Persian Empire 1845

Chapter 85 Taking office
As is widely known, the current Shah of Iran is Mohammed, but the actual power lies with Crown Prince Nasser al-Din. Some people told the Shah that the Crown Prince was planning a coup, which angered Mohammed so much that he had them executed.

Hilarious! If he wanted a coup, entering Tehran would be the perfect opportunity then; there's no need for now. Can you at least put some effort into making up stories?

Moreover, his health is not as good as before. He could be helped to walk when the expert conference opened, but now he can't. He feels that his time is coming to an end.

"Shah" Hassan came before Muhammad.

"Ah, my dear Grand Vizier, please sit down."

Hassan sat before the Shah. Although he was still the vizier, he felt increasingly out of touch with the times. The various new things were making his mind sluggish, and all he could do was try to stabilize the government and prevent chaos.

"I want to thank you for your dedication to Iran and for maintaining government stability even in dangerous circumstances."

“Shah, you flatter me. I only did what I was supposed to do.”

"Yes," Mohammed nodded. "The situation is much better now, thanks to Your Highness's strategic planning. Otherwise, we don't know where Iran would be headed."

"Yeah yeah."

The two were silent for a moment. Hassan knew his mission was complete, and that Shah had summoned him today for government matters.

“I know you haven’t been doing well lately. Why don’t you go to Tabriz and take a break?”

This is clearly a ploy to force the prime minister to resign, and given the current state of the government, he is essentially a figurehead. Amir is handling all reform-related matters as the finance minister.

The effects have become apparent in recent years: trade has increased significantly, and new technologies and knowledge have been introduced. Iran has begun to change, and Iran is falling behind.

“The Shah is right. I am indeed getting old. First there is the threat from the north, and then the Ottomans in the west and the British in the south have successively extorted Iran. If we are not strong, we will only be extorted.”

Fortunately, we have a great crown prince. The events that have occurred so far demonstrate that he will be a great monarch.

Hassan had a high opinion of Nasser al-Din. There was no other way; it was rare to find someone willing to change. They had to support him, even if it meant the fall of their kingdom.

On April 25, 1848, Hassan, the Grand Vizier of Iran, resigned. Shah Mohammed announced that Finance Minister Amir would assume the position of the new Grand Vizier.

When the news came out, no one was surprised, because Amir's rise to power was inevitable. He was now the finance minister and a major driving force behind national reforms, so he was bound to be entrusted with important responsibilities.

They had assumed Nasser al-Din would become prime minister after he came to power, but he had already become one. Amir was also bewildered; how did he suddenly become the Grand Vizier? He hadn't received any prior notice; it was all announced by the Shah. Was it the Crown Prince who persuaded him?

This really has nothing to do with Nasser al-Din; he only just learned of it himself. It can only be said that the Shah made the decision to change the officials himself.

This is actually understandable, since Nasser al-Din also has to report to the Shah for a decision. Now that he's become the Vizier, he should do a good job.

Amir entered the prime minister's office and met Hassan.

"From this moment on, you are the new Grand Vizier. Congratulations."

After leaving those words, Hassan left the office, leaving Amir alone inside.

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Trade between Iran and India also picked up, but it remained small-scale. However, during this period, two groups were particularly active in their interactions—the Parsi and the Iranians.

Between the 8th and 10th centuries, some Persians who adhered to Zoroastrianism migrated to the Gujarat region on the west coast of India, refusing to convert. These Persian immigrants were known in India as the Parsis.

Although the Parsis originally came from Persia, most Indian Parsis have lost social or familial ties with Persians and no longer share a common language. In the centuries since the first Zoroastrians arrived in India, the Parsis have integrated themselves into Indian society while maintaining their unique customs and traditions.

The British had a completely different impression of the Parsis than they had of the Indians. They considered Indians "passive, ignorant, and irrational, outwardly compliant but inwardly cunning," while the Parsis were "diligent, moral, and shrewd." Unlike the Indians' strong resistance to Western civilization, the Parsis encouraged their young men to attend British schools and learn advanced knowledge. As a result, more and more Parsis entered the cities, joining the administrative departments of the British Indian government and the industrial and commercial sectors, becoming compradors for British merchants and intermediaries between the British and Indians.

Compared to the Parsis, the Iranians have a much shorter history. They have only lived here for about forty or fifty years, a time when the Qajar dynasty's persecution of Zoroastrians intensified, leading many Zoroastrians to flee Iran. These Zoroastrians who fled to India are more closely related to their Iranian counterparts than the Parsis in India. The Iranians still speak Persian and Zoroastrian dialects.

After Iran eased its persecution of Zoroastrianism, some people returned to Iran from India and settled in Yazd. Some Parsi also returned from India; although India was good, the British government's policy of religious conversion still felt unsettling. Now that Iran recognized Zoroastrianism, they figured they might as well go back and see.

The Viceroy of India, Marquis Dalhousie, was largely unmoved by this phenomenon, as he was pushing forward his greatest achievement—the principle of no succession, meaning that if a ruler of an Indian princely state had no heir, his land would revert to the East India Company upon his death, even if the heir was adopted. In Dalhousie's words, this principle offered an opportunity to "get rid of those insignificant states, which may bring trouble, but I dare say they will never bring power."

In his view, only in this way could India progress. And in order to spread civilization to all places, he began preparing for war against the Sikh Empire.

The Sikh Empire was now plagued by internal strife, and after its defeat in the Afghan War, Britain felt that only by conquering the Punjab region and controlling Peshawar, the only outlet between Afghanistan and India, could it be annexed. Therefore, they began to rebuild their army in preparation for annexing the Sikh Empire.

Meanwhile, everyone in the Sikh Empire was preoccupied with power struggles, with only a few individuals considering uniting against the British. At this point, its demise seemed inevitable.

(End of this chapter)