"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٩‎٩‎٦] (١٢٦٢/٥١٣)

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was inevitable notwithstanding every precaution, that some amount of
disquiet should attend the change of sovereign; and the considerable
interval that occurred between the death of Muhammad Shah and tlie
arrival of Nasir-ud-Din Mirza at the capital was full of anxiety. A pro
visional government was formed at Tehran, over which the Mahd
Auliyah or Queen-Mother presided; but the members, who belonged
to different political factions, and whose individual interests also were
at variance, were united in nothing except in demanding the retirement
from public life of the lately omnipotent Prime Minister, Haji Mirza
Aghasi. That peculiar but astute individual, who had enriched himself
enormously by the exercise of the supreme power and who had become
greatly attached thereto, seemed at a loss how to act; at one moment
he promised the British and Russian representatives to abstain from
political activity during the crisis ; at another he shut himself up in the
citadel of Tehran with 1,200 followers, as if preparing to assert himself
by force ; and finally he took sanctuary at the shrine of Shah 'Abdul
^Azim near the capital.
Accession of Nasir-ud-Din Mirza entered Tehran on the*" 20th October ISlfS and
Shah"20th 511 WaS ^ nves ^ e( ^ with the insignia of royalty at midnight following, hist
October 1848. age being then 17 years. The young Shah had already made choice ol
his principal adviser ; this was Mirza Taqi Khan, of whom we shall bave
more to say hereafter, and who chose the military title of Amir Nizam
in preference to that of Sadr A^zam or Prime Minister, the latter having
been rendered inauspicious in his opinion by certain evil precedents. O 116
consequence of the selection of Mirza Taqi Khan was the banishment or
flight of Haji Mirza Aghasi to Karbala, where he shortly died.J
At first matters seemed to go from bad to worse, and the fall of the
Qaj'ar dynasty and a breaking up of Persia were commonly predicted.
The Treasury was empty ; risings or riots took place at Yazd, Isfahan,
Shiraz and Kirman ; and the highroads became so unsafe as to cause
despair among merchants, no less than 1,500 animals with their loads
being carried oif or detained in the neighbourhood of Yazd alone w
^ So Watson { history of Persia, page 364), but Rawlinson makes the date the 21st
{England and Russia in the East, page 74). There is the same discrepancy ofo ne
day between the dates assigned by these writers to the death of Muhammad Shah.
fLord Curzon states definitely that Nassir-ud-Din Shah was born on the 17th J* 1 ?
1831 [Persia, vol. I, page 393), and the statement doubtless rests on conclu 8 ^ 6
evidence. According to Watson [History of Persia, page 364) the Shah was 16 at^
time of his accession ; while Lady Sheil, on the other hand, calls him 21 in Novembei
1851, and Binning makes him complete his 21st lunar year on the Hth De^ 6 '
1850 {Journal of Two Years* Travel).
% Loftus {Travels and Researches, 56) mentions his tomb as existing ^
Karbala in 1849 and relates ^ characteristic anecdote of the Haji in connection With lS
decease.