Sarem od-Dowleh becomes foreign minister of Persia

The British chronology of the war records under 6 March 1916 that “Sarim ed Douleh”, that is Prince Akbar Mirza, who bore the title Sarem od-Dowleh, became foreign minister of Persia. He joined the government formed by the new prime minister, Sepahsalar. Persian lists of ministers date the start of his term to 14 Esfand 1294 in the Iranian calendar, that is to 4 March 1916. He replaced Ali Qoli Khan Ansari, Moshaver ol-Mamalek, who had left together with Farmanfarma’s government.

A prince from Isfahan

Akbar Mirza was born in the mid-1880s (sources give 1885 or 1886) in Isfahan. He was the eighth son of Prince Masud Mirza, known as Zell os-Soltan, who for decades ruled Isfahan as governor, and a grandson of Naser al-Din Shah of the Qajar dynasty. He studied at an English-run college in Isfahan, where lessons were taught in English, and then in England. He returned home before the Constitutional Revolution. Before 1909 he bore the title Moin os-Saltaneh, and he later took the title Sarem od-Dowleh from his deceased brother-in-law. He maintained close relations with the British.

In 1915 he became minister of public works, and a few months later took over foreign affairs. He was then about thirty. In the cabinet of a prime minister regarded as a friend of Russia, the head of diplomacy was thus a young prince linked to Britain. Persia remained formally neutral, but Russian troops stood in the north and west of the country, and the British were active in the south. Sarem od-Dowleh headed the ministry until 7 Shahrivar 1295, that is until the end of August 1916, when Hasan Vosugh, Vosugh od-Dowleh, formed a government.

Later career

In 1917 Sarem od-Dowleh became governor of Isfahan, and in 1918, with the backing of the British legation, minister of finance in Vosugh od-Dowleh’s next government. Together with the prime minister and Prince Firuz, Nosrat od-Dowleh, he was one of the trio of ministers who negotiated the Anglo-Persian Agreement of 1919 with the British. Its opponents saw the agreement as an attempt to subordinate Persia to Britain, and it was never ratified by parliament. Later Sarem od-Dowleh was governor of Kerman, Kermanshah and Hamadan, and in the 1920s twice governor-general of Fars. He died in Isfahan in 1975.