New prime minister of Persia

On 14 March 1915 the government of Persia changed. The prime minister, Mostowfi ol-Mamalek, resigned. His successor was Hassan Pirnia, known by his title of Moshir od-Dowleh. Only three weeks earlier, in February, the foreign minister had changed. Now the whole government fell.

The fall of Mostowfi

According to the chronicles of the time, Mostowfi ol-Mamalek had taken office in August 1914, although some lists date this a year earlier. He was regarded as a supporter of strict neutrality. At the beginning of December 1914, after lengthy elections, the third Majlis, the Persian parliament, convened in Tehran. In February 1915 the prime minister received a vote of confidence from it, but the deputies soon rejected his programme of reforms. According to the Encyclopaedia Iranica the real reason for his loss of support, which was not mentioned in the debates, was that he had failed to persuade the Russians to withdraw their troops from Persian Azerbaijan.

Russia had no intention of giving way. Its commanders argued that without Russian troops northern Persia would be occupied by the Turks, and they had proof of this: in January the Kurds and Turks took Tabriz, and the Russians had to retake it. The Turks in turn justified their entry by the presence of the Russians. The government in Tehran, with no army capable of defending the borders, had no way out of this vicious circle.

Moshir od-Dowleh

The new prime minister was one of the most respected politicians of his generation. He was born in 1871 in Nain, into the family of a senior official. His father, Mirza Nasrollah Khan, had headed the government in 1906, during the Constitutional Revolution. Hassan Pirnia was educated in Moscow, where he graduated from a military school and studied law, and was then Persian minister in St Petersburg. In 1899 he founded a school of political science in Tehran. After his father’s death he took over his title of Moshir od-Dowleh and helped to draft the first Persian constitution. He had already served, among other posts, as foreign minister and minister of justice.

The candidate for prime minister was nominated by the Majlis, and Ahmad Shah confirmed him. Moshir od-Dowleh enjoyed the support of the nationalists and intended to pursue a policy of genuine, not merely declared, neutrality. His government worked with parliament better than its predecessors. Together they repealed, among other things, the law that gave wide powers to the foreign treasurers, and transferred their responsibilities to the Persian finance minister.

A short-lived government

The neutrality the prime minister sought, however, suited neither Russia nor Britain. German agents were operating ever more boldly in Persia, stirring up the tribes against the Entente and seeking allies among Persian politicians. The Russians and British demanded decisive steps against them from Tehran. Moshir od-Dowleh did not take them, and under pressure from the Entente he had to step down after only a month and a half, at the end of April or on 1 May 1915 (sources differ on the date). He was succeeded by Ain od-Dowleh, and in August 1915 Mostowfi ol-Mamalek returned to office.

Hassan Pirnia headed the government three more times, in 1920–1923. He also made his mark as a scholar: he wrote a three-volume “History of Ancient Iran”, an abridged version of which long served as a school textbook. He died in 1935.