7/27/2019 Source From Browne's Persian Revolution
1/1
408 THE PERSIAN REVOLUTION 1as Vice-President of the first
Majlis, and one of the richest men inPersia. Sayyid Jamalu'd-Din
while in Tihran stayed in his house.The Shamsu'l-^ Ulamd was a
great friend of the reactionary ecclesi-astic Shaykh
Fazlu'llah-i-Niiri (who was afterwards hanged on July 31,1909), and
deemed it prudent to remain concealed in his house afterthe
Constitution was restored in July 1909. He was protected, how-ever,
by Hajji Sayyid Nasru'llah Akhawi, Vice-President of the
secondMajlis, who kept him from being molested by the National
Volunteers.He was second to none in Persia in his knowledge of
Persian andArabic history and literature, and contributed several
valuable notes tothe text of the Marzuddn-ndma, edited by Mirza
Muhammad in the"Gibb Memorial" series, of which it constitutes vol.
viii. He is nowabout sixty years of age. {M. M.)
Note 8 {on p. 93). Execution of MfRzA RizA of KirmAn.The History
of the Awakening of the Persians (pp. 153-156), after
reproducing almost verbatim the account of Mirza Riza's
interrogationhere translated from the Sur-i-Isrdfil, gives an
account of his last daysand execution, of which the gist is as
follows. He shewed a bravefront until the last, and neither threats
nor persuasion would inducehim to admit that he had any
accomplices. He was publicly hangedearly on the morning of Thursday
the 2nd of Rabi' i (= August 11,1896) in the Mayddn-i-Mashq^ or
"Drill Square," at Tihran, in thepresence of a great concourse of
people. He was confined on theprevious night in the Cossack
Barracks {Qazzdq-khdna), and wasaccompanied to the place of
execution by the Shuja^u's-Saltana^ sonof the Sarddr-i-Kull, and
sundry kinsmen of the Aminu's-Sultdn. Itwas said that Mirza Riza
hoped until the last that the Aminu's-Sultdnwould dehver him from
death, and that when he saw the gallows andrealized that he was to
die, he tried to speak to the people, but hisvoice was drowned by
the music of a military band. On the 12th ofRabi' ii, a.h. 1314
(=^Sept. 20, 1896) a few of his friends, such as
MirzaHasan-i-Kirmani, Shaykh Muhammad 'Ali-i-Dizfiili and some of
therelatives and disciples of Hajji Shaykh Hadi-i-Najm-abadi (see
Note 5supra) met at the house of the last-mentioned to celebrate,
as is thecustom in Persia, the fortieth day after Mirza Riza's
death, and to prayGod's forgiveness for him. And again on the first
anniversary of hisdeath, called by the Persians Sdl-i-Mayyit,
Shaykh Hadi held a similarcelebration in his honour, to which he
invited only the Aminu'd-Dawlaand one other. On this occasion
Shaykh Hadi himself prepared thefood, which was of the simplest
kindrice, oil, syrup and bread,andafter they had eaten, they again
united in craving God's Mercy forMirza Riza. It was after and
apparently in consequence of this thatthe Aminu'd-Dawla founded the
Rushdiyya and other schools for thebetter education of the youth of
Persia.
