Education
When in 1899, due to the intrigues of the Shah's entourage his father was exiled to Baghdad in Ottoman Mesopotamia, he sent his three elder sons to Beirut, to the College of Saint Joseph, A school administered by Jesuit fathers. At that time, Firouz was twelve years old, Abbas ten, and Mohammad Vali nine years old.
Abdol Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma had progressive ideas and believed that to lead Persia into the modern world, his children ought to study in European schools and universities as opposed to receiving a classical education. In 1903 Firouz left Beirut for the Lycee Janson de Sailly in Paris. A year later the two young princes still in Lebanon, set out for Europe, accompanied by a French tutor, monsieur Andre Montadon. At a stop in Constantinople, Mohammad Hossein, the fourth son of Farman Farma, and a young cousin, Hossein Gholi, joined them for the journey.
Abbas Mirza, was a sensitive young man who appreciated nature and the human environment. He liked literature, the arts, photography, Italian operas, and history, though ultimately, he was destined for a military and political career. He was also fluent in English, French, and Arabic.
The young princes toured a number of European countries before finally settling down. Abbas Mirza was sent to Harrow School, before training as an officer at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, England. He also studied at the Universite de Liege. Finally, he spent a year with the French Alpine troops (Chasseurs ALpins), before returning to Persia. On his return he wrote a book in Persian entitled One Year In The French Army (Published 1910) which was dedicated to the young king Ahmad Shah Qajar and his war minister, Azzam.
In 1911, Abbas Mirza married Zahra Soltan (Ezzat os-Saltaneh), daughter of Nezam os-Saltaneh. She was a young lady very much interested in the arts and a fluent French speaker. In the same year, Abbas Mirza became a member of the Persian delegation that was sent to London for the coronation of King Geordge the Fifth. While in London, he found a book on the diplomatic relations between Persia and Napoleon which he then translated. The book was published in Tehran with the title The relationship of Napoleon and Iran.
Read more about this topic: Prince Abbas Mirza Farman Farmaian
Famous quotes containing the word education:
“You are told a lot about your education, but some beautiful, sacred memory, preserved since childhood, is perhaps the best education of all. If a man carries many such memories into life with him, he is saved for the rest of his days. And even if only one good memory is left in our hearts, it may also be the instrument of our salvation one day.”
—Feodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881)
“I envy neither the heart nor the head of any legislator who has been born to an inheritance of privileges, who has behind him ages of education, dominion, civilization, and Christianity, if he stands opposed to the passage of a national education bill, whose purpose is to secure education to the children of those who were born under the shadow of institutions which made it a crime to read.”
—Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825–1911)
“Major [William] McKinley visited me. He is on a stumping tour.... I criticized the bloody-shirt course of the canvass. It seems to me to be bad “politics,” and of no use.... It is a stale issue. An increasing number of people are interested in good relations with the South.... Two ways are open to succeed in the South: 1. A division of the white voters. 2. Education of the ignorant. Bloody-shirt utterances prevent division.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)