But remoteness has diminished neither its relevance nor its fascination for all those who seek answers to Iran's, and inĪ broader sense the Middle East's, transition to modernity in the crucial decades of the latter half of the past century.
In these post-monarchical days, after a century of change and the tumult of two revolutions, that age seems to us even more remote. My grandfather was a living link between me and that moment, only a life span away from the reign of Iran's last traditional monarch. The break with the ancient past of which Nasir al-Din was a symbol was as swift as the bullet fired from his assassin's pistol. Some four decades later I can see why that was a turning point for the people of his generation. "I was a boy of six or seven playing ball in my hometown, Kashan, when the news of Nasir al-Din Shah's assassination arrived." Even at that young age I found it fascinating that the death of a ruler should serve as the starting point in my grandfather's personal history. With a familiar pose that must have given him time to return to old memories, he could only give his approximate age. When I was a young boy growing up in Tehran I once asked my grandfather about his age. , one of the greatest epics of all times, is, after all, the "book of the kings." Even on a personal level, the reign of Nasir al-Din Shah still has tangible effects. Ingrained deeply into Persian historical consciousness, the mythological dimensions of kingship also have received a new lease on life. That the Persian monarchy was one of the oldest and most influential in history only sanctions the endurance of this legacy, which is evident even in the way power is perceived and practiced in the post-monarchical period. It is sanguine to believe that the demise of monarchy entailed the immediate loss of its most pervasive elements from Iran's political culture, even though it was removed by an anti-monarchical revolution. More than a decade after the dramatic collapse of the Pahlavi dynasty (and beyond the political setting in which ancient monarchy was glorified and the Qajar period despised), we can put into historical perspective an institution that for more than twenty-five centuries constituted the most fundamental component of Persian political identity. The fall of the premier Musaddiq in 1953, almost 100 years after the fall of Amir Kabir, and the subsequent consolidation of Muhammad Riza Shah Pahlavi was yet another episode in the struggle between the monarch and minister for the control of the government. With the exception of some important lapses during the Constitutional Revolution, the same process continued to hamper state modernization into the late twentieth century. The shah combined shrewd diplomacy, often playing off rival European powers against each other, with selective reforms and equally shrewd weakening of traditional checks and balances to increase his own political power at the expense of ministerial autonomy. Preserving the balance between tradition and modernity, resisting the West yet conforming to it, thus became a vital concern for Nasir al-Din Shah, adding a new dimension to his task of maintaining the delicate sociopolitical equilibrium. Europe also offered an alternative model to the traditional concept and practice of government to which rulers such as Nasir al-Din Shah were accustomed. European impact during the reign of Nasir al-Din Shah was not only limited to military expansion and diplomatic competition between Iran's two powerful neighbors, Russia and Britain. By examining how he was transformed from an insecure crown prince and, later, an erratic boy-king in the 1840s and 1850s into a ruler with substantial control over his government and foreign policy in the 1860s and beyond, this study attempts to explore a pattern in the consolidation of traditional monarchies that often perpetuated, rather than being hampered by, the forces of modernity. His life reflects dilemmas and vulnerabilities shared by most rulers of the Islamic world in the nineteenth century, though few shared his resilience in facing the hazards and upheavals that characterized the early part of his long reign. How did monarchy, the centerpiece of an ancient political order, withstand and adjust to the challenges of modern time s, both international and domestic? Nasir al-Din Shah's life and career, his upbringing and personality, and his political conduct provide remarkable materials for such a study. In this study I have tried to answer a fundamental question. It focuses on the life and times of Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar (1831–1896) during the first phase of his reign between 18. This book is about the institution of monarchy in modern Iran.
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