Amir Kabir
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- This article is about the chancellor of Persia. For the Iranian university of the same name, see Amirkabir University of Technology.
Amir Kabir (1807 - January 11, 1852)(Persian: امیرکبیر ), also known as Mirza Taghi Khan Amir-Nezam (Persian: میرزا تقیخان امیرنظام ), was the Prime minister of Persia (Iran) under Nasereddin Shah (The emperor). He was born in Hazaveh, a county of Arak.
His father, Karbalaee Ghorban (Persian: کربلائی قربان ), was a cook for Mirza Abu'l-Qasim Farahani Qá'im Maqam, a previous prime minister, which made Mirza Taghi Khan learn many skills of the court.
Amir Kabir was sent to the Ottoman Empire to represent Persia in negotiations for an end to a hundred years of war between the two empires. He also helped Nasereddin Shah to receive the throne, so the Shah made him his chancellor and gave his sister to him in marriage.
Government expenditure was slashed, and a distinction was made between the privy and public purses. The instruments of central administration were overhauled, and Amir Kabir assumed responsibility for all areas of the bureaucracy. Additionally, Amir Kabir curtailed foreign interference in Iran's domestic affairs.
Amir Kabir started many reformistic movements in Persia. He founded Darolfonoon, the first European-style college in Persia. He also supported the foundation of the first Persian newspaper, vaghaye al etefaghiyeh, He established and planned for almost all of industries in Iran including steel factory, ship making, textile, weaponry, sugar, glass, Samovar, tea, Ceramic, etc that reduced importation specially from Russia. Amir Kabir established strict customs procedures to reduce importation from Britain and made a strong and stable economy. Amir Kabir implemented patent regulation for the first time in Iran to support inventors and industries and supplied them with loans and facilities. He enforced Quarantine and mandatory vaccination to prevent frequent outbreaks. He made improvements in military, in discipline, salaries and establishing Navy, and extended Persian influence in Northern and Eastern borders and captured Herat without using force by diplomacy. He made a very sophisticated intelligence service and fought against bribery, fraud and foreign interference. He strengthened the law, discipline and order and even fixed the Shah's salary. He fixed huge deficits by lapsing the huge salaries that members of the royal family were receiving from the national treasury, which caused the royals, led by the Shah's mother and Britain's spy Mirza Agha Khan Noori, to invent allegations against him. These people convinced the Shah to dismiss Amir Kabir and send him into internal exile in Kashan.
It is said that the Russian embassy offered him a refuge in Russia, which Amir Kabir declined. Later, when the Shah was drunk, the Shah's mother and her aides asked him for an order to execute Amir Kabir, and executed the order very quickly in Kashan's Fin Bath, before the Shah could rescind the order. Mirza Agha khan Noori became Prime minister and undid most of his reforms.
The Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran today is named after him in his honor.
