Mirza Aqa Khan Nuri

Early life

Aqa Khan-e Nuri was born in Nur as the second son of Mirza Asadollah Nuri, who served as the chief army accountant (Persian: لشکر نویسی باشی, romanized: laškarnevīs-bāšī) during the reign of two subsequent Qajar rulers: Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar and Fath-Ali Shah Qajar. Their family, known as the Khajeh Nouri family, were part of the local nobility of the Nur region in Mazandaran, and were prominently visible both in the bureaucracy of the state as well as the army since the mid-18th century.

Career

Rise to power

At the age of 20, Agha Khan entered the court of Fath-Ali Shah as a Lashkar-nevis (Muster-Master) and later became Lashkar-nevis-Bashi (Chief Muster-Master). He subsequently rose to the position of Minister of War. Before attaining the position of Lashkarnevis, Mirza Aqa Khan served under Allahyar Khan Asef od-Dowleh, who had pro-British sympathies. In his youth, he was intelligent, talented, and eloquent. As a result, he was able to rise within the Qajar administration, particularly during the reigns of Fath-Ali Shah and Mohammad Shah. Mirza Aqa Khan's salary as Minister of War was 42,000 tomans per year, equivalent to £27,993. At the same time British prime minister's annual salary was £5,000, meaning that Aqa Khan received more than five times the salary of the British prime minister.

He had good relations with Mohammad Shah and Malek Jahan Khanom Mahd-e Olya but some confidential information was reaching the British. Mohammad Shah ordered several men to guard of areas around foreign embassies and report to him the names of those who frequented them. After several days of surveillance, they discovered that Mirza Aqa Khan, the Minister of War, was visiting the British embassy at night in disguise and returning several hours later.

Exile

However, he was hostile toward the Prime Minister Haji Mirza Aqasi. Eventually, Aqasi arrested Agha Khan for his relations with Britain and exiled to Kashan. Agha Khan remained in Kashan until the death of Mohammad Shah in 1848. He then returned to Tehran with the assistance of Mahd-e Olya, hoping to become prime minister. When Naser al-Din Shah arrived in Tehran and was crowned, he appointed Amir Kabir as prime minister. Aware of Mirza Aqa Khan Nuri’s views and conduct, Amir Kabir decided to appoint him to an office so that he would not interfere with the affairs of the government, and granted him the title of E'temad ol-Dowleh. Amir Kabir ordered him to return to Kashan.

Plot to Assassination of Amir Kabir

Mirza Aqa Khan, being an ambitious man and enjoying of support from the British, conspired with the Shah's mother, Mahd-e Olya, to remove Amir Kabir from power. In collusion with other opponents of Amir Kabir, he was involved in Amir Kabir's murder at the Fin Bathhouse in Kashan.

Prime Minister of Qajar Iran

Mirza Aqa Khan Nuri was appointed Prime Minister on 1 December 1851, following the dismissal of Amir Kabir, on the occasion of the Shah’s birthday. At Naser al-Din Shah’s request, before assuming the premiership, he renounced his British citizenship by writing a letter to the British minister plenipotentiary in Iran and accepted the position on two conditions. First, that Amir Kabir be eliminated and second, that his life be spared in the event that he was found at fault in the conduct of his duties as prime minister. Naser al-Din Shah agreed to both conditions.

Bábi revolt

On August 1852 in Shemiran, followers of the Báb attempted to assassinate Naser al-Din Shah. The assassination attempt failed and Six perpetrators was executed in Tehran. After the assassination attempt, the Shah ordered a massacre of the Bábís. Many Bábís, well as people suspected of being Bábís were subjected to a horrific mass killing. Organized by religious scholars, government officials, Qajar princes, bureaucrats and merchants, the persecution involved the public torture and execution of many victims in brutal ways. To reduce of likelihood retaliation, Mirza Aqa Khan Nuri ordered that victims be distributed among different groups, including soldiers, nobles, teachers and students of Dar al-Fonun, so that responsibility for the massacre would be shared among all. Some of the victims were subjected to brutal punishment known as Shamʿ-ājīn, in which candles were inserted into wounds made in their bodies.

International developments along with efforts of the Russian, British and Ottoman empires to gain Iran's friendship during Crimean War, the outcome of that war, and the separation of Herat from Iran were among the most important events during the premiership of Mirza Aqa Khan Nuri.

Second Herat War

Under heavy pressure from Britain, Mirza Aqa Khan Nuri signed an 1853 agreement restricting Iranian interference in Herat. When Iran subsequently launched a military campaign to capture of city in 1856, the British responded by invading southern Iran. This forced Iran to withdraw, recognize Afghanistan's independence and permanently surrender its claims over Herat under the Treaty of Paris (1857).

Later life and death

Following his dismissal from the premiership in 1858, Mirza Aqa Khan Nuri was spared execution because Naser al-Din Shah had signed a royal pledge prior to his appointment promising that his life would be protected. He was subsequently exiled, spending periods in Varamin, Arak, Yazd, and Isfahan, before eventually being settled in Qom. He lived for six years after his downfall He died in Qom on 10 March 1865 at the age of 59. His remains were later transferred to Karbala and buried in a mosque complex funded by one-third of the estate of his predecessor and rival Amir Kabir.

Character and Vision

Fath-Ali Shah was an ideal monarch in Nuri's eyes. As is evident from many of his letters, Nuri longed for the period of his reign and wished for a return to those days. His attachment to luxury, titles and decorations was likewise shaped by the environment of Fath-Ali Shah's court. At the same time, he paid considerable attention to preserving courtly formalities and the hierarchy of the bureaucracy. Arthur de Gobineau, who met Nuri in 1856, described him in his travel account as follows:

[Nuri] sleeps only a few hours and works throughout the day and almost the entire night. He wants to oversee everything—domestic affairs, foreign affairs, finances, criminal matters and commerce. The other ministers are ministers in name only and have little importance; the prime minister performs their duties. A group of secretaries is constantly gathered around him; he issues orders, and they write them down in his presence. He then seals them and personally entrusts them to the courier… There is hardly a household in Tehran or elsewhere about which he does not know some amusing anecdote. Since he has an admirable memory and a cheerful disposition, and knows all the families and their relatives and connections throughout Iran, he is one of the most entertaining and lively storytellers one could sit and listen to.

Offspring

Mirza Aqa Khan had many children, some of whom held official positions during his lifetime and others after his death. Among them;

Mirza Kazem Khan Nizam al-Mulk, who was appointed as deputy to Amir Nezam, the first crown prince of Naser al-Din Shah.

Hosaynqoli Khan Sadr al-Saltaneh (Haji Washington), who became Iran’s first ambassador to the United States.