Table of Contents

Introduction - the royal domain: from the tent to the throne; the Shah and his subjects; within fragile frontiers; nobility and the problem of succession. Part 1 The child of Turkmanchay: unhappy union; lonesome childhood; struggle for heir apparency. Part 2 A mirror for the prince: formal education; the fight and the feast; lesson of the mirrors; display of the world; rehearsal for the throne; the prophet and the priests. Part 3 Ascending the throne: departing for the capital; people's council and power contest; wearing the Kayanid crown; machination and mutiny. Part 4 The shah and his atabak: learning to rule; the sublime cradle; castle of mirrors, cannonballs of sedition; killing the atabak. Part 5 A narrow escape: return to the old ways; the assassination attempt; the Babi bloodbath; an inadvertent victim. Part 6 Playing the power game: the Herat debacle; the king of the Shi'ites; the curse of the protected; alliance with Russia; royal rights ridiculed. Part 7 Youthful ambitions: bully-boy diplomacy; uprooting the Victorian tree; conquest of Herat; in search of friends - France and the United States; war in the Persian Gulf; peace with England; saving face. Part 8 Abolishing the Sidarat: the flying gazelle and the absolute potentate; delegating power; ruinous fever; the valley of dismissal; fate of a fallen minister. Part 9 Balancing the old and the new: holding the reins of power; in the house of oblivion; an honest goodwill mission; ominous conjunction; fearing him who fears; the royal prerogative. Part 5 Epilogue - remnants of a reign: precarious order within; from defiance to deference; a personal universe; chaos revisited; legacy of a long reign.

Promotional Information

Based on research into public and private papers, this biography offers an interpretation both of the significance of Nasir al-Din Shah and the way in which the Iranian monarchy withstood and adjusted to the challenges of modern times.

About the Author

Abbas Amanat is Professor of History at Yale University. His publications include Resurrection and Renewal: the Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844-1850 and he is the co-editor of Imagining the End (I.B.Tauris).