Bahman Mirza Qajar

Bahmam Mirza Qajar

Portrait of Bahman Mirza taken in Karabakh, 1862.
Born 11 Oktober 1810
Tehran, Iran
Died 11 February 1884
Karabakh, Russian Empire
Burial Shusha
House Qajar
Father Abbas Mirza
Mother Assiyeh Khanom

Bahman Mirza (11 October 1810 – 11 February 1884) was a Persian prince of the Qajar Dynasty, son of Abbas Mirza and grandson of Fath Ali Shah. He was Vicergerent (vali) of Azerbaijan and Governor-General of Tabriz. Therefore, he became one of the leading figures of the later Republic of Azerbaijan. Bahman Mirza is the ancestor of the Bahmani family with the branches of the Russian Princes Persidskii, and the Bahmanov and Kadjar lines of Azerbaijan as well as of the Iranian families Bahmani-Qajar and Bahman. Thus, Bahman Mirza was also the grandfather of Ambassador Ali Akbar Bahman.

Life

Bahman Mirza, influenced by the European Enlightenment, was the fourth son of Prince Abbas Mirza, viceroy (nayeb os-saltaneh) and crown prince (vali ahd) of Fath Ali Shah by his first wife and cousin, Assiyeh Khanom, daughter of Amir Mohammad Khan Qajar-Davallu. Thus, with the younger Ghahreman Mirza he was the only full brother to Mohammad Shah Qajar. Bahman Mirza was born in Golestan Palace at Tehran on 11 October 1810 and educated privately in Tabriz.[1] 1831 to 1834 he was appointed governor (hakem) of Ardabil, in 1834 governor of Teheran and commander-in-chief (sepah-salar), then governor-general (beglerbegi) of Borujerd and Silakhor, and governor of Hamadan from 1834 to 1841.[2] After the death of his brother Ghahreman Mirza in 1839 he succeeded him as prince-governor of Azerbaijan in 1841, but was forced to resign and exiled to Tiflis in 1848 due to political intrigues at court. He moved to Shusha in the Russian occupied Karabakh region in 1853 and died there on 11 February 1884. He was buried in his mausoleum at the Barda cemetery in Shusha.[3]

Persian Postcard of Bahman Mirza from the time of Soltan Ahmad Shah.

Bahman Mirza was an able governor, well-educated and a patron of literature and art, interested in geography, European history and modern natural history. He gave scholars, poets and artists a special place of honour. Therefore, authors and translators dedicated many works to him. The first Persian translation of One Thousand and One Nights from Arabic was translated by Abdol-Latif Tasooji by the order of Bahman Mirza.[4]

Bahman Mirza's seal with his royal title "Unique Juwel of the Imperial Ocean, Bahman".

From 1831, the birth of Nasir al-Din Shah, to 1853, the birth of Muzaffar al-Din Shah, Bahman Mirza played a key role in the royal line of succession, when Great Britain and Russia began to intervene in Persia's domestic affairs. Both European powers saw Bahman Mirza as the powerful and strong senior prince of the imperial house, able to take the crown after his ill-fated brother. Thus, the right of succession of weak infant crown princes was legal according to the Qajar rule of succession but seemed sometimes not very realistic. But at the end Prince Bahman Mirza was forced into exile and the young heirs presumptive reached age of maturity and ascended the Peacock Throne.[5]

Orders and decorations

Bahman Mirza received as well the highest decoration of Persia as of the Russian Empire:

Family

Wives

Malek Soltan Khanom, one of Bahman Mirza's senior permanent wives.
Malek Jahan Khanom Quvanlu, another senior wive.
Kuchek Barda Khanom, one of Bahman Mirza's junior wives.

Bahman Mirza had 16 wives, mostly from the Qajar aristocracy or local Azerbaijan nobility. Some of his permanent wives are known by name:

Offspring

Bahman Mirza's senior sons at Shusha, Karabakh in 1869.

Bahman Mirza had 31 sons and 30 daughters. Some of them became ancestors of the Azerbaijani and Russian Qajar families: Persidsky, Bahmanov and Kadjar.

His 31 sons in order of seniority:

His daughters known by name in order of seniority:

Some of Bahman Mirza’s remarkable sons and grandsons in recent Iranian history

References

  1. ↑ Abbas Amanat: Pivot of the Universe, 1996, p. 27.
  2. ↑ A. Nava’i: “Bahman Mirza”, in: Encyclopadia Iranica, II, 1989, p. 490
  3. ↑ Anne K. S. Lambton, Qajar Persia, 1987, p. 16; Mehdi Bamdad: Sharh-e hal-e Rejal-e Iran, I, 1999, p.197; Mohammad Ali Bahmani-Ghajar: Neveshtar-e Bahman Mirza, Tehran, p. 3.
  4. ↑ Nava’i, p. 490/491; Ann K. S. Lambton: “Kadjar”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, VI, 1978, p. 308; Kamran Rastegar: Literary Modernity between the Middle East and Europe. 2007, p. 67.
  5. ↑ See: Lambton, Amanat, Nava'i.
  6. ↑ That includes automatically all highest classes of all other Russian orders (except St. George and St. Catharine): Stst. Alexander, Anne, Stanislaus and White Eagle. There was a version for non-Christian recipients containing the breast star without the cross.
  7. ↑ Eldar Imayilov: A Persian Prince of the Qajar Royal House in the Russian Empire, 2009, p. 84 ff.; Chingiz Kadjar: The Kadjars, 2001, p. 94 ff; L.A. Ferydoun Barjesteh van Waalwijk van Doorn (Khosrovani) and Bahman Bayani: “The Fath Ali Shah Project”, in: Qajar Studies. Journal of the International Qajar Studies Association, Volume IV, 2004, p. 172.
  8. ↑ Genealogy of descendants of Bahman Mirza

Sources

External links

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