Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar
Mozaffar ad-Din Shah and Muzaffar ad-Din Shah (Persian مظفرالدین شاه [ mozæf ː ː i ː n ærod ʃɔ ː h], * 1853, † 1907) reigned from 1896 to 1907 as Shah of Persia. Mozaffar ad-Din Shah was married to an unknown number of women who had 7 sons and 15 daughters. He was succeeded by his eldest son Mohammed Ali.
Concessions and loans
The eldest surviving son of Naser al -Din Shah, Mirza Zell -e Soltan Mass'oud, his father's legacy could not compete because his mother Persian and therefore not a member of the Qajar was. So Mozaffar came after the violent death of his father with 43 years on the throne of Persia. Muzaffar was considered timid and not very energetically.
While nation-states had emerged in Europe in the 19th century, in which no more of nobility, but a result of the industrialization economically strong middle class shaped the political decisions that Iran remained a feudal system with strong absolutist trains arrested. Land reform and the abolition of landlordism and the body property were not even tried. The development of a comprehensive educational system remained as a dream as the construction of a modern administration or an independent judicial system.
But that's not enough. Mozaffar continued not only the license policy of his father, Naser al -Din Shah, he also made substantial loans from Russian and British banks to finance especially his trips to Europe. At the beginning Mozaffars reign amounted to Iran's foreign debt £ 500,000. They came from the failed attempt Naser al -Din Shah, the tobacco growing, processing and fully license product -selling to a British monopoly. After massive protests by the dealer ( tobacco movement ) Naser al -Din Shah had to take the concession and compensate the concessionaire. This policy is to finance the luxurious lifestyle of the ruling house on credit, could increase the foreign debt of Iran said £ 500,000 in 1892 to £ 2.6m in 1914 and £ 10.6 million in 1919. The repayment of the loans were secured by the override of tax and customs revenues!. The Russian state facility for the management of various loan repayments to the Iranian state and the collection of loan repayments in Tehran own branch, the " Banque d' Escompte et des Prets de Perse ". The British had set up in Tehran to manage their loans, the Imperial Bank of Persia.
Due to the failed economic policies became Iran in an increasing dependence on England and Russia. Parts of the country developed into full-blown spheres of influence of these powers. In order to coordinate their economic interests better and to avoid disputes, joined the British and the Russians in 1907 the Treaty of St. Petersburg, in which Iran was divided into a Russian, one British and one neutral zone. The Iranian government was not involved in the negotiations but only informed after the contract is signed.
Constitutional reforms
About the press increasingly popular liberal ideas, which led to massive criticism of the absolutist style of the Qajar dynasty. Were directed against certain decisions of the Shah which include setting a tobacco concession, the early protests, aimed subsequent demands on the establishment of courts in order to defend themselves against arbitrary decisions by the administration and the growing economic influence of the foreign concessionaires can. By 1903 a real political movement that bundled the individual demands of the population and social changes demanded arose. From the requirement of ordinary citizens for justice ( adalat ) the demand for food ( adaltkhaneh ), according to a legal system and at the end for a constitution that would govern the rule of a country on the European model was. The end of absolutism, which had been heralded in Europe 200 years ago with the French Revolution, seemed now to have reached Persia.
The beginning of the constitutional revolution is generally dated to the late autumn of 1905. The governor of Tehran left several sugar traders publicly whipped because he accused them to sell sugar at inflated prices. The following protests and demonstrations were even at gunpoint not be contained, so that the Shah was forced to dismiss both the Governor of Tehran as well as the prime minister. Mozaffar ad-Din Shah was also the demands of the Constitutionalists by and signed on August 5, 1906 decree by which the establishment of a corporatist -level, consultative meeting was arranged. In September 1906, the electoral law was adopted at this meeting, and the signature Mozaffars took place in December 1906, a document, the Qanun -e Asasi ( "Basic Law " ) was called, and was later considered as the Constitution of Persia.
Even the sudden death of Mozaffar ad-Din Shah could not change the once chosen direction. The end of the absolutist rule in Persia had come.
Cultural developments
So backward Mozaffar ad-Din Shah was in political affairs, he was so modern in cultural terms. At the World Exhibition in Paris he attended a film viewing. From the new culture technique, he was so impressed that he commissioned his court photographer Mirza Ebrahim Khan Akkas Bashi, " all necessary technology " to buy and bring to Tehran. Mirza Ebrahim began with documentation showing Mozaffar ad-Din Shah on the trip and at private and public events. Mirza Ebrahim Khan Sahhafbaschi 1904 held the first public film screenings in Teheran. His cinema has already been closed after a month because Sahhafbaschi was a strong advocate of democratic reforms, and Mozaffar ad-Din Shah to his house and property was confiscated because of this and sent him into exile.