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Irano-Russian Trade and Travel: Haj Muhammad Hassan Amin al-Zarb and Others

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Shireen Mahdavi
Shireen Mahdavi*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Utah
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Abstract

Contacts between Russians and Persians have a long history going back to 1592 during the reign of the Safavid dynasty (1501–1736). However, the impact of Russia upon Persia was only felt as a result of military defeats in 1813 and 1828. In nineteenth century Persia there were many geographical obstacles which prevented foreigners including Russians from trading with Persia. This situation changed with the Treaty of Turkmanchai and its commercial protocol which gave Russian merchants special benefits and advantages. Consequently, by the 1860s Russian steamships started postal, passenger and cargo service from Baku to Persian Caspian ports and railheads advanced through the Caucasus to Tiflis. Persia traded with Russia on a much larger scale than with any other country. One of the Persian merchants who traded extensively with or through Russia to Europe was Haj Muhammad Hassan Amin al-Zarb (1834–98), the most prominent merchant of his time, and subsequently his son Haj Husayn Aqa Amin al-Zarb II. The article discusses Amin al-Zarb's trade and relations with Russia based upon unpublished material in the Amin al-Zarb archives in Tehran.

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , March 2013 , pp. 207 - 226
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2013

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References

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26 See Mahdavi, For God, Mammon, 90–92, 94.

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28 See Mahdavi, For God, Mammon, 71.

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32 Letter from Haj Muhammad Javad Isfahani in Moscow to Haj Muhammad Amin al-Zarb in Tehran dated 28 Safar 1310/21 September 1892, Mahdavi Archives, Tehran.

33 Letter from Haj Muhammad Hassan Amin al-Zarb in Tehran to Muhammad Javad Isfahani in Moscow dated 16 Safar 1305/3 November 1887, Mahdavi Archives, Tehran.

34 See letters from Haj Muhammad Javad Isfahani in Moscow to Haj Muhammad Hassan Amin al-Zarb in Tehran dated 2 Shavval 1304/6 June 1304 and 10 Sh'aban 1306/4 April 1889, Mahdavi Archives, Tehran.

35 Letter from Haj Muhammad Hassan Amin al-Zarb in Tehran to Haj Muhammad Javad Isfahani in Moscow dated 11 Rajab 1306/13 March 1889, Mahdavi Archives, Tehran.

36 Bihar al-Anwar is the celebrated compendium of Shiʿi hadith by Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (d. 1110/1699). A new edition was published recently in Iran in more than 100 volumes. Abu Jaʿfar Muhammad ibn ʿAli ibn Husayn al-Qummi, known as Ibn Babuya and Shaykh as-Saduq (b. approximately 306/918 Qum) was a Shiʿi faqih (theologian). He was a prominent member of the Shiʿi Ulama. Approximately 300 works of his are listed. He died at Ray (6 kilometers south of Tehran) in 381/991 and is buried there. His father, Abu-al Hassan ʿAli Ibn Husayn Ibn Musa Ibn Babuya Qummi was also a well-known Shiʿi faqih whose theological works cover over 200 volumes. He died in 329/940 and is buried in Qum. For more on him and his sons see ʿAli Akbar Dihkuda, Lughatnama (Tehran, 1947–1983) 50 vols., 1: 392–93 and also Momen, Moojan, An Introduction to Shiʿism: The History and Doctrine of Twelver Shiʿism (New Haven, CT and London, 1985).Google Scholar

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38 The above information has been kindly given to me in a communication from Professor Gad Gilbar of Haifa University who is currently working on Russian archival material relating to the Iranian tujjar in the late Qajar period. I am extremely grateful to Professor Gilbar for this information.

39 For more on him see Encyclopedia Islam, 3rd ed., s.v. Haj Muhammad Husayn Amin al-Zarb II, by Shireen Mahdavi.

40 Farahani, Mirza Husayn, Safarnama, ed. Gulzar, Masʿud (Tehran, 1983)Google Scholar, trans. and ed. Hafez Farmayan and Elton L. Daniel (Austin, TX, 1990), 68–74. The translations from Farahani are my own rather than from the published translation.

41 Farahani, Safarnama, 81.

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47 See Mahdavi, For God, Mammon, 99–102.

48 For more on the brothers see Bamdad, Tarikh-i Rijal, 3: 457.

49 Mirza ʿAli Asghar Khan Amin al-Sultan, Atabak-i Aʿzam. Before his father's death he held the title of Amin al-Mulk. He was the son of Aqa Ibrahim Amin al-Sultan. Minister of Court and chief of customs whilst the treasury was run by his brother. He was Prime Minister in the last eleven years of Nasir al-Din Shah's reign until his assassination in 1896. He was also Prime Minister under Muzaffar al-Din Shah. Mentor and friend of Amin al-Zarb, as well as being a silent partner in many of Amin al-Zarb's ventures. For more on Mirza ‘Ali Asghar Khan see Bamdad, Tarikh-i Rijal, 2: 387–425, Letter from Amin al-Zarb in Moscow to Amin al-Sultan in Tehran dated 21 Ramazan 1304/13 June 1887, Mahdavi Archives, Tehran.

50 Dispatch No. 80, 11 September 1887, FO 248\445, United Kingdom, National Archives, London.

51 Lord Salisbury to Arthur Nicolson, 12 September 1887, FO 60/485, United Kingdom, National Archives, London.

52 Nicolson to Salisbury, No. 130a, Tehran, 17 October 1887, FO 60/487, United Kingdom, National Archives, London.

53 Letters from Moscow to Tehran 14–29 Ramazan 1304/6–21 June 1887, Mahdavi Archives, Tehran.

54 Letter from Amin al-Zarb in Moscow to Amin al-Sultan in Tehran dated 21 Ramazan 1304/13 June 1887, Mahdavi Archives, Tehran.

55 Letter from Amin al-Zarb to Amin al-Sultan in Tehran, dated 21 Ramazan 1304/13 June 1887, Mahdavi Archives, Tehran.

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57 Letter from Haj Muhammad Hassan Amin al-Zarb to the Minister for Foreign Affairs in Moscow, dated Jamadi I 1305/15 January 1888, Mahdavi Archives, Tehran.

58 Letter from Haj Muhammad Amin al-Zarb in Brussels to Amin al-Sultan in Tehran dated 19 Shavval 1304/11th July 1887, Mahdavi Archives, Tehran

59 Letter from Haj Muhammad Hassan Amin al-Zarb in Baku to his son and agents in Tehran dated 28 Muharram 1305/16 October 1887, Mahdavi Archives, Tehran.

60 Ìtimad al-Saltana, Muhammad Hassan Khan,. Ruznama-yi Khatirat (Tehran, 1971), 527.Google Scholar

61 Letter from Haj Muhammad Hassan Amin al-Zarb in Tehran addressed to Mirza Muhammad ʿAli Khan Kashi in Tiflis, Russia, dated 28 Jamadi I 1305/11 February 1888, Mahdavi Archives, Tehran.

62 Letter from Haj Muhammad Hassan Amin al-Zarb in Tehran to Mirza Mahmud Khan ʿAla al-Mulk in St. Petersburg dated 27 Jamadi I 1305/10 February 1888, Mahdavi Archives, Tehran.

63 For more on Kamran Mirza see: Bamdad, Tarikh-i Rijal, 3: 149–61.

64 Pud: an old Russian measure of weight the equivalent of approximately 16 kilograms.

65 Lemaire was the son-in-law of Dr. Tholozan, the Shah's French doctor, and music instructor at Dar al-Funun. Iʿtimad al-Saltana, Ruznama, 548.

66 Telegram from Amin al-Sultan in Tehran to Haj Muhammad Amin al-Zarb in Mahmudabad dated 7 Safar 1305/25 October 1887 and another dated 9 Safar 1305/27 October 1887, Tehran, Foreign Office Archives.

67 Report by E.F. Law on Railway under Construction between Mahmudabad and Amul, FO 881/5728, United Kingdom, National Archives, London.

68 Drummond-Wolff to Salisbury, Draft No 282, Tehran, 11 December 1888, FO 248/268, United Kingdom, National Archives, London; Drummond-Wolff to Salisbury, No. 15, Tehran, 19 January 1889, FO 60/500, United Kingdom, National Archives, London.

69 For the text of the concession see Mahdavi, For God, Mammon, 128.

70 Stewart to Salisbury, No. 12, Tehran, 5 August 1889, FO 60\505, United Kingdom, National Archives, London.

71 For the full translated text of the Proclamation see Mahdavi, For God, Mammon, 133–34.

72 Olson, William J., “The Mazandaran Development Project and Haji Mohammad Hasan: A Study in Persian Entrepreneurship 1884–1898,” in Towards a Modern Iran: Studies in thought, Politics and Society, ed. Kedourie, Elie and Haim, Sylvia (London, 1980), 47.Google Scholar

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