The King

2. Prince Naser

Once upon a time there was a Persian prince who later on, after he had become king, went to visit Paris.

While meeting with a group of French businessmen he was introduced to the engineer Gustave Eiffel. No one suggested they go and see the great iron tower, however, since neither the city council nor the people of Paris were particularly happy with that useless pile of scrap.

The prince’s official name was Naser Muhammad Fatali Mozafar. These were the first names of his father, his grandfather, his great-grandfather and his great-great-grandfather.

His mother, Mahdolia, was a powerful woman.

The prince had 374 brothers, for his father had married over 1,200 wives over the course of his long life — 1,235 to be exact.

Tehran had become the capital of the country during the reign of the prince’s grandfather. Before that it had been a large village at the foot of the Alborz Mountains. In no time at all it had grown into a city of magnificent palaces, with the bazaar at its vibrant heart.

In the northern part of the city there were princes living in exquisite country estates, while in the centre wealthy merchants had built spacious houses for their large families. The rest of the inhabitants worked for the merchants in the bazaar or they had little shops or workplaces where they busied themselves with handicrafts. There was also a mass of unemployed people who had left their villages and come to Tehran to seek their fortune.

At that time Persia was bounded by Russia to the north and India to the east. To the south was the Persian Gulf, where the British sailed their big ships to India and back.

The country was wedged between two great powers. Now that the old king was dead and a new king was about to ascend the throne, both Russia and England were trying to wrest some of the power for themselves.

Although the late king had 375 sons, only eight of them were of any consequence. These were the sons whose mothers were from the same tribe as the king. In keeping with tradition the king had appointed each of these eight sons wāli, governor, of the most important districts. The crown prince was always the wāli of Tabriz.

Prince Naser was the crown prince. His mother Mahdolia was the cousin of the late king and had been his favourite wife and closest kin. Accordingly she enjoyed special status in the royal household.

Following tradition the crown prince resided in Tabriz. This city, which lay close to the Russian border, was the second most important in the country.

On his deathbed the king had arranged for both Russia and England to recognise and support the crown prince as his heir. After the king’s death the Russians — with hundreds of horses and coaches — would accompany the crown prince from Tabriz to Tehran, where his coronation was to take place. This caused great irritation among the British. They too wanted to play a prominent role in the transfer of power.

Prince Naser was an adult when he became shah and he had acquired sufficient life experience, but the real power lay in the hands of his capable vizier, Mirza Kabir. So the vizier arranged for a British army brigade to escort the prince from the city of Qazvin to Tehran. This seemed to satisfy the British embassy. Word got around that England would cover the ceremonial costs as a gesture. In an elaborate and elegant ritual held in Golestan Palace, the prince placed his father’s crown on his own head, ascended the throne and was given the official title of Shah Naser. The Russian and British representatives in Tehran congratulated him and personally presented him with gifts from Moscow and London.

The festivities in Tehran continued for forty days. The bazaar was decorated and the army musicians played day and night in the bazaar square with great enthusiasm. Many tents were erected in the middle of the city where people could come and eat.

While the shah made merry, Mirza Kabir governed the country. On the forty-first day after the coronation the vizier went to the palace to discuss the most important affairs of state with the shah. At the end of a long talk he alerted the shah to one burning issue.

‘The British and the Russians may have reached an agreement with your late father to support you, but they are also supporting your brothers in an effort to promote their interests in India.’

‘Which brothers?’ asked the shah anxiously.

‘All seven. The brothers have risen up in revolt. They have declared their independence. The three brothers who are governing the border regions — Mozafar Khan on the Russian border, Muhammad Khan and Jafar Khan on the borders with Afghanistan and India — have established open contact with the British. The country is in danger of splitting apart.’

‘What is the nature of this support?’

‘The Russians and the British are providing them with money and weapons.’

‘Traitors!’ cried the shah.

The vizier urged him, as commander-in-chief of the army, to give the order to crush all pockets of resistance, ruthlessly and without delay. After Shah Naser had signed the order the vizier bowed to his king, put the paper in his leather bag and walked to the inner courtyard where his horse was saddled and waiting for him.

Now that the long period of festivities had come to an end the shah was finally able to rest. He withdrew to the official sleeping quarters, where a special bed had been prepared, one in which all the kings of his tribe had spent their nights.