Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar

Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar (21 June 1872 – 5 April 1925) was the sixth shah of the Qajar dynasty, reigning from 3 January 1907 until his deposition on 16 July 1909. The son of Mozaffar ad-Din Shah, and through his mother Taj ol-Molouk a grandson of the reforming minister Amir Kabir, he set himself against the constitution his father had granted, dissolved the Majles and had it bombarded, and was in the end deposed by the constitutionalist forces that marched on Tehran. ¹

He was born at Tabriz, the eldest son of Mozaffar ad-Din Shah and Taj ol-Molouk, called Umm al-Khakan, a daughter of Amir Kabir. Designated crown prince, he governed Azerbaijan, the customary appanage of the heir, before succeeding his father at the beginning of January 1907. ^{1 2}

Mohammad Ali Shah was opposed to the constitution of 1906 that his father had ratified, and did not invite the constitutionalists to his coronation. In 1907 he dissolved the National Consultative Assembly and declared the constitution abolished as contrary to Islamic law. In June 1908, with Russian and British support, his Russian-officered Cossack Brigade bombarded the Majles building and arrested deputies, and the assembly was closed; resistance coalesced in Tabriz, Isfahan and Rasht. ¹

In July 1909 pro-constitution forces marched from the provinces to Tehran under leaders including Sardar As'ad, Sepehdar A'zam, Sattar Khan, Bagher Khan and Yeprem Khan, deposed the Shah and re-established the constitution. On 16 July 1909 the parliament placed his eleven-year-old son Ahmad on the throne. The ex-shah took refuge first in Russia; in 1911 he returned with Russian assistance, landing near Astarabad in an attempt to regain the throne, and failed. He lived thereafter in exile in Russia, Constantinople and finally San Remo in Italy, where he died on 5 April 1925; he was buried in the Imam Hussein Shrine at Karbala. ^{1 2}

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