Pictory

Thank U Faryar M.

Your post is very informing and educating, but where are the seeing eyes and hearing ears? I tuned to Youtube to see more of this clip but was disgusted by the ugly and rude comments and slanders related to this clip. People calling each other Arab dogs,donkey Turks and... etc...etc.

Something is wrong with us and our nation. Very wrong.

Qajar's Corruption

I am going to keep it simple and brief. Agha Mohammad Khan was a psychopath an a killer but a smart tactician and war master. He murdered Lotfali Khan Zand in order to rule. Lotfali Khan Zand by all accounts would have been a fantastic king.

The fact that we are talking about resources and so on and so f... please be advised that the resourceful, brave and courageous Iranian general leading the troops: Abbas Mirza, knew how to fight and he was doing very well however the incompetence and corruption of the palace vazirs who were bought and paid for by the British and the Russians finally did him in and broke his heart and led to the defeat of Iranian forces.

Its been a long time since I have delved into the Qajar dynasties corruption, incompetance, treachary and every time I read it I just cry.

We could easily have played the big game being played by the russians, the british, the french and the ottomans and maintained our independence and dignity if the palace was not occupied by worthless and treacherous individuals and the king who prior to becoming a king, who seemed like a promising man was able to get rid of the british and russian spies surrounding him, Iran would be on a different path than being colonized by the russians and the british and then the british and then british and americans and then the americans and israelis.

The Qajar legacy was the dismembermet or Iran, colonization of Iran, humiliation of Iran, that led to subsequent social, economical and cultural dislocations and upheavals that finally led to 1978 Revolution. 

To The Remanents of Qajars (Reza in SD)

You Qajars (of which there is many of you, sons and daughters of concubines) are proof that 'rou ke nist, sang e pa qazvin ast'. You still don't accpet that you dynasty was the worse thing that ever happened to Iran in its entire history. 

Mr. Fozolie

IRAN'S DECADENCE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

From The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl’s Narrative

The Triple Distinction of Fatḥ-‘Alí, Muḥammad, and Náṣiri’d-Dín Sháh, 

THE QÁJÁR SOVEREIGNS

“In theory the king may do what he pleases; his word is law. The saying that ‘The law of the Medes and Persians altereth not’ was merely an ancient periphrasis for the absolutism of the sovereign. He appoints and he may dismiss all ministers, officers, officials, and judges. Over his own family and household, and over the civil or military functionaries in his employ, he has power of life and death without reference to any tribunal. The property of any such individual, if disgraced or executed, reverts to him. The right to take life in any case is vested in him alone, but can be delegated to governors or deputies. All property, not previously granted by the crown or purchased—all property, in fact, to which a legal title cannot be established—belongs to him, and can be disposed of at his pleasure. All rights or privileges, such as the making of public works, the working of mines, the institution of telegraphs, roads, railroads, tramways, etc., the exploitation, in fact, of any of the resources of the country, are vested in him, and must be purchased from him before they can be assumed by others. In his person are fused the threefold functions of government, legislative, executive, and judicial. No obligation is imposed upon him beyond the outward observance of the forms of the national religion. He is the pivot upon which turns the entire machinery of public life. “Such is, in theory, and was till lately in practice, the character of the Persian monarchy. Nor has a single one of these high pretensions been overtly conceded. The language in which the Sháh addresses his subjects and is addressed by them, recalls the proud tone in which an Artaxerxes or Darius spoke to his tributary millions, and which may still be read in the graven record of rock-wall and tomb. He remains the Sháhinsháh, or King of Kings; the Zillu’llah, or Shadow of God; the Qibliy-i-‘Alam, or Centre of the Universe; ‘Exalted like the planet Saturn; Well of Science; Footpath of Heaven; Sublime Sovereign, whose standard is the Sun, whose splendour is that of the Firmament; Monarch of armies numerous xxxix as the stars.’ Still would the Persian subject endorse the precept of Sa’dí, that ‘The vice approved by the king becomes a virtue; to seek opposite counsel is to imbrue one’s hands in his own blood.’ The march of time has imposed upon him neither religious council nor secular council, neither ‘ulamá nor senate. Elective and representative institutions have not yet intruded their irreverent features. No written check exists upon the royal prerogative. “…Such is the divinity that doth hedge a throne in Persia, that not merely does the Sháh never attend at state dinners or eat with his subjects at table, with the exception of a single banquet to his principal male relatives at Naw-rúz, but the attitude and language employed towards him even by his confidential ministers are those of servile obeisance and adulation. ‘May I be your sacrifice, Asylum of the Universe,’ is the common mode of address adopted even by subjects of the highest rank. In his own surrounding there is no one to tell him the truth or to give him dispassionate counsel. The foreign Ministers are probably almost the only source from which he learns facts as they are, or receives unvarnished, even if interested, advice. With the best intentions in the world for the undertaking of great plans and for the amelioration of his country, he has little or no control over the execution of an enterprise which has once passed out of his hands and has become the sport of corrupt and self-seeking officials. Half the money voted with his consent never reaches its destination, but sticks to every intervening pocket with which a professional ingenuity can bring it into transient contact; half the schemes authorised by him are never brought any nearer to realisation, the minister or functionary in charge trusting to the oblivious caprices of the sovereign to overlook his dereliction of duty. “…Only a century ago the abominable system prevailed of blinding possible aspirants to the throne, of savage mutilations and life-long captivities, of wanton slaughter and systematic bloodshed. Disgrace was not less sudden than promotion, and death was a frequent concomitant of disgrace. “…Fatḥ-‘Alí Sháh … and his successors after him, have proved so extraordinarily prolific of male offspring that the continuity of the dynasty has been assured; and there is xl probably not a reigning family in the world that in the space of one hundred years has swollen to such ample dimensions as the royal race of Persia…. Neither in the number of his wives nor in the extent of his progeny, can the Sháh, although undeniably a family man, be compared with his great-grandfather, Fatḥ-‘Alí Sháh. To the high opinion universally held of the domestic capacities of that monarch must, I imagine, be attributed the divergent estimates that are to be found, in works about Persia, of the number of his concubines and children. Colonel Drouville, in 1813, credits him with 700 wives, 64 sons, and 125 daughters. Colonel Stuart, who was in Persia in the year after Fatḥ-‘Alí’s death, gives him 1,000 wives and 105 children…. Madame Dieulafoy also names the 5,000 descendants, but as existing at an epoch fifty years later (which has an air of greater probability)…. The estimate which appears in the Nasikhu’t Tavaríkh, a great modern Persian historical work, fixes the number of Fatḥ-‘Alí’s wives as over 1,000, and of his offspring as 260, 110 of whom survived their father. Hence the familiar Persian proverb ‘Camels, fleas, and princes exist everywhere.’ …No royal family has ever afforded a more exemplary illustration of the Scriptural assurance, ‘Instead of thy fathers thou shalt have children, whom thou mayest make princes in all lands’; for there was scarcely a governorship or a post of emolument in Persia that was not filled by one of this beehive of princelings; and to this day the myriad brood of Sháh-zádihs, or descendants of a king, is a perfect curse to the country, although many of these luckless scions of royalty, who consume a large portion of the revenue in annual allowances and pensions, now occupy very inferior positions as telegraph clerks, secretaries, etc. 

Fraser drew a vivid picture of the misery entailed upon the country fifty years ago (1842) by this ‘race of royal drones,’ who filled the governing posts not merely of every province, but of every buluk or district, city, and town; each of whom kept up a court, and a huge harem, and who preyed upon the country like a swarm of locusts…. Fraser, passing through Adharbayján in 1834, and observing the calamitous results of the system under which Fatḥ-‘Alí Sháh distributed his colossal male progeny in every Government post throughout the kingdom, remarked: xli ‘The most obvious consequence of this state of affairs is a thorough and universal detestation of the Qájár race, which is a prevalent feeling in every heart and the theme of every tongue.’ “…Just as, in the course of his [Náṣiri’d-Dín Sháh’s] European travels, he picked up a vast number of what appeared, to the Eastern mind, to be wonderful curiosities, but which have since been stacked in the various apartments of the palace, or put away and forgotten; so in the larger sphere of public policy and administration he is continually taking up and pushing some new scheme or invention which, when the caprice has been gratified, is neglected or allowed to expire. One week it is gas; another it is electric lights. Now it is a staff college; anon, a military hospital. To-day it is a Russian uniform; yesterday it was a German man-of-war for the Persian Gulf. A new army warrant is issued this year; a new code of law is promised for the next. Nothing comes of any of these brilliant schemes, and the lumber-rooms of the palace are not more full of broken mechanism and discarded bric-à-brac than are the pigeon-holes of the government bureaux of abortive reforms and dead fiascoes. “…In an upper chamber of the same pavilion, Mírzá Abu’l-Qásim, the Qá’im-Maqám, or Grand Vazír, of Muḥammad Sháh (the father of the present monarch), was strangled in 1835, by order of his royal master, who therein followed an example set him by his predecessor, and set one himself that was duly followed by his son. It must be rare in history to find three successive sovereigns who have put to death, from jealous motives only, the three ministers who have either raised them to the throne or were at the time of their fall filling the highest office in the State. Such is the triple distinction of Fatḥ-‘Alí, Muḥammad, and Náṣiri’d-Dín Sháhs.” 

Full text : //reference.bahai.org/en/t/nz/DB/db-7.html 

I disagree that Iran was on

I disagree that Iran was on the way down already. Nader shah brought a lot of wealth to Iran from India and Russian and so did Agha Mohammad khan Ghajar. However Fat Ali Shah completely wasted all the wealth Iran had (to the verge of bankruptcy). He lost the war because he was incompetence not he didn’t have enough man power. Of course he was not in a finance position to start the war as well. It is interesting that no one mentioned the main cause of the war. It is true that Fat Ali Shah had a lot of Debit to Russian and when hey request for the payment with interest, he arrogantly refused to pay and plot to kill the ambassador to send a message to Russian. This stupid act resulted in two wars with Russian and losing a lot of lands to them. It seem he consulted the British at the time and took their advice on this matter and British encouraged him to proceed with the war.

To be far Mohammad Agha Khan, the first Ghajar dynasty expanded Iran as well to some extend and did well for Iran. However the down fall of Ghajar started when Fat Ali Shah was in power and he was more interested in enjoying himself rather having strategic plan to take Iran further. Unfortunately the remaining kings in Ghajar dynasty followed the same root and too week to take Iran forward. I suppose you could blame Fat Ali Shah for economic down fall of Iran. Unfortunately if it was for Fat Ali Shah, Iran could have been one of the largest countries in the world like China and USA and current Russia!

Thank you "by the expert" !!!

Or should I Thank you TheMrs. again? (for your valuable time...) to come forward only this time under a very brave Anonymous name & identity called:

"by the expert"

How very perpostorous.... :-)

Reza jaan

Don't you know? themrs. is the resident expert on everything here. she is free to be critical and if you don't like it, then YOU'VE got a problem. she has little respect for anybody or anything here and will let you know it! you're supposed to be grateful that she even wastes her valuable time on reading you!

TheMrs, Thank you...

Dear TheMrs,

Thank you for your NOT so kind comments, neverthless, I respect your opinion!

I also do respect and honour free speech, however your comments and judgments were not only unfair, but also very offensive unfortunately!

Those who know what they read ,may beg to differ with your harsh judgments and accusations and they have every right to do so.

Maybe, my roots are affecting my historical analysis to a small degree but, I was never disrespectful to you or any of my ham-Mehan.

In addition, I tried my best to express my side of the story according to the best informations I gathered in the past 30 years of my adult life (valid references are available upon sincere request) from all sides to at least understand (if not accept) the Qajar dynasty's ruling of Iran (with all its goods and bads) for over 120 years of our history. I am the first one to admit to some of their major faults and even tried to apologize at least on my own behalf for whatever it is worth. However, I repeat , the TRUE and NON-BAIS historical facts also point to many other problems and issues that surrounded Iranians and Iran for so long before Qajars came to the picture in IRAN...That is my honest opinion . Apparently, you didn't care, but at least you could have been polite human and civil about expressing your opinion!

Good Luck ham-mehan,

Love & Peace,

Past is Prologue

I haven't seen this yet but, Reza Khan San Diego:

You say

“through power of Intelligence, Education, Wisdom, Culture, reason and Common sense, my Ancestors (Qajar Dynasty) were still able to keep Iran a Sovereign Land and Iranians a Sovereign Nation”

  Don’t you think keeping a country sovereign is the minimum standard a government should stick to? What’s to be proud of the bare minimum?  

Besides, what intelligence and education are you referring to? Last time I read unbiased history books, your ancestors didn’t build enough schools and Iran still has a literacy problem! The intelligence that lost land? The wisdom that kept our country in poverty?

I mean, I would prefer resourcefulness and industriousness to arts and culture (especially the pretentious kind that wasn’t shared with the rest of the people). I would have preferred some intelligent people who were able to put their money together and developed business. Religious reformation! People more concerned with foreign policy than trips (on borrowed money).

I don't see any reflection of wisdom in kings who had hundreds of children. Have YOU read some of the facts? It's disgusting and embarassing man.  

Why couldn’t have the wisdom and intelligence be used to create alliances instead of threats of war in the first place!

No need to apologize. You were not involved in any policies or decisions. But please do me a favor and don’t be condescending either. We know which books to read. And we certainly don't need a half ass apology from some anonymous person in san diego. Are you ever aware of how bad what you said looks? Maybe it's a joke.

I agree that we can some times judge history too harshly and without looking at all the problems/facts. But, with all due respect (after all, you’re still a prince), your faded aristocratic roots are affecting your historical analysis.  

Inaccurate & False Judgments....

I believe that prince was my Father's Grandfather (Badi-O-Zaman) or one of his Brothers. I have to research that further with my father, Mahmouud Mirza who fortunately is still alive .

It is very easy for us Iranians to judge Qajar Dynasty for many of their short comings in our history! But we also forget that by no means we were any match to Russian/Tzar empire in terms of Military and man power specifically. Idustrial revolution in west had already started way before and most Europeans were already ahead of us and entire middle east interms of technology and most importantly from a Militarily stand point. That unfortunately lead to a massive disadvantage for us Iranians to stand any chance against Mighty Russian Military power in case of any major WAR breaking out at that time which by the way still continues to this day...

To stop a massive Human loss and bloodshed and defeat to Russians, Qajar Dynasty was forced to give up land and territories to Russian Empire before they would kill millions of Iranians in a Stupid WAR that would lead to an ENTIRE TAKE OVER of our beloved IRAN BY Russian Empire...

Our problems started way before Qajar Dynasty! Please research & read history properly (NOT ONLY FROM WHAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN IN IRAN DURING PAHLAVI & ISLAMIC REPUBLIC ERA, BUT ALSO FROM MORE ACCURATE FOREIGN SOURCES... UNFORTUNATELY...)

As a direct Qajar descendant and on behalf of my entire family, I apologize for any mismanagemnt Qajar Dynasty made during their ruling of IRAN. But, one thing that I am still proud is that despite all IRAN's disadvantages at the time, through power of Intelligence, Education, Wisdom, Culture, reason and Common sense, my Ancestors (Qajar Dynasty) were still able to keep Iran a Sovereign Land and Iranians a Sovereign Nation. A country and nation that is still alive...

Payandeh Baad IRAN va IRANI

Love the accurate settings and costumes

Who is the director by the way ? Mikhalkov ? Couldn't find it on imdb.

Disturbing

It is sad to see how the great teritorial and strategical gains made by Nader Shah the Great (Afshar dynasty) were waisted away by bunch of ghajar traitors .. Nader Shah had put the fear of God in the Russian and Othaman empires and had made Iran one of the greatest nations (if not the greatest) in the world of the time.

May eternal light shine upon his soul and spirit.

Qajar Prince

Nicholos I for the first half of 19th century Russia is not unlike what Bush II is for contemporary America. Authoritarian, bigoted, bellicose. Nicholas got his comeuppance in the Crimean War finally. Griboyedov death was tragic: in the wrong place at the wrong time. Russian embassy was stormed by an Iranian mob and everyone was hacked to pieces. What stung the Russians the most was that Griboyedov is the author of one of the most endeared plays in the Russian literature. The treaty and the tragic event set Russoo-Iranian relations on the wrong path until Lenin in 1921 cancelled all the imposed treaties and obligations. Hurray for Lenin!

Interesting!

This -- its political connotaions notwithstanding, seams to be an interesting flick. The way the scene is established (without cuts) refershingly gives the movie a nice flow and a departure from conventional hollywood McFlicks.
Of course it might have made a difference if I spoke Russian!

This is from the film,

This is from the film, Russian Ark. Interesting single-shot movie. This scene, I think, is the most annoying part of the film where Sokurov's desire for a European subjecthood and a glorious past very much relies on constructing the inferiority of its Iranian other.