Asef al-Dowleh

Asef al-Dowleh was the eldest son of Mohammad Khan Devellu-Qajar (also known as Rokn al-Dowleh),[1] and belonged to the Devellu branch of the Qajar tribe,[2] which had established their rule over Iran under Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar (r. 1789–1797).[3] After Agha Mohammad Khan's murder in 1797, Asef al-Dowleh's father was crucial in ensuring that the capital of Tehran was secure in time for the arrival of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar (r. 1797–1834).[1]

In 1824, Fath-Ali Shah appointed Asef al-Dowleh as his prime minister. Asef al-Dowleh was a hardline proponent of intensifying the Russo-Iranian War of 1826–1828, performed ineffectively on the battlefield, and was among the first to evacuate to the city of Tabriz. When the Russians captured Tabriz without an opposition, he was in charge of the men in the city's fortress. He was as a result placed under detention in his own house, and after being freed, Fath-Ali Shah ordered that he be publicly flogged for his "cowardly behavior".[1]

In 1829, the distinguished Russian poet and author Alexander Griboyedov led a sizable Russian embassy to Tehran. There Griboyedov showed the condescending behaviour of a conqueror toward the Iranians when enforcing the conditions of the Treaty of Turkmenchay. Griboyedov ordered that the Georgian concubines who were held in the harems of the Qajars (including Asef al-Dowleh's) be released into his care. He had done this at the urging of an Armenian eunuch who was himself a prisoner from earlier Iranian expeditions into the Caucasus. Griboyedov dispatched his Armenian and Georgian assistants to deliver the Georgian concubines to the Russian embassy, relying on a clause in the Treaty of Turkmenchay that called for the trading of prisoners of war.[4]

Such a transgression of the law and Shia religious practices was viewed as having significant symbolic significance. Asef al-Dowleh asked for the help of the local Islamic scholar Mirza Masih Tehrani, who as a result urged the citizens of the capital to rise up, rescue the concubines, who had probably now converted to Islam, and bring them back to their Muslim homes. Three protesters lost their lives in the ensuing fights with the Russian security forces. Mirza Masih Tehrani then issued a fatwa, which led to the slaughter of Griboyedov and all but one of the seventy-person personnel of the Russian embassy by an enraged crowd.[4]

• Amanat, Abbas (1997). Pivot of the Universe: Nasir Al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831-1896. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1845118280.
• Amanat, Abbas (2017). Iran: A Modern History. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300112542.
• Behrooz, Maziar (2023). Iran at War: Interactions with the Modern World and the Struggle with Imperial Russia. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-0755637379.
• Perry, John R. (2012). "Āghā Muḥammad Qājār". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. ISSN 1873-9830.