ʿEZZAT-AL-DAWLA, MALEKAZĀDA ḴĀNOM

 

ʿEZZAT-AL-DAWLA, MALEKAZĀDA ḴĀNOM (b. 1250/1834-35, d. 23 Rabīʿ II 1323/27 June 1905, Figure 1), the only full sister of Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah (1264-313/1848-96), second wife of Mīrzā Taqī Khan Amīr[–e] Kabīr (q.v.), and grandmother of Moḥammad-ʿAlī Shah (r. 1324-27/1907-09). In 1265/January-February 1849, Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah decided to marry her off to his grand vizier, Mīrzā Taqī Khan. Despite the efforts of the king’s mother, Mahd-e ʿOlyā, who feared that the union would increase Mīrzā Taqī Khan’s power and diminish hers in the royal court as well as that of her close ally, Mīrzā Āqā Khan Eʿtemād-al-Dawla Nūrī (q.v.), and despite the fact that Mīrzā Tāqī Khan himself had no real desire to marry again, the wedding took place on 22 Rabīʿ I/17 February 1849 (Amīr-e Kabīr, p. 367; Ādamīyat, p. 667). ʿEzzat-al-Dawla bore him two daughters, Tāj-al-Molūk and Hamdam-al-Molūk, but the marriage ended with the fall and execution of Mīrzā Taqī Khan in Kāšān on 17 Rabī I 1268/10 January 1852. During the three years that they were married, ʿEzzat-al-Dawla remained loyal and loving toward her husband despite speculations to the contrary (Fatḥī). In the same year that Amīr Kabīr was killed, Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah forced her to marry Mīrzā Kāẓem Khan Neẓām-al-Molk, the son of his new grand vizier, Mīrzā Āqā Khan Eʿtemād-al-Dawla. The marriage, which lasted seven years, has been characterized as having been affected by the hate and disgust that ʿEzzat-al-Dawla felt toward her new husband (Eqbāl, pp. 369-70; Nayyer Nūrī, pp. 508-9; Bāmdād, Rejāl III, p. 145-46; Eʿtemād-al-Salṭana, Maʾāṯer wa’l-āṯār, comm., p. 477; Saʿādat Nūrī, p. 32). The few extant letters of ʿEzzat-al-Dawla to N eẓām-al-Molk, however, reveal what seems to be her affection for him (Nayyer Nūrī, pp. 509-14). In any event, ʿEzzat-al-Dawla was married off to her cousin Šīr Khan ʿAyna-al-Molk, with whom, according to Bāmdād (Rejāl II, 157), she already had an affair. ʿAyna-al-Molk died in 1285/1868, and ʿEzzat-al-Dawla was married (until 1309/1892) to Mīrzā Ḥosayn Khan Sepahsālār’s brother, Yaḥyā Khan Mošīr-al-Dawla, and later to Sepahsālār’s secretary, Mīrzā Naṣr-Allāh Khan. ʿEzzat-al-Dawla’s daughter, Tāj-al-Molūk, now called Omm-al-Ḵāqān, married the crown prince Moẓaffar-al-Dīn Mīrzā and bore him a son, the later Moḥammad-ʿAlī Shah.

 

Bibliography (for cited works not given in detail, see “Short References”):

F. Ādamīyat, Amīr-e Kabīr wa Īrān, 4th ed., Tehran, 1354 Š./1975.

Amīr-e Kabīr, Nāmahā-ye Amīr-e Kabīr be enżemām-e resāla-ye nawāder al-amīr, ed. ʿA. Āl-e Dāwūd, Tehran, 1371 Š./1992.

ʿA. Eqbāl Āštīānī, Mīrzā Taqī Ḵān Amīr-e Kabīr, Tehran, 1363 Š./1984, pp. 108-10, 326-27, 332-33, 345, 369-72.

N. Fatḥī, “Yāddāšt-e Moʿtamed-al-Dawla Farhād Mīrzā dar bāra-ye qatl-e Amīr-e Kabīr,” Negīn, no. 115, 1353 Š./ 1974, pp. 30-31.

D.-ʿA. Moʿayyer-al-Mamālek, Rejāl-e ʿAṣr-e nāṣerī, Tehran, 1361 Š./1982, pp. 266-68.

Mostawfī, Šarḥ-e zendagānī I, pp. 76, 88, 299, 327.

Ḥ. Nayyer Nūrī, “Čand nāma az ḵānom ʿEzzat-al-Dawla ḵᵛāhar-e Nāṣer-al-Dīn Šāh,” Waḥīd 5/6, 1347 Š./1968, pp. 508-14.

Ḥ. Saʿādat Nūrī, “Soḵan-ī čand pīrāmūn-e maqālāt-e Rejāl-e ʿaṣr-e nāṣerī,” Yaḡmā 14/1, 1340 Š./ 1961, pp. 30-33.

E. Ṣafāʾī, ed. Asnād-e bargozīda az Sepahsālār, Ẓell-al-Solṭān, Dabīr-al-Molk, 2nd ed., Tehran, 1352 Š./1973.

Lady Sheil, Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia, London, 1856, pp. 251-53.

R. G. Watson, A History of Persia from the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century to the Year 1858, London, 1866, pp. 402-3.

Figure 1. ʿEzzat-al-Dawla. After B. Ātābāy, Fehrest-e& #155;lbomhā-ye Ketāb-ḵāna-ye salṭanatī, Tehran, 2537=1357 Š./1978, album no. 289, p. 16.

(Kambiz Eslami)

Originally Published: December 15, 1999

Last Updated: January 20, 2012

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