When ʿAlī Shah was defeated and Moḥammad Shah entered Tehran, Mīrzā Abu’l-Ḥasan took sanctuary in the shrine of ʿAbd-al-ʿAẓīm (Ramażān, 1250/February, 1835), and did not leave it until the fall and execution of the prime minister on 26 June 1835. The new prime minister, Ḥāǰǰī Mīrzā Āqāsī, accorded him the position of foreign minister for the second time in 1254/1838. Mīrzā Abu’l-Ḥasan held this position until his death in 1262/1845.
Though most of the contemporary British travelers speak favorably of Mīrzā Abu’l-Ḥasan’s character and his friendliness with the British (see J. Johnson, A Journey from India to England through Persia in the Year 1817, London, 1818, p. 154), James Fraser is harshly critical: “He is so mean and dishonest, in all his dealings, that none who can avoid it will have anything to do with him; and so proverbially false, that none believes a word he says” (Narrative, p. 149). Iranian scholars also give a generally unfavorable estimate of his character.
Apart from a number of official letters, Ḥayrat-nāma-ye sofarā is the only work written by Mīrzā Abu’l-Ḥasan. One copy is in the British Museum (Add. 23, 546) and another in the Maǰles Library. The present writer has seen a third in the possession of the descendants of Mīrzā Abu’l-Ḥasan in Tehran, longer and more detailed than the British Museum copy. The book is written in the usual florid style of the period and illustrates many of the incidents that are humorously described in Hajji Baba and its sequel. Five portraits of Mīrzā Abu’l-Ḥasan were painted during his European journey. The two most outstanding pictures are by Sir Thomas Lawrence and Sir William Beechey (see Millard, “A Diplomatic Portrait”).
The Spiritual Legacy of Muhammad for Muslim Nation
