Persia
In the original novel, we can read only some touches
of how Erik's life was in Persia. Leroux never
explained who exactly was the Shah, the little Sultana
or the Historical events which happened when Erik
was there.
If we try to reconstruct the possible chronological
facts, the Shah in Persia at that time had to be with
security Naser al-Din Shah (the fourth king of the
Qajar dynasty) who lived from 1831 to 1896, who ruled
over Iran for close to half a century (1848—1896).
The insecurity of his early life was exacerbated by
dislike of his father, Mohammad Shah (r. 1835—1848),
and a struggle for succession which made him aware
of the influence of the European powers. The early
years of his reign were dominated by the premiership
of the celebrated Mirza Taqi Khan Amir Kabir, a
fatherly figure for the shah, whose authoritarian reform
program to create a centralized and efficient
administration and army and to introduce Western-
style education, press and industry ran against the
vested interests of the Qajar nobility and the
conservative religious establishment. Though Amir
Kabir succeeded in consolidating Naser al-Din's
throne by putting down internecine revolts within the
royal house and crushing the revolutionary Babi
movement, he lost favor with the shah. In 1851, under
the influence of his mother, a matriarch with a
powerful personality and an intriguing mind, the
monarch dismissed the premier and soon after
secretly put him to death.
In the book titled Memoirs of a Persian Princess, and
written by Taj al-Saltana, Shah's daughter, we can read
about her father:
"Though from the late 1850s the Shah periodically
toyed with reformist ideas, his measures, when
actually put into practice, never extended beyond the
bureaucracy and material improvements into the realm
of social or political change. His deep fears of social
upheaval, abetted by a capricious temperament and
sheer greed, offset much of his goodwill,
administrative competence, and intellectual aptitude,
and turned him, increasingly by the end of his reign,
into a reactionary ruler with some traits of modern
absolutism. Recurring persecutions of dissidents—the
most severe of all carried out against the Babis, who
once tried to assassinate him in 1852—and a
reluctance to incorporate any meaningful political and
judicial reforms or to rationalize the government had
long-term consequences, leading to the Constitutional
Revolution.
In private he was a consummate admirer of the good
life and leisurely pursuits, which he seldom allowed to
be spoiled by the pressing demands of government. A
great hunter and a true lover of camp life and the
countryside, his endless days in the saddle,
wandering about in the picturesque resorts in the
vicinity of his capital, bore discrete signs of a
melancholic solitude. Escaping the pressures of
government and the irritations of the harem, he
became increasingly haunted by memories of his
tormented past.
The shah's relations with the women of his harem
were often dominated by the presence of a matriarch—
first his own mother, Malek Jahan Mahd 'Olya (known
as Khanum too), and later his influential wife, Anis al-
Dawla".
Naser al-Din's artistic taste and intellectual pursuits
were comparatively modern. An amateur sketcher of
some originality himself, he was the royal patron to an
efflorescence of Persian painting. The remarkable
development of Persian calligraphy, music, religious
performing art, and PersoEuropean architecture (and
to a lesser extent poetry and historiography) also
benefited from his patronage, though he often actively
barred his people from exposure to liberal ideas and
tried hard to eradicate political and doctrinal dissent
through coercion.
Naser al-Din Shah was assassinated by Mirza Reza
Kermani on the eve of his royal jubilee while visiting
the shrine of Shah 'Abd al-'Azim on 1 May 1896. The
epithet of the "Martyr King" gained currency
posthumously when the relative tranquility of his time
was contrasted nostalgically to the chaos and
revolutionary upheavals of the later decades.
Please, don't copy this text and photos without my permission.
In the original novel, we can read only some touches
of how Erik's life was in Persia. Leroux never
explained who exactly was the Shah, the little Sultana
or the Historical events which happened when Erik
was there.
If we try to reconstruct the possible chronological
facts, the Shah in Persia at that time had to be with
security Naser al-Din Shah (the fourth king of the
Qajar dynasty) who lived from 1831 to 1896, who ruled
over Iran for close to half a century (1848—1896).
The insecurity of his early life was exacerbated by
dislike of his father, Mohammad Shah (r. 1835—1848),
and a struggle for succession which made him aware
of the influence of the European powers. The early
years of his reign were dominated by the premiership
of the celebrated Mirza Taqi Khan Amir Kabir, a
fatherly figure for the shah, whose authoritarian reform
program to create a centralized and efficient
administration and army and to introduce Western-
style education, press and industry ran against the
vested interests of the Qajar nobility and the
conservative religious establishment. Though Amir
Kabir succeeded in consolidating Naser al-Din's
throne by putting down internecine revolts within the
royal house and crushing the revolutionary Babi
movement, he lost favor with the shah. In 1851, under
the influence of his mother, a matriarch with a
powerful personality and an intriguing mind, the
monarch dismissed the premier and soon after
secretly put him to death.
In the book titled Memoirs of a Persian Princess, and
written by Taj al-Saltana, Shah's daughter, we can read
about her father:
"Though from the late 1850s the Shah periodically
toyed with reformist ideas, his measures, when
actually put into practice, never extended beyond the
bureaucracy and material improvements into the realm
of social or political change. His deep fears of social
upheaval, abetted by a capricious temperament and
sheer greed, offset much of his goodwill,
administrative competence, and intellectual aptitude,
and turned him, increasingly by the end of his reign,
into a reactionary ruler with some traits of modern
absolutism. Recurring persecutions of dissidents—the
most severe of all carried out against the Babis, who
once tried to assassinate him in 1852—and a
reluctance to incorporate any meaningful political and
judicial reforms or to rationalize the government had
long-term consequences, leading to the Constitutional
Revolution.
In private he was a consummate admirer of the good
life and leisurely pursuits, which he seldom allowed to
be spoiled by the pressing demands of government. A
great hunter and a true lover of camp life and the
countryside, his endless days in the saddle,
wandering about in the picturesque resorts in the
vicinity of his capital, bore discrete signs of a
melancholic solitude. Escaping the pressures of
government and the irritations of the harem, he
became increasingly haunted by memories of his
tormented past.
The shah's relations with the women of his harem
were often dominated by the presence of a matriarch—
first his own mother, Malek Jahan Mahd 'Olya (known
as Khanum too), and later his influential wife, Anis al-
Dawla".
Naser al-Din's artistic taste and intellectual pursuits
were comparatively modern. An amateur sketcher of
some originality himself, he was the royal patron to an
efflorescence of Persian painting. The remarkable
development of Persian calligraphy, music, religious
performing art, and PersoEuropean architecture (and
to a lesser extent poetry and historiography) also
benefited from his patronage, though he often actively
barred his people from exposure to liberal ideas and
tried hard to eradicate political and doctrinal dissent
through coercion.
Naser al-Din Shah was assassinated by Mirza Reza
Kermani on the eve of his royal jubilee while visiting
the shrine of Shah 'Abd al-'Azim on 1 May 1896. The
epithet of the "Martyr King" gained currency
posthumously when the relative tranquility of his time
was contrasted nostalgically to the chaos and
revolutionary upheavals of the later decades.
Please, don't copy this text and photos without my permission.
Nasser Al-Din Shah
