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Jalal al-Din Mirza
Portrait of Jalal al-Din Mirza Qajar by Sani al Mulk
Born1827
Tehran, Qajar Iran
Died1872
Tehran, Qajar Iran
HouseQajar dynasty
MotherHoma'i Khanum
Religionsee below

Jalal al-Din Mirza (Persian: جلال‌الدین میرزا‎; 1827–1872) was an Iranian prince of Qajar dynasty and historian, known for his historical account, Name-ye Khosrowan. He was the fifty-fifth son of Fath-Ali Shah (r. 1797–1834), King of Qajar Iran. From his childhood, Jalal Mirza was accustomed with the major works from the Age of Enlightenment writers. He attended Dar ul-Funun, an Iranian university, and there he was associated with Mirza Malkam Khan, a pioneer of the Iranian Enlightenment and his Faramosh Khaneh, a secret society based on Masonic lodges. This made him the target of threats and accusations. Faramosh Khaneh was ultimately banned by Naser al-Din Shah. Moreover, the shah also shunned Jalal Mirza based on rumours of him being an atheist. Jalal Mirza thus became isolated and aloof from the royal family.

Isolation led Jalal Mirza to write his book, Name-ye Khosrowan, a historical account noted for the attention to the pre-Islamic history of Iran and also one of the first works written in the "pure Persian" prose, without using the Arabic loanwords. He wrote three volumes of the book, though he originally planned for four. The book contains the ancient history of Iran, mainly the legendary kings such as Hushang and Jamshid to fall of Sassanids; Iran in middle ages, from the rise of Tahirid dynasty to the fall of Khwarazmian Empire and Mongol invasion, and finally the succession war of Karim Khan. The fourth volume was set to cover the history of Qajar dynasty, but out of fear of insulting Naser al-Din Shah and facing his wrath, was abandoned.

Towards the end of his life, Jalal Mirza contracted syphilis and gradually lost his sight, which eventually led to his death at 1872. Jalal Mirza is considered as one of the most renowned historians of the Qajar era. His work was largely influential on the historical writing of the Constitutional Revolution and also marked a new age in Persian historiography. He contributed in the idea of changing the Qajar religious zealotry with a prideful community of people who are aware of their nation's history; a main idea of the intellectuals of the Iranian Enlightenment such as his close companions, Mirza Fatali Akhundov and Mirza Malkam Khan.

Early life[edit]

Jalal Mirza was born in 1827 in Tehran. His mother, Homa'i Khanum, was a Kurdish woman from Mazandaran, who became an early influence on the Prince.[1] Her father, Jamshid Bey of the Jahanbeglu tribe, was a Naqqal[a] who would tell the stories of Shahnameh for the young Jalal.[3] At the age of Eight, his father, Fath-Ali Shah died and was succeeded by, Mohammad Shah, Jalal Mirza's nephew. Mohammad Shah, in order to rid himself of another claimant, sought to have him blind, but with the insistence of Homa'i Khanum, gave up his decision.[4] In the early years, Jalal Mirza was educated in the Qajar princely concepts and studied classical Persian literature and the French language.[1] He was closest with his older brother, Aliqoli Mirza, who later became the minister of sciences and a patronage for Jalal Mirza.[5]

Career[edit]

Attending the Dar ul-Funun[edit]

Jalal al-Din Mirza (left) and his younger brother Soltan Hossein Mirza, the fifty-sixth son of Fath-Ali Shah, c. 1840s

As an adult, Jalal Mirza attended the Dar ul-Funun school and was associated with the European instructors of the Polytechnic and met the European intellectual trends.[1] However, perhaps out of the rumours of his atheistic beliefs,[6] his name was left out of the list of the graduates.[3] During this time he was bestowed the title of Ehtesham al-Mamalek after writing an essay on the architecture of Persepolis (noted by Jalal Mirza as "Takht-e Jamshid") after visiting Marvdasht, in which he described the palace as "a place of wonders and mystery, yearning to be rediscovered".[7]

Jalal Mirza's mindset is most likely to be formed at his time in Dar ul-Funun, though besides of European influence (mainly Voltaire), it is suggested that his intellectual source might be from the the anti-religious Persian antinomian tradition prevalent within Sufi circles or esoteric tendencies.[1] This tradition culminated in the emergence of the Bábi movement in the middle of the 19th century, with its advocacy of a break with Islam and the founding of a new circle of revelation.[1]

Faramosh Khaneh[edit]

See also: Faramosh Khaneh

In 1861, a political organization called Faramosh Khaneh was formed by Mirza Malkam Khan in the Inner circles of Dar ul-Funun, with aiming at bringing about reforms based on the ideas of Malkam Khan and his father, Ya'qoub Khan.[1] The establishment of Faramosh Khaneh coincided with some reforms in the political executive structure of Iran during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah. At that time, Malkam Khan sought to recruit a wide range of elites, intellectuals, and courtiers of his day — especially members of the Qajar dynasty, scholars, and academics — motivated by the creation of a "progressive monarchy".[1] Due to the lack of any kind of assembly and political group, Faramosh Khaneh was welcomed by different sections of the people.[8] Jalal Mirza too, was a member in Malkam Khan's secret society, his unorthodox proclivities found further exposure through association with these circles.[1] Jalal Mirza's membership was important to Faramosh Khaneh survival, because both his belonging to the royal family provided security and, having a modern mindset alike to Malkam Khan led the two to collaborate in the society's development.[9]

Jalal al-Din Mirza by Sani ol-Molk, the third quarter of 19th century.

The meetings of Faramosh Khaneh were held at Jalal Mirza's personal house, in these meetings mostly the issue of tyranny, freedom, law, and economic reforms were discussed, and books brought from the Ottoman Empire and Europe were exchanged.[10] In the aftermath of the removal of Mirza Aqa Khan Nuri, Naser al-Din Shah formed a government council and took over the affairs of the country.[11] To carry out his structural political changes, Malkam Khan sought to use Naser al-Din Shah's monarchical power to establish a not entirely "progressive monarchy" but close to its forms, and to achieve this goal he preferred the "absolute monarchy" of the enlightened king to the "constitutional monarchy". Simultaneously with Naser al-Din Shah's desire to monopolize power with Malkam Khan's political plan, the Shah initially viewed Malkam and Faramosh Khaneh with optimism.[12] The Shah's empathy with Malkam Khan expanded the scope of his activities and facilitated the process of elite membership in the association; In the same vein, Jalal Mirza rose to prominence in the bureaucracy of Nasser al-Din Shah, and in addition to further benefits, was briefly appointed as Adjutant.[13]

However Faramosh Khaneh was later target of accuses such as blasphemy and Republicanism, misleading Malkam Khan's cause to overthrowing the Kingdom and installing a Republic, which eventually led to its dissolution.[14][1] after the dissolusion, a number of pamphlets were secretly published under the name Shabnameh, harshly criticising the Shah and his authoritarianism policies.[1] This led to a series of repression of the former members of the Faramosh Khaneh including Jalal MIrza who fearing his life, took refuge to Shah Abdol-Azim Shrine. He was later pardoned by the shah for being a member of the royal family.[1]

Later years and death[edit]

After the experience of Faramosh Khaneh, Jalal Mirza sought to isolate himself form both political activities and his family, and instead, worked on his renowned project, Name-ye Khosravan.[15] In his later years Jala Mirza also had plans to take a pilgrimage to Mecca, perhaps to clear his accusations of being a Infidel or to use the excuse ostensibly to leave the realm for visiting Europe. The latter reason was possible due to the appointment of Mirza Hosein Khan Moshir od-Dowleh as the Grand vizier; he published the third volume of Name-ye Khosravan and brought a more liberal space in comparison to the Shah's authority.[1] Jalal al-Din Mirza in the last years of his life contracted syphilis, hence losing his eyesight and dying in 1872.[15]

Though there's uncertainty about his personal life, it seems that Jalal Mirza had at least one son, Azizollah Mirza who was bestowed the title of Zafar al-Saltanah by Mozaffar ad-Din Shah and became the minister of war in the government of Nezam al-Dowleh Mafi in 1907.[16] The descendants of Jalal Mirza through Azizollah after the abolition of titles by the orders of Reza Shah, chose the name "Jalali-Qajar".[17]

Name-ye Khosrowan[edit]

The starting page of Name-ye Khosrowan in which Jalal al-Din Mirza introduces himself by the Iranian patronym "Pur" instead of the Arabic "Ibn".[18] the text: "The compiler of this work, Jalal pur (son of) Fath Ali Shah Qajar".[19]

Between 1865 to 1871, Jalal Mirza wrote three volumes of Name-ye Khosrowan, though he was originally planned on four volumes.[1][20] The source of motivation for writing this work was two of Jalal Mirza's companions, Maneckji Limji Hataria and Mirza Fatali Akhundov. Maneckji first communicated with Jalal Mirza and introduced him to the Parsis of the India, Akhundov on the other hand, encouraged the Prince in using the least Arabic loanwords.[1][21] Maneckji provided some starting sources for Jalal Mirza including, Dabestan-e Mazaheb, Sharestan-e Chahar Chaman by Farzaneh Bahram (d. 1624[22]) and upon all Dasatir-i-Asmani.[21] in addition to these these, Jalal Mirza used the works of Robert Ker Porter, Gore and William Ouseley as source as well.[1] He also interpreted the Persepolis as the ancient palace of the Pishdadian dynasty of Shahnameh which could concluded that he was not aware of Xenophon's Cyropaedia and Herodotus' notes on Achaemenid Empire.[21] The result was the first volume of Name-ye Khosrowan published on 1868 which covered the ancient history of Iran until the end of the Sasanian Empire. The second volume published in 1870 was more or less based of Mirkhvand's Rawżat aṣ-ṣafā and Khvandamir's Habib al-siyar. For the third volume, published a year later Jahangusha-i Naderi was used.[1]

Refernces[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Iranian dramatic storytellers.[2]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Amanat & Vejdani 2008.
  2. ^ Writing group 2011.
  3. ^ a b Ghadimi Ghidari 2016, p. 194.
  4. ^ Abadian 2008, p. 3.
  5. ^ Amiri 2018, p. 12.
  6. ^ Abadian 2008, p. 4.
  7. ^ Malik Shahmirzadi 1986, p. 157.
  8. ^ Ghazi Moradi 2009, p. 57.
  9. ^ Abadian 2008, p. 6.
  10. ^ Ghazi Moradi 2009, p. 58.
  11. ^ Rezai 2002, p. 231.
  12. ^ Rezai 2002, p. 231–232.
  13. ^ Ghadimi Ghidari 2016, p. 195.
  14. ^ Ghazi Moradi 2009, p. 60.
  15. ^ a b Ghadimi Ghidari 2016, p. 197.
  16. ^ Ameli 2001, p. 981.
  17. ^ Soleymani 2001, p. 105.
  18. ^ Abadian 2008, p. 10.
  19. ^ Ahmadzadeh & Niazy 2019, p. 16.
  20. ^ Abadian 2008, p. 9.
  21. ^ a b c Ahmadzadeh & Niazy 2019, p. 18.
  22. ^ Aoki 2002, p. 137.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Amanat, Abbas; Vejdani, Farzin (2008). "JALĀL- AL- DIN MIRZĀ". Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition. New York.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Amiri, Zahra (2018). Life, works and historiography of Aliqoli Mirza Etezad os-Saltaneh (in Persian). Tehran: Farhang Bonyan Publications. ISBN 9786004671842.
  • Ameli, Bagher (2001). Biography of contemporary Iranian political and military figures (in Persian). Tehran: Goftar Publications. ISBN 964-5570-58-1.
  • Abadian, Hossein (2008). "Historical narration and metanarrative in the thought of Jalal al-Din Mirza Qajar". Journal of Culture (in Persian) (68): 1–40.
  • Ahmadzadeh, Mohammad Amir; Niazy, Mohammad (Autumn 2019). "The Effect of Nationalist Discourse on the Representation of Ancient Iran in the New Historiography of the Qajar Period (A Case Study of Khosravan's Book by Jalal al-Din Mirza Qajar)". Journal of Hostorical Perspective and Historiography (in Persian). 29 (23): 9–31. doi:10.22051/HPH.2019.24484.1320.
  • Aoki, Takeshi (2002). "The Transformation of Zoroastrian Messianism in Mughal India". Bulletin of the Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan. 45 (1): 136–166. ISSN 1884-1406.
  • Ghadimi Ghidari, Abbas (2016). Continuity and evolution of historiography in Qajar Iran. Tehran: Research Institute for Islamic Culture and Thought. ISBN 9786007398036.
  • Ghazi Moradi, Hassan (2009). Malkam Khan: Theorist of political modernization in the constitutional era. Tehran: Akhtaran. ISBN 9786005757309.
  • Malik Shahmirzadi, Sadeq (1986). "A brief reference to the evolution of archeology in Iran". Athar (in Persian). 12: 133–160. OCLC 957392238.
  • Rezai, Amir Masoud (2002). Iran during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar. Tehran: Peyman. ISBN 9789645981929.
  • Soleymani, Karim (2001). the Qajar titles (in Persian). Tehran: Ney Publications. ISBN 964-312-484-3.
  • Writing group (2011). "Naqqāli, Iranian dramatic story-telling". UNESCO.
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