Persian Empire 1845

Chapter 58 Expert Meeting
At the regency's urging, the first Iranian expert conference officially opened on March 3.

The conference had 61 members, including 9 Ulama representatives, 2 Armenian representatives, 1 Jewish representative, and 1 Zoroastrian representative.

In addition, there were 8 representatives of the royal family, 9 representatives of nobles and tribes, and the remaining 31 were important reformist figures from various regions. They came here to continue to promote their proposals.

This was the Shah's first meeting since falling ill, but his health had deteriorated significantly. He needed the Crown Prince's assistance to walk.

Naser al-Din looked at Shah, and after Muhammad nodded, he opened the manuscript in his hand and began to read it aloud.

"Fellow members of parliament, ministers. Since Ismail established and rebuilt the empire, Iran has experienced many setbacks, but it has overcome them each time."

But now, the Russians are seizing our land, and the Ottomans are oppressing our people. Iran has not yet awakened to this crisis, and the country is facing its most perilous moment. We must complete this task in the shortest possible time.

Nasser al-Din began announcing several decrees as his governing agenda for the coming decades:
1. Establish a large parliament to gather wisdom from all quarters.

2. With everyone united, we discussed various matters.

3. Develop the economy and promote the all-round development of agriculture, industry, commerce and manufacturing.

4. Change customs and habits, and revitalize education.

5. Enhance international standing and return to the pinnacle of national strength.

This is a transformation Iran has never seen before. The Shah needs everyone to unite and strive for the nation's revival.

The conference became Iran's legislative body and began reviewing and discussing various proposals. However, the central government still wielded considerable power.

The first thing proposed at the expert meeting was to emulate Prussia and implement national education.

As Prussia's power weakened during the Seven Years' War, the Prussian government initiated a series of reforms to revitalize the nation, including educational reforms. These included the establishment of teacher training colleges to cultivate qualified teachers. The Prussian government believed that teachers were the soul of education and therefore the development of the teaching force was essential. Prussia established teacher training colleges specifically to train teachers. Prussia also stipulated that teachers must possess certain academic qualifications and certifications to teach.

The Prussian government enacted a compulsory education law, requiring all children to receive an education. The government believed that education was the foundation of national strength and therefore it was essential to universalize education and improve the quality of the population. In 1763, Prussia promulgated the "Regulations for General Schools," stipulating that all children aged 7 to 14 must receive an education.

The establishment of the Prussian education system yielded remarkable results. The overall quality of Prussian citizens improved rapidly, and the country's competitiveness increased significantly. Prussia became one of the most educationally advanced countries in Europe at the time.

Iran also needs a large number of skilled workers to boost its economy and expand its support base, but the proposal has been opposed by nearly two-thirds of the population.

Mohammed is now able to walk, but Nasser al-Din's regency remains in place. The Shah declared that most matters would be handled by the Crown Prince, with him only needing to make the final decisions. The reason is simple: it's too expensive.

Indeed, many people view compulsory education as a waste of resources and manpower. Some members of parliament have even cited the example of the world's two greatest powers, Britain and Russia, which do not have compulsory education, while neighboring Prussia did, yet did not become a global superpower as a result. Moreover, even if they did implement compulsory education, it could only be a church-based system, in other words, entrusting compulsory education to Shia clerics, with the government allocating funds to them, and letting mosques be responsible for compulsory education.

This can indeed save some costs. Mosques are located all over the country, so students can go home to live, saving the cost of building schools. Clergy have other income and do not live on salaries, so they only need to receive some subsidies.

But the problem is, if we do that, then why did we even go to war in the first place? Wouldn't that be a waste of time?

However, considering that it is difficult to implement compulsory education now, the plan was changed to two separate initiatives: establishing a top university and sending students abroad to study.

According to the plan, Iran is divided into 14 regions, with one university established in each region. The state also sponsors 200 students annually to study abroad, enabling them to learn advanced Western technologies.

To address the teacher shortage, the government will also hire some foreigners as lecturers. This is the current policy of education reform, but military education will continue to be deepened, striving to ensure that every soldier is literate.

Naser al-Din was still processing proposals in his old office. The Tabriz-Tehran railway had been completed, and upgrades were underway for ports such as Bushehr and Bandar Abbas. Civil servants had arrived in various locations to begin their work. The traditional local nobles had lost their political privileges and were no longer able to stir up trouble, as doing so would require a large number of people to join them. But now even the peasants were ignoring them, only hoping that the land compensation would arrive quickly.

Following this meeting, relations between the Iranian government and Ulema showed signs of easing. Religious figures were not unwilling to reform, but rather preferred a more conservative approach, carrying out reforms slowly while maintaining social stability.

Meanwhile, nine Urima members of parliament submitted a bill to protect local culture. Having successfully linked himself to Iranian culture, Nasser al-Din was aware of their intentions but let them be.

Just as the expert meeting was being held, government forces began their offensive on Mashhad. Upon hearing of the Tehran government's decision, the local population and Urima believed the situation was hopeless and surrendered the city without bloodshed. The final piece of the puzzle was complete. Iran regained stability.

Their surrender came at just the right time; Said and his men returned from Khorasan without encountering resistance. He only learned of the events that had transpired back home after arriving at this holy site, so he hurried back to Tehran.

“Shah!” Sayyid knelt before Muhammad as soon as he returned.

"Get up quickly. You've had a hard time on your mission to the east. Why are you still kneeling?"

"How dare those traitors treat you like this! If I find out, I will definitely come back and make them pay!"

Muhammad stopped the old man from speaking and instead inquired about his mission.

"Shah, on this occasion, I served as an envoy to the five kingdoms of Khiva, Bukhara, Kokand, Herat, and Kabul, and we signed trade treaties with them, as well as alliance treaties with Khiva, Bukhara, and Herat."

This diplomatic effort was remarkably fruitful, as Iran swallowed up a market of nearly 500 million people. While Herat and Kabul had to be shared with Britain, the three Central Asian countries were taken directly from Russia.

The only drawback is that it requires a railway extension to Central Asia. In comparison, Russia can transport troops to Central Asia faster than Iran, and Iran must be faster than Russia.

(End of this chapter)