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AMĪN-AL-DAWLA, MĪRZĀ ʿALĪ KHAN (1260-1322/1844-1904), high ranking official in the service of the Qajar king Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah (r. 1264-1313/1848-96) and grand vizier under Moẓaffar-al-dīn Shah (r. 1313-24/1896-1907). His father, Mīrzā Moḥammad Khan Maǰd-al-molk Sīnakī Lavāsānī, was a prominent court official. At the age of fourteen Mīrzā ʿAlī Khan became a…

AMĪN-AL-DAWLA, ʿABDALLĀH KHAN ṢADR EṢFAHĀNĪ (1193-1263/1779-1847), chief revenue accountant (mostawfī-al-mamālek) and later prime minister (ṣadr) under Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah (r. 1212-50/1797-1834). He was the eldest son of Ḥāǰǰī Moḥammad-Ḥosayn Khan Ṣadr Eṣfahānī (see Ṣadr al-tawārīḵ, p. 69, for his paternal ancestry); his mother seems to have been the daughter of a…

AMĪN-AL-MOLK, MĪRZĀ ESMĀʿĪL (1284-1316/1867-98), a high-ranking official towards the end of Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah’s reign. Born in Tehran, he was the third son of Āqā Ebrāhīm Khan Amīn-al-solṭān. While still a clerical novice (ṭalaba), he helped with the financial affairs of the shrine of ʿAbd-al-ʿAẓīm, which was under his father’s trusteeship;…

AMĪN-AL-SOLṬĀN, ĀQĀ (MOḤAMMAD) EBRĀHĪM (d. 1300/1882-83), influential court minister of Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah and father of ʿAlī-Aṣḡar Khan Amīn-al-solṭān. His father Zāl Khan, a Christian convert, is said to have been either the son of a Georgian captured during Āqā Moḥammad Khan’s campaign of 1795 (Amīn-al-dawla, Ḵāṭerāt-e sīāsī, ed. Ḥ. Farmānfarmāʾīān,…

AMĪN(-E DAR)-AL-ŻARB, ḤĀJJ MOḤAMMAD-ḤASAN KOMPĀNĪ EṢFAHĀNĪ (1253-1316/1837-98), custodian of the state mint under Nāṣer-al-dīn Shah, regarded as the most successful Iranian entrepreneur of his time. Though most frequently remembered for his experiments in the field of industry, his principle activities were in banking and foreign trade. From the 1870s he…

AMĪN-AL-ŻARB, ḤAJJ MOḤAMMAD-ḤOSAYN MAHDAWĪ (1289-1351/1872-1932), Persian businessman and vice-president of the first Maǰles. The only surviving son of Ḥāǰǰ Moḥammad-Ḥasan Amīn-al-Żarb, Moḥammad-Ḥosayn was educated in Tehran and France (Ī. Afšār, “Yādgār-e zendagānī-e Ḥāǰǰ Ḥosayn Amīn-al-żarb,” Yaḡmā 15/5, 1341 Š./1962, żamīma, pp. 18-20) and after his father’s death in 1316/1898, inherited…

AMĪNĀ, pen name (taḵalloṣ) of BENYĀMĪN B. MĪŠĀʾĪL KĀŠĀNĪ, an outstanding Jewish poet of Iran. According to one of his poems, “Tafsīr-e azhārōt-nāma” (Ben Zvi Institute, Jerusalem, ms. no. 1085), he was born in 1083/1672-73 and was still alive in 1145/1732-33. Our only information about his life is contained in…