Náṣiru'd-Dín Sháh was only a little over seventeen years of age when he was crowned on the 24th of Dhu'l-Qa'da,
Assassination of Náṣiru'd-Dín Sháh on the eve of his Jubilee, May 1, 1896. 1264 (20 October, 1848), and would have entered upon the fiftieth year of his reign on the same date of the Muhammadan year A.H. 1313, corresponding to May 5, 1896. Four days earlier, however, when all the preparations for the celebration of his Jubilee were completed, he was shot dead by Mírzá Riḍá of Kirmán, a disciple of that turbulent spirit Sayyid Jamálu 'd-Dín al-Afghán, in the Shrine of Sháh 'Abdu'l-'Aẓím a few miles south of Ṭihrán. Of the events which led up to this catastrophe and their significance I have treated fully in my History of the Persian Revolution of 1905-1909, and will not attempt to epitomize here matters which are fully discussed there, and which it would be a waste of space to recapitulate. The seeds of the Revolution were sown, and Germs of the Revolution. even began to germinate, about the time of the Sháh's third and last visit to Europe, fruitful in ill-advised concessions, which (especially the Tobacco concession of 1890) were a potent factor in stimulating the political discontents which found their first open expression in the Tobacco-riots of 1891 and culminated in the Revolution of 1905. If we ignore the external relations of Persia with foreign Powers, especially England and Russia, which form the principal topic of such political histories as that of Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes, we may say, broadly speaking, that of the long reign of Náṣiru'd- Momentous years at the beginning and end of Náṣiru'd-Dín Sháh's reign. Dín Sháh the first four years (A.D. 1848-52) were notable for the religious fermentation caused by the Bábís, and the last six years (A.D. 1890-6) for the political fermentation which brought about the Revolution in the following reign; while the intervening period was, outwardly at any rate, one of comparative peace and tranquillity. It was my good fortune Persia in 1887-8. to visit Persia in 1887-8 towards the end of this period, and, while enjoying the remarkable security which then prevailed in the country, to see almost the last of what may fairly be called mediaeval Persia. To this security I hardly did justice in the narrative of my travels * which I wrote soon after my return, for I hardly realized then how few and short were the periods, either before or after my visit, when a young foreigner, without any official position or protection, could traverse the country from North-West to South-East and from North to South, attended only by his Persian servant and his muleteers, not only without danger, but practically without the occurrence of a single disagreeable incident. And if this remarkable security, which compared favourably with that of many European countries, had originally been brought about by frightful exemplary punishments of robbers and ill-doers, these were no longer in evidence, and during the whole of my time in Persia I not only never witnessed an execution or a bastinado, but never heard of a specific case of either in any place where I stayed, though the ghastly pillars of mortar with protruding human bones outside the gates of Shíráz still bore witness to the stern rule of the Sháh's uncle Farhád Mírzá, Mu'tamadu'd-Dawla, whom I met only in the capacity of a courtly and learned bibliophile. Yet withal the atmosphere was, as I have said, mediaeval: politics and progress were hardly mentioned, and the talk turned mostly on mysticism, metaphysics and religion; the most burning political questions were those connected with the successors of the Prophet Muḥammad in the seventh century of our era; only a languid interest in external affairs was aroused by the occasional appearance of the official journals Írán and Iṭṭilá', or the more exciting Akhtar published in Constantinople; while at Kirmán one post a week maintained communication with the outer world. How Stormy later years (1891 onwards). remote does all this seem from the turmoil of 1891, the raging storms of 1905-11, the deadly paralysis of the Russian terror which began on Christmas Day in the year last mentioned, and then the Great War, when Persia became the cockpit of three foreign armies and the field of endless intrigues. The downfall of Russian Imperialism freed her from the nightmare of a century, and seemed to her to avenge the desecration of the holy shrine of Mashhad in April, 1912, while the collapse of the Anglo-Persian Agreement and consequent withdrawal of British troops and advisers has left her for the time being to her own devices, to make or mar her future as she can and will. Since Náṣiru'd-Dín fell a victim to the assassin's pistol the
throne of Persia has been occupied by his son Muẓaffaru'd-