Joseph of Semlin

Baron Johann Joseph von Semlin (also: von Semling ; * around 1730 or 1736 in Isfahan (Persia) as Ali Mirza Khan ; † February 13, 1824 in Vienna ) was the son of the Persian ruler Nadir Shah and an officer in the service of the Habsburg monarchy .

Life

origin

Nadir Shah had successfully undertaken a great campaign to India in 1738. He wanted to bring India to his dynasty as a secondary school and later install his youngest son Ali as ruler.

Nadir Shah had entered Delhi triumphantly and then left the city to be sacked by his army. Then he received news that a large relief army was approaching , which forced him to evacuate the city as quickly as possible. He now returned to Persia with the decision to resume the conquest of India, which this time did not succeed, at a later time. After his return to Persia, the Shah was murdered by his own generals in 1747 and rivalries broke out in the Afsharid dynasty. His successor blinded the three sons of Nadir Shah and then poisoned them. The youngest son, Ali, is said to have been brought by four loyal supporters of his slain father for his safety out of the country and via Istanbul to Semlin to raise him there.

In Austrian service

Semlin was a city that until 1718 the Ottoman Empire had heard was but then became a border town of the Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire, and so the process was that a refugee, issued as the son of the former Persian rulers, had been brought there, the Imperial War Council put forward . The minutes and evidence were sent to the Imperial Chancellery. After examining them, Empress Maria Theresa took on the orphaned Prince Ali and around 1755 granted permission for the noble name Johann Joseph von Semlin (g) . The Empress arranged for the prince to be brought to Graz on March 10, 1755, accompanied by Count Chotek , where the prince also received German lessons; the Roman Catholic baptism of the young man raised as a Muslim also took place in Graz on January 25, 1756. He was trained for military service at the Vienna Military Academy . In 1757 he was employed as an ensign in the 42nd Infantry Regiment of the Imperial Field Marshal Lieutenant Sigmund Friedrich von Gaisruck . In the Seven Years' War he had the opportunity to distinguish himself in important battles until 1759 - at Breslau and Hochkirchen - where he was wounded twice, then he was promoted to captain .

While still as an ensign he was taken prisoner in the Seven Years' War, and since he was known as a Persian prince in his regiment , the Prussian king also heard that a Persian prince was his prisoner. Friedrich II invited him to his table, had a long chat with him and after a few days sent Semlin back to his godmother Maria Theresa.

In 1759 the Empress granted the captain in the kk dragoon regiment Archduke Johann hereditary Austrian baron . Regarding the descent from the Persian ruler Nadir Shah, it is said in the files of the Viennese aristocratic archives that he passed himself off for it, but without providing the least evidence for it , and it therefore seems like it was sent to the empress on the occasion The lecture given is "not advisable and decent to declare him to be a Persian prince by a proper diploma" ; As a result, only the following words were included in the text of his Freiherrnstanddiplom of March 24, 1759 regarding the descent: "from one of the noblest and most heroic families of the Persian Empire" .

His war injuries forced Semlin to go to Baden near Vienna for a longer period of time . In 1763 he was appointed place captain in Graz, in which position he remained for five years. This was followed by service in the Tyrolean fortress town of Kufstein , where Freiherr von Semlin was part of the command as a place captain . On June 28, 1791, Semlin was promoted to major .

coat of arms

The coat of arms awarded by the empress shows a shield covered with a black cross and divided into four parts and in each of these golden fields a winged, floating red dragon . In the middle of the black cross rests a silver heart shield with a gold-crowned, black eagle with outstretched wings and weapons. A tournament helmet adorned with the barons crown rests on the main shield . A winged red dragon with its open, fire-breathing jaws appears above the crown of the helmet . Behind the whole coat of arms are two crossed flags, of which the red one, protruding on the right, contains the emperor's name cipher, the black one on the left contains the cipher of the empress in gold letters. The helmet covers are red and gold on the right and black and silver on the left.

The dragons were given as an allusion to Semlin's origin from India, the cross as a sign of conversion to Christianity , eagles and imperial name codes as a reminder of the highest protection.

Last years

When the Imperial and Royal Major Baron Semlin retired in 1792 because of the wounds he had received in the Seven Years' War, he received 810 guilders annually and settled in Markt Mödling near Vienna, where he often said aloud: “How happy I feel in the quiet bourgeois life to stand low and to have escaped the gigantic fates which for some time have drawn the world's attention to my family ”.

But still in advanced years, Semlin aroused the attention of the rulers: the imperial French embassy had scouted him and finally asked him to cede his claims and rights to the Persian throne to the French Emperor Napoleon I. Semlin waved it off: with a smile, the good-natured old man replied that neither he nor his sons would dream of the peacock throne. But should he actually still have any real claims, he would never cede them to anyone other than his emperor ( Franz ), who supported him with paternal grace even in his old age.

Having grown old, Joseph von Semlin moved to Vienna. He lived in the Jägerzeile in Hüttner'schen Haus in 1821, looked after by the owner, and finally died of old age in the suburb of Leopoldstadt on Praterstrasse , in the house "zum green Thor" on February 13, 1824, allegedly 100 years old . According to the death register of the parish Sankt Nepomuk he was born on February 15th. buried in the Sankt Marxer Friedhof in Vienna. Semlin, who finally signed the imperial pension fund with his Persian prince title Ali Mirza Khan , had decreed that the poor who attended his funeral should be given five guilders. He had bequeathed another sum to a house for invalids .

family

His widow, Rosa Freifrau von Semlin, died in Leopoldstadt (in Grosse Pfarrgasse, next to the rectory) on October 6, 1837, 62 years old, allegedly also of old age. Semlin's wife is said to have been a native Turkish woman . Both sons, Jahaya and Jusof, were in Imperial Austrian service. The younger lived in 1821 as a retired ensign in the Invalidenhaus Tyrnau .

literature

• Leopold von Beckh-Widmannstetter , Genealogical Notes , in: Der Deutsche Herold 14 (1883), p. 75
• Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , Adelslexikon Volume XIII, Volume 128 of the complete series, Limburg an der Lahn 2002, p. 293
• Franz Graeffer , Conversationsblatt. Journal for Scientific Entertainment , Volume 1, Vienna 1821, p. 186 f.
• Johann Christian von Hellbach , Adels-Lexikon , Ilmenau 1826, Volume 2, p. 475
• Hanns Jäger-Sunstenau , On the unjustified use of noble titles , in: Adler 5 (Vienna 1943), p. 18
• Ernst Heinrich Kneschke , New General German Adels Lexicon , Volume VIII, Leipzig 1868, p. 465
• Johann Georg Megerle von Mühlfeld , Austrian Nobility Lexicon of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries , Vienna 1822, p. 86
• Theodor Schön, Genealogical Notes , in: Der Deutsche Herold 14 (1883), p. 50
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Semlin, Johann Joseph Freiherr von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 34th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1877, p. 82 ( digitized version ).
• https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/BLK%C3%96:Semlin,_Johann_Joseph_Freiherr_von
• http://www.royalark.net/Persia/afshar3.htm

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Genealogical Handbook of the Adels , Adelslexikon Volume XIII, Volume 128 of the complete series, Limburg an der Lahn 2002, p. 293
2. ↑ http://www.royalark.net/Persia/afshar3.htm
3. ^ "Ispahan Persia" can be read in the death register of the responsible Viennese parish. Cf. Ahmad Saberi, Ein Persischer Prinz in Wien , in: TAWAN, magazine of the Association of Iranian Engineers in Austria, winter semester 2002/2003, p. 8 ( digitized version ); on the other hand, Constantin von Wurzbach gives : Semlin, Johann Joseph Freiherr von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 34th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1877, p. 82 ( digitized version ). India as the place of birth (or region) .
4. ↑ "who was barely two years old at the time [so he would have been born in 1736]" → Constantin von Wurzbach : Semlin, Johann Joseph Freiherr von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 34th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1877, p. 82 ( digitized version ). On the other hand, Franz Graeffer referred to him in the conversation paper. Journal for Scientific Entertainment , Volume 1, Vienna 1821, p. 186 f. , as a "retired major at the age of three and ninety" [this in 1821: he would have been born around 1728]. The Genealogical Handbook of the Adels, Adelslexikon Volume XIII, Volume 128 of the complete series, Limburg an der Lahn 2002, p. 293, indicates the date of birth as "around 1730" .
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Constantin von Wurzbach : Semlin, Johann Joseph Freiherr von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 34th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1877, p. 82 ( digitized version ).
6. ↑ Munich newspapers, of which war, peace and state events , 1747, p. 792
7. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o} Ahmad Saberi, Ein Persischer Prinz in Wien , in: TAWAN, magazine of the Association of Iranian Engineers in Austria, winter semester 2002/2003, p. 8 ( digitized version )
8. ↑ History and Remembrance Calendar, 1825, p. 20 (February 13), following Joseph Franz Xaver von Kaler, What happened as today? or when was that? , Volume 1, Innsbruck 1834, p. 31
9. ↑ After his refuge Semlin; see. Karl Michaeler, Historical-critical attempt on the oldest ethnic groups , Volume 1, Vienna 1801, p. 86
10. ↑ Military Schematism of the Austrian Empire , Vienna 1839, p. 533 . Cf. Alfons Dragoni von Rabenhorst , History of the Imperial and Royal Infantry Regiment Prince Friedrich August Herzog zu Sachsen No. 45. From the establishment to the present , Brno 1897, p. 136 f. ( Memento of the original from May 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
11. ↑ According to Saberi, who dates Semlin's birth year to 1735, he made the Battle of Kolin (on June 18, 1757) and the Battle of Breslau (on November 22, 1757) as a 23-year-old in the Gaisruck Regiment on foot No. 42, under Field Marshal Leopold Joseph von Daun , with. Cf. Ahmad Saberi, Ein Persischer Prinz in Wien , in: TAWAN, magazine of the Association of Iranian Engineers in Austria, winter semester 2002/2003, p. 8 ( digitized version ).
12. ↑ ^{a b c d} Franz Graeffer , Conversationsblatt. Journal for Scientific Entertainment , Volume 1, Vienna 1821, p. 186 f.
13. ↑ Kaiserl. Royal Upper Austrian Court and State Office Schematism , Innsbruck 1774, p. 107
14. ↑ Constantin von Wurzbach : Semlin, Johann Joseph Freiherr von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 34th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1877, p. 82 ( digitized version ). According to this, he would have been born in 1724, which, with earlier information, results in a difference of about ten years.
15. ↑ It is not said that Rosa von Semlin was this wife, since Rosa was considerably younger than Joseph von Semlin. She died 62 years old on October 6th, 1837. Thus, Rosa would not have been born until 1775, at a time when Joseph von Semlin was the head of the square in Kufstein in Tyrol. Marriage to Rosa before 1792 is - because of her postulated year of birth - unlikely. And Joseph's youngest son was already retired in 1821. This suggests that the sons were from a previous marriage.