Ain od-Dowleh becomes prime minister of Persia
- Category:
- Politics
- Front:
- Middle East
- Date:
- 27 April 1915
- Author:
- Natalia
- Tags:
- Persia, Ahmad Shah Qajar, neutrality
The British chronology of the war records under 27 April 1915 that Prince Abdol-Majid Mirza, known by the title Ain od-Dowleh, became the new prime minister of Persia. He replaced Hassan Pirnia, Moshir od-Dowleh, whose government had fallen the day before under pressure from Russia and Britain. The Encyclopaedia Iranica dates the appointment broadly to April 1915, and some lists give 1 May as his first day in office. Ain od-Dowleh also took over the ministry of war.
Together with the prime minister the foreign minister changed. The British chronology calls the new minister “Mohtashem ed Douleh”. This is most probably Hassan Esfandiari, who bore the title Mohtasham os-Saltaneh, and whom lists of Persian ministers name as head of diplomacy from 1 May to the beginning of July 1915. He was an experienced official. Between 1908 and 1921 he chaired, among other things, the boundary commission with Turkey, was governor of Urmia and of Azerbaijan, and several times a minister, and in the 1930s and 1940s he presided over the Majlis, the Persian parliament.
A prince from a bygone era
In 1915 Ain od-Dowleh was 70 years old. He was a grandson of Fath-Ali Shah of the Qajar dynasty and a son-in-law of Mozaffar ad-Din Shah, whom he had already served at the court of the heir to the throne in Tabriz. After Mozaffar’s accession to the throne in 1896 he made a career in the capital: he was governor of Tehran, in 1903 minister of the interior, and from 1904 prime minister.
His first government went down in history as the prelude to the Constitutional Revolution. He tried to rescue the treasury by cutting court expenditure and imposing new taxes, dealt harshly with the clergy and strengthened the influence of Belgian officials in the customs administration. He united merchants, clerics and supporters of reform against himself. When the Tehran authorities had several sugar merchants flogged, protests broke out which led to Persia being granted a constitution. The shah dismissed Ain od-Dowleh at the end of July 1906. In 1908, when Mohammad Ali Shah dispersed parliament, Ain od-Dowleh went to Azerbaijan as governor to crush the constitutionalist uprising in Tabriz, but achieved nothing.
A government for everyone
After the resignation forced by the Entente, the government was thus headed by an old-school politician, a former opponent of the constitutional movement. According to the Encyclopaedia Iranica, however, Ain od-Dowleh tried to compose the cabinet so as to satisfy all sides. The minister of the interior, largely under British pressure, was Prince Abdol-Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma, also a member of the dynasty and a son-in-law of Mozaffar ad-Din, who maintained close relations with the British.
The new government did not lead Persia out of the trap it had been caught in since the beginning of the war. In the north-west the Turks and Russians were still fighting, and in mid-April a regular Ottoman army had reached Urmia. In the south German agents were stirring up the tribes against the British. The cabinet lasted little more than two months. The Democrats in the Majlis distrusted Farmanfarma and used the Turkish incursion into the Kermanshah area to attack him. Ain od-Dowleh sided with his minister, and in July 1915 the whole government resigned. In August Mostowfi ol-Mamalek returned to the premiership.
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Meanwhile
(04)Elsewhere in the same days.
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- 26 April 1915 · War at seaInternment of the Kronprinz WilhelmOn 26 April 1915 the German auxiliary cruiser Kronprinz Wilhelm, the last Kaiserliche Marine raider then at large on the oceans, was interned at Newport News.
- 26 April 1915 · DiplomacyItaly signs the Treaty of LondonOn 26 April 1915 Italy signed a secret pact with the Entente in London. In return for lands on the Adriatic it pledged to enter the war within a month.
- 25 April 1915 · AfricaClash at GibeonIn late April 1915 General McKenzie's mounted troops caught the retreating Germans at Gibeon. A night ambush failed, but in the morning the Germans were routed.
Related events
(04)The same battle, people or subject.
- 14 March 1915 · Middle EastNew prime minister of PersiaOn 14 March 1915 Hassan Pirnia, Moshir od-Dowleh, succeeded Mostowfi ol-Mamalek as head of the Persian government. The country still sought to stay neutral.
- 20 February 1915 · Middle EastNew Persian foreign ministerAccording to a British chronology, on 20 February 1915 Mo'aven od-Dowleh replaced Ala al-Saltaneh as Persian foreign minister. Persia barely kept neutral.
- 21 July 1915 · Middle EastFall of the Ain od-Dowleh governmentIn July 1915 the government of Persian prime minister Ain od-Dowleh fell. The Majlis attacked his minister Farmanfarma, and he stood by the British protégé.
- 8 August 1915 · Middle EastBritish occupy BushehrOn 8 August 1915 the British occupied the Persian port of Bushehr and took over its administration, in reply to the July Tangestani attack on the Residency.