Bahram Mirza

Bahram Mirza Moezz-od-Dowleh (Persian: بهرام میرزا معزالدوله) was a Qajar prince, statesman and governor in 19th-century Iran.

With the assistance of British military advisor Henry Rawlinson, Bahram Mirza led an expedition to confront the disobedient Bakhtiari Chahar Lang tribe, which ended in a truce.

Bahram Mirza's tenure ceased soon afterward due to grievances from its residents, and he subsequently held other posts, including governor of Azerbaijan (1858–1860) and chief of the military council (1865–1868).

After the celebration of Nowruz (Iranian new year), the Qajar and Chahar Lang forces clashed on the Malamir plain near the banks of the Karun River.

[6] The contemporary historian Mohammad Taqi Sepehr reported that following the truce, Rawlinson was permitted to choose a thousand Bakhtiari tribesmen to be added to the Iranian elite regiment Nezam-e Jadid.

Escorted by Rawlinson and 5,000 soldiers, Bahram Mirza met with Mohammad Taqi Khan at Mungasht, where he gifted him a jeweled sword and a robe of honor (khilat).

[7] However, in reality, the Chahar Lang would first start paying their yearly taxes during the 1840s, as a result of the harsh measures by the new governor, Manuchehr Khan Gorji.

During his tenure, the government began to progressively widen its power to include parts of the south (such as Bushehr), started to actively push for taxes, and was able to keep enlarging certain aspects of their bureaucratic administration.

[9] In 1850, during the visit to Isfahan by Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (r. 1848–1896) and his prime minister Amir Kabir, Bahram Mirza was named deputy governor of Tehran.

His shifting provincial governorship assignments are indicative of his uncompromising wealth accumulation strategies, which in turn infuriated the populace and led to his removal.

Illustration of Kermanshah , made by Eugène Flandin and Pascal Coste in 1840
Illustration of Tehran , dated 1871