Mohammed Ali Shah

Mohammed Ali Shah, 1907

Mohammad Ali Shah and his entourage, 1907

Mohammed Ali Shah or Mohammad Ali Shah (Qajar) ( Persian محمدعلی شاه; * June 21, 1872 ; † April 5, 1925 in Sanremo ) was the sixth Qajar king from 1907 to 1909 Shah of Persia . He was married to two women who together gave birth to six sons and two daughters.

accession

On January 19, 1907, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Mohammed Ali's son was crowned Shah of Persia. Prior to his accession to the throne, he administered the province of Azerbaijan in an absolutist manner in his capacity as crown prince and was unwilling to share the absolute power of a shah with a parliament . He considered it a big mistake of his father to have agreed to a constitution and wanted to convert the constitutional monarchy that had existed since 1906 back into the old, absolutist form of government. He was supported by the conservative clergy, who rejected the newly introduced democratic institutions as "too secular" and "too Western". For the clergy, nationalism was a foreign Western idea and incompatible with Islam. Although some clerics had supported the constitutional revolution , they did so primarily out of opposition to the Western concessionaires.

From the beginning, Mohammed Ali Shah ruled without regard to parliament. He negotiated a loan of £ 400,000 with Russia and England , repayable through taxes and duties levied on the people. In order to end the further indebtedness of Persia abroad by the Qajar regents, the parliament planned the establishment of a national bank, which should administer the revenues from taxes and customs duties. As a first step in this direction, Parliament forced the dismissal of the previous head of the customs administration, a Belgian named Naus, who for several years had managed customs revenues for the Qajar regents. The fact that it was possible to force the regent to make a decision brought Parliament considerable prestige among the populace.

In the reign of Mohammed Ali Shah, however, a treaty was to fall that represented a new level of interference in the state integrity of Persia. The Treaty of Saint Petersburg , signed by the foreign ministers of Russia and Great Britain on August 31, 1907 , divided Persia into three zones: Russian, British and neutral. The Russian zone included the area north of the (rough) line Kermanshah - Yazd - Sarakhs , the British the south-eastern part of the country (modern -day Iranian Balochistan ). After the treaty became known in Iran in September 1907, there were demonstrations and protests throughout Iran.

dissolution of Parliament

With Russia 's backing , Mohammed Ali Shah now arranged for the dissolution of parliament and the arrest of the prime minister and several leaders of the constitutional movement. Uprisings broke out in Azerbaijan and the northern provinces around the Caspian Sea. At the end of the year, after order was restored, a new government was appointed. In February 1908 there was an assassination attempt on Mohammed Ali Shah. A bomb had been dropped on his car but did not seriously injure the Shah. The quarrel between the Regent and Parliament over future policy escalated into a power struggle in which Britain and Russia intervened directly in June 1908. They pressured the government and parliament to give in to the Shah's wishes. At the end of June 1908, open fighting broke out in the streets around Parliament between troops loyal to Parliament and troops loyal to the government. A little later, street fighting also broke out in Tabriz . The whole country was in an uproar.

loss of the throne

Sections of the regular troops led by Mohammad Vali Khan dislodged the Shah and marched from Mazandaran to Tehran to support the constitutional movement. On June 22, 1909, the "freedom fighters", as the troops of the constitutionalists now called themselves, stood in front of Qom, which they took on July 8, 1909. The way to Tehran was clear. Shortly thereafter, street fighting broke out in Tehran between the troops of the constitutionalists and the Cossack Brigade loyal to the Shah . On July 16, 1909, Mohammed Ali Shah fled from his palace to the Russian Embassy. On the same day, in an extraordinary session, Parliament deposed Mohammed Ali Shah in favor of his son Ahmad Shah , thus ending the Constitutional Revolution . Negotiations began with the deposed Shah and the representatives of Russia and Great Britain on the conditions under which Mohammed Ali Shah would leave the country and the government under Ahmad Shah would be recognised. Agreement was reached after Mohammed Ali Shah was promised a pension of $80,000 a year. On September 10, 1909, Mohammed Ali Shah left the Russian embassy and went into exile with his family and harem of ten to Odessa , Russia .

Ahmad Shah , brought back to Persia from Odessa to succeed his father, was only twelve years old at the time. Because of this, Ali Reza Khan, called Azod al Molk , was installed as regent, to represent the Shah until he came of age.

exile

In June 1911, Mohammed Ali Shah tried to regain his throne with Russian support. He invaded Iran from the north, aided by his brother Abolfath Mirza Salar al Dowleh, who occupied Iran from the west. After fierce fighting, Mohammed Ali Shah's troops were defeated in September 1911. He then went into exile in Odessa , Russia. He later moved to Constantinople . Mohammed Ali Shah died on April 5, 1925 in Sanremo , Italy. His remains were taken to the Imam Husain Shrine in Karbala (Iraq).

gallery

• 

  Mohammed Ali Shah with entourage

• 

  Entrance to the Shah's Palace on Primorskomu Boulevard

• 

  Palace of Mohammed Ali Shah in Odessa

itemizations

1. ↑ Children of Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar (Kajar).
2. ↑ Cyrus Ghani: Iran and the Rise of Reza Shah. From Qajar Collapse to Pahlavi Rule. IB Tauris, London et al. 2000, ISBN 1-86064-629-8 , p. 8.
3. ↑ ^{a b} W. Morgan Shuster: The Strangling of Persia. A Story of the European Diplomacy and Oriental Intrigue that resulted in the Denationalization of twelve million Mohammedans, a personal narrative. The Century Co, New York NY 1912, p. xxii.
4. ↑ Constitutional Revolution. On www.iranchamber.com.
5. ↑ Cyrus Ghani: Iran and the Rise of Reza Shah. From Qajar Collapse to Pahlavi Rule. IB Tauris, London et al. 2000, ISBN 1-86064-629-8 , p. 12.