Mehdi Qoli Chān Hedāyat

Mehdi Qoli Khan Hedayat

Hedayat Cabinet (from left: Mohammad Ali Farzin (Deputy Foreign Minister), Ghasem Souresrafil (Post), Ali-Akbar Davar (Justice) Firuz Firuz (Finance), Mehdi Qoli Hedayat (Prime Minister), Javar Gholi Asad (Defense), Adib-Al- Saltaneh Samii (indoor), Mahmud Dscham (social), Yahyah Gharehghozlu (education))

Mehdi Qoli Chān Hedāyat Mochber al-Saltaneh ( Persian مهدی‌قلی خان هدایت مخبرالسلطنه; * 1864 ; † 1955 ) was an Iranian politician and Prime Minister from 1927 to 1933.

Life

Mehdi Qoli Khan Hedayat comes from a prominent family in Iran, from which numerous high government officials and politicians have emerged since the end of the 18th century. His grandfather Reza Qoli Khan Hedayat , a well-known historian and poet of his country, also worked as a prince educator , as a diplomat and as the deputy director of the first modern and Western-style higher educational institution, the Dar al-Fonun . His brother Morteza Qoli Chan Hedayat was the first president of the Iranian parliament .

Mehdi Qoli Khan Hedayat was taught by private teachers in Tehran and later sent to Berlin to visit a German school . He began his civil service career in the Iranian Telegraph Office, which was headed by his father Ali Qoli Khan Hedayat Mokhber-al-Dowleh. He later became Chamberlain of Naser al-Din Shah . From 1903 to 1905 he went on a world tour that took him from Iran to Europe, the United States, Japan, China, India and Russia.

After his return to Iran, he supported the Constitutional Revolution and participated in the drafting of the constitution and electoral laws. In 1907 Mehdi Qoli Khan Hedayat became Minister of Education and in 1908 Minister of Justice. In the same year he took over the post of governor of Azerbaijan , but was dismissed from his office by Mohammed Ali Shah during the “short period of dictatorship” because he was considered a sympathizer of the constitutional movement. Mehdi Qoli Khan Hedayat was a member of the Democratic Party.

After the overthrow of Mohammad Ali Shah, he resumed his post as governor of Azerbaijan, which met fierce resistance from the Russian government. Mehdi Qoli Khan Hedayat resigned and went to Berlin.

It was not until 1912 that he returned to Iran from Germany, took up a number of ministerial posts in various cabinets and, with the approval of the British government, became governor of Fars , as the British considered him anti-Russian.

After the outbreak of World War I , at the urging of the British, he had to give up his post as governor because of his alleged pro-German stance. After the end of the First World War, Mehdi Qoli Khan Hedayat was reappointed Governor of Azerbaijan by Prime Minister Hassan Pirnia in 1920.

Hedayat is the author of several works on Iranian music and poetry. From 1915 to 1922 he translated Mirza Abdollah's famous melody collection into modern music notation.

In the domestic political crisis year of 1923, which brought Iran four prime ministers, Mehdi Qoli Khan Hedayat joined Hassan Mostofi's cabinet as minister for public works.

On October 28, 1923, Reza Khan was elected Prime Minister by the Iranian Parliament and on December 26, 1925 as Shah Reza Pahlavi. After Reza Shah had proposed Mohammad Ali Foroughi and later Hassan Mostofi to parliament as prime minister, Mehdi Qoli Khan Hedayat took over this office on June 2, 1927 for the following six years. Mehdi Qoli Khan Hedayat was Prime Minister, but power was in the hands of Court Minister Abd-ol Hossein Teymurtāsch , the close confidante of Reza Shah.

Under Prime Minister Hedayat, Iran was to be developed from a feudal agrarian state to a modern industrial state. During his time as prime minister, Mehdi Qoli Khan Hedayat headed four cabinets which began extensive social, economic, legal and military reforms. Public education and basic medical care were introduced. State courts replaced spiritual justice. Hedayat canceled the oil production concession he had signed with William Knox D'Arcy in 1932 and signed a new concession which granted Iran a higher share of the proceeds from oil production.

On September 12, 1933, Mehdi Qoli Khan Hedayat and his entire cabinet were summoned by Reza Shah and asked to resign. His successor should be Mohammad Ali Foroughi , who held the post of Prime Minister under Reza Shah in 1925.

Mehdi Qoli Khan Hedayat left the public service after 39 years and retired into private life.

literature

• Cyrus Ghani: Iran and the rise of Reza Shah. From Qajar collapse to Pahlavi rule . IB Tauris, London et al. 2000, ISBN 1-86064-258-6 .
• Barbara Stöcker-Parnian: "An Unusually Long Way to the Kaaba: Reflexions in the Safarnāma-ye Makka of Mehdīqolīi Hedāyat (1864–1955)", in Many ways of speaking about the self: Middle Eastern ego-documents in Arabic, Persian and Turkish (14th - 20th century) , ed. By Ralf Elger and Yavuz Köse Elger, Ralf. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-447-06250-3 , pp. 103-114.

Web links

• Pedigree of the Hedayat family

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Cyrus Ghani: Iran and the rise of Reza Schah. IBTauris, 2000, p. 103.
2. ^ Nasser Kanani: Traditional Persian Art Music: History, Musical Instruments, Structure, Execution, Characteristics. 2nd revised and expanded edition, Gardoon Verlag, Berlin 2012, p. 147