He was responsible for building Persia's first telegraph line, he ran the government printing house, and he held the governorates of Malayer and Tuyserkan.

While Aliqoli Mirza wrote a variety of books on topics ranging from history to astronomy, his most important scientific work was a Persian-language interpretation of Newton's theories.

Aliqoli Mirza was born on 7 December 1822, the forty-seventh son of Fath-Ali Shah with his Armenian kanīz from Tbilisi, Gol-Pirhan Khanum.

[1] He received the traditional princely education and possibly learned the basics of modern sciences while serving as an attendant in his father's court.

[2] His part-time tutor, Mirza Asghar Khan Afshar, had been the ambassador of Iran to France, and taught his knowledge of the Western world to the young prince, introducing him to writers of the Age of Enlightenment such as Rousseau and Voltaire.

[9] Aliqoli Mirza entered the politics of Qajar Iran in the early 1840s when his nephew, Mohammad Shah, appointed him regent and later minister to Malek Jahan Khanom.

[1][10] However, when the new Shah, Naser al-Din, arrived at Tehran with Mirza Taqi Khan Amir Kabir as his chosen prime minister, the council was abolished.

[10] In February 1850, Amir Kabir's agents exposed an alleged Bábi plot to assassinate both the prime minister and the Imam of Friday of Tehran; Aliqoli Mirza was under strong suspicion when the royal guards found Abdol-Rahim Heravi hiding in his house.

[1] In the same year, a failed assassination attempt and accusations made towards Malkam Khan's Freemasonry-inspired Faramosh Khaneh, prompted Naser al-Din Shah to close down the Dar ul-Funun, but Aliqoli Mirza with his influence, prevented this.

[1][15] His decision mainly was due to Aliqoli Mirza's mixed support for aspects of both modernity and tradition, since the Shah wanted to prevent a backlash from the clergy.

[1] As the minister, Aliqoli Mirza sent a group of forty-two students to France for further education in scientific, technical, and medical fields, and translated and published a few French articles in the Ruznameh-ye elmiya-ye dawlat aliya-ye Iran, Persia's first scholarly journal.

[1] In 1860–1861, Aliqoli Mirza appointed Abu'l-Hasan Khan Ghaffari as the editor of Persia's official gazette, Ruznameh-ye Dowlat-e Aliyeh-ye Iran, known for its lithographic illustrations.

In the beginning it was intended to reflect public opinion, but it soon turned into a literary journal, and published biographical articles on classical and contemporary Persian poets.

[20] Aliqoli Mirza at first had hopes of the council becoming a European-style parliament, but was disappointed to find out that he was acting as an "obsequious propaganda puppet", in his words, and resigned from his position.

[1] To gather material, Aliqoli Mirza ordered the Shah's decree to be communicated to the governors of the provinces, so that each could document information about the scholars of their region.

[25] He also invited a group of prominent scholars and writers who were willing to collaborate on compiling this work, and after interviewing and examining them, he selected four qualified people and commissioned them to write this book.

He inserted a rich selection of each person's works and translated them into Persian if necessary, mentioned anecdotes about them, wrote content in understandable prose for the general public, and avoided any prejudice.

[1] Al-Mutanabin begins by narrating the movement of Mazdak, which Aliqoli Mirza knew from Ibn al-Nadim's Al-Fihrist and Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, then analyses his beliefs.

[1] This account had a short section about Bábism, taken from Mohammad Taqi Sepehr's Tarikh-e Qajariya, and suffers from the same biases and inaccuracies as its source.

[40][9] In his historiography, Aliqoli Mirza strongly favors some people and sharply opposes others, among these Abol-Qasem Qa'em-Maqam, who he portrayed as an "enemy to the Shah and country" and a "traitor".

[1] History of events and accidents in Afghanistan, containing important information about the war with the British Empire, is considered the manifesto of Aliqoli Mirza's Modern Historiography.

[45] He was able to integrate aspects of modern European technological and educational advances, without losing sight of the achievements of his own culture, and apply them with tact to the Qajar environment.

[1] Hajj Sayyah, an intellectual and traveler, with all the criticisms he had of other high-ranking officials of the period, praised Aliqoli Mirza, stating that he was skillful, criticisable, and always ready to listen to suggestions.

[46] As an influential prince who could confront the shah's authority, he was able to withstand conservative pressure and displayed unorthodox views freely, especially in the areas of modern sciences and the study of religion.

[1] His opponents generally accused him and his literary circle of nocturnal gatherings and hedonistic proclivities, including Ehtesham ol-Saltaneh, who condemned Aliqoli Mirza for womanising and holding drinking competitions.

[1][47] Though by the standards of Amir Kabir's statesmanship, the achievements of his long tenure as minister were meager, he nevertheless was a realistic conduit for modernisation at a time when external and internal conditions were not favourable for such change.