ABU’L-FATḤ MĪRZĀ, MOʾAYYED-AL-DAWLA (d. 1330/1912), Qajar prince who held a number of governorships. His father was Solṭān Morād Mīrzā Ḥoṣām-al-salṭana, who likewise occupied a succession of government posts. He was married to Afsar-al-dawla, daughter of Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah by his first marriage, and was thus a brother-in-law of Kāmrān Mīrzā Nāʾeb-al-salṭana, who was for many years governor of Tehran. His first appointment was to the governorship of Yazd in 1287/1870, followed by that of Isfahan a few years later; he held both these posts on behalf of his father. In 1293/1876 Ḥoṣām-al-salṭana was appointed governor of Kermānšāh and Kurdistan, and he delegated the administration of Kurdistan to his son. Moʾayyed-al-dawla was transferred from Kurdistan to Zanǰān in 1299/1881, where he remained for four years until a further move took him to Gīlān. During his two years’ governorship of Gīlān, he gave temporary refuge to the revolutionary Mīrzā Āqā Khan Kermānī before he fled Iran for exile in Istanbul (Nāẓem-al-eslām Kermānī, Tārīḵ-e bīdārī-e Īrānīān: Moqaddema, ed. ʿA. S. Sīrǰānī, Tehran, 1346 Š./1967, p. 13). He was sporadically reappointed to the governorship of Gīlān for the following five years, until in 1310/1893 he was definitely reassigned to Khorasan. According to Moḥammad Ḥasan Khan Eʿtemād-al-salṭana (Rūz-nāma-ye ḵāṭerāt, ed. Ī. Afšar, 2nd ed., Tehran, 1350 Š./1971, p. 874), he had ten people put to death shortly after his arrival in Mašhad, and the period of his governorship appears to have been marked by recurrent riots and turbulence. Again according to Eʿtemād-al-salṭana (ibid., p. 951), he hoarded grain and imposed extortionate taxes, provoking starvation and disorder. Despite his wife’s energetic intercession with Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah, he was dismissed from his post on 5 Moḥarram 1313/29 June 1895. In 1325/1907 he was appointed to the governorship of Fārs. He died five years later and was buried in Qom.
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See also: Bāmdād, Reǰāl I, pp. 51-53.
(H. Algar)
Originally Published: December 15, 1983
Last Updated: July 21, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 3, pp. 286-287
H. Algar, “ABU’L-FATḤ MĪRZĀ,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/3, pp. 286-287; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abul-fath-mirza-moayyed-al-dawla-d (accessed on 31 January 2014).
