Mirza Hosein Khan Moshir od-Dowleh Sepahsalar ( fa, میرزا حسین خان مشیرالدوله سپهسالار) or simply Mirza Hosein Sepahsalar ( fa, میرزا حسین سپهسالار) (1828–1881) was the Grand Vizier (prime minister) of Iran (Persia) during the

Qajar dynasty The Qajar dynasty (; fa, دودمان قاجار ', az, Qacarlar ) was an IranianAbbas Amanat, ''The Pivot of the Universe: Nasir Al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831–1896'', I. B. Tauris, pp 2–3 royal dynasty of Turkic peoples ...

under King

Naser al-Din Shah Qajar Naser al-Din Shah Qajar ( fa, ناصرالدین‌شاه قاجار; 16 July 1831 – 1 May 1896) was the fourth Shah of Qajar Iran from 5 September 1848 to 1 May 1896 when he was assassinated. He was the son of Mohammad Shah Qajar and Malek ...

between 1871 and 1873. After a successful career in the Iranian foreign service, serving in

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

, Mirza Hosein Khan was made ambassador to Istanbul during the great Ottoman reform period after 1856. He seems also to have been influenced by at least two reformist thinkers: Fatali Akhundov, whom he got to know well in Tiflis, and

Mirza Malkam Khan Mirza Melkum Khan - Joseph (Hovsep) Melkumyan (1834–1908), also spelled as ''Melkum Khan'', was an Iranian modernist writer, diplomat, and publicist. He is known for his social reform efforts, as well as for being the first Christian to adopt th ...

, whom he met in Istanbul. On becoming Grand vizier, Mirza Hosein persuaded the Shah to grant a concession for railroad construction—the

Reuter concession The Reuter concession was a contract signed in 1872 between Paul Reuter, Baron Julius de Reuter (born Israel Beer Josaphat), a British banker and businessman, and Naser al-Din Shah, Qajar king of Persia. The concession gave him control over Persian ...

—and other commercial development projects to Baron de Reuter. Opposition from bureaucratic factions and clerical leaders, however, forced the Shah to dismiss his Grand Vizier and cancel the concession.

References

* ''The Cambridge History of Iran'' 7; Peter Avery; Cambridge University Press, 1991 * ''The History of Iran'' (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations); Elton L. Daniel; 2000 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mirza Hosein Khan Moshir Od-Dowleh 1828 births 1881 deaths Prime Ministers of Iran 19th-century Iranian politicians Ambassadors of Iran to the Ottoman Empire Foreign ministers of Iran People of Qajar Iran

See also

References