He was the brother of Mass'oud Mirza Zell-e Soltan and Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar.

Kamran Mirza also served as Iran's Commander-in-Chief, appointed in 1868 for the first time, and minister of war from 1880 to 1896 and from 1906 to 1907.

In 1862, when he was 6, Naser al-Din Shah appointed him as the governor of Tehran with the stewardship of Pasha Khan Amin ol-Molk.

He was styled Na'eb es-Saltaneh, Vice Regent, in 1867 before the Shah's trip to Khorasan and was given the title Amir Kabir, grand commander, the highest rank in the Qajar military, by his father in 1869.

The star of Kamran Mirza's fortunes plummeted, but it was not entirely eclipsed, after Naser al-Din Shah's assassination in 1896.