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Prince Firuz Nosratdoleh (1889-1936).
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Persia in 1919 and 1920, delegate of Persia to the League of Nations during this period.
Born in 1889, Firuz Mirza Firuz, son of Abd al-Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma and Ezat al-Dowleh, completed his primary and secondary education successively in Tehran and Beirut in St. Joseph Jesuit School, and at the Lycée Janson de Sailly in Paris.
He returned to Iran in 1905 and was appointed Deputy Governor of Kerman in 1906, replacing his father who returned to Tehran on the eve of the Constitutional revolution.
In 1911, he returned to Paris to study International Law with the famous French jurist de la Pradelle and completed his doctoral dissertation on the question of The Sultanate of Oman in the Persian Gulf. He returned to Iran in 1914.
He was appointed Deputy Minister of Justice in the Cabinet of Mostofi al-Mamalek in 1915, and Minister of Justice in the Cabinet of Vosuq al-Dowleh in 1916 and a second time in 1918. He participated in the negotiations concerning the August 1919 Agreement with Great Britain.
Appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1919, he accompanied Ahmad Shah on state visits to Paris and London, and submitted the matter of Iran's borders to the Peace Conference of Versailles. His efforts were in vain due to British opposition.
In 1920, following the Soviet invasion of Iranian territory, he made an appeal to the League of Nations. He remained in Europe after the fall of Vosuq al-Dowleh.
On his return to Iran on the eve of the coup d'état perpetrated by Seyyed Zia al-Din in February 1921, he was arrested and temporarily detained along with his father and brother Abbas Mirza Salar Lashkar.
From 1921 to 1923, he headed the Foreign Affairs and Financial Commissions of the Fourth Majles from Kermanchah, and became governor of Fars in 1923.
He presided over the same Commissions when elected a second time to the Fifth Majles from Kermanchah.
Minister of Justice from 1924, he did not participate in the Constituent Assembly which voted the end of the Qajar dynasty and the installation of Sardar Sepah, founder of the Pahlavi dynasty, under the name of Reza Chah.
In 1926, whilst Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Mostofi al-Mamalek, he initiated the creation of the National Bank.
On suspicion of having participated in the insurrections of Fars in 1928, he was dismissed from his functions as Minister of Finance and, on the orders of Reza Chah, put under house arrest. In 1929, he was arrested and convicted of corruption charges. Pardoned by Reza Chah, he abandoned politics and retired from public life. He was assassinated in 1936 on Reza Chah's orders.
Repository
Archival history
On 31 December 1999, Mr. Shahroukh Firuz, former Vice-Minister for Industry and former Iranian Ambassador to Nigeria, donated to the UNOG Library, the Archives of the League of Nations, an archive collection that belonged to his father, Prince Firuz Nosratdoleh.
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The documents entrusted to the Archives of the League of Nations cover, for a large part, the period 1919-1920, during which Prince Firuz Nosratdoleh played a determining role in the international arena.
One can distinguish three major themes:
- the representation of Persia at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 (to defend the
rectification of its borders); - the Anglo-Persian Agreement of 1919;
- Persia's membership of the League of Nations and its appeal to the latter by Prince
Firuz following the Soviet invasion of Persian territory (May 1920).
Other documents concern relations between Iran and the Caucasian Republics or the petroleum company "Anglo-Persian Oil Company".
The inventory presented here consists of a list of all the documents that were donated to the Archives of the League of Nations in their chronological order. Complying with the Archives Group's practice with regard to inventories, the document analysis is given either in English or in French according to the language in which the original document was written.
Firuz's papers also include a volume, third in a series, entitled:
The Collected Documents, Correspondence, and Memoirs of Firuz Mirza Firuz (Nosrat al-Dowleh). This volume comprises the documents pertaining to his tenure as Minister of Foreign affairs, from 1919 to 1920.
The introduction relates to the life of Prince Firuz Nosratdoleh, his close relationship with his father Abd al-Hosein Mirza Farmanfarma, and his political role.
The documents are divided into three sections :
- the first part consists of the correspondence of Prince Firuz Nosratdoleh with the
Prime Minister Vosuq al-Dolweh and dwells mainly on the Agreement of 1919, Iran's
relationship with the newly liberated Caucasian Republics of southern Russia and
more specifically Iran's claims to rectification of her frontiers and demands for war
reparations. - the second section deals with Iran's attempts to gain admission to the Peace
Conference of Versailles and San Remo, her membership in the League of Nations
and particularly her complaint to the League of Nations against Soviet agressions in
May 1920. - the third section deals with Prince Firuz Nosratdoleh's correspondence with the
Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
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Archivist's note
Protection period duration: 60
Archivist's note
Protection period note:
Archivist's note
Permission: No permission necessary.
Archivist's note
Physical usability: Without limits
Archivist's note
Term of protection: None