ARDAŠĪR MĪRZĀ ROKN-AL-DAWLA, the ninth son of the crown prince ʿAbbās Mīrzā, was born about 1220/1805-06, and held the governorship of Garrūs and Ṣāʿīn Qaḷʿa-ye Afšār under his father’s viceregency of Azerbaijan (Moḥammad-Ḥasan Khan Ṣanīʿ-al-dawla, Montaẓam-e nāṣerī III, Tehran, 1300/1883, p. 157; Jahāngīr Mīrzā, Tārīḵ-e now, ed. ʿA. Eqbāl, Tehran, 1327 Š./1948, p. 187; Bāmdād, Reǰāl I, p. 107). When Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah died in 1250/1834 and various princes rose up to contest Moḥammad Shah’s accession, Ardašīr Mīrzā was commissioned to deal with Esmāʿīl Mīrzā, governor of Šāhrūd and Besṭām and a son of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah; he successfully accomplished this task (Moḥammad-Jaʿfar Ḵormūǰī, Ḥaqāʾeq al-aḵbār-e nāṣerī, 2nd ed., p. 25), and after returning to Tehran was appointed governor of Gorgān. In 1252/1836 Moḥammad Shah set out from Tehran on an expedition to subdue the Turkmans of Gorgān and reconquer Herat, and on reaching Gorgān he sent Ardašīr Mīrzā back to Tehran to act as regent in his absence. After the Shah’s return, Ardašīr Mīrzā was appointed governor of Māzandarān (Montaẓam, p. 167; Ḥaqāʾeq al-aḵbār, p. 25), where he remained for seven years. During that time a man claiming to be the Imam and known as Ḥażrat-e Īšān arose among Turkmans and gathered a following. Moḥammad Shah made Ardašīr Mīrzā and Moḥammad-Ḥasan Khan Īravānī jointly responsible for quelling the man, which they succeeded in doing (Ḥaqāʾeq al-aḵbār, p. 31). In 1262/1846 Ardašīr was appointed governor of Lorestān and Ḵūzestān, where he put down local disorders (Montaẓam, p. 197; Ḥaqāʾeq al-aḵbār, p. 88). While in that post he employed a Christian, Solaymān Khan Masīḥī Sehām-al-dawla, as his vizier. After restoring order at Golpāyagān and Ḵᵛānsār and in Čahār Maḥāl(l) and Farīdan, the two marched into Lorestān, where they captured rebel Pīrānvand, Sagvand, and other tribesmen and sent them to Tehran, and then advanced to Šūštar and Dezfūl and restored order throughout Ḵūzestān. On leaving the post, Ardašīr Mīrzā was reappointed to the governorship of Māzandarān. In 1269/1853 he was appointed governor of Tehran on the occasion of Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah’s absence, and he continued to hold the office until 1273/1856. In that year he was honored with the title Rokn-al-dawla and appointed viceroy of Azerbaijan (Montaẓam, p. 252; Ḥaqāʾeq al-aḵbār, p. 227); a post he held for two years. He then became governor of Gīlān in 1276/1859 (Montaẓam, p. 267; Ḥaqāʾeq al-aḵbār, p. 356), and there also he stayed two years. This was apparently his last important function. He died in 1283/1866. In the following year his title was assigned to Moḥammad Taqī Mīrzā, a son of Moḥammad Shah (Merʾāt al-boldān III, p. 63).
Ardašīr Mīrzā was a cultivated man with literary and poetic tastes, and himself a poet under the pen-name Āgāh; but he was a heavy drinker and died of liver disease brought on by alcoholic excess.
Bibliography:
See also Moḥammad-Ḥasan Khan Ṣanīʿ-al-dawla (Eʿtemād-al-salṭana), Merʾāt al-boldān, Tehran, 1295/1878.
Nāder Mīrzā, Tārīḵ o ǰoḡrāfīā-ye dār-al-salṭana-ye Tabrīz, completed and published by Lesān-al-molk Sepehr, 1st ed., Tehran, 1323/1905, p. 201.
ʿAbd-al-ʿAlī Adīb-al-molk, Dāfeʿ al-ḡorūr, ed.
Ī. Afšār, Tehran, 1349 Š./1970.
(Ḥ. Maḥbūbī Ardakānī)
Originally Published: December 15, 1986
Last Updated: August 11, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. II, Fasc. 4, p. 383
