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The Qajar Rock Reliefs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Extract

The Qajar rock reliefs are without doubt an anachronistic group of monuments in Iranian art. An expression of royal power in pre-Islamic Iran, with the emergence of Islam, they more or less disappeared. The reason is obvious—they were representing human beings in a demonstrative, outgoing fashion. But even more important was their public character. In contrast to book painting and probably less to painting on canvas, the art of rock reliefs is intentionally turned towards an audience beyond the walls of the court. In some way they belong to the public and were put there with the aim of glorifying and propagating rulership.

All together there are eight reliefs, seven from the period of Fath āAli Shah (1797-1834) although not all were commissioned by him, and one from the time of Nasir al-Din Shah (1848-96). This last one is situated on the Haraz Road, near Tangah-i Band-buridah.

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Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2001

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References

1. For a description of the relief at Tangah-i Band-buridah and the inscription, see Sutudah, M., Az Āstārā tā Astarābād, (Tehran, 1349), 3: 451–53.Google Scholar Muhammad Hasan Khan Itimad al-Saltana mentions the relief when he returned from Amul on the new road on 25 Shavval 1292/24 November 1875 (Rūznāmah-i Khātīrāt, ed. Afshar, I., [Tehran, 1345], 55).Google Scholar He notes briefly that Nasir al-Din Shah is shown accompanied by Hasan Khan, vazīr-i favā'id, but he does not say when the relief was executed.

2. The date 1295 [1878] is clearly inscribed in numerical form on the monument. The reconstruction or repair (?) ordered by Nasir al-Din Shah is hailed in a longer qaṣīda in which Muhammad Husayn Mirza is referred to as the chief engineer. Interestingly the name of the Austrian Gasteiger Khan does not appear at all, which might not be so surprising as he initially retired from Persian service in 1874 not to return until 1878. However, in the literature he has been named as the main engineer of a new road connecting Tehran with Mazandaran. His involvement in any construction of the road has therefore to go back to the 1860s or early 1870s. According to H. Slaby the road was built by him during the years 1281-85/1865-68. See Slaby, H., ‘“Gasteiger,” EIr 10: 320.Google Scholar

3. Fath Ali Saba from Kashan (ca. 1179-1238/1765-1823) was an influential courtier, financial officer, guardian of the shrine of Fatima in Qum (kalīd-dār-i maṣūma-i Qum) and for a number of years governor of his home town. He began his career under the last Zand ruler, Lutf Ali Khan. See Aryanpur, Y., Az Ṣabā tā Nīmā, vol. 1, Bāzgaskt-Bīdārī, Tehran 1351,2028.Google Scholar The date can be found in a chronogram inscribed in the center of the monument: Ṣabā afkandah tīr-i tārīkh-i ān-rā/raqam k[i]az in miālī bī mialī (1233, which began on 11 November 1817). The shah went on a military campaign to Khurasan against unruly Afghan amirs and khans on 18 Rajab 1233/24 May 1818. In February of the same year he had been hunting in Mazandaran.

4. Damghan, another favorite hunting area east of Tehran, is close to the Qajar homelands and not far from Firuzkuh.

5. The author of the verses on it could not be identified. The chronogram reads: “shud khusraw īnak Musā-yi imrān ayān [a]z sīnah-i Sīnā. If the alif in az is omitted, then the date produced for the relief is 1246. See also Kariman, H., Rayy-yi bāstān (Tehran, 1345) 1: 302.Google Scholar The author refers to an article by Mustafavi, M. T. in Iṭṭḷā āt-i māhānah 72 (1332).Google Scholar A similar representation of the motif “the galloping shah with lance” can be found earlier on a coin struck in Zanjan 1236/182-21 but there the shah is not portrayed goring the prey. See Rabino di Borgomale, S. H. L., Coins, medals and seals of the shahs of Iran (1500-1941) (Hertford, 1945), 64Google Scholar; idem, Album of coins, medals, and seals of the shāhs of Īrān, (1500-1948), ed. Moshiri, M. (Tehran, 1353).Google Scholar Sir Robert Ker Porter, who visited the ruins of Rayy in the middle of April 1818 found the Sasanian relief still untouched. (See his Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylon, during 1817-1820, [London 1821-2], 2: 364Google Scholar.)

6. The tarkīb-band contains the chronogram “Mānī az Chīn kih chinīn shaklī bih rū-yi sang kard” which produces the numerical value 1247. Likewise the same value in the following qaṣīda “tajallī kardah nūr-i jāvīdān az sīnah-i Sīnā.” The author of both could be Muhammad Husayn Khan Andalib, son of Fath Ali Khan Saba, who became the poet laureate of Fath Ali Shah after his father's death. On him see Hidayat, Riza Quli, Majma al-fuṣaḥāᵓ (Tehran, 1340), 5: 744.Google Scholar He was mainly a panegyrist as the eulogy in the two poems indicates. A partial copy of the inscription can also be found in Muhammad Hasan Khan Itimad al-Saltana, Mirᵓāt al-Buldān-i Nāṣirī, (Tehran, 1296/1879), 239.Google Scholar

7. The chronogram “Nūr-i ḥaqq az lawḥ-i sang jalvah [a]z sīmā-yi shāh” produces 1248 [1832-33]. The inscription has been partially destroyed by water erosion. Mirza Muhammad Taqi Aliabadi Mazandarani, a learned writer, came from a distinguished mūnshī family in Mazandaran. Through the services of Saba he became first a mūnshī-yi makhṣūṣ (private secretary) of the shah and later rose to the rank of the mūnshī almamālik (head of the chancellery) in 1244 or 1245, but was dismissed four years later. For the date see Aryanpur, Az Ṣabā tā Nīmā, 1: 58Google Scholar (who gives the years 1244 and 1248) and Bregel, Yu. E., Persidskaya literatura 3:1480–81Google Scholar (who gives 1245 and 1249). As the second inscription, namely that of Sahib-i Divan, is one year after that of Andalib (1247), Bregel's dates seem to be the right ones; likewise, Bamdad, M., Tārīkh-i rijāl-i Īrān: qurūn 12, 13, 14, (Tehran, 1347), 3: 322.Google Scholar

8. Mirza Muhammad Shafi Mirza Kuchak “Visal-i Shirazi,” (1193/1779-1262/1846) was one of the most gifted and versatile Qajar poets of the first half of the nineteenth century. He had close contacts with the Sufi pīr Mirza Abu'l-Sukut. He wrote panegyric qaṣīdas for the shah, Farmanfarma, Dawlatshah, and another senior prince, Shuja al-Saltana, but earned his livelihood mainly from clerical and calligraphic work. See Aryanpur, Az Ṣabā tā Nīmā 1: 4044Google Scholar; Navvabi, M., Khānadān-i Visāl-i Shiraz, (Shiraz, 1335/1956)Google Scholar. The lithographed dīvān does not have the verses on the inscription.

9. Mostafavi, S. M., Iqlīm-i Pārs (Tehran, 1343)Google Scholar; Ali Naqi Bihruzi, Binā-hā-yi tārīkhī va āār-i hunarī-yi julgah-i Shīrāz, (Shiraz, 1349/1970)Google Scholar; and J. A. Lerner, “British travellers’ accounts as a source for Qajar Shiraz,” Bulletin of the Asia Institute of Pahlavi University 1-4 (1976).

10. See the forthcoming work on the Qajar rock reliefs prepared by Dr Hubertus von Gall and the author to be published by the Deutsche ArchSologische Institut Berlin. cAli Naqi Bihruzi, following Mostafavi, S. M., Iqlīm-i Pārs, 52Google Scholar, erroneously maintains in his Binā-hā-yi tārīkhī, 119. that the monument of the horse and rider was cut into the rocks as early as 1218/1804-5 by order of the then 15-year-old Husayn Ali Mirza Farmanfarma. J. E. Alexander, a British Indian army officer, however, described both as newly executed when he visited the Qur'an Gate in 1825. Alexander, J. E., Travels from India to England comprehending a Visit to the Burma Empire, and a Journey through Persia, Asia Minor, European Turkey, etc., in the years 1825-26 (London 1827), 132Google Scholar; see also Lerner, J. A., “British travellers’ accounts as a source for Qajar Shiraz,” Bulletin of the Asia Institute of Pahlavi University 14 (1976): 253Google Scholar, who identified two of the figures as the shah and Husayn Ali Mirza.

11. Lerner has proposed more recently in “A Rock Relief of Fatḥ Alī Shāh in Shiraz.” Ars Orientalis 21 (1992): 3334Google Scholar, that the relief represents the three generations of the ruling house, namely Fath Ali Shah, Abbas Mirza, the heir apparent who died in August 1833, and his son Muhammad Mirza, who was appointed as the new crown prince on 12 Safar 1250/14 June 1834, only three months before the death of the shah. One might assume therefore that the monument was sculpted before 1833 although it does not necessarily mean that those sons of Fath āAli Shah who had already died would not have been included in the family scene. See footnote 18 below on Muhammad āAli Mirza Dawlatshah.

12. Hasan Fasaᵓi, Fārsnāmah-i Nāṣirī, trans. Busse, H. as History of Persia under Qajar Rule, (New York, 1972), 173Google Scholar (henceforth Busse, Fārsnāmah); al-Mulk Sipihr, Muhammad Taqi Lisan, Nāsikh al-tavārīkh, (Tehran, 1377), 1: 363Google Scholar, mentions the minting but gives no reason for it. According to Rabino di Borgomale, Coins, 64, the kishvārsitān followed the ṣāḥib-qirān (1240-50 and the former was only minted between 1245 and 1250. The coins called ṣāḥib-qirān (a title first used by Timur) are probably not significant as referring to any links between the Qajars and the Timurids. Fath Ali Shah adopted a title which had been already used by a number of previous rulers and pretenders since the time of Shah Abbas II (1642-66). (See Dihkhuda, Lughatnāmah under “ṣāḥib-qirān.“) More intriguing is the fact that Fath Ali Shah employed the title khusraw, e.g. “Fatḥ Ali Shāh Khusraw ṣāḥib-qirān.” Between 1245 and 1250 he used “Fatḥ Ali Shāh kishvārsitān,” indicating a stronger personalization of the legend and, to a lesser extent, an expression of his Shii confession. In that respect Aqa Muhammad Shah like his Zand predecessors followed a more traditional line. Their coins mostly bore the invocation yā ṣāḥib al-zamān. (See S. H. L. Rabino, Coins, 56-63.)

13. Taymur Mirza Husam al-Dawla was the fifth son of Farmanfarma. (Busse, Fārsnāmah, 240, 429Google Scholar; see also Fazlullah Khavari, Tārīkh-i Ẕu'l-Qamayn, British Library ms. 3527, fol. 392a-b who mentions among Taymur Mirza's other characteristics that he was a wrestler! For an archaeological discussion see de Waele, E., “Les trois reliefs rupestres de Pol-e Abguineh près des Kazerun,” Iranica Antiqua 21 [1986]: 167–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar)

14. See Fraser, J., The Narrative of the Residence of the Persian Princes in London, (London, 1836).Google Scholar Only through the mediation of his wife Nushabah Khanum did Taymur Mirza receive permission from Nasir al-Din Shah to return to Tehran in 1279/1862-63.

15. The chronogram “kih muzd-i ū bihisht-i javīdān-ast” produces the date 1245 (1829-30). The reading of the inscription by Mozaffariyan, M., Kāzirūn dar ā'īnah-i farhang-i Īrān (Tehran, 1373/1994-5), 9495Google Scholar is incomplete and not always correct. S. M. T. Mostafavi gives only a short description of the monument and a reading of the main caption in his Pārs-i iqlīm (Tehran, 1343), 108109.Google Scholar

16. As is often the case in poems of this kind the prince is described as “shah.” It is interesting that the qaṣīda is not included in the lithographed edition of Visal's Divān which was published in Bombay in 1285/1868-69.

17. The earthquake occurred on 2 June 1824 (4 or 5 Shavval 1239). See Ambraseys, N. N. and Melville, C. P., A History of Persian Earthquakes, (Cambridge, 1982), 57Google Scholar who quote a report of the British envoy Willock, the Bombay Gazette, and Fasaᵓi's Fārsnāmah.

18. Muhammad Ali Mirza Dawlatshah was born in 1203/1789 and followed by four other half-brothers in the same year (Busse, Fārsnāmah, 35-36). Because his mother was a Georgian, he was excluded from the succession to the throne. Except for Abbas Mirza he was probably the most impressive of Fath Ali Shah's sons. Hidayat, Riza Quli, Rawżat al-ṣafā (Qom, 1339/1960) 9: 602604Google Scholar (henceforth RS); see also Khvansari, S. A., “Shāhzādah-i nākām,” Majmūah-i sī guftār-i … Sayyid M. M. Ṭabāṭabāᵓī ed. H. Yaghmaᵓi et al. (Tehran, 1358), 170–84.Google Scholar According to his much younger brother, Azud al-Dawla, the shah thought very highly of him and paid him much respect whenever he came to Tehran. He stayed in the “bālā-khānah-i makhṣūṣ dar imarat-i Chashmah,” obviously considered a particular honor, and enjoyed the prerogative of sitting alone on the right side of the shah at meals (ṣufra), as was the case with Abbas Mirza. See Sultan Ahmad Mirza Azud al-Dawla, Tārīkh-ī Ażudī, ed. A. H. Navaᵓi (Tehran, 2535), 121.Google Scholar The order at meals and at the salām were important for the status of the court aristocracy. A study of the character and the functioning of the levee, for example, might provide a much better understanding of the interdependence of position, relation to the ruler, and the dynamics of the rise and fall of the individual in a court society than just studying titles and wealth. See in this context the ground-breaking works by Norbert Elias about the civilization process, in particular his Die höfische Gesellschaft (Berlin, 1969)Google Scholar, trans, into English as The Court Society (New York, 1983).Google Scholar

19. Ker Porter who stayed at Taq-i Bustan for six days refused an invitation from Dawlatshah delivered to him by his chief-chamberlain, an old man who might be identical with Aqa Ghani. The main reason for the refusal was Ker Porter's close relationship to Abbas Mirza who seemed to consider Dawlatshah his main rival to succeed Fath Ali Shah. (See Porter, Ker, Travels 2:165.Google Scholar)

20. Dawlatshah had a strong following at court, including the influential Taqi Khan Aliabadi Ṣāḥib-dīvān who had been his vazir when he succeeded his father as governor of Fars for a short period after the death of Aqa Muhammad Shah. (See Khavari, Tārīkh-i Zu ‘l-Qarnayn, fol 353b; also Bamdad, M., Tārīkh, 3:430–31.Google Scholar)

21. Although it is not always easy to make a clear distinction between religiosity and political ‘religiosity,’ Dawlatshah was not indifferent to Islam and its communal representatives, the ulema. His public support for them helped him to gain wider support among the population. The instance of ‘buying’ two gates from high ranking ulema and the instruction to be attached to his shroud indicate that he was sincere about both worlds. See Tunukabuni, M. b. S., Taẕkirat al-ulamāᵓ, ed. Azhari, M. R. and Parandah, G. (Mashhad, 1372), 45Google Scholar; see also Algar, Hamid, Religion and State in Iran, 1785-1906 (Berkeley, 1969), 70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22. Arjomand, Said Amir, The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religious Political Order and Societal Change in Shiite Iran from the Beginning to 1890 (Chicago, 1987), 218Google Scholar; see also his discussion there of the role of religious and temporary powers in Kashifi's Tuḥfat al-mulūk, 224-29.

23. Algar, Religion, 46-52 is still the best description of the various donations and grants of Fath Ali Shah in this respect, RS, 9 (i.e. 10). See also Mirza Muhammad Nadim's Mufarrikh al-qulūb, British Library ms. 3499, fol. 209a where the author, the librarian and Qurᵓan reciter for the shah describes the royal donations for the embellishment of the Shii holy shrines, his maintenance payments for the religious class, inter alia the financial support for the Muharram ceremonies “bin maṣraf-i āsh va ṭaām-i qahva va inām dar vajh-hā-yi taziyat.…“

24. Cambridge History of Iran, 7: 137 (henceforth CHIr). See also Ebrahimnejad, Hormoz, “Pouvoir et succession en Iran. Les premiers Qājārs, 1726-1834,” Moyen Orient & Océan Indien XVIe-XIXe siècles 12 (1999): 122–27Google Scholar, 151-56, and 201-32.

25. Various authors have rejected the idea that the Qajars were the direct inheritors of the Safavids. Apart from the obvious structural and ideological differences between the two dynasties, the symbols of their rule are not compatible. Algar (Religion, 41-42) quite rightly considers the consecration of the royal sabre on the tomb of the founder of the Safavi family more as an act of proclaiming the Shii character of the new dynasty than laying claim with it to the inheritance of Safavid rule. However, even if the new Qajar ruler seemed to be militarily in control, the various forms of legitimation were not just a ritual but a necessity. See also Ebrahimnejad, “En revanche, Āghā M. Khān et son successeur, Fath Ali-Shāh, ne firent aucune référence à l'héitage safavide de légitimeret justifier leur souveraineté’ (“Pouvoir et succession,” 42.) It is also interesting that the inscriptions and verse eulogies on the rock reliefs contain no references to Timurid or Mongol ancestors, apocryphal or otherwise.

26. Buckingham, J. S., Travels in Assyria, Media and Persia, etc (London, 1829), 1: 416.Google Scholar

27. See the fascinating and well-researched study about Europe's notion of Asia and the analysis of different discourses about decline, degeneration, and stagnation in Asia from the end of the eighteenth throughout the first half of the nineteenth century by Osterhammel, J., Die Entzauberung Asiens: Europa und die asiatischen Reiche im 18. Jh. (München, 1998)Google Scholar, particularly chap. 12, “Zeitenwende: der Aufstieg des Europazentrismus.“

28. CHIr 7:144.

29. John Malcolm came to the conclusion (1814) that “its reigning monarch…has already entitled himself to a high rank among the Kings of Persia.” See his The History of Persia, 2nd ed. (London, 1829), 217.Google Scholar

30. Ker Porter had a particularly good relationship with Abbas Mirza. He was twice received by Fath Ali Shah in Tehran, mainly encouraged by his host, the crown prince. But, as noted above, he declined to accept the invitation from the prince-governor of Kirmanshah, Muhammad Ali Mirza, when he visited Taq-i Bustan in September 1818. Ker Porter, Travels 2:165

31. See, for example, Malcolm's assessment of the significance of ceremonies: “Looks, words, the motion of the body, are all regulated by the strictest forms.” History 2: 399Google Scholar

32. Baba Khan was appointed heir and vice-regent (nā'ib al-salṭana) in 1200/1786. See Amanat, A., “Fatṭ-Ali Shāh Qājār,” EIr 9: 408a.Google Scholar However, the issue is more complex as the main Persian sources do not agree about his nomination as heir apparent. (See Ebrahimnejad, “Pouvoir et succession,” 80-89.)

33. RS 9:312; Busse, Fārsnāmah, 28-29.

34. Amanat, “Fatḥ Ali Shāh Qājār,” 408b, maintains that Baba Khan stayed four years in the former Zand capital. According to the court historian Marvazi, author of Jāhānārā, the title had already been given to him in 1204/1789. Cited by Ebrahimnejad, “Pouvoir et succession,” 89.

35. J. A. Lerner, “British travellers,” 267-69, even raises some doubt as to the Zand authorship of the carved slabs.

36. He ascended the throne on 4 Safar 1212/28 July 1797 but the coronation took place on 1 Shawal 1212 (the Id al-Fitr)/19 March 1798. (See Amanat, “Fath-Ali Shah Qajar.” Taking into account the size and complexity of the monument, as well as the lengthy inscription, the order for its execution must have been given at least one year before the completion. However, a similar large rock monument at Chashmah Ali in Rayy was completed in less than a year. Khavari, Trīkh, fol. 325a.

37. Ker Porter, Travels, 2: 523. Ker Porter met the shah during Nawruz 1818 for the first time and then a second time at the beginning of May 1819 (Travels, 323ff. and 522.

38. Khavari, Tārīkh, fols. 324b-325a.

39. See Aryanpur, Az Ṣabā tā Nīmā 1: 1320Google Scholar; Khatami, A., Pazhūhishī dar nar va naẓm-i dawra-i bāzgasht-i adabī (Tehran, 1374), 179ff.Google Scholar

40. Begdeli Kashani (d. 1207); Husayn Rafiq Isfahani (d. 1212); Sayyid Ahmad Hatif (d. 1198).

41. Sayyid Muhammad Saᵓib (d. 1222); Mijmar Isfahani (d. 1225); Abdullah Khan Nashat (d. 1244 but had stopped writing in 1237), and above all Fath Ali Saba, the poet laureate (d. 1238). Visal-i Shirazi, although highly regarded by Fath Ali Shah, refused to join the literary assembly at the capital, but he wrote a number of panegyrical poems for the ruler and the local Qajar establishment in his native Shiraz.

42. The exact identification of this poet is not clear as three poets with this takhalluṣ (pen-name) are known from this period: firstly, Hasan Kashani “Basmal-i” whose divan was seen by Aqa Buzurg Tihrani, the author of the Ẕaria. The whereabouts of the manuscript are unknown. Secondly, Hajji Ali Akbar Basmal-i Shiraz who died in 1263/1846 at the age of 76, and thirdly a Basmal-i Kirmani.

43. RS 9: 601 describes Ṣahib-i Divan as a faithful servant and representative of Dawlatshah.

44. In the early 1970s a spirited debate took place between the representatives of the classicist approach and those who were following in the footsteps of Nima Yushij. Among its prominent critics in Iran are the late Yahya Aryanpur and the literary critic and poet Shafi Kadkani, following the critical remarks of European Persianists like E. G. Browne and J. Rypka.

45. Morrison, G., ed., History of Persian Literature from the Beginning of the Islamic Period to the Present Day (Leiden and Köln, 1981), 169.Google Scholar

46. On his life and career see Maryam Ekhtiar, “From workshop and bazaar to academy art training and production in Qajar Iran,” in Diba and Ekhtiar, Royal Persian Painting, 55-56.

47. Ekhtiar has pointed out the similarity between the representation of the prince on the relief and the oil painting. Royal Persian Paintings, 191—92.

48. In ductus and stylistic finesse the two vaqf inscriptions of Agha Ghani differ radically from those dedicated to the prince governor. Both could have been added after his death.

49. Mostafavi, Iqlīm-i Pārs, 109Google Scholar, mentions a calligrapher Abbas b. Yahya and a stonemason, Ahmad, without indicating his source for the names. Muzaffariyan, Kāzirūn, 93 only repeats Mostafavi verbatim.

50. Amanat, “Fatḥ Alī Shāh.”

51. Khvansari, A. S., “Qaṣr va bāgh-i Nigāristān,” Hunar va mardom 144 (1353): 3137Google Scholar; Diba, and Ekhtiar, Royal Persian Paintings, 175Google Scholar. (See Diba: Pl. 2 in this issue.)

52. The hunting relief near Firuzkuh (pl. 1 and cover) shows eighteen princes and several attendants besides the shah. The overall figure of the shah's progeny is a wellknown and often mentioned fact. RS, 9: 100-102 counts fifty-seven sons and forty-six daughters when the shah died in 1250/1834; but Khavari, Tārīkh, fol. 352a-b points out that four of them were already dead. Fasaᵓi quotes Khavari verbatim, 230. A. H. Navaᵓi, editor of the Tārīkh-i Ażudī, lists sixty, following Sipihr, Tārīkh, 546.

53. Haydar Quli Mirza Ażudi, Tārīkh (Navaᵓi, 226).Google Scholar Bamdad, Rijāl 6: 95 lists him as the fourteenth son. Bahman Mirza Bahaᵓ al-Dawla was a bibliophile and the author of the Tazkira-i Muḥammad Shāhī. His mother was Gul Badan Khanum Khazin al-Dawla, a Georgian woman who became the powerful treasurer of the andarūn. Ażudi, Tārīkh, 22-23; Bamdad, Rijāl 1: 198–99.Google Scholar

54. Muhammad Riza Mirza was a somewhat controversial member of the royal family. His father had to intervene personally in 1236/1821 and remove him from his post as prince-governor of Gilan. He was a member of the Nimatullahi order and his pir was Hajj Muhammad Kabudarahangi in Kirmanshah. Bamdad, Rijāl 1: 198–99; 3: 401. See also Busse, Fārsnāmah, 162.

55. Mahmud Mirza, born in 1214/1799, either the fourteenth or fifteenth son, and died after 1270, was one of the best-educated princes and the author of ten literary and historical works, including Taẕkira-i Maḥmūd, Safīna-i Maḥmūd, and Gulshan-i Maḥmūd. He was also a member of the Anjuman-i Khaqani to which the fourteen poetry-writing senior princes also belonged. (See Abd al-Razzaq Dunbuli, Nigāristān-i Dārā, Nigār-khānah-i duvvum, ed. Khayyampur, E. [Tabriz, 1343]Google Scholar, 23ff.) However, the rock relief at Rayy does not represent that anjuman, as e.g. Abbas Mirza and Farmanfarma, who are both on the relief, are never mentioned in contemporary sources as members of the society.

56. According to Bamdad, Rijāl, 6: 72, he perished during the cholera epidemic in 1237/1822. But this is incorrect since he was only born in 1246, the same year as Awrang Zib Mirza.

57. His mother was the famous Taᵓus Khanum Taj al-Dawla Isfahani. (See Bamdad, Rijāl 2:7374.Google Scholar)

58. Azud al-Dawla, Tārīkh, 47Google Scholar reported that Fatima Khanum and Taᵓus Khanum, two of the shah's wives who were especially close to him, got permission for their sons to receive special treatment at the official salām. This step marked a fundamental undermining of the seniority principle.

59. See Azud al-Dawla, Tārīkh, 49-55; Ebrahimnejad, “Pouvoir,” 174-75.