Morad Mirza Hesam o-Saltaneh (Persian: سلطان‌مراد میرزا حسام‌السلطنه; 1818 – 11 March 1883) was a Qajar prince, governor and military officer in 19th-century Iran.

Despite severe winter conditions that delayed his progress, he captured the provincial capital Mashhad in 1850, reasserting royal control after extended tribal resistance.

Hasan Khan Salar and his allies were executed following the victory, and Morad Mirza was rewarded with the title "Hesam o-Saltaneh" ("Sword of the Kingdom") and the governorship of Khorasan.

Morad Mirza worked to increase Iranian influence and strengthen his alliances with the tribal leadership, establishing his authority in the towns of Sarakhs and Marv in 1852 and 1853, respectively.

Britain, which was anxious about possible encroaching Russian influence if Herat was fully incorporated into Iranian rule, forced Iran in January 1853 to accept terms that restricted its interference in Herat's internal affairs, including limiting Iranian military presence unless foreign forces attacked the area.

After months of resistance, including efforts by Morad Mirza to sow discord, Herat surrendered on 25 October 1856 due to supply shortages.

[7] Morad Mirza first started to advance gradually in the spring of 1849, in succession capturing the towns of Torshiz, Torbat-e Heydarieh, Joveyn, Sabzevar.

Leading leaders from the Afshar, Hazara, and Turkmen communities supported Hasan Khan Salar in the early phases of the siege.

[8] An Iranian regiment, sent to assist Morad Mirza and led by Hasan Ali Khan Garrusi, also participated in the siege.

However, he became an unpopular figure by October 1849 due to melting down gold and silver valuables from the Imam Reza Shrine worth 22,000 toman to refill his funds.

[8] Hasan Khan Salar was denied shelter in the Imam Reza Shrine due to his previous harsh treatment toward several powerful clergy members, and thus surrendered to Morad Mirza.

In January 1853, Britain pressured the Iranian prime minister Mirza Aqa Khan Nuri to agree to a one-sided agreement.

[11] When Sa'id Mohammad Khan became aware of the Sheil-Nuri agreement, he quickly aligned himself with the British, prompting the Iranian government to endorse Mohammad-Yusuf Mirza, a rival claimant to the leadership of Herat and member of the Durrani dynasty.

Morad Mirza briefly subjugated Sarakhs in June 1851, but he was unable to establish direct rule there due to resistance by the Khiva Khanate.

In late summer 1852, as Morad Mirza prepared another military expedition against Sarakhs, its tribal chieftain Uraz Khan Teke led sixty Turkmen nobles to Mashhad, where they pledged to send fifty elders as hostages, provide fifty soldiers for Morad Mirza's forces, and position one hundred guards on the frontiers of Khorasan.

[14] On 15 September 1855, without requesting Iranian approval or assistance, Mohammad-Yusuf Mirza overthrew Sa'id Mohammad Khan and made himself the new ruler of Herat.

[16] Kuhandil Khan had recently died, and thus his brother Dost Mohammad Khan—who had ruled Kabul since 1842—[11] captured Kandahar and installed his own governor at Farah in November 1855.

[8] An army under Sam Khan Ilkhani was sent in advance to Herat in February 1856, but it was quickly ousted by the Afghan authorities, who also almost succeeded in overthrowing Mohammad-Yusuf Mirza.

However, the latter showed no willingness to give up control of Herat and who expected autonomy as part of the agreement, leading to Morad Mirza to increase the pressure on the city.

[16] Morad Mirza's boldness and the siege techniques of the French army engineer M. Buhler played a key role in the capture of Herat.

[18] Portraying this as Iran's most significant victory since the reign of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar (r. 1789–1797), Naser al-Din Shah and Nuri made every effort to generate the loudest public noise.

The court chronicler Mohammad Taqi Sepehr read the commemoration written and sent by Morad Mirza at the public ceremony for the event: "This is that stage in the remote desert; Where the armies of Salm and Tur were lost.

This put an end to the war, forcing the Iranian army to leave Herat, relinquish all claims to Afghanistan and acknowledge their independence.

[22] In the same year, seeking to reinforce the eastern border of Khorasan, Morad Mirza also settled 2,000 Jamshidi families in the Sarjam district, southeast of Mashhad.

With his minister Mohammad Naser Khan Zahir od-Dowleh leading the military, Morad Mirza worked to manage the Turkmen threat and stabilize the region, as he had in the 1850s.

[27] In the same year, he was dismissed as the governor of Yazd, instead being given the governorship of the city of Isfahan, which he again sent Abol-Fath Mirza Moayed od-Dowleh to manage.

In 1881, Morad Mirza travelled to the Ottoman capital of Constantinople to ask for assistance against the rebellion of Sheikh Ubeydullah,[1] a leader of the Kurdish branch of the Sufi order Naqshbandi.

[28] The Ottoman envoy Suleiman Pasha traveled to Iran with Morad Mirza and brought a friendly letter to improve ties between the two nations.

[30] The Iranologist Abbas Amanat describes Morad Mirza as a "cultivated yet rambunctious prince, he was known for his Qajar pride and outspoken anti-British sentiments.