Misplaced Pages

This article or section is in a state of significant expansion or restructuring. You are welcome to assist in its construction by editing it as well. If this article or section has not been edited in several days, please remove this template. If you are the editor who added this template and you are actively editing, please be sure to replace this template with {{in use}} during the active editing session. Click on the link for template parameters to use. This article was last edited by HistoryofIran (talk | contribs) 2 days ago. (Update timer)

Mohammad Vali Mirza
Illustration of Mohammad Vali Mirza, from the Nezamiyeh Hall in the Golestan Palace, Tehran
Born	1789 Nava, Mazandaran, Iran
Died	1864
Dynasty	Qajar
Father	Fath-Ali Shah Qajar
Mother	Bibi Kuchak Khanum
Religion	Twelver Shia Islam

Mohammad Vali Mirza (Persian: محمدولی میرزا) was a Qajar prince, governor and military officer in 19th-century Iran. He was one of the eldest sons of Fath-Ali Shah (r. 1797–1834).

Biography

Background and early career

Mohammad Vali Mirza was born in 1789 in the village of Nava in Mazandaran, northern Iran. He was the third or fourth son of Fath-Ali Shah (r. 1797–1834), the second Qajar ruler of Iran. His mother was a Bakhtiari named Bibi Kuchak Khanum. Three of his brothers were also born in the same year; Abbas Mirza, the heir apparent and future governor of the Azerbaijan province; Mohammad-Ali Mirza Dowlatshah, who was the eldest and future governor of the Kermanshah, Lorestan and Khuzestan provinces; Hossein Ali Mirza, a persistent schemer and future governor of the Fars province. Intense competition would emerge between these brothers. During his childhood, Mohammad Vali Mirza helped escort Dowlatshah to safety after the latter had made a rude remark to Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar (r. 1789–1797). In 1799, Mohammad Vali Mirza was appointed as the governor of the towns of Semnan and Damghan.

Term as governor of Khorasan

In the autumn of 1802, Mohammad Vali Mirza was appointed as the governor of Khorasan by Fath-Ali Shah, who was at the time besieging Mashhad, the provincial capital of the province. The city had been captured by Nader Mirza Afshar, the son of the last Afsharid ruler, Shahrokh Shah (r. 1748–1796). Fath-Ali Shah returned to Tehran and assigned the task of recapturing Mashhad to Mohammad Vali Mirza, who succeeded in early 1803. Mohammad Vali Mirza's passion for hunting and outdoor activities, along with his previous tenure as governor, were highlighted by Qajar chroniclers as evidence of his readiness for the position. According to the Iranian historian Assef Ashraf; "How hunting and effective governing are linked is not entirely clear, but a clue lies in the fact that the prince would take khans and notables (khwānīn va aʿyān) with him on hunting expeditions, perhaps as an effort to draw closer ties with them."

Khilats (robes of honour) were crucial in forging and preserving political connections with the local leaders in Khorasan during the early rule of Fath-Ali Shah, and particularly during Mohammad Vali Mirza's governorship of Khorasan. Officials demonstrating loyalty and appointees to lower positions were recipients of numerous khilats from Fath-Ali Shah and Mohammad Vali Mirza. Approximately 1,200 khilats were handed out to the khans and military leaders in Khorasan during the second year of Mohammad Vali Mirza's tenure in Khorasan.

Legacy and assessment

The British Iranologist Gavin R.G. Hambly described Mohammad Vali Mirza as "violent and intemperate."

References

1. ^ Farmanfarmaian 2011, p. 221.
2. ^ Farmanfarmaian 2011, p. 221 (note 12).
3. Amanat 1999, pp. 407–421.
4. Hambly 1991, pp. 149–151.
5. ^ Ashraf 2024, p. 280.
6. ^ Hambly 1991, p. 165.
7. Amanat 1997, p. 114.
8. Ashraf 2024, p. 281.
9. Hambly 1991, p. 150.

Sources

• Amanat, Abbas (1997). Pivot of the Universe: Nasir Al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831–1896. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1845118280.
• Amanat, Abbas (1999). "Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah Qājār". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. IX/4: Fārs II–Fauna III. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 407–421. ISBN 978-0-933273-32-0.
• Ashraf, Assef (2024). Making and Remaking Empire in Early Qajar Iran. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1009361552.
• Farmanfarmaian, Fatema Soudavar (2011). "An Iranian Perspective of J. B. Fraser's Trip to Khorasan in the 1820s". Iranian Studies. 44 (2): 217–242. doi:10.1080/00210862.2011.541692. S2CID 162041391.
• Hambly, Gavin R. G. (1991). Avery, Peter; Hambly, Gavin R. G.; Melville, Charles Peter (eds.). The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 7: From Nadir Shah to the Islamic Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 104–173. ISBN 0-521-20095-4.
• Noelle-Karimi, Christine (2014). The Pearl in its Midst: Herat and the Mapping of Khurasan (15th-19th Centuries). Austrian Academy of Sciences. ISBN 978-3700172024.

• 1789 births
• 1864 deaths
• Qajar governors of Khorasan
• Qajar governors of Yazd
• Children of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar
• 19th-century Iranian military personnel