of attacking and executing the foreign troops on its territory to expel Iran.
There was then also active fighting between the Turkish , Russian and British troops , which led to considerable destruction in Iran. The Turkish commander-in-chief, Enver Pasha , took the view that the Russian troops stationed in the cities of Iran could easily be beaten and that this would open the way to Azerbaijan and the oil fields on the Caspian Sea, as well as to Central Asia and India. Enver Pascha was an advocate of Panturanism , a nationalist movement that wanted to unite all Turkic peoples.
From a military point of view, Iran had little to counter these strategic considerations. There was no national army. The small Persian Cossack brigade led by Russian officers and the Persian gendarmerie , which had been under construction since 1911, led by Swedish officers, were not serious opponents for the armies of the Turks, Russians and British. For comparison: Iran had about 10 million inhabitants at the time of the First World War. Only a minority lived in the cities. Tehran had 280,000, Tabriz 200,000, Isfahan 80,000, Mashhad , Kerman 60,000 and Yazd 45,000 inhabitants. In addition, large parts of Northern Iran were occupied by Russian troops before the outbreak of hostilities. Tabriz was occupied by regular Russian troops in support of Mohammed Ali Shah in 1909 during the Constitutional Revolution. Urmia and Choy followed in 1910. After the constitutional revolution in 1911, Russian troops had withdrawn from the cities, but remained stationed in northwestern Iran. A press report from Istanbul on November 29, 1914 describes the situation as follows:
“Here is a reliable wire report on the situation in Iran: As is well known, Russian troops have been in northern Iran for several years, supposedly to protect against unrest, but in truth to prepare for an occupation of the country without any legal justification. The recent appointment of respected patriots to the Persian cabinet prompted the governor-general of the Caucasus, Grand Duke Nicolai Nicolajewitsch , to order the advance of Russian troops from Kasoqd onto the capital Tehran in order to force the overthrow of the Mostofi cabinet . It was planned at the same time to arrest all nationalist parliamentarians and to eliminate the Swedish officers who were at the head of the Persian gendarmerie and loyal to the Shah . The completely surprised government with the Shah at its head decided to evade the Russian rape and temporarily relocate the seat of the governorate to the city of Qom, a little further south . On the solemn promise given at the last moment to withdraw the troops, the Shah decided to remain in the city. At the written request of the government, the envoys of the central powers had already gone to Qom, where the parliament and the leaders of the Patriot Party were already assembled. The Shah, inclined towards peace, seems to want to make concessions to the Russians once more in order to spare the neutral country the war, but demands the withdrawal of all Russian and British troops. There is great excitement in Iran. Numerous tribes and voluntary groups have moved in the direction of the capital to protect the Shah against the brutal, ruthless actions of the Russians. "
The communist revolution in Russia led to the withdrawal of Russian troops from Iran. The British took control of northern Iran and the Caspian Sea with 200 soldiers and a small fleet. In the south, the British had set up the South Persian Rifles (SPR), a force consisting of Iranian teams commanded by British officers, in 1916 . By the end of World War I, the British had complete military control over Iran. Even the Cossack brigade, commanded by Russian officers, was completely dependent on them, as the British paid their monthly wages of 300,000 tomans.
The 1919 treaty
Ahmad Shah was 21 years old at the end of the First World War. With the fate of his father, who had been deposed by Parliament, in mind, his main interest was to get rich as quickly as possible and to keep his fortune in Europe safe. As early as 1919 he had started to speculate on the Paris stock exchange. Iran's policy was now completely controlled from London. So it is not surprising that in May 1918 the British ambassador asked Ahmad Shah whether Hassan Vosouq should become the new prime minister. For Ahmad Shah it was a question of money. He asked for a pension of 25,000 and ended up getting a monthly pension of £ 5,000 from London for the rest of his life. The approval of the Iranian parliament was not entirely free of charge for the British. The UK Foreign Office agreed to suspend repayment obligations on previous loans and to transfer 350,000 tomans a month to the Iranian parliament as an "operating grant". Another £ 25,000 was invested in a pro Vosouq demonstration organized by mullahs and merchants. On August 5, 1918, Vosouq finally became Prime Minister.
The aim of British foreign policy was to conclude a new agreement with Iran that would replace the Treaty of Saint Petersburg concluded with Russia in 1907 and which had become obsolete after the communist revolution . The new treaty was intended to permanently secure Great Britain's economic and political influence in Iran. Iran was promised a 7% interest loan of 2,000,000 pounds, repayable in 20 annual installments. Vosough asked for 500,000 tomans in cash for himself and two other ministers to sign the contract. This demand seemed only legitimate, as Ahmad Shah received his monthly pension from the British, and several governors and tribal leaders also received monthly allowances from the British. In the end, they agreed to 400,000 tomans (£ 131,000) and the deal was signed. In order to bring the treaty into force, however, the approval of parliament had to be obtained. In September 1919, before the parliamentary session opened after the summer recess, it became known that Vosouq and two other ministers had accepted substantial bribes from the British. Now some mullahs and several MPs have demanded and received donations from the British provided they support the ratification of the agreement in parliament. The debate about the agreement dragged on for months. In June 1920 Vosouq resigned without the agreement having been ratified by parliament.
The rise of Reza Chans
Iran did not calm down in the post-war period. Insurrections and separatist movements almost led to the collapse of the state. Criminal gangs made the streets unsafe. Parliament and the constitutional movement lost political leadership. After 14 years of constitutional monarchy, Iran was on the brink. The military was commanded by foreign officers , the state coffers were empty, and the salaries of state employees were only paid irregularly. On November 4, 1920, the British government sent General Sir Edmund Ironside to take command of the British troops in Iran. Ironside was to unite the Iranian armed forces commanded by British and Russian officers and place them under British command. In London it was recognized that one could only count on the army as a stabilizing force in the field of tension in political disputes. This was the hour of the young Cossack colonel Reza Chan (Khan), later Reza Pahlavi , who found his way into politics through a military career.
On January 15, 1921, Ahmad Shah informed the British ambassador that he wanted to replace Prime Minister Sepahdar and appoint a new cabinet headed by Hassan Mostofi and the Qajar princes Farmanfarma and Abdol Majid Mirza Eyn-al-Dowleh as the most important ministers. A few days earlier, Ahmad Shah had told the British ambassador that
“That he had decided to leave the country as a private person. He spoke to his brother, Crown Prince Mohammad Hassan Mirza, and offered him the throne. The latter told him that he did not want to know anything about the throne and was not ready to take over his successor. If he, Ahmad Shah, went, Iran would become a republic and he could not see what was wrong with an Iranian republic. "
But it shouldn't come to that. With the coup of February 21, 1921 , Prime Minister Sepahdar was overthrown by Seyyed Zia al Din Tabatabai with the help of a unit of the Persian Cossack Brigade led by Reza Chan . The first steps towards the replacement of the Qajar dynasty and the rise of Reza Shah were taken.
On February 21, 1921, the Hamadan Brigade, under the command of Reza Chan, marched into Tehran from the west. The following day he placed the city under martial law. Colonel Reza Chan was appointed city commander of Tehran. On February 25, Seyyed Zia al Din Tabatabai became Prime Minister. 70 members of aristocratic families were immediately arrested. A little later Reza Chan became commander of the Cossacks and received the title of Sardar Sepah (commander in chief). Ahmad Shah saw behind this coup an effort to finally restore orderly conditions and appointed Reza Chan first as defense minister and on October 26, 1923 as prime minister.
The Qajar families found Reza Chan's rise to be a catastrophe. The Ottoman Empire had ceased to exist. The Turkish Republic took its place. At the court of the Qajars there was an end times mood. Ahmad Shah didn't care. On the same day that he appointed Reza Chan Prime Minister, he left the country for Paris.
The political discussions that had previously been dominated by the constitutionalists turned more and more to another topic. It was recognized that the legal framework of a constitution was a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the successful construction of a modern Iran. Young Iranians who had studied in Europe came back with nationalist ideas. They envisioned Iran as a nation-state, and Reza Chan should turn these ideas into reality.
Exile in Paris
Ahmad Shah, who stayed or enjoyed himself more in the Hotel Majestic in Paris than in his palace in Tehran, was deposed by parliament on October 31, 1925. By a constitutional amendment passed by parliament on December 6, 1925, the royal dignity was transferred to Reza Pahlavi (now Reza Shah Pahlavi) and his descendants. The Qajar dynasty had lost the throne for good. Ahmad Shah stayed in exile in Paris in France . He died there five years later. He never recognized the constitutional amendment and the Pahlavis dynasty, who ruled as monarchs until 1978.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ulrich Gehrke: Persia in the German Orientpolitik during the First World War - Notes and documents. W. Kohlhammer, 1960 p. 2.
- ^ Peter Lamborn Wilson , Karl Schlamminger: Weaver of Tales. Persian Picture Rugs / Persian tapestries. Linked myths. Callwey, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-7667-0532-6 , p. 92 f. ( The last three kings of Persia ), here: p. 92 f. and 124-127.
- ^ Cyrus Ghani: Iran and the Rise of the Reza Shah: From Qajar Collapse to Pahlavi Power. IBTauris, 2000. p. 12.
- ↑ According to the Gregorian calendar, he would not have turned 18 until January 31, 1915
- ↑ http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9800E2DA143EE033A25751C2A9619C946596D6CF
- ^ Hassan Arfa: Under five Shahs. London, 1964, p. 57.
- ^ The Encyclopedia Americana, 1920, Vol. 28, p. 403.
- ↑ The Statesman's Year-book By John Scott Keltie
- ↑ http://www.stahlgewitter.com/15_11_29.htm
- ^ Cyrus Ghani: Iran and the rise of Reza Shah. IBTauris 2000. p. 22.
- ^ Cyrus Ghani: Iran and the rise of Reza Shah. IBTauris 2000. p. 21ff.
- ^ Cyrus Ghani: Iran and the rise of Reza Shah. IBTauris, 2000. p. 54, p. 130.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ahmad Shah Qajar |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Shah of Persia |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 31, 1897 |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 21, 1930 |