±·´¡´³²Ñ-´¡³¢-³§´¡³¢á¹¬A±·´¡, Malek TÄåj ḴÄånom, a Qajar princess whose life spanned the late Qajar and early Pahlavi eras (b. 1231-32 Š./1853; d. 1311 Š./1932, FIGURE 1). Najm-al-Salá¹ana was the eldest daughter of Firuz MirzÄå, son of Ê¿AbbÄås MirzÄå Qajar. Her mother was ḤÄåjia HomÄå ḴÄånom, daughter of Bahman MirzÄå BahÄåʾ-al-Dawla, who was the son of Fatḥ-Ê¿Ali Shah. HomÄå ḴÄånom was deeply devout and endowed a mosque with an adjacent school, in Gozar-e Vazir Daftar in the Sangelaj district near MeydÄån Vaḥdat (previously ŠÄåpur), which are still extant and known collectively as the mosque of ŠÄåhzÄåda ḴÄånom. Aside from Najm-al-Salá¹ana, Firuz MirzÄå and HomÄå ḴÄånom had two daughters and a son. One daughter died young and the second, Sorur-al-Salá¹ana, married Moẓaffar-al-Din MirzÄå, the crown prince, and became known as Ḥażrat-e Ê¿OlyÄå. Firuz MirzÄå and HomÄå ḴÄånom’s son, Ê¿Abd-al-Ḥosayn MirzÄå FarmÄånfarmÄå (FarmÄån-FarmÄåʾiyÄån [Raʾis], I, pp. 29-30), married the daughter of the crown prince. The family of Firuz MirzÄå was thus closely related to that of the future Moẓaffar-al-Din Shah.
When she was about 14 years old, Najm-al-Salá¹ana was married to MorteżÄå-Qoli Khan, son of Wakil-al-Molk KermÄåni, the governor of Kerman. He had already been married and had several children. MorteżÄå-Qoli Khan and Najm-al-Salá¹ana had two daughters, Šowkat-al-Dawla, who married Sahm-al-Molk, the patriarch of the BayÄåt family, and Ê¿Ešrat-al-Dawla, who married MirzÄå Ê¿Ali Movaṯṯaq-al-Salá¹ana and became related to the family of Vazir Daftar. (FarmÄån-FarmÄåʾiyÄån [Raʾis], I, p. 33). Upon the death of his father, MorteżÄå-Qoli Khan inherited his title and was known as Wakil-al-Molk á¹®Äåni. After encountering riots in Kerman during his governorship in there (1869-79), compounded by his own serious financial difficulties, he was recalled to Tehran where he died in the same year (Aḥmadi KermÄåni, pp. 244-91).
In 1881 Najm-al-Salá¹ana married her second husband, MirzÄå HedÄåyat-Ä€llÄåh Vazir Daftar, the son of MirzÄå Ḥosayn Ä€štiÄåni and paternal cousin of MirzÄå Yusof Mostowfi-al-MamÄålek. MirzÄå HedÄåyat was also the brother-in-law of Mostowfi-al-MamÄålek and already had grown up children (BÄåmdÄåd, IV, pp. 422-27). Najm-al-Salá¹ana and MirzÄå HedÄåyat had a daughter, Ä€mena Daftar-al-Moluk, and a son, Moḥammad (the future Moá¹£addeq-al-Salá¹ana), one of the most significant political figures of 20th century Iran. Ä€mena married Noá¹£rat-al-Dowla, thereby becoming her maternal uncle’s daughter-in-law, and had a son with him, Moẓaffar Qoli MirzÄå, Moẓaffar-e Firuz. She divorced Noá¹£rat-al-Dowla and later married Abu'l-Fażl MirzÄå Azod (Azod-al-Salá¹ana), a son of Moẓaffar-al-Din Shah, with whom she had two daughters (Qods Aʿẓam and Banu Aʿẓam) and a son (Abu'l-Naá¹£r MirzÄå Azod). Noá¹£rat-al-Dowla was eventually killed by Reza Shah and Moẓaffar felt a deep hatred for his son Mohammad Reza Shah. After a short period during which Moẓaffar rose in the administration of QavÄåm, he was sent as an ambassador to the Soviet Union. After his dismissal, he spent the rest of his life in exile in Paris and was a vociferous opponent of the Pahlavi regime (see FarmÄån-FarmÄåʾiyÄån [Raʾis[, I, pp. 199-202). When Moḥammad Moá¹£addeq was about ten, his father died in the cholera pandemic of 1891-1892, leaving Najm-al-Salá¹ana in sole charge of her young family. In later life Moá¹£addeq often expressed his gratitude towards his mother for her guidance and upbringing (Katouzian, p. 22).
In 1893, Najm-al-Salá¹ana was married for the third time, to MirzÄå Fażl-AllÄåh Wakil-al-Molk Tabrizi ṬabÄåá¹abÄåʾi DibÄå, secretary to the crown prince Moẓaffar-al-Din (i.e. her own brother-in-law). They had one son, Abu’l-Ḥasan DibÄå (á¹®aqat-al-Dawla), who became a successful businessman and founder of Tehran Park Hotel, the first modern hotel in Iran.
When Moẓaffar-al-Din Shah ascended the throne in 1896, Najm-al-Salá¹ana’s brother Ê¿Abd-al-Ḥosayn Mirza FarmÄånfarmÄå harbored great expectations of becoming the minister of war, given his military training and the fact that he was the Shah’s son-in-law. Restless and ambitious, he made many enemies at the Qajar court who accused him of plotting against the Shah and prompted his exile to the Ê¿´¡³Ù²¹²úÄå³Ù in Iraq from 1898 to 1902 (Ettehadieh, 2004, I, pp. 191-205). Najm-al-Salá¹ana, who had been supported by her brother in all her troubles, now took charge of his affairs. She wrote to him often, passing along news about events in Tehran, about his wife and sons, and about his property, and tried to comfort him during his exile. She traveled to the Ê¿´¡³Ù²¹²úÄå³Ù to see him and went from there on the Ḥajj pilgrimage. She and her sister Ḥażrat-e Ê¿OlyÄå pleaded Ê¿Abd-al-Ḥosayn Mirza’s case at the court; but when the Shah did finally albeit reluctantly give his assent, Ê¿Abd-al-Ḥosayn Mirza was not allowed to reside in Tehran (Ettehadieh, 2004, I, p. 213).
The letters of Najm-al-Salá¹ana to her brother have survived and date mostly from the year 1899, when he was in exile. As correspondence by women is something of a rarity until the twentieth century and not many examples have survived, these letters are of special significance. Besides throwing light on her somewhat rudimentary literacy, they give an insight into her personal world. She expresses her preoccupation with religion and her concern for the welfare of her children, her marriage, and their future. Interestingly she expresses her feelings about her son, Moḥammad (Moá¹£addeq), and thanks God that he has turned out well; for a fatherless boy, she writes, can often go astray. She also provides an insight into complex family relationships, which is of interest as a backdrop to political events. One of her worries was her relationship with her husband’s many grown up children. She also gives her views about the Shah and his courtiers, who do not escape criticism (Ettehadieh, 2009, pp. 155-92).
Misfortune once again struck when her husband MirzÄå Fażl-AllÄåh Khan died in 1906 and she was left to take care of her young son. The Constitutional Revolution, which ushered in a period of political instability began in the same year. Moẓaffar-al-Din Shah, already suffering from ill health, died a year later and was succeeded by the crown prince Moḥammad-Ê¿Ali, who was not in favor of the newly established Majles (parliament). Moá¹£addeq, now 24 years old, was a liberal in favor of constitutionalism and when the Majles was bombarded and closed on the orders of the Shah, he felt unable to remain in Iran and opted for study abroad (Katouzian, p. 30).
There is little information about Najm-al-Salá¹ana’s life and her attitude towards the new changes heralded by the Constitutional Revolution, the closure of the Majles, the civil war, the abdication of the Moḥammad-Ê¿Ali Shah in favor of his young son Aḥmad MirzÄå, the Regency, World War I, and the devastation and famine the country suffered as a consequence. The change of dynasty was no doubt perturbing to her, particularly when Moá¹£addeq as a member of the parliament voted against it (Makki, III, pp. 445-50), although her strong religious beliefs must have provided her with some solace.
Towards the end of her life in 1928, and following the philanthropic example set by her mother, who had built and endowed a mosque and a school, and her brother, who took a more modern approach and endowed the Institut Pasteur, Najm-al-Salá¹ana built and endowed the Najmiya hospital in Tehran. This was the first modern private hospital in Tehran with a special fund earmarked for the care of poor patients. Though by now advanced in age, she supervised the actual day-to-day process of construction of the hospital, as witnessed and narrated affectionately by one of her nieces, MehrmÄåh (FarmÄån-FarmÄåʾiyÄån [Raʾis], I, p. 32). She made Moá¹£addeq and his descendants the custodians of the hospital with the proviso that the custody would go to her other son Abu’l-Ḥasan if there were no other descendants. During his lifetime Moḥammad Moá¹£addeq was the custodian of the hospital, a responsibility that was passed on to his son ḠolÄåm-Ḥosayn and later on to Maḥmud Mosadeq. Najm-al-Salá¹ana also took the unprecedented step of making her eldest daughter the supervisor of the hospital, to be succeeded thereafter by her other daughters (ReżÄåʾi). She died in 1932 and was buried in Najaf.
During the oil nationalization movement of the early 1950s, when Moá¹£addeq was a popular Prime Minister who had challenged the might of the British Empire, one of his supporters, Moḥammad Ḥasan Šamširi, the owner of a well-known traditional restaurant (ÄŒelow-kebÄåbi) by the Bazaar, built an annex to the Najmiya hospital, thus enlarging and modernizing it. The hospital remains functional to this day and is a lasting tribute to her memory.
Bibliography:
Aḥmadi KermÄåni, FarmÄåndehÄån-e KermÄån, ed. M. BÄåstÄåni PÄårizi, Tehran, 1991.
M. BamdÄåd, Šarḥ-e ḥÄål-e rejÄål-e IrÄån, dar qarn-e 12, 13, 14 Hejri, Tehran, 1999.
M. Ettehadieh, ZamÄåna va kÄårnÄåma-ye siÄåsi va ejtemÄåʾi-e Ê¿Abd-al-Ḥosayn MirzÄå FarmÄånfarmÄå, Tehran, 2004.
Idem, ZanÄåni ke zir-e maqnaÊ¿a-ye kolÄåhdÄåri namuda and, Zendegi-e Malek TÄåj ḴÄånom Najm-al-Salá¹ana, Tehran, 2009.
MehrmÄåh FarmÄån-FarmÄåʾiyÄån (Raʾis), Zendegi-nÄåma-ye Ê¿Abd-al-Ḥosayn MirzÄå FarmÄånfarmÄå, 2 vols., Tehran, 1998.
H. Katouzian, Musaddiq and the Struggle for Power in Iran, London and New York, 1990, tr. A. Tadayyon, as Moá¹£addeq va nabard-e qodrathÄå, Tehran, 2000.
H. Makki, TÄåriḵ-e bist sÄåla-ye IrÄån, EnqerÄåż-e QajÄåriya va taškil-e selsela-ye Pahlavi, III, Tehran, 1946.
O. ReżÄåʾi, “BimÄårestÄån-e Najmiya,” Miraṯ-e JÄåvidÄån 7/4, 1999, pp. 37-52.
(Mansoureh Ettehadieh)
Originally Published: July 22, 2010
Last Updated: July 22, 2010
Cite this entry:Mansoureh Ettehadieh, “±·´¡´³²Ñ-´¡³¢-³§´¡³¢á¹¬A±·´¡,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, online edition, 2010, available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/najm-al-saltana (accessed on 20 September 2016).
