Prince Abbas Mirza Farman Farmaian - Work

Work

Before the First World War Abbas Mirza, who had been given the honorary title of Salar Lashgar (Army Chief), served as a member of the army General Headquarters in Tehran. He was the commanding officer of two battalions, the Nahavand and the Farahan. He also held the post of governor for the Hamadan province.

During the First World War, he was appointed Secretary of War, as part of the National Government led by his father in law, Nezzam os-Saltaneh. The Provisional Government was allied to the Germans and the Ottomans and fought the Russian invasion of the western areas of Persia. After Germany's defeat, Nezzam os-Saltaneh was exiled to Constantinople with his family, but in the post war turmoil Abbas Mirza returned to Tehran to assist his brother Firouz Mirza (Nosrat ed-Doleh), the Minister of Foreign Affaris, and his father Abdol Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma, the then governor of the Fars province.

After the war, Abbas Mirza was governor of Kermanshah, Hamadan, and Lorestan. For a short period as well he was the Minister of Social Affairs. He was also in the Ministry of War, as part of a comittiee to reform and modernise the Persian military institutions. In the years leading to the fall of the Qajar dynasty, and after its fall, he was twice elected for the Parliament (Majles).

Throughout the his life, which involved war, public service, and raising a family (four daughters and two sons), Abbas Mirza maintained an active interest in photography and left a large collection of work behind. He also wrote a history of the war in Mesopotamia (1914–1918), which has been published by Siamak Books, Tehran (1386). He was struck by cancer at the age of forty five and died in Berlin in 1935.

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