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 between 1871 and 1873.
After a successful career in the Iranian foreign service, serving in
Tiflis, 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
Mirza Fatali Akhundov ( az, Mirzə Fətəli Axundov; fa, میرزا فتحعلی آخوندزاده), also known as Mirza Fatali Akhundzade, or Mirza Fath-Ali Akhundzadeh (12 July 1812 – 9 March 1878), was a celebrated Azerbaijani author, pla ...
, 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.
See also
*
List of prime ministers of Iran
*
Prime Minister of Iran
The Prime Minister of Iran was a political post that had existed in Iran (Persia) during much of the 20th century. It began in 1906 during the Qajar dynasty and into the start of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1923 and into the 1979 Iranian Revolution ...
*
Sepahsalar Mosque
The Sepahsālār Mosque ( fa, مسجد سپهسالار - ''Masjed-e Sepahsālār'') is a famous historic mosque in Tehran, Iran. The construction project of the mosque was started in 1879 upon the order of Mirza Hosein Sepahsalar, the Grand Viz ...
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