Abolqasem Najm

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Abolqaasem Nadjm, second from the right, among Iranian senators of the Pahlavi era

Abolqasem Najm (Najm ol-Molk) (Persian: ابولقاسم نجم), Abolqāsem Najm (1892 – October 19, 1981) was a minister of Iran.

His father was Mirza Mahmoud Shirazi, a merchant, who died when Abolqasem was an infant. His mother was the daughter of Iran's first modern physicist and astronomern, Mirza Abdulqaffar Nadjm ol-Molk. Abdulqaffar, who taught mathematics and physics at Dar ul-Funun, took Abolqasem under his custody after Abolqasem was orphaned. Abolqasem received his basic education from his grandfather and later inhereited his grandfather's title of 'Nadjm ol-Molk' (star of the country) after Mirza Abdulqaffar's retirement.

He studied at the Tehran School of Political Sciences. After graduation he entered the service of the ministry of foreign affairs (Iran) in 1912 as an attaché. He was Iran's ambassador to the third Reich, but was appointed to France upon his own request just prior to the second world war.

In 1937 when Nadjm was Iran's ambassador to France, the French journal L'Europe Nouvelle criticized the economic condition of Iran. Reza Shah Pahlavi demanded an apology and received one. A French columnist reopened the wound one month later by rehearsing the incident under the punning headline // n'y avait pas la de quoi fouetter un Shah. This was a parody of the French phrase "There was nothing there with which to beat a cat," (playing on the words 'Shah' and 'chat', which is French for cat) suggesting that the King of Kings had made a fuss about nothing. The poor pun was enough to make Reza Shah Pahlavi immediately recall Nadjm to Tehran "for an explanation," and withdraw his promise to lend Iranian art objects to the coming Paris International Exhibition which was planned for May 1937.^[1]

Nadjm later served as Iran's ambassador to Japan, until the relations between the two countries were severed due to Iran's declaration of war to the Axis in April 1943. Nadjm was summoned to Tehran and the Japanese delegation were order to leave Tehran at the same time .^[2] ^[3]. He was then appointed as the embassador to Afghanistan. As a neighbouring country and a Persian-speaking monarchy, Afghanistan used to be considered important and the post of ambassador in Kabul had more significance attacehd to it than it had in more modern times.

He was the minister of finance in Ebrahim Hakimi's cabinet and tried to fight corruption, but was held back by the interferences by the royal family. This resulted in his resignation and the downfall of the cabinet. His last government job was as the governor of the oil-rich Khuzestan province and later as an elected senator. He was also a member of the Oil Commission, a group of politicians the works of whom eventually resulted in the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry.

Abolqaasem Nadjm, second from the right, in a meeting of the Iranian Oil Commission.

Abolghassem Nadjm died in Tehran at the age of 89. His brother Mohammad Hossein Nadjm was also an Iranian diplomat, who served as Iranian embassador to Lebanon and charge d'affair in Paris.