The Second President of the First Assembly

Seyyed Mostafa Taghavi

The first president of the first Constitutional Assembly, was Morteza Qoli khan Sani’oddowleh. He held the office from 6th Oct. 1906 to 6th Sep. 1907. After him, Mirza Mahmud Khan Ehteshamossaltaneh Qajar Davallu Alamir, son of Mohammad Rahim Khan Alaoddowleh Amir Nezam was elected as the speaker of Majlis. He was born in about 1860. He was an officer (in charge of 100 men) in Nasseraddin Shah’s court guards in 1882. From 1883-1884 to 1886-1887, he was the head of the king’s servants (Qollar Aghasibashi). He became the governor of Zanjan, 1888; appointed Iran’s general consul in Iraq, 1894-1895. He became the governor of Kurdistan, 1900-1901. From 1902 to 1906, he was Iran’s plenipotentiary minister of Iran to Germany. In 1905, he was appointed as the president of the border commission to delimit Iran o Ottomans border. It was during this mission that he was elected by the landed gentry as a representative to the first term of the National Council.

Subsequent to Sani’oddowleh’s resignation, he was elected president of Majlis, and he held the office until April 3rd, 1908. As a constitutionalist and the speaker of Majlis, i.e. the head of the legislative center and the leader of campaign’s headquarters, he was involved more than anyone else with the crises and understood the problems of movement. In his memoirs, he has referred to some these problems and left them for the following generations which might be teaching for them.

On the formation of associations and their performance, Ehteshamossaltaneh writes:
Thousands of associations were formed, and anybody names, and any idle and jobless soul had turned to a constitutionalist and mourning player and would pull with himself the majlis from this side to other side.. The guilty dishonest men who had embezzled large amounts from government and the nation’s funds throughout their whole life, now joined the forums or lived under the shadow of one of the forums so that again they could find a position to rob people and impose their wishes and follow their own aims in their new attire. There is no government. The situation in provincial capital is worse than the capital. The formation of provincial societies could help to the consistency and the strength of the constitutional regime and through its legal obligations it could remove the defects of constitutionalism, that caused evident frustration of the people. However, they dealt with some issues quite outside of their responsibility which resulted in the destruction of the basis of that sacred and national foundation.

He also writes about the Majlis:
National Council, had been diverted from its general legal duties and it was an instrument in the hands of newly empowered men to retaliate against their opponents and it was a tool to get to their. It was impossible to get the representatives allocate their time to solve the country's affairs and engagement in their duties. Any attempts in this regard was impossible to make and would rise the protest of the societies’ leaders and the extent of slander and libel became more common. The House lost its position day by day in the eyes of people. State and provincial forums added to the crisis, and cases they took hold of the parliamentary legal obligations and were heedless of the parliament.

Elsewhere in his memoirs, on the role of some of the press and other revolutionaries, he wrote:
Sur e Esrafil, Mossavat and some other daily newspaper, the editor of which was a man from Khorassan (Ruholqodos) were used to ruin the fame of others. I've tried all the time to remove the differences between the King, the press, the leaders and the authorities. Unfortunately, the control of affairs was in the hands of those who believed that freedom and constitutionalism means the depose of Shah and the government and that they take power in their hands and do whatever they wish. I did not wish to repeat the mistakes of French revolution after one hundred and twenty years in Iran. But unfortunately, some of the deputies led by Taghizadeh and Hajj Mirza Ebrahim Azerbaijani did not cease to repeat "French Revolution". They were fond of “guillotine” and “revolutionary courts” to issue death sentence for the king, the courtiers, and all ministers and authorities. One wished to be Robespierre, the other called himself Mara’s successor, and someone else had become Danton.

After dissolution of parliament by Mohammad Ali Shah, Ehteshamossaltaneh took refuge in the French embassy and then headed for Europe. He entered the third period the National Council. During the First World War, he became the Iranian ambassador to Istanbul. In 1926, he was minister of interior in Mostofialmamalek’s cabinet. Eventually, he died in Jan. 25th, 1935 in the age of 77 in Tehran.
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