The King

12. The Reforms

The vizier had ordered local officials to build large carpet factories where hundreds of weavers could be employed. In the north of the country, near the Caspian Sea, small companies packed caviar in handy transportable boxes and pots.

The vizier dreamt that his unemployed countrymen would find jobs in factories, just like British labourers. He dreamt that Persian girls would go to school, just like the girls in Moscow. He could hardly sleep for all the work that had to be done. In the meantime his enemies did everything they could to bring him down. He presented his plans to his advisors.

‘I have many dreams for this country, but we mustn’t try to do too many things at once,’ the vizier had said to the young men in his council of ministers. ‘All of you have studied abroad. But our country is not Russia, let alone England. In those countries the power is centralised. Here the majority of the population live in villages. In the countryside we have no power at all; there everything is in the hands of the large landowners.’

‘We are not losing sight of reality,’ said one of the ministers, a man named Takhi Khan. ‘That’s why we’re concentrating on the big cities, especially Tehran.’

‘Actually Tehran is more difficult than anywhere else. Everywhere we go we’re held back by the elite, who own all the property,’ argued the vizier.

‘We must work to establish a separation of powers, just like in the countries of the West,’ said Amir, the vizier’s young advisor. ‘That is essential to carrying out our plans.’

‘But we must not frighten the elite,’ said the vizier in measured tones. ‘We must move forward with caution. I will speak to the shah.’

Persia’s wealth lay in the abundance of its gold mines, rubies, diamonds, spices and something that the Portuguese called ouro negro — ‘black gold’.

The Portuguese had already tried their luck at extracting the ouro negro, or crude oil. They had drilled holes here and there in the Persian soil in search of the mysterious black liquid, but had found nothing.

Later came N.R. Darsi, an adventurer from New Zealand. His expedition was financed by a chemical company. He searched for sources of crude oil, but what he found was not worth mentioning. Darsi returned empty-handed.

It was then that people in the western countries began to understand what oil was actually worth. In a valley in Pennsylvania in America they had drilled down seventeen metres, and by the next day the well was filled with oil.

In Persia’s southern province the nasty black liquid leaked up from the ground spontaneously. The local inhabitants called it qir, or pitch — they ladled it into crates and smeared it on the wheels of their carts.

The French were asked by the vizier to set up businesses, to reform the army and to teach science. A number of them, however, had been given a secret assignment by the French government: to search for oil. The French asked permission to conduct drilling operations in addition to the mining activities they had agreed to. No one could have known that underneath the surface lay one of the largest crude-oil reserves in the world.

The drilling produced nothing and the French brought this particular sideline to a halt. Then one day they happened to see a black substance glittering in one of their wells, so they resumed drilling — with no appreciable results. They ladled the oil out of the well, put it in vats and sent it to France. It was something, but nothing in comparison with what lay ahead.

The vizier made too many demands, but the temptation of the mineral resources and the chance to gain power over the Persian army was irresistible to the French. They agreed to all the conditions, and the vizier drew up a list of projects he wanted be carried out, namely the setting up of:

— Three technical schools in Tehran, Tabriz and Isfahan.

— A large library in Tehran containing modern scientific books on urban development and road construction.

— A mining school in the city of Sultanabad.

— Five printing offices in five major cities.

— A hospital in Tehran and a women’s clinic in Tabriz.

— Several primary schools for the children of Tehran.

— Leather and shoe factories.

— A military training institute for young people.

— Schools for drawing and painting.

— Two boarding schools for orphans in Tehran.

— Textile, glass, iron, copper, paper, sugar and tobacco factories in various cities.

— A small spring factory in Shiraz for the suspension of carts and coaches.

— And last, a factory for the casting of medium-sized bells for the cities.

On top of all this he firmly demanded that a number of cannon and cannonball factories be built in Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz so the army would no longer be dependent on Russian or British cannons.

The vizier realised he would not be able to bring all his plans to fruition during his lifetime. He knew how great the opposition would be. But of all his dreams there were at least three that he wanted to see fulfilled.

First he wanted all the children in the country to be vaccinated against smallpox. This would bring a halt to the nation’s increasing rate of blindness. His second dream was a technical school for gifted children, which he would later incorporate into his development plans. His third dream was highly personal. When he was still a boy, his father worked as a minister in the cabinet in which he would later be prime minister. After having travelled to Russia his father told him about the bells that hung high up in the churches there, the bells that rang so the entire city could hear them. Later, when Mirza Kabir was a young man, he was part of a delegation to Moscow. In the Kremlin he heard for the first time the bells his father had described. The whole notion of time made him tremble with happiness: time that advances, time that slips away.

That boyhood dream had never left him. He had met with the engineer of a French bell foundry to discuss the possibility of hanging a number of bells in big cities like Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz and Tabriz. The bells could not be placed in the minarets, of course. That would be too reminiscent of churches, which would create ill feeling. The vizier thought of putting the bells on the great squares of the country’s bazaars. Sometimes while riding to the bazaar he could almost hear the bells ringing in his mind. Time was standing still in his homeland. He wanted to use the bells to get time moving again.

He had made his wish known. The engineer would erect a foundry and start making bells as soon as the country entered calmer waters.

There was one big problem standing in the way of these developments: the country had no decent roads, only narrow tracks that had been beaten down naturally by horses and coaches. Long ago Persia had boasted the greatest roads in the world, but time and war had destroyed them and they lay buried beneath many layers of earth.

To stay on good terms with the populace and to quell their unease about the presence of the French, the vizier asked the Russians if they would be willing to build a new network of roads to connect the cities of Persia. They accepted the offer immediately and went straight to work. They passed over the southern cities and began with the roads that brought them closer to the borders with India. The vizier was aware of this, but he also knew that what the Russians were doing was good for the country.

The presence of the Russians in the northern and eastern parts of Persia was another thorn in the side of the British. They had no leverage with the vizier, who was eager to keep everybody happy. Another problem was that the vizier came from a family that was not easily bribed. So the British decided to wait. They provided the Afghan tribes with weapons and military advisors to block any Russian invasion of India that might take place.

At the same time the British tried to use their front men to set Mahdolia further against the vizier. They sent her false reports that the vizier was planning to weaken the position of the shah over time.

‘He signs whatever papers the vizier puts in front of him, without asking any questions,’ complained Mahdolia to her confidant, Sheikh Aqasi.

‘It is indeed disquieting,’ agreed Sheikh Aqasi. ‘It won’t be long before the shah loses all his power. It is your duty to admonish the shah.’

‘I will talk to him,’ said Mahdolia. ‘I must talk to him.’