Order of the Lion and the Sun

Order of the Lion and the Sun
Officer's Medal of the Order
Awarded by Head of the Iranian Imperial Family
Type	Dynastic Order
Royal house	House of Pahlavi
Sovereign	Crown Prince Reza of Iran
Grades (w/ post-nominals)	Knight/Dame Grand Cordon, Knight/Dame Grand Officer, Knight/Dame Commander, Knight/Dame Officer, Knight/Dame, Companion
Former grades	Knight Grand Cross with Collar
Established	1808 - 1926 (National Order of Humayoun) 1926 - 1979 (National Order of the Lion and the Sun) 1979 - present (House Order)
Precedence
Next (higher)	Order of Aqdas
Next (lower)	Order of the Crown Order of the Pleiades
Ribbon of the Order

The Imperial Order of the Lion and the Sun was instituted by Fat’h Ali Shah of the Qajar Dynasty in 1808 to honour foreign officials (later extended to Persians) who had rendered distinguished services to Persia. In 1925, under the Pahlavi dynasty the Order continued as the Order of Homayoun with new insignia, though based on the Lion and Sun motif. This motif was used for centuries by the rulers of Persia, being formally adopted under Mohammad Shah.

The order was senior to the Order of the Crown. It was issued in five grades.

Foreign recipients

Major-General Sir John Malcolm was the first foreign recipient in 1810. Other foreign recipients include:

• Richard Colley (Wellesley), Marquess Wellesley (1811)
• Sir Gore Ouseley (1770–1844), British ambassador to Persia and oriental scholar (1812)
• General Nikolay Rtischev (1754-1835), Russian signatory to the Treaty of Gulistan (1813)^[1]
• Major-General Sir Henry Lindsay-Bethune (1787–1851), Commander of Persian infantry regiments (1816)
• General Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov (1777—1861), Russian ambassador to Persia 1817 (1817)
• Sir Robert Ker Porter (1777–1842), artist and diplomat (1819)
• Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1821)
• Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Willock, British Envoy to Persia 1815–1826 (1826)
• Field marshal Ivan Paskevich (1782–1856) (1828)
• Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Kinnear MacDonald, British Envoy to Persia 1826–1830 (1828)
• Abbasqulu ağa Bakıxanov Qüdsi an Azerbaijani writer, historian, journalist, linguist, poet and philosopher (1829)
• Aleksander Griboyedov (1795 – 1829), diplomat and playwright, Russian ambassador to Persia 1829 (1829)
• Count Cavour, diplomat and Prime Minister of Kingdom of Sardinia and of Kingdom of Italy
• Sir John McNeill, British Envoy to Persia 1836–1842 (1833)
• Sir Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownagree KCIE
• Sir George Hayter (1792–1871), British Portrait Painter
• Armand Trousseau
• Heinrich Alfred Barb, Austrian University Director, interpreter and scholar of the Persian language
• Marshal Francois Achille Bazaine (1811–1888), Marshal of France
• Alexandre Percin, French Brigadier-General.^[2]
• Seth Apcar
• Sir Albert Abdullah David Sassoon (1889)
• General Sir Albert Houtum-Schindler
• Honourable Lennox Hannay Lindley, MB, Chief Physician to the Shah of Persia (First class, 1902)^[3]
• Karl Georg Graf Huyn (1909)
• Edward Granville Browne (1922)
• Major-General Sir Frederick Sykes
• General Boris Möller, Swedish chief for the second gendarmerie regiment (1914–1915)
• Baron Eric Hermelin, Swedish translator of classical Persian poetry (1943)

In literature

• Anton Chekhov has a short story titled The Lion And The Sun. The story is about a mayor who had "long been desirous of receiving the Persian order of The Lion and the Sun".

See also

• Lion and Sun
• Order of Aftab
• Order of the Red Lion and the Sun
• Neshan-e Aqdas
• Order of Zolfaghar

Notes

• On 6 September 1900, the mayor of Mariánské Lázně, Dr. Nadler, was decorated with the Commander Cross of the Lion and the Order of the Sun by the Shah during an official visit.

References

1. Mikaberidze 2005, p. 341.
2. Percin Ordre du Lion et du Soleil
3. The London Gazette: no. 27431. p. 3011. 16 May 1902.

Sources

• Mikaberidze, Alexander (2005). Russian Officer Corps of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Casemate Publishers. ISBN 978-1611210026.

External links

• The Qajar Dynasty: Orders & Decorations
• Qajar Orders and Decorations
• Orders & Decorations of Pahlavi dynasty are exhibited in the ORDER section of the website