Mirza Abolhassan Khan Ilchi (Persian: میرزا ابوالحسن خان ایلچی; 1776 – 1845) was an Iranian politician and diplomat who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs twice, first from 1824 to 1834, and then again from 1838 until his death in 1845.

In March 1813, Mirza Abolhassan signed the Treaty of Golestan on behalf of Iran, thus concluding the Russo-Iranian War of 1804–1813 and leading to the loss of most of the Iranian holdings in the Caucasus.

Mirza Abolhassan was part of the faction that opposed another war with Russia, fearing the capability of the Russian Empire and wanted armed conflict to be avoided at all costs.

The Iranians eventually lost the second war with the Russians, and were thus forced to sign the Treaty of Turkmenchay on 28 February 1828, in which they agreed to cede Erivan and Nakhichevan.

[2][3] Before his service under the Qajars, Hajji Ebrahim Shirazi had served under the Zand dynasty (1751–1794),[4] in whose court Mirza Abolhassan had received his early education.

He entered Fath-Ali Shah's court with the assistance of his wife's powerful relative Hajji Mohammad Hossein Isfahani, and amassed a substantial fortune.

During this period, the focus of the major powers' interest in the East had shifted to Iran as a result of Napoleon's preparations to march to India.

[9] On May 7, 1809, Mirza Abolhassan set out from Tehran with Harford Jones-Brydges and James Justinian Morier, who was serving as the mission's secretary at the time.

A thorough and frequently sarcastic description of the trip was provided by Morier in A Journey Through Persia, Armenia and Asia Minor to Constantinople, in the years 1808 and 1809.

The goal of Mirza Abolhassan's mission was to enlist England's assistance in getting Russia to hand over the occupied Iranian territories in the Caucasus to Iran.

[2] Mirza Abolhassan drew the attention of the high society during his time in London, and newspapers and private letters as far away as the United States covered every move and word he made.

[11] The Iranian historian Naghmeh Sohrabi, however, opposes this viewpoint: "it is important to keep in mind that fidelity to the state had different meanings in the context of early nineteenth-century Iran.

"[11] Another Iranian historian, Hasan Javadi, notes that "Receiving gifts was not uncommon among the courtiers of Fath-'Ali Shah, but a regular annuity from a foreign government was unusual.

On the recommendation of the chief minister Mirza Shafi Mazandarani and others, he grudgingly agreed to this arrangement in the hopes that the British, acting as the Russian emperor's intermediary, could secure a more favorable agreement for him.

One observer hypothesized that Fath-Ali Shah's acceptance of peace with Russia was due to Iranian political officials' little knowledge of the world's affairs and their reliance on Ouseley's pledge to advocate for the return of some of the territories under Russian occupation.

[14] As he waited for a reply, Mirza Abolhassan asked Rtishchev whether Russia could give Iran a very little piece of land as an act of goodwill.

[15] Per the terms of the treaty, Iran ceded to Russia the sultanates of Shamshadil, Qazzaq, Shuragol, and the khanates of Baku, Derbent, Ganja, Shakki, Quba, Shirvan, Karabakh, and the northern and central part of Talish.

[17] The Treaty of Golestan's territorial arrangements were unclear, for example, in Talish, where it was left up to the mutually appointed administrators to "determine what mountains, rivers, lakes, villages, and fields shall mark the line of frontier."

[18] In 1814, Mirza Abolhassan was in charge of the first diplomatic conversation with Russia to affirm the Treaty of Golestan and to discuss the recovery of some of the lost territory.

The trip, which gave the Iranian elite the chance to research Russia in greater detail than ever before, was described by a younger member of the delegation named Mirza Mohammad Hadi Alavi-Shirazi.

[21] In 1818–1819, Mirza Abolhassan was dispatched on another official diplomatic mission to Europe, this time to Austria and London, where he was tasked with buying weaponry.

Mirza Abolhassan kept this position and participated in the majority of significant Iranian foreign policy decisions until Fath-Ali Shah's death in 1834.

[2] In early 1825, the northern bank of Lake Gokcha, which the Iranians believed to be a part of their realm, was seized by the Russians under the orders of Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov, the governor of Georgia.

The state of the Muslim minority under Russian authority and, lastly, whether and to what extent Russia had been weakened as a result of its internal crises, were secondary concerns.

Furthermore, the war party's interpretation of Russian events was more optimistic than realistic, arguing that Russia was weak overall, especially in the Caucasus due to Yermolov's recent defeats and the Decembrist revolt in December 1825.

[28] The Iranians eventually lost the second war with the Russians, and were thus forced to sign the Treaty of Turkmenchay on 28 February 1828, in which they agreed to cede Erivan and Nakhichevan.

[2][31] The Hayratnameh is a day-by-day account of Mirza Abolhassan's first trip to Europe and starts with the day he left Tehran and ends with his return to Iran.

"[32] According to Neguin Yavari and Isabel Miller; "Given Abu al-Hasan Khan's eventful life, it seems quite natural that there should be contradictory judgements on him and his actions.

"[21] Mirza Abolhassan visited numerous scientific, industrial, technological, social, and political institutions while he was in Britain, studying many of their contemporary accomplishments.

Mirza Abolhassan also once recommended to Fath-Ali Shah that a post office be built to handle people's mail deliveries and other needs while also generating income for the budget of the government.